Personality: Most current F1 drivers have been given training in media & PR so that they convey the "team message" in interviews and public appearances. This tends to give them a "fake" appearance in front of the cameras. Hamilton has been doing the media & PR junk almost since he started racing, thanks to McLaren. This has given him the fakest personality on the whole of the grid. If you actually listen to him he doesn't appear to say anything, he just waffles on about his sponsors being the best in the world, he's the best driver, the team and he did a great job etc. He seems to have no real personality of his own.
Pre-F1: People often point out that Hamilton has been a champion of everything in his career up to F1. A large part of this has been due to the fact that he's had the backing of McLaren for a very long time indeed. He's been given an unprecedented opportunity for success, having been given all of the resources he could get to buy the best seats, best parts, best tyres etc. No other driver has been given such an opportunity. Many people reference his overtaking ability in GP2 as being a sign of his greatness, especially Turkey 2006. If you look at that race, he passed almost all of the cars in the field, which initially appears to be an amazing performance. However, look closer and you'll see most of the people either moved out of the way or made it incredibly easy for him to pass. There were a couple of drivers who didn't make it easy for him and it took laps to pass each of them. That performance doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
F1: He stepped directly into the McLaren seat which was either the best or the second best car in the field. How many other drivers have done a similar thing? Jacques Villeneuve and...Montoya (Ok, so the Williams wasn't the best car in 2001 but it was close). Even with the inferior reliability of the cars in 1996 and 2001 (respectively), Villeneuve and Montoya both put in performances which were arguably better than any of Hamilton's performances. Villeneuve came very close to winning the title in his debut season. Given better reliability he may well have done so. My initial point was that he stepped into either the best or second best car. Most F1 drivers have to prove themselves in the lower teams before they get offered a drive in the best team - regardless of their history before F1. We have yet to see how he would do in a lesser team, I suspect he would not be putting in very good performances. On the subject of good performances, I don't think we've seen anything great from him yet. He hasn't done anything where you could clearly see genius. The best drivers have always been able to do things which almost defied belief. I don't think Hamilton has put in such a performance yet.
Mistakes: He's made a lot of mistakes. Some of these are forgivable mistakes but a lot are unforgivable for a supposed top driver. China last year, Brazil last year, Canada this year etc. Everyone makes mistakes, yes...but not everyone makes these obvious mistakes again and again. The thing that annoys me more than the mistakes themselves is his attitude towards them. He doesn't apologise for his mistakes and when he's interviewed he spews out more marketing and PR about how he won't make those mistakes again, he won't be overtaken on the outside again etc. Then he goes and makes another mistake again or is overtaken on the outside again. Marketing & PR is only good if you live up to your promises.
Pre-F1: People often point out that Hamilton has been a champion of everything in his career up to F1. A large part of this has been due to the fact that he's had the backing of McLaren for a very long time indeed. He's been given an unprecedented opportunity for success, having been given all of the resources he could get to buy the best seats, best parts, best tyres etc. No other driver has been given such an opportunity. Many people reference his overtaking ability in GP2 as being a sign of his greatness, especially Turkey 2006. If you look at that race, he passed almost all of the cars in the field, which initially appears to be an amazing performance. However, look closer and you'll see most of the people either moved out of the way or made it incredibly easy for him to pass. There were a couple of drivers who didn't make it easy for him and it took laps to pass each of them. That performance doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
F1: He stepped directly into the McLaren seat which was either the best or the second best car in the field. How many other drivers have done a similar thing? Jacques Villeneuve and...Montoya (Ok, so the Williams wasn't the best car in 2001 but it was close). Even with the inferior reliability of the cars in 1996 and 2001 (respectively), Villeneuve and Montoya both put in performances which were arguably better than any of Hamilton's performances. Villeneuve came very close to winning the title in his debut season. Given better reliability he may well have done so. My initial point was that he stepped into either the best or second best car. Most F1 drivers have to prove themselves in the lower teams before they get offered a drive in the best team - regardless of their history before F1. We have yet to see how he would do in a lesser team, I suspect he would not be putting in very good performances. On the subject of good performances, I don't think we've seen anything great from him yet. He hasn't done anything where you could clearly see genius. The best drivers have always been able to do things which almost defied belief. I don't think Hamilton has put in such a performance yet.
Mistakes: He's made a lot of mistakes. Some of these are forgivable mistakes but a lot are unforgivable for a supposed top driver. China last year, Brazil last year, Canada this year etc. Everyone makes mistakes, yes...but not everyone makes these obvious mistakes again and again. The thing that annoys me more than the mistakes themselves is his attitude towards them. He doesn't apologise for his mistakes and when he's interviewed he spews out more marketing and PR about how he won't make those mistakes again, he won't be overtaken on the outside again etc. Then he goes and makes another mistake again or is overtaken on the outside again. Marketing & PR is only good if you live up to your promises.
And dismissing someone's opinion because of their nationality is daft. If you're going to dismiss someone's opinion, at least have the decency to do it for the content of their argument.
