The aftermath of the race was in some respects the most interesting part for me.
Obviously Hamilton was cruising to an easy and deserved victory... oh, well, maybe next year. Adding up the races lost to him by his teams decision making process over the years it is difficult to assess a definite figure but surely this driver has lost more races and championships in the history of motor racing that any other driver since the great Jim Clark?
He must be into double figures on races lost and arguably, like Clark, up to three championships. Certainly one, at McLaren in 2007.
But what I loved about yesterday was the way he stopped at Portier to pay his respects to Senna, I imagine, that showed that despite the disappointment of the race he was still aware enough of other influences in his life to pause, acknowledge and honour them.
A true sign of greatness for me.
Secondly, the way he drove to "parc ferme" and hit the 3 sign. Complete and utter contempt. Deservedly so too. But poor 3 sign, it was only standing there doing its job. He should take it and auction it for charity. It must be worth a fortune!
Also I noticed he seemed like he was going to ignore the podium celebrations and go away from the scene, an official talked to him at some length before he turned and headed back.
Nico was also open and truthful in his appraisal, Lewis can have no problem with him, and Sebastian was sympathetic and generous towards him when he approached the podium.
Events like this enhance a drivers stature and in the long run this will not harm Lewis in any way, unless he lets it.
Go Lewis. There is a championship there for the taking, with a little help from your friends.
After the race was over....
posted on 25/5/15
Superb article. All over the news today he is being praised for not taking it out on his team. Incompetence of that nature at this level is unbelievable.
Going forward, he has to question decisions put forward by the team. He should have asked the team yesterday whether Nico and Seb had pitted.
He will go on to decimate Nico this year
posted on 25/5/15
Thanks for your kind comments, I believe Lewis has stated that he thought Seb and Nico had both already stopped. Of course, to look at it from the Mercedes point of view, they weren't so concerned about the gap from Lewis to Nico as the gap from Lewis to Sebastian. If Hamilton came out behind Rosberg then Merc still get a one-two, with the CEO witnessing a victory for a German driver......
Perhaps I am reading too much into it.
None the less, if a time gap between Hamilton and Vettel was taken at the "right" point during the virtual SC then they could very well have thought Hamilton would drop to second after a stop but remain in front of Vettel.
I don't think any of the race team (Lauda, Lowe etc) would have approved but with the M-Benz CEO there perhaps the pressure told on team management and they tried to get clever.
I don't think that happened but it would explain why they decided to pit Hamilton, had that been the case.
As a boss once said to me at work when something went wrong, "Is this a conspiracy or incompetence? You've been here long enough to know we couldn't get organised for a conspiracy, it's incompetence". I must admit, he did have a point.
posted on 26/5/15
The funny thing is that you see some people saying, how dare you complain about this, he must have benefited from something like this as well. Hand on heart I cannot think of anyone who was winning a race and then his team decided to throw it away with an absurd call like this.
Based on some of the discussions I have participated in, the last time something like this happened was in the 60s.
Poor lad