Hamilton may be an arrogant little creature...

[IanP]

...but I seriously hope that Bernie is sobbing into his champers in Brazil.

You didn't quite cheat enough for your favourite team, did you, Mister E?

Strangely, I'm actually not a great fan of either Hamilton or MacLaren, but I really, really, detest blatant cheating and there has been so much of that in the last 24 months that I'm just waiting for the stewards to find a way of handing Ferrari both championships on a plate again, even now the chequered flag has been waved. Not like them to change a result in the face of all the evidence, after all, is it?

I'll get off my soapbox now. :d

Well done Massa - superb win! :ernae:
Ian P.

[Panther_99FS]

Hey Ian,
What did I miss? (unless you're referring to the Bourdais penalty that vaulted Massa back into contention...)


BTW,...I like Hamilton but I hate Ron Dennis...

[IanP]

I know we lost a lot of it during the Big Database Disaster, but I don't think you missed any of it, Panther... Fines which should have been penalties, penalties not given when they should have been, penalties given where they should not have been, total farces in courtrooms and meeting rooms? When even the Ferrari fans are saying that the rules are being twisted and unfairly applied, it becomes impossible to disguise the level of bias at the top end of the "sport".

I actually started out this year liking Hamilton, but he has shown a seriously immature and arrogant side as the year has gone on. Personally, I'd have liked to have seen someone from Williams, Toro Rosso or - although I don't like the guy - Alonso for Renault up the top. I'm sick of Ferrari being fed things off a silver platter with a silver spoon to keep them sweet.

Jenny from my office will be bouncing off the ceiling right now. Hope they don't have a rotary air circulator!(*)

Ian P.
(* - I'd say Fan, but there's very much a fan in that house... That's Jenny, supporting Mr. L. Hamilton, esq.)

[Panther_99FS]

Ah....

[Panther_99FS]

I actually started out this year liking Hamilton, but he has shown a seriously immature and arrogant side as the year has gone on.

Unfortunately,
I'd say this is something he's picked up from Ron Dennis....:cost1:

[lefty]

A wee bit of arrogance isn't necessarily a bad thing. Ask Herr Schumacher.

[Ferry_vO]

..Or Fernando Alonso..


Right now I don't really care what happened before; this was just a great race and a fantastic end of the season! :applause:

[Wing_Z]

It must've been the most nail-biting, cliff-hanging televised GP ever.
Bernie would be delighted, d'you think Mosely bribed somebody at Toyota to let Timo Glock all but park his car to let Lewis win the championship?

But...none of these guys looks like an F1 champion, not Hamilton (Cocky fellow) Massa (Also ran) or Raikonnen (Discovered family life).
Kubica does though, so does Alonso, and maybe Sebastian Vettel. See next year...

What a finish, hope there's a British GP after all, to cheer on the first Brit champ since Damon Hill.

[Panther_99FS]

..Or Fernando Alonso..

However...
It's quite possible that Alonso's attitude has cost him whatever chance he might have had in driving for Ferrari...

[brian1305]

What an end to the championship!!!!!
At the point Hamilton crossed the line I was still shouting at the wife "I cant believe Hamilton has thrown it away by not defending better"...

Overall it had everything, and looking back on the season that has been and especially the last 8 races I would say this to Mr Ecclestone - next year dont change a thing..........amazing talent coming through in Vettel, Alonso finding form with Renault, BMW bound to be a player next year and it's great to see Toyota up there too.

If you can gauge what next season could be like look at the mix of Players making it happen during the latter stages of the championship...

And of course congratulations to "Lewis Hamilton - World Champion 2008"

No matter what I think of the guy I know this - every child 4 years and over knows who Lewis Hamilton is and that has sparked a huge interest back into motorsport here, that can only be a good thing...

[Wing_Z]

...I would say this to Mr Ecclestone - next year dont change a thing...
But he has!
He's sold the TV rights to the BBC, is this the last of Martin Brundell, I do hope not...
the Top Gear team is very entertaining but let's get serious here....

[brian1305]

But he has!
He's sold the TV rights to the BBC, is this the last of Martin Brundell, I do hope not...
the Top Gear team is very entertaining but let's get serious here....


Ha Ha - I love the ramblings of Clarkson and co but the thought of them making an :censored:se of a F1 race makes me want to shoot myself:costumes:

[Cazzie]

Will Timo Glock be driving for McLaren Mercedes any time soon? :d

Did he "really" shag it on that final turn or did he just give Lewis the title?

Great finish nonetheless and great drive again by Massa and Vettel.

So suspect?

Caz

[Panther_99FS]

Will Timo Glock be driving for McLaren Mercedes any time soon? :d
Did he "really" shag it on that final turn or did he just give Lewis the title?
Caz

I don't think so considering how Lewis cut off Glock at Monza and forced Glock into the grass...

[Wing_Z]

Will Timo Glock be driving for McLaren Mercedes any time soon? :d
Did he "really" shag it on that final turn or did he just give Lewis the title? CazCertainly best mates...:ernae: the conspiracy theories will now start...thought I heard Brundle say Glock's time was 4s slower on that lap, than his previous. That's more time than you can lose in one corner - given we did not see him spin or leave the track, you'd have to assume his right foot was otherwise engaged...

[wombat666]

As far as I'm concerned, there is NO 'World Champion Driver' for 2008.
But then again, WTF would I know?
:banghead:
I doubt if anyone who has a smattering of Formula One enthusiasm will be moved to include 'Lewis Hamilton' in the same sentence as Jimmy Clark, Jack brabham, Juan Manuel Fangio et al.

[IanP]

Well, if the same rule had been applied evenly across the board at previous races, Hamilton would have wrapped up the championship at the penultimate race anyway.

The whole thing is a farce. If they want a real championship back, the first thing they need to get rid of is the entire hierarchy and start again with people who are truly in it for the improvement of the sport and not to line their and their best friends' pockets (that includes a number of team owners).

Regarding Hamilton, for a newcomer to the sport he is phenomenally arrogant - the number of enemies he has made on and off the grid has been increasing all year. However, he is still a very, very, good driver so yes, he does deserve the title. If it was purely down to the car, how come Kovalainen has been at the back of the points, if in them at all, all season?

Ferrari have been the weaker team all year and if it hadn't come down to the thoroughly odd decisions that have been talked about to death, they wouldn't have the number of points they have anyway.

Incidentally, the Top Gear team are possibly the worst possible people I can think of to commentate on a race of any description... except perhaps a three-legged race, sack race or egg and spoon race at a Primary School sports day, which about suits their maturity level.

Ian P.

[Ferry_vO]

Will Timo Glock be driving for McLaren Mercedes any time soon? :d

Did he "really" shag it on that final turn or did he just give Lewis the title?


Glock was the only one that did not change to wets so he was on the grooved tyres when Hamilton passed him. On start/finish he was six seconds behind Lewis which is a lot to loose in such a short section.

[Cazzie]

Please take all heavily tongue-in-cheek mates. I am playing the part of Ferrari and the Italians a bit. :d

And Vettel had no idea what consequences he evoked when he passed Hamilton to finish fourth.

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/081102234650.shtml

And I have to spend the morning of my 62nd birthday at the dentist! :banghead:

Caz

[lefty]

In Britain (not England, as Ron Dennis would have it), we still expect our sportsmen to be cuddly, jolly nice types like Coulthard and Henman.

Unfortunately it's the unlovely ones like Hamilton and Murray who do the winning.............

[Panther_99FS]

Hamilton's persona doesn't bother me....and as others have stated, you could arguably debate that Schumacher & Alonso are worse.

Now Ron Dennis DOES bother me....:cost1:

[wombat666]

Regarding Hamilton, for a newcomer to the sport he is phenomenally arrogant - the number of enemies he has made on and off the grid has been increasing all year. However, he is still a very, very, good driver so yes, he does deserve the title.
Ian P.

I'm just a simple suck when it comes to winning, the 'Champion' should be the driver with the highest number of outright victories ......:d
Funny how Hamilton has made 'Enemies', I don't understand the rationale behind that type of thing, one has to know and understand a person to form such an intense dislike of him.
I'm not a fan, but that's more to do with Ron Dennis ..................:kilroy:
And Ed, I actually like Alonso, he's always been very civil toward the Public out here.

[IanP]

I'm getting my information on the number of people who dislike him from the reactions of other drivers, team members and the press - the British press are sycophantic as anything, while everyone else treats him with a degree of contempt. Yes, the Brazilian GP is always going to be a partisan crowd, but not many championship winners are actively boo-ed when they climb out of their car (and can't get the wheel back on. Whoops!)

All serious competitors, the same as the best fighter pilots to give a comparable example, have to have a degree of arrogance. If you're a nice, polite "Au, ai sai, arfter you, auld chap!" type, you're not going to win races. I also believe that part of Hamilton's arrogance is justified - he really is better than many of the drivers in that field (including Raikonnen, but not I believe Massa and Alonso. He's probably on a relatively equal level to them). These guys are used to being around egos, so if so many people dislike him, there's even more ego than normal involved here. Alonso is a firebrand - he reacts very badly to anyone who questions him. Some like that temprement, some don't. I've seen it cost him races, which is why I think it's something he needs to control.

On the other hand, I really don't believe that just the person with the greatest number of victories should win a championship. If you win six races out of twelve and don't finish the other six, but someone else finishes every race in a good position, then that driver and that driver's team deserve to win just as much if not more than someone who is inconsistent, but shows flashes of brilliance. According to that rule, why don't we just do the result off the qualifying positions? The best driver and car are obviously those who qualify in pole position, so why bother with the race at all? (Only a little bit of devil's advocate there... Honest! :d)

[Sunny9850]

Congratulations to Lewis on his World Championship.
While I think that he did get it handed to him by Timo Glock, that only accounts for the last lap of the last race which he entered with a relatively large points advantage after a fairly close competition over the rest of the season.
I personally would have loved to see Phil Massa win it, and believe that the points structure should give more weight to wins. But in the end it's the overall season that gets totaled up to select the Champion.

Since most of us have probably never met any of the current F1 drivers in person for a nice sit down chat or a few beers I would hold back on calling one or the other arrogant. They ALL have to be TypeA personalities ... otherwise you will not get a seat in the top racing series of the world.

I don't like some of the things that Hamilton did this year on the track, but in the end I think it was a great season that makes me look forward to next year.

On a final note..a guy who I always disliked in his driving style but always respected as a person, based on what I see an read about him, unfortunately got bunted out of his last race in the second corner.
Thanks for the memories...good and bad to DC. You may have never won the title but you were a great competitor.

[wombat666]

According to that rule, why don't we just do the result off the qualifying positions? The best driver and car are obviously those who qualify in pole position, so why bother with the race at all? (Only a little bit of devil's advocate there... Honest! :d)

I've long been an advocate of just sticking the entire grid on rolling road dynos and the last car running is the 'winner'.
:d