Drivers to meet with FIA over Hamiltons driving

Interesting little twist in the tale..

ITV Sport said:
Felipe Massa was encouraged to “destroy” Lewis Hamilton’s attempted recovery drive in the Singapore Grand Prix via a radio message from his Ferrari race engineer, which has emerged in newly-released official footage from the race.

Massa and Hamilton had several run-ins during the Singapore weekend, clashing on-track in both qualifying and the race and then having a heated exchange in the paddock after the former confronted his McLaren rival in the media interview ‘pen’.

The post-race incident was prompted by Massa’s anger towards what he claimed was Hamilton’s “mindless” driving, the Briton having earlier punctured the Ferrari’s rear tyre when he misjudged his turn-in to the corner after backing out of an overtaking move.

It was not the first time the pair have clashed this year and the subsequent release of Formula One Management’s regular race edit video for Singapore on the sport’s official website – which includes footage and radio messages not made available on the live television world feed – could stoke any lingering ill-feeling further courtesy of a previously unheard radio message from Massa’s race engineer Rob Smedley at an unspecified point of the race.

Smedley is heard to say: “Hold Hamilton as much as we can.

“Destroy his race as much as we can. Come on boy.”

After a poor first lap in which he dropped from fourth on the grid to eighth, Hamilton was beginning to work his way back through the field and spent seven laps behind Massa prior to their lap-12 clash, which came immediately after both made their first pit stops.

Most observers in Singapore felt that Hamilton had clearly been at fault in the collision that also saw him break his own front wing – a verdict shared by the race stewards’ given he was handed a drive-through penalty – and Smedley’s instruction to Massa could be interpreted as no more than natural partisan encouragement of his driver to keep a faster car behind.

The emergence of the radio message, and particular use of the word "destroy", is nonetheless likely to ensure the feud between Massa and Hamilton continues to be a talking point heading into this weekend’s Japanese GP.
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http://www.itv.com/formula1/news/20...pe-massa--lewis-hamilton-singapore-fued-9671/
 
mattyg said:
I thought it looked like he was a little slower too. Either slowed more or was late getting on the power. But no-one else seems to have noticed so I put it down to me seeing things.

I like Massa always have but he's not so innocent either.
And theres nothing wrong with Hamiltons driving. The pass that webber did on alonso the other week was far more dangerous
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Exactly.

People will look back on this "bad year" of Hamilton's and wonder what all the fuss was about. It is 90% just bad luck. The remaining 10% is just media amplification and hysteria that is affecting him. And sure, you make you're own luck as they say, but you need a little luck first to be able to start making more luck. It's motor racing.

I still don't think he put a single foot wrong in the Monaco race, for example. Other than getting collected by a Toro Rosso in a huge pile up that destroyed his rear wing. And his team sending him out in qually behind another car, especially a slow one like Massa.

The fact of the matter is. Under the 2011 regs, overtaking is far more common now, even for Hamilton. All it takes to make a pass work now is for someone to be on worn tyres versus fresher tyres. That's it. However, a lot of drivers (Maldonaldo, Massa etc) that probably aren't world class enough to be in F1 in the first place, are unable to cooperate when they are being overtaken so they do dumb, stupid, dangerous and illegal things. The FIA stewards are too thick to understand how racing works and are pretty much just armchair experts. They don't have a clue. The ex-driver stewards are too out of date and still think in terms of how racing was in their days when overtaking back then was extremely difficult unless you had a turbo car. They frankly are just making the situation worse, biasing it for no gain. There is this mindset whereby if it was impossible to overtake on a corner in previous years then even in 2011 with the tyre situation, DRS and ability to follow cars much more closely, that is must still be impossible. Therefore anyone that attempts it must automatically be scrutinised very closely. Despite it being proven in earlier laps that passing on the corner is possible. Thinking the Monaco hairpin here.

I still think Hamilton's remarks after the Monaco race were spot on the mark. They are the unfortunate truth of F1 today that nobody seems to want to admit or face up to. There are certain drivers in the field that shouldn't be there. Whether because they are too old, past it, got hit on the head once, too bitter, too rookie or historically proven to be too dangerous (i.e. Maldonaldo getting banned for 3 races for almost killing a Marshal at Monaco.)

I don't know what the solution is. But I know what the problem is.

It's possible the problem will just go away. As even the more inexperienced and bitter drivers come to terms with the fact that passing in F1 is now a common thing. 2012 could be a big reset for all the drivers mindsets. I think 2011 was a big shock to some of them. This would be an advantage to Hamilton because it would mean he can revert back to his normal self again and not be too worried about idiotic rivals turning in on him as he passes etc.

With all that said. The incidents at Canada, Spa etc were still mistakes where there is more blame than not on Hamilton. But IMO the Spa incident was merely "just one of those things". It could have happened to anyone really. Kobyashi can be a tough cookie to crack sometimes. The Canada incident was his biggest mistake of the year but it has mitigating factors; it was pretty darn wet, there was a lot of spray and nobody would expect their team mate to run them out of road like that. The tap on Mark Webber at the start was such a non-incident, it's called racing in the wet!
 
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NathanE said:
The remaining 10% is just media amplification and hysteria that is affecting him.
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Is it though? Were all being given this impression that Hamilton is somehow cracking and faltering under the pressure, but all I see is a guy who's had some bad luck, and has brushed it off with some casual (all be it sometimes inappropriate) humour, some apologies when he was in the wrong, and a general attitude of letting it sail buy and just getting on with the job in hand.

Someone who isn't coping would be swearing down the camera, ranting on the radio, and getting into fights with other drivers (basically, being Jason Plato).
 
I don't think he is cracking under media pressure. I think it is alienating him, that's all. In the same way the MSC got alienated by all the negative media around him in his early years.

I think if there is one race to attribute to cracking under pressure this year, it would be Canada. He had a whole crew of celebrities and rappers etc in the garage to impress.

Do you agree with the other sentiments in the post? :p
 
NathanE said:
Do you agree with the other sentiments in the post? :p
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You edited it after I replied, I haven't read them yet... brb....





With the overall opinion, yes. I don't agree with all the details, but you are right that overtaking has become more possible, meaning there are more overtakes, meaning that there are more incidents when overtaking, and the stewards have had to deal with a lot more.

I don't know exact figures, but assume there are 5x as many overtakes this year to previous years. Imagine Lewis made 10 overtakes in a previous year, and got in trouble for 1. Then this year he makes 50 overtakes, and gets in trouble for 5. That doesn't mean he's 5 times worse, it means he is making just as many mistakes proportionally, but the frequency of the opportunity to create mistakes has risen drastically.

The focus on Lewis is, in my opinion, the result of a general attitude of 'having a go at Lewis', as opposed to 'having a go at Lewis' driving'. I expect a few other drivers have made just as many mistakes as him (I'm looking at your front wing usage, Mr Schumacher) yet its been breezed past simply because its not Lewis.

Take some events in isolation, for example. Maldonado deliberately ran into Lewis at Spa in a non competitive stage of qualifying, and got a slapped wrist and some penalties with a meeting with the FIA that I expect involved him and Lewis. Lewis accidentally made minor contact with Massa in a competitive stage of the race, admitted fault, said sorry, and now a bunch of completely uninvolved drivers (and I expect team principles) are calling on the FIA to have a meeting to have a go at Hamilton.

It just doesn't seem fair, does it.

Although, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that this FIA meeting at Suzuka was arranged by Massa, Alonso and Stefano, and nobody else. If Ferrari put as much effort into building fast cars as they do into complaining about and slagging off Lewis, they would be storming away with the championship.
 
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Shock as massively over exaggerated meeting for massively over exaggerated supposed 'issues' affecting Ferrari, reported in the Italian media..... doesn't happen.
 
utajoker said:
massa did moan a lot...
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Well, if I'd been clattered into by someone and had my race trashed, by the same guy who did the same thing at a previous race, I'd be starting to get a bit narked off as well.

Then there's this, from pitpass:

While admitting that he's not had the best of seasons, Felipe Massa insists that in terms of Lewis Hamilton what happened in Singapore stays in Singapore.

...cont'd
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Skeeter said:
Ferrari PR guy told Massa to pack in the moaning and move on?
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Would that be the same as when McLaren PR tell Hamilton to apoligise?

See what I did there :D

I agree Massa has nothing to complain about, nor does Lewis - both are victims of their own mistakes...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
*sigh*

OR, maybe, Massa has moved on all by himself? Or are we not allowed to give drivers credit for that kind of thing when they drive for Ferrari?
 
ps3ud0 said:
Would that be the same as when McLaren PR tell Hamilton to apoligise?
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Yes, it would be.


JRS said:
*sigh*

OR, maybe, Massa has moved on all by himself? Or are we not allowed to give drivers credit for that kind of thing when they drive for Ferrari?
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Trying to start a fight in front of the TV cameras on live TV is not the actions of a well controlled disciplined individual.

Everything drivers say and do now is PR filtered. Gone are the days of people speaking their minds. There is no Ferrari/McLaren bias in any of it, all drivers are PR sanitised robots.
 
Skeeter said:
.

I don't know exact figures, but assume there are 5x as many overtakes this year to previous years. Imagine Lewis made 10 overtakes in a previous year, and got in trouble for 1. Then this year he makes 50 overtakes, and gets in trouble for 5. That doesn't mean he's 5 times worse, it means he is making just as many mistakes proportionally, but the frequency of the opportunity to create mistakes has risen drastically.
.
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Surely he should proportionally get better at over-taking with the added experience every year as well.......except he isnt ......

Fine, fully accept that the clash with JB at the start of Canada is one of those things (still think he was a little silly to even attempt that move in the wet, but hey no) , but Monaco and a few others (vs Massa last time out, and Kobiashi as well) are imo mistakes a driver of LH's calibre and experience shouldnt even be making

He is undoubtedly a great driver, but he attempts the same kind of risky manouvre time and time again and gets the same result every time and looks shocked its happened every time.

He needs to re-calibrate his judgement rapidly (in time for next season)otherwise his stock will go down further imo



Im all for motor -racing , but I still think Smedley telling Massa to "DESTROY" another's race is too strong. There are too many cliques up and down the pitlate where some teams "support" more senior teams / tech partners in the race and block cars who they arent directly racing against and let others pass freely. This is just another form of this (just like not allowing Massa to beat Alonso ever)
 
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Skeeter said:
Trying to start a fight in front of the TV cameras on live TV is not the actions of a well controlled disciplined individual.
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Was he trying to start a fight? Or just get Hamilton to talk to him? He'd tried to speak to Hamilton before he got onto camera, and got a dismissive brush-off. Already very irritated by having his race trashed by the guy (same guy who put him out in Monaco as well), he's now being ignored. So he made sure he couldn't be ignored a second time. Now that he had his say, and got at least some response (even if it was the fairly pathetic reponse of "Don't touch me man, don't touch me"), it's done with.
 
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