Lewis Hamilton

[hora]

Is this middle aged men telling a young man how he should behave?

Do you tell your other half's what to do?

[Derek Smith]

tommunster10 said:

No but i'd rather him act a bit more like James Hunt rather than Justin Bieber. I get what he's trying to do but not sure it's fully working. He should be thinking "what would Senna do" and it wouldn't be this.

Any particular reason?

I was in an expensive 'meet the drivers' do on the day before the GP. The two drivers were Senna and Berger. I was, and remain, a fan of McLaren and always enjoyed watching Senna drive, this despite some of his outrageous tactics.

Companies had paid small fortunes for the meet. Dennis was very pleasant, the engineers were polite and helpful, and seemed to get a kick out of difficult questions. Then came Senna, who was monosyllabic, appeared bored but at least listed to the questions. Berger was objectionable, being rude to a young kid. He made it plain that he didn't give a damn.

I went home and forbade both my daughters to marry either one of them but beyond that I'm not sure it changed my enjoyment of Senna's driving nor did Berger go up in my estimation.

So Senna acted the same as Hamilton.

But so what?

[FWIW]

hora said:

Is this middle aged men telling a young man how he should behave?

Do you tell your other half's what to do?

Your other half's what?

[hora]

Derek Smith said:

Any particular reason?

I was in an expensive 'meet the drivers' do on the day before the GP. The two drivers were Senna and Berger. I was, and remain, a fan of McLaren and always enjoyed watching Senna drive, this despite some of his outrageous tactics.

Companies had paid small fortunes for the meet. Dennis was very pleasant, the engineers were polite and helpful, and seemed to get a kick out of difficult questions. Then came Senna, who was monosyllabic, appeared bored but at least listed to the questions. Berger was objectionable, being rude to a young kid. He made it plain that he didn't give a damn.

I went home and forbade both my daughters to marry either one of them but beyond that I'm not sure it changed my enjoyment of Senna's driving nor did Berger go up in my estimation.

So Senna acted the same as Hamilton.

But so what?

Agree. I remember years ago people used to complain Damon wasn't media enough, not gregarious for the camera etc. Are any of us infrobt of a camera unless you are a professional actor?

[Slippydiff]

768 said:

Old media grumpy about new media.

Can't have highly paid sportsmen enjoying themselves can we .....
Though take a look on YT and you'll see the press conferences can and are fun occasionally.

768 said:

You can't make these sportsmen corporate suits no matter how hard you try. Just let his boss tell him to sort it out and leave it at that, it doesn't need any fuss.

This ^ Kravitz wittering on about what the poor old Fleet St will or won't have to write about tomorrow, who GAF, I'm sure they're capable of drafting something sensationalist BS along the lines of Mercedes engine failure costs Hamilton title hopes without input from Hamilton.
ince landing his job at Sky, Kravitz appears to be suffering from the same problem most American TV reporters have these days, that being an over inflated sense of self importance.

FWIW Hamilton seems to have taught himself (with the aid of others ?) that moving on smartly from a bad weekend is the best way to deal with it. The press however will always want to grind every last column inch from his misfortune, and will happily regurgitate and analyze it ad infinitum, seemingly without realising this is no longer LH's way of doing things.

As for LH's lack of interest in proceedings, it seems neither Hamilton or Alonso are particularly buoyed about driving the 2017 cars in what what many seem to be heralding as the second coming of F1, so from their perspective they probably aren't feeling particularly enthused about The Sport per se nor indeed chatting to the media about it.

[m444ttb]

During the F1 'weekend' there's only one thing more dull than the pre-race drivers press conference and that's the team principal conference. I'd have more time for a lot of the journalists if they didn't try to create the news rather than report it too.

[Clevers]

This is all premeditated antics from Hamilton geared to playing up to the social media generation at the centre of the new owners strategy. If Hamilton was playing with himself out of sight in the garage on social media out of shot of the cameras it wouldn't make the waves and draw attention as no one would give a damn as there is no controversy.

Dare I say it, but this was a conspiracy.......I'll grab my coat, time to run.

[swisstoni]

Don't the press have a say (perhaps all the say) in who is called to these pressers?
I believe a lot of sports have contractual obligations for athletes to turn up if asked for.

If this is the case then this is probably Hamiltons 1000000th presser.

I think most of us would be acting a little weird by now.

[r11co]

ukaskew said:

Mercedes bought into Hamilton as a driver and a 'brand' to appeal to a young audience,

Yeah, but he's not a kid anymore. He's 31 years of age, and kids aren't stupid - what they see is an oldie trying to be cool, which is uncool.

This was dickish behaviour for two reasons. 1. He's in the press conference to do a job, and 2. it shows that he lacks basic social skills which one could blame on his focussed up-bringing which maybe didn't leave a lot of time for learning some manners, yet Max Verstappen at least knows when to be polite...

[Trabi601]

thegreenhell said:

Where's the 'huge audience' that was allegedly disrespected? This is probably the most attention ever given to a pre-race press conference. If the press hadn't made such a big thing out of it then nobody outside of the room would have even noticed.

That's kind of the point of a press conference. To give the press something to write about!

[Trabi601]

hora said:

Is this middle aged men telling a young man how he should behave?

Do you tell your other half's what to do?

31 isn't young. At 31 I, and many others, were firmly climbing the corporate ladder and were seen as 'old and boring' by the new young employees.

[Angpozzuto]

Trabi601 said:

That's kind of the point of a press conference. To give the press something to write about!

So technically LH done a better job than all the other drivers then as no one even knows what the the Other drivers said to the press

[Hungrymc]

Wow!

The same people who found the Lewis 'crouched / bowing next to Alonso in his deck chair' photoshopped image from last week hilarious (I thought it was the best of them) are now questioning if Lewis would be entitled to post a bunny ears photo of someone else ? Astounding hypocrisy !

And the press complain that basically the formal media is now has to compete with social media (particularly on sports), and is less respected than they would like to think while on their round the world jolly? No shocker.

Someone else complaining that at 31 they were frantically climbing the corporate ladder and so why isn't Lewis conforming to the same expectations / behaviours....? (Perhaps because he was fortunate enough to have the skills and opportunity to take a different path in life)?

What a none story. Lewis has his odd traits and is / wants to be associated to a different group than many would like (hence that James Hunt / Justin Bieber bks). Nico lies through his teeth in order to defend himself and build his confidence. Kimi can't be arsed with any of it...... disrespectful? Give over.

[r11co]

Hungrymc said:

The same people who found the Lewis 'crouched / bowing next to Alonso in his deck chair' photoshopped image from last week hilarious (I thought it was the best of them) are now questioning if Lewis would be entitled to post a bunny ears photo of someone else?

Yeah, but there's a time and a place for these things.

The 'press conference' might be an outdated idea but it is what it is. Being a dick about it is different from actively trying to change it.

[tommunster10]

Derek Smith said:

tommunster10 said:

No but i'd rather him act a bit more like James Hunt rather than Justin Bieber. I get what he's trying to do but not sure it's fully working. He should be thinking "what would Senna do" and it wouldn't be this.

Any particular reason?

I was in an expensive 'meet the drivers' do on the day before the GP. The two drivers were Senna and Berger. I was, and remain, a fan of McLaren and always enjoyed watching Senna drive, this despite some of his outrageous tactics.

Companies had paid small fortunes for the meet. Dennis was very pleasant, the engineers were polite and helpful, and seemed to get a kick out of difficult questions. Then came Senna, who was monosyllabic, appeared bored but at least listed to the questions. Berger was objectionable, being rude to a young kid. He made it plain that he didn't give a damn.

I went home and forbade both my daughters to marry either one of them but beyond that I'm not sure it changed my enjoyment of Senna's driving nor did Berger go up in my estimation.

So Senna acted the same as Hamilton.

But so what?

This is my point, Senna is Lewis's hero and I never saw Senna acting like a 12 year old trying to impress the Bieber fans. Is this X Factor or F1?
I'm not bothered by Lewis acting up but he's 31 now, OK he's a lucky bloke he's handsome and looks younger but he is 31, its like a mid life crisis aged 31. If you were in a meeting at work and 31 year old was doing that to impress the younger ones you'd at least think "prat".
Senna would of been at least moaning about something important like safety or issues with the track etc, Senna was effortless cool because he wasn't trying to be cool....

[Rick101]

Watched it in full this morning. What an embarrassment Hamilton is. He has a fantastic job and is taking it for granted believing he is an untouchable golden boy. I hope Mercedes management have a word with him about his behavior. Completely in appropriate and downright rude. You could see the other drivers cringing and almost feel their embarrassment too.

The sooner he is out of F1 the better.

[Dr Z]

tommunster10 said:

Senna was effortless cool because he wasn't trying to be cool....

Bingo! Hamilton tries too hard to be cool, IMO. He doesn't need to be. This whole façade he puts on of trying to mess around, trying to be cool just doesn't make him likeable at all. I used to think that his 'blessed' comments are another one of his superficial BS, but with some of his comments last weekend he actually revealed he has a pretty deep faith/spirituality, which I found cool. After all, it's not so fashionable to have a faith/belief in God in the public domain. Then, he does something like this...erm, I'll just enjoy his driving on track then.

[r11co]

Rick101 said:

Watched it in full this morning. What an embarrassment Hamilton is. He has a fantastic job and is taking it for granted believing he is an untouchable golden boy. I hope Mercedes management have a word with him about his behavior. Completely in appropriate and downright rude. You could see the other drivers cringing and almost feel their embarrassment too.

It is possible to be 'different' and bend the social rules while remaining likeable, a skill Lewis appears to have wholly failed to develop. He is behaving like he's going through his second puberty right now - just being totally self-indulgent.

We know he's good at his sport, and he totally deserves respect for that, but that is detached from anyone being a functioning, interacting individual when they are away from their day job. He's being paid the big bucks to be a brand ambassador* as well as pedal the car around. Someone should be reminding him of that.

(*Pissy teenagers don't buy Mercs).

Edited by r11co on Friday 7th October 11:25

[Steamer]

r11co said:

(*Pissy teenagers don't buy Mercs).

I think that has changed in recent years - cheap leases etc. I seem to see more and more young folk in mercs now.

[Jez m]

Rick101 said:

Watched it in full this morning. What an embarrassment Hamilton is. He has a fantastic job and is taking it for granted believing he is an untouchable golden boy. I hope Mercedes management have a word with him about his behavior. Completely in appropriate and downright rude. You could see the other drivers cringing and almost feel their embarrassment too.

The sooner he is out of F1 the better.

lol He isn't going to be leaving F1 anytime soon.

The only 'word' he'll be getting from 'management' will probably include a pat on the back and a 'thanks for helping us sell more road car's than we ever have done before'!