Boo Hoo Hamilton

[Willy]

You win some and you lose some.

As you are an international sporting figure and are looked up too by millions of young fans...stop pouting and pull up your socks you weeping baby.
sh*t happens.
You win or lose as a team.

[Jericoke]

Indeed, any 'great' athlete isn't simply someone who won, it's someone who conducted themselves with class and decorum through the ups and downs.

[J.Clark]

His lap around to the Start/Finish line after the race had to be difficult.
I thought it a bit of a baby thing to do - hitting the #3 sign with his car.

I give him some credit for his conduct during the post race interview.  He wasn't openly whining about it and simply said the team would have to talk about it.

Todo Wolf said it was a combination of things: no GPS in Monaco so their analog time delta to Rosberg was wrong.  He said sometimes we (the team) make our decisions based upon technical data and sometimes common sense does not, unfortunately, enter into the process.  He said that this time it was a mistake to not go with the common sense.

[Steve A.]

Hamilton of course has the right to be disappointed and annoyed at the decision but it's not really a season ending decision or an end to the championship. Eddie Jordan said he has matured by 5 years this season, but parking at the side of the track and then hitting the third place sign kind of says the opposite.  Bit of a crap attitude to be showing as a top 'sportsman'.

[cosworth151]

If he had been a driver over here, he would have punched somebody. He was screwed out of the biggest race in F1 by the higher-ups at Merc. It looked to me like it was pay back for him negotiating a large contract. Did anybody else notice that Lewis, not Nico, got by far the largest cheers from the crowd at the podium?

Anybody who would have taken such treatment with a smile doesn't have what it takes to be a champion.

[Jericoke]

Hamilton of course has the right to be disappointed and annoyed at the decision but it's not really a season ending decision or an end to the championship. Eddie Jordan said he has matured by 5 years this season, but parking at the side of the track and then hitting the third place sign kind of says the opposite.  Bit of a crap attitude to be showing as a top 'sportsman'.

I'm pretty sure that parking on the track was Lewis taking a moment to compose himself.  He was trying to talk himself into doing what he had to do... or talking himself out of what he knew he shouldn't do.

It reminded me of Mika's breakdown at Monza in 1999.  These guys are under intense pressure, and have precious little opportunity to hide their disappointment.

[Andy B]

Damned if you do and damned if you don't!
Lewis is the ultimate racer who wears his heart on his sleeve what you see is what you get. I think he conducted himself very well even congratulating Nico on the podium and apportioning blame on nobody so what else do people want? Ask any ex and some current F1 drivers if they would like to win a WC and they'll all say yes but they need to be up there with a different mentality. Senna went home and spoke to nobody for three days after crashing while in the lead at Monaco without even going back to the team.
I believe Lewis has matured this year compared to other years and is more determined than ever.
Leading for 68 laps then the team c*ck it up put him third I think I would be pretty p#$$3d off too.
Steps quietly off the soap box and looks for a tin hat!

[lkjohnson1950]

All true, but I would be more impressed if there had not been a number of WDCs in the 50s and 60s who were high class gentlemen as well as top drivers.

[Andy B]

All true, but I would be more impressed if there had not been a number of WDCs in the 50s and 60s who were high class gentlemen as well as top drivers.

That was a different age and a lot of drivers came from high class families with the money to be able to race so a difficult comparison.

[Monty]

I'm glad a few people have written in support of Hamilton so that I didn't have to start yet another post explaining that I am not a Hamilton fan but......
Unreasonable to be upset! Really?? He had just been robbed of possibly his only chance to go into the history books as a winner at Monaco.
The guy had driven a faultless race. Nobody could get close. He had the race completely under control and then he gets called in for tyres. Why???? He had track position at Monaco. Unless one of the wheels fell off, even I could have won from there in a Mercedes. I agree with Cos. Many other drivers would have done a lot worse than spend a bit more time on the slowing down lap and hitting the sign. Can you imagine what someone like Kimi would have done?
Hamilton's body language might have said a lot but the words he used were those of a very professional sportsman.
I also have to say how impressed I was with Vettel who immediately empathised with Lewis as he came to the podium. Unlike Rosberg who celebrated as if he had actually achieved something when in fact Lewis had made him look really second rate the whole race.

[cosworth151]

Speaking of the 60's, what do you think A.J. Foyt would have done in Hamilton's position? 

[Jericoke]

Speaking of the 60's, what do you think A.J. Foyt would have done in Hamilton's position? 

It's one thing to knock the block of some idiot who cut you off, or even a jack man to drops your car too soon.

It's quite another thing to do the same thing to someone who just agreed to pay you a bazillion dollars.

[lkjohnson1950]

All true, but I would be more impressed if there had not been a number of WDCs in the 50s and 60s who were high class gentlemen as well as top drivers.

That was a different age and a lot of drivers came from high class families with the money to be able to race so a difficult comparison.

Clark was the son of a sheep farmer. Graham Hill took a job at Lotus as a mechanic just to be near the cars. Surtees, P. Hill nor Brabham were from wealthy families, Lewis' family was far more secure than any of them. He behaved well enough, but he does not measure up to most of the men I just mentioned (Brabham had a bit of a temper, I believe). Foyt would have punched the guy who made the call, except that he probably would have ignored the call in the first place. A J was never very good at taking orders.

[Scott]

I generally don't like Lewis pouting when he doesn't win because of his own performance, however I'll cut him some slack for that race.  I actually found him well behaved except for his body language.

I dont blame it on the powers at Merc, but some clumsy engineer.  However it did result in destroying Lewis's magical Monaco pole/win.

That said, I also agree that I wish the men were men and the boys grew up a bit.  A few more smiles (and even jokes) all around at this point in the season is always much healthier than having scowls and fake-friend body language by drivers who feel they are entitled. 

To me the post race - pre podium awkwardness room has been a disaster from both a PR and viewer point of view.  Ditch it.

[Andy B]

I would also like to add that the media has changed from what it was eons ago the cameras are really in your face now and in Fangio's day it would have probably taken a week to make it into the papers.
Did Fangio hide and cry after dropping out of a race? If he did we would never have known!