Hamilton going for the double?

Frank Bullitt

What the hell is he on? It baffles me when people compare him to senna,schumacher etc especially when you see him turning off his brain again like he did today.

Massa drove a blinder as well, looked to me like he wants the title more than Hamilton, but it really is Hamiltons to loose at this stage.

rua1972

Maybe we will see this more often in the coming years. Hamilton leading the championship and then losing it in the final ronds. He said he learned from last year....

andyman

The FIA are doing their bloody best to make sure Ferrari win it this year. How it isn't so obvious I'll never know.

aidan_dunne

While I agree with andyman that there definitely seems to be a feeling of Ferrari bias by the FIA floating around, in all fairness Hamilton isn't doing any favours for himself either. When the pressure is really on, it seems Hamilton does have a tendancy to let it get to him too much and he reverts back to the stereotypical "Brit who bottled it" sort of role! :rolleyes: Funnily enough, as the cars lined up on the grid ready for the start this morning, the ITV commentary team said something along the lines of "Look at the look Raikkonen just gave over towards Hamilton. It was a look of 'I'm going to have you!'", and I thought to myself in that instant "I wonder will that phase Hamilton at all and he'll cock-up the start?" Sure enough, it proved to be the case.

For all of Hamilton's talk about how strong he is mentally and how he doesn't let things get to him, I think he's definitely shown a few times now that he does let things get to him and other drivers do actually get inside his head too much and totally out-psych's him and he ends up making mistakes as a result. The great drivers, the really great ones (Senna, Schumacher etc.), never let anyone else get inside their head and Hamilton really needs to start doing that if he wants to win the championship, otherwise he's going to end up becoming another "Brit who keeps bottling it".

amacachi

Yeah, Schumacher never ****ed up under pressure and tried to take people out:rolleyes:

I agree that Hamilton seems to have a tendency to crack from what I've seen of him. It looks this year like the title is up for grabs between two people, neither of whom I would have confidence in to get around the first corner in the next two races.

aidan_dunne

amacachi wrote: »

Yeah, Schumacher never ****ed up under pressure and tried to take people out:rolleyes:

Oh, I don't disagree with you on that one, not for a second. We all know what Schumacher was capable of and how ruthless and desperate he could become when he really wanted to win. Senna was the same too and no angel either. My point is that they were much more capable at out-psyching other drivers and they got a reputation that followed them around as a result. The best example of that currently is probably Fernando Alonso, a man who other drivers tend to be quite wary of, it seems.

For all of Hamilton's talk of being strong mentally, I think deep down he's not as self-assured as he tries to make out. In fact, all his talk about self-confidence, self-assurance, mental strength, etc., might be him trying to convince himself that he actually is all those things. You never heard Senna or Schumacher or Alonso needing to give themselves those kinds of 'pep talks', did you?

amacachi

I agree with the latter part of what you said, but in my own opinion at least, some of what Schumacher did wasn't calculated or ruthless, he just cracked when he should've known better.

At times Hamilton does sound like a 12 year old who has read a sports psychology book.

aidan_dunne

amacachi wrote: »

......some of what Schumacher did wasn't calculated or ruthless, he just cracked when he should've known better.

I agree. Adelaide 1994 being the prime example, I think. Hill pressured him into a mistake and he cracked under that pressure. To a certain extent he did the same at Jerez in 1997, but there seemed to be a bit more calculation that went into that move. He knew Villeneuve was coming up fast behind him and he knew he was under pressure and probably wouldn't be able to hold him back so he seemed to make a move under pressure but, because he saw it coming for a while, he definitely thought about what he was going to do more when the situation arose, and the FIA agreed with that assessment and disqualified him from the championship as a result.

amacachi

I think the first time I ever swore was at Schumacher :P

FrostyJack

He knew Villeneuve was coming up fast behind him and he knew he was under pressure and probably wouldn't be able to hold him back so he seemed to make a move under pressure but, because he saw it coming for a while, he definitely thought about what he was going to do more when the situation arose, and the FIA agreed with that assessment and disqualified him from the championship as a result.

Schumacher had Villeneuve in the bag all race (even with the McLarens helping Williams) but after the pitstop Villeneuve was taking a second a lap out of him, I never read about what the reason for this anywhere (because the incident overshadowed it), does anyone else know, was it bad set of tires or something?

Biro

aidan_dunne wrote: »

I agree. Adelaide 1994 being the prime example, I think. Hill pressured him into a mistake and he cracked under that pressure. To a certain extent he did the same at Jerez in 1997, but there seemed to be a bit more calculation that went into that move. He knew Villeneuve was coming up fast behind him and he knew he was under pressure and probably wouldn't be able to hold him back so he seemed to make a move under pressure but, because he saw it coming for a while, he definitely thought about what he was going to do more when the situation arose, and the FIA agreed with that assessment and disqualified him from the championship as a result.

There's a key difference here though. Schumacher was in the last race, with his last hope of the title. It was do something extreme or hand the title over.
Hamilton's case this year and last year wasn't that. His case was "Relax, get through the race in the top 4 and win the championship". But no, his cocky attitude saw red when he was beaten off the line in a race that he didn't need to win cause his rival was already behind him, and he lost the plot and tried to out-break everyone in a move that could only see a failed result, but hopefully take out a Ferrari or two. He almost took his team mate out of it.
"Monkeys at the back" indeed. He wasn't so smart when a "monkey at the back" handed him his arse in a comparitavely crap car in the very conditions he boasts about excelling in.

EvilMonkey

I cant believe he left the circuit without speaking to anyone thought about what he was going to say and presumably told what to say by a McLaren chief/press officer and still ended up sounding like a spoilt child.