Malaysian GP 2009 - Race 2/17

Duke said:
I'm a fan of Sepang as well. Forecast shows showers for the weekend... If memory serves me right, this is the circuit that can have very heavy downpours with little notice?
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Can and does. :p

Type_R said:
LH is a superb talent but real real shame he has to drive for an obsessively regimented team like Mclaren. The day he moves to another team Ill be his biggest fan :)
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Er Lewis chose McLaren? He told Ron Dennis, "I'm going to drive one of your F1 cars", or words to that effect. Ron quite liked the confidence the young Lewis displayed.

dannyjo22 said:
Nothing to do with racism at all. Jenson and DC both were upfront about it. They did it purely for the money but stayed for the lifestyle. Hamilton came out with all the bull about it being for privacy reasons etc and blaming the media.

They were bound to go after him after that. Someone poorly adviced him.

For the record I dislike all forms or tax dodging once you have been educated by this country you should pay to this country regardless of success. That's another debate.

I dislike the whole manufactured nature of lewis hamilton not that he's brown.
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Amen. We are force-fed Lewis Hamilton mania at times. ITV's coverage last year was really quite bad. And if you say you don't like him, oh you're racist then. :rolleyes::(
 
MarcLister said:
Amen. We are force-fed Lewis Hamilton mania at times.
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To be fair, he is a pretty spectacular talent. I'll never even try and argue against that. But he isn't The Great And Glorious Messiah™ that certain elements of the British media and the rather more idiotic members of his fanclub have argued him to be.

He's not Ayrton Senna. He's not Michael Schumacher. He's certainly not Juan Manuel Fangio, or Alberto Ascari, or Sir Stirling Moss, or countless other talents* over the years. He's Lewis Hamilton, and if the hooting dicks would just leave well alone then he'll become a universally loved star.

I'd liken him to Kyle Busch in NASCAR. I want to hate Kyle, truly. He drives for JD Gibbs - first strike. He drives a Toyota - strike two. He's an objectionable, arrogant, smeggy little **** - strike three. But.....he's just such an awesome driver I can't help but admire him. I want to like Hamilton, but I just can't get away from the fact that a) he does some particularly retarded things sometimes and b) the media coverage has turned me off to the point that I'm getting close to happy that the '09 McLaren isn't very good.

Oh, and the small matter of having been a Ferrari fan since ~1988....that might play a part ;)





* - Jimmy Clark, Graham Hill, Phil Hill, Mike Hawthorn, Peter Collins, Masten Gregory, Jack Brabham, John Surtees, Denny Hulme, Dan Gurney, Sir Jackie Stewart, Jochen Rindt, Emmo Fittipaldi, Niki Lauda, James Hunt (!), Mario Andretti, Jody Scheckter, Gilles Villeneuve (!!), Nelson Piquet, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell (!!!!! x 1 million), Mika Hakkinen, Fernando Alonso....
 
JRS said:
To be fair, he is a pretty spectacular talent. I'll never even try and argue against that. But he isn't The Great And Glorious Messiah™ that certain elements of the British media and the rather more idiotic members of his fanclub have argued him to be.
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Of course. He is a fantastic talent and driver. I just don't want to be reminded of that fact, exaggerated by the media and his disciples, every time I watch F1 on the TV. Sometimes last year ITV-F1 made it seem that Lewis was the only driver on the grid. So why did he only win the title in the last race?

JRS said:
He's not Ayrton Senna. He's not Michael Schumacher. He's certainly not Juan Manuel Fangio, or Alberto Ascari, or Sir Stirling Moss, or countless other talents* over the years. He's Lewis Hamilton, and if the hooting dicks would just leave well alone then he'll become a universally loved star.
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No. I wish people would let him be Lewis Hamilton I and not Ayrton Senna II. All the greats of F1 are very different to each other and Lewis can potentially be there but calling him Ayrton Senna II won't help him.

JRS said:
But.....he's just such an awesome driver I can't help but admire him. I want to like Hamilton, but I just can't get away from the fact that a) he does some particularly retarded things sometimes and b) the media coverage has turned me off to the point that I'm getting close to happy that the '09 McLaren isn't very good.
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I used to hate Michael Schumacher in the early days. He was just too good but at least then there wasn't the media adulation that we've got now with Lewis. The British press were never going to be a fan of a German F1 driver like they are with Lewis.

I suppose this difference in the British press and Schumacher's awesome 7 titles means I now, grudgingly mind, admire and respect Schumacher. Yes he's been a naughty boy and polarised opinion and always dominated his team mates. I'm also in a way glad that McLaren's 2009 car isn't brilliant and that Lewis is going to have to work a little harder than he probably expected for his 3 titles that earn him a McLaren F1 road car from Ron. Moving to Switzerland was obviously for tax reasons, if he'd admitted that from the beginning maybe I wouldn't dislike him so. He could have bought a little French cottage in the north of France somewhere where its quiet but he's still close to an airfield to get to Woking.

I am sorry that Heikki might not get the wins I think his talents deserve; almost another Mark Webber in the making. Nice bloke, talented but no luck. :(

As a team I quite like McLaren, their 2007 car just looked gorgeous as did their 1997/98/99 West cars which I loved both liveries and shapes. Amazing considering I really liked their iconic Marlboro livery although I've not seen a car in F1 since the beautiful FW18 that took Damon Hill to his title. That Rothsmans livery was just pure gold. :) So I don't really hate McLaren. Just that they had Alonso alongside Lewis, two of the best drivers in F1 and probably of their times, and yet screwed it up. Ron handled Senna and Prost but couldn't handle Alonso and Lewis. Er?! :confused:
 
On the subject of the McLaren; from what I've read the car is well balanced, there is just a general lack of downforce.

Lack of downfore + rain = bad.

Also on the subject of KERs, the cars recharging stage gives you more braking force from the rear and when its fully recharged it stops this braking whether that be just before the turning point of earlier and IIRC the teams aren't allowed a very complex control system on the recharging.

I think cars running it will be very twitchy braking in the wet and I will definitely not be surpised to see Massa have the back come loose under braking.
 
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Can the FIA make their minds up already? They are going to re-investigate Hamilton/Trulli now, despite Toyota not even appealing.
 
Im bored of all the "X is the new Y!" comparisons we keep getting. Cant X just be the new X, why does everyone have to be the new someone?

And the Media have portrayed Hamilton badly. There are an exceptionaly large number of people who think Hamilton is an arrogant stuck up **** and hate him, but dont watch F1 and have never heard him say a word. Hes become cool to hate, so people will hate him to be part of that band wagon.

To be honest though, I will never understand the British publics ability to will people to fail? I mean all the "I hope he doesnt win his first season, it will be better for him" comments, how retarded! You dont see the Australians going "oh, I hope we dont win Gold in any Olympic events, its will be character building", or the Indians going "Oh, I hope we loose the cricket, it will be good for the team"... Support the guy or bugger off, dont hate him because you think its cool.

If a British guy in a British (well, kinda) team is doing well they have my support, and if they arent doing well, they also have my support. If anyone in here has met Hamilton and spoken to him, and say hes a **** then they are allowed, everyone else is forming opinions based on 2nd hand evidence and the ability to appear cool, and therefore doesnt hold a valid opinion.

God I sound like a fanboy.... lol. Ah well, this will fall on deaf ears so ill just return to hoping for rain, enjoying the racing, and laughing at the total tosh these F1 threads fill with every weekend :)

As you were.
 
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I have no idea how this "stuck up" image has come about?! He always seems very courteous and polite in his interviews. Comes across as a decent and mature bloke (even at his young age!).

WRT him not being among "the greats" - I think that's a very short-sighted view. He almost clinched the title in his rookie year for Pete's sake! Denying him that "legend" status may be technically fair, but imho the only thing that sets him apart from Schumacher, Senna, Prost etc. is TIME!

My £0.02...

Suman
 
MarcLister said:
Yup. Weird. :confused: The BBC Sport site has been around for a while so they should have a decent network for getting news fast. But the ex-broadcaster still on top.
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BBC sport has always been a let-down for the F1 or rally, or in fact any news other than football, cricket, tennis or rugby.
 
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