Japanese F1 Results & discussion

[CEG]

Originally Posted by Gedanken

It's harsh, Dan, but I've heard the same opinion from quite a few F1 fans and Daren's not wrong in reflecting that opinion.

McLaren were very wise right at the start to keep Hamilton from talking to the press because he does have a tendency to put himself in a bad light. Starting with the Melbourne press conference I mentioned earlier, he's out his foot in it quite a few times, e.g.:

- saying that his performance dropped because he cared more about McLaren than Alonso does
- ripping into Alonso for the Spa first corner incident when it was normal racing, taking it back when told to by McLaren, and then backtracking and going at it again
- openly saying that Alonso should go to Ferrari and leave McLaren to himself

On top of that, many pundits are not far off the truth in opining that Hamilton is McLaren's test-tube project, having brought him along since the age of 12. Hamilton's recent comments about his wanting Alonso to leave have not helped dispel that image.

The British press has not done Hamilton any favours whatsoever. They're as nationalisitic as any other country's media, and the British press coverage of Hamilton in comparison to Alonso justifies Daren's description IMHO - he's British, and he's their darling, as much as Alonso is the darling of the Spanish media.

All in all, conventional wisdom has always been that racing drivers need to shut up to the press and do their talking on the track, and young Hamilton would learn well from this. At the current rate, he's been shrink-wrapped, packaged and turned into F1's version of one of the Backstreet Boys.

Maybe I'm just plain biased then. I'll leave it there.