Its a Slippery Slope, and Hamilton is Sliding

Great driver he is! Wonderful young man that Lewis. He’s making the right decisions for a great F1 career. These are just a few things influential F1 people said about Lewis Hamilton only 6 months ago, but oh, what a difference 6 months can make.

No question this season hasn’t been what Lewis Hamilton though it would be. In 3 races so far this year, he has won one of them, but as he himself said, it was an easy race to win and now after a poor outing in Bahrain, his status as a number one driver is faltering. Yes, it’s early yet and you can’t make a serious decision just yet, after all, Kimi Raikkonen had a tough start to last season as I remember and of course went on to win the championship.

Aside from some suspect driving this year, Hamilton has been facing criticism for a number of things and even from some of his strong supporters.

Last season, Hamilton was urged to join the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers’ Association) as an influential driver, but decided it wasn’t the time. Now this year, he is again facing questions about not joining and he says he is too busy.
Think what you want about the GPDA, but as an association it has been influential in some serious improvements in safety over the years and is necessary as an avenue for drivers to be organized officially and professionally present concerns and solutions.

As far as being too busy? Sure he is busy, but so are a lot of the members and the only regular commitment is one meeting per grand prix. Hamilton aught to re think his position on this one.

The feud between Hamilton and Alonso last season has had a lot of Hamilton supporters saying if there is blame, it is on Alonso, not Hamilton. Everyone has their opinion, but this year the tide has really swung toward Hamilton as being the problem. Most recently Jacques Villeneuve has spoken out against Hamilton.

Villeneuve says Hamilton didn’t show Alonso with as much respect as he should. He goes on to say that treatment was disappointing to see out in the open.

During the Bahrain Grand Prix, when Lewis Hamilton’s in car camera was on, it was clear to see Hamilton wave his fist at Giancarlo Fisichella after he finally made it past him. These two were fighting for position and any gesture like that will get people’s attention and did. Mike Gascoyne, the Force India technical boss was unimpressed and was especially happy that Fisichella finished ahead of Hamilton in the end.

Nici Lauda has also spoken out on Lewis this year saying Lewis does not impress him this year. He goes on to say that he thought he would be get even better this season, but he has gotten worse.

“He’s in pretty bad shape”

Heinz Harold Frentzen gives the nod toward BMW-Sauber over McLaren this season and when asked why?

“Because Nick Heidfeld is better than Lewis Hamilton.”
“To me, it is very clear that Heidfeld is the better one.”

Life is clearly different for Lewis Hamilton this year, but that was to be expected. He stormed out of the gate last season as a young hot shot who proved himself at every turn, but that has lead to even more pressure this season. Enormous pressure! Even so, this is where he is and to compete at a high level, he has to be able to handle the pressure and put his face back in the news in a much better way.

As Former German racer Hans-Joachim Stuck said:

“F1 is on such a high level that even tiny errors are punished harshly.”

Not only on track, but off as well.

His latest book, “My Story” is now in the bargain bins in Britain just like Lewis is. Grow up Lewis. This isn’t kart racing anymore.

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