2011 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix

[ahpadt]

Well, people have asked the drivers to speak their mind and not say the PR manuscript out loud, so they got what they asked for?

I took Hamilton's comments with a pinch of salt, but the English tabloids may not.

This.

 

[SchumacherM]

What we don't like: The team did a great job, for sure, commited, poised, great job.

What we'd like: Damn, I sure screwed up there, but I drove like a hell (reference for F1 diehards) and got that win like a legend.(more TG reference)

What he did, calling others idiots...that's just yuck. Not coming from a Ferrari fan...but from an F1 fan.

 

[rideclutch]

Well, people have asked the drivers to speak their mind and not say the PR manuscript out loud, so they got what they asked for?

His timing was a little poor. If he says the same thing mid-week it may have been better understood. I also took them with a pinch of salt but what he said wasn't as important as when or how he said it. His comments were in the heat of the moment and not a considered argument. As Dr_Grip also said, it will look worse in a newspaper than in the context he used.

Paul di Resta on the other hand was insightful and spoke his mind in a way that won't bring him any problems.

 

[mpicco]

Well, it was an interesting race to say the least. Great drives by Maldonado, Alonso, Button, Kobayashi, Sutil...
That crash near the end was a shame both because of the tension of knowing if Petrov was alright (after Kubica, Renault would feel cursed) and because it saved Vettel from having to fight Alonso and Button, which were showing good pace with their fresher tyres. It would have been a very interesting end of the race, spoiled by the rule that says teams can work on the cars and change the tyres during a red flag period. Should change that back and make it parc ferm? conditions.

If anyone was saved by the red flag it was Hamilton, the sorriest spectacle of the day by far. Given that getting punted from behind was not his fault but that rear wing would have made him retire if the SC was brought out instead of the red flag. So at the end of the day, instead of making stupid remarks and more risky maneuvers, he should be glad he finished at all.

Massa once again, just, egh, grrr... come on man!

Funny celebrations afterwards, the champagne on the royal guard's face, the pool full of Eddie, good times. This is why Monaco should never go out of the calendar, this sort of atmosphere just can't be bought by middle eastern oil countries.

 

[PaperBiro]

@ahpadt: As a Hamilton supporter, I have to admit that he must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, because he made himself very hard to like today. Yes, we want drivers to speak their minds. But not if they're going to be unsympathetic dicks.

We want drivers to speak their minds because we, as fans, want to be able to relate to them. Calling other drivers "idiots" isn't really helping that cause.

Yeah, heat of the moment and all. But we all have moments like that, and we need to control them.

 

[ahpadt]

@ahpadt: As a Hamilton supporter, I have to admit that he must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, because he made himself very hard to like today. Yes, we want drivers to speak their minds. But not if they're going to be unsympathetic dicks.

Absolutely true, no doubt about that.

 

[mpicco]

Also it's not racial profiling why Hamilton is always called up to the stewards, it's his way of doing things, always trying to push the rules to see where the bending point becomes the breaking point. Honestly, this is why I don't like him, specially because he got away with plenty of unexplainable shit in the past.

 

[Pininfarina_]

I'm still raging over here.

 

[Heathrow]

So, I have just seen a summary of the UK newspapers front pages for Monday On BBC News channel and Lewis's comments have not appered it seems.

The bigest front page Sports story is the Football (Soccer) FIFA shambles over the weekend, which was featured in the "broadsheets", i.e, The Times, Telegraph etc. The tabloids' front pages are covering some rubbish story about something called X-Factor. :lol:

 

[Red_Bull]

Shouldn't we like drivers for their racing and not the personality?

It's about the only justification I can find for supporting Hamilton. He is a mega talent who is aggressive and exciting to watch. But off the track...

The problem with Monaco is when overtaking you're a less than evens chance of making the pass stick and even less still without making contact at all. But if you want to make up ground you have to try. His pass on Schumacher was spectacular and applauded by most but it only worked because Schumacher was good enough to see it coming (albeit at the last split second) and get out the way. Massa and Maldonado didnt and turned in. So the way the stewards worked it, it was clearly Hamilton's fault for having a go. I remember in 1998 when Eddie Irvine muscled Frentzen out of the way at the hairpin, Frentzen was forced into the wall and out of the race. Irvine was unrepentent and said 'you cant pussyfoot around the whole race behind the guy, you have to have a go'. No penalty for him back in those days.

So I like Hamilton for his aggressiveness and sheer driving ability. You can bet if it were him behind Alonso and Vettel he would've had a go. I didnt think Button would, he doesnt seem to be the type to take those sort of risks unless Vettel and Alonso's tyres really fell off the cliff. Hamilton however, can be an ass outside of the car on occasion, and basically through-out the whole Monaco weekend. He tried to force the blame on the team for not doing a banker run in qualifying. But he's a big boy now with four and a bit years experience in F1. Why didnt he demand to go out if he thought it was the right thing to do. I can't imagine Alonso or Schumacher or Senna sitting back and letting the team tell them what to do if they didnt like it. Not the first time it's been like that with Lewis either. Stand up to them!

His post race comments were spoken in the heat of the moment but were still not in the best taste. I wish he'd simply shut up sometimes, but he's becoming a bit of a prima donna. Especially with the beard, the earrings, the Pussycat doll girlfriend etc. I find I'm supporting Button more and more.

 

[DubyaStep]

i just have a problem with the fact that 2 cars trying to make the same turn during a race should be penalized when there is contact. isnt that the point of "racing"? i understand a penalty for speeding on pit road or cutting a corner but stuff like that is a racing incident. its exciting when drivers take chances like that, thats one of the things that makes it great and they just shouldnt be penalized for that. its like the "blocking rule" where your only allowed 1 move, i hate that shit, let him block all he wants because eventually he will make a mistake or something and it will be great. remember the Kimi/Lewis incident in Spa? Same shit, LET THEM RACE! Cellos88gt was talking about [fake] racing before in another thread because of the DRS and KERS, well this is more "fake" racing than that. when they regulate the drivers we all lose.

on a side note, major props to the FIA and F1 for not letting that red flag ruin a potentially great finish! sucks for my boy HAM though, damn red flag killed him this weekend along with the penaltys. (no, thats not why im bitching)

 

[rustyknife]

[video=youtube;-n9PlOqyH6c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n9PlOqyH6c[/video]

I can't believe some of you are complaining about that pass. The race was at Monaco, it was a move like that or nothing. After passing, Webber also set the fastest lap of the race and pulled a 3 second gap over Kobayashi; it wasn't a reckless attempt to gain another position at the end of the race.

Coulthard and Brundle both state that it was a great pass, yet some of you think he should retire?

 

[Red_Bull]

i just have a problem with the fact that 2 cars trying to make the same turn during a race should be penalized when there is contact. isnt that the point of "racing"? i understand a penalty for speeding on pit road or cutting a corner but stuff like that is a racing incident. its exciting when drivers take chances like that, thats one of the things that makes it great and they just shouldnt be penalized for that. its like the "blocking rule" where your only allowed 1 move, i hate that shit, let him block all he wants because eventually he will make a mistake or something and it will be great. remember the Kimi/Lewis incident in Spa? Same shit, LET THEM RACE! Cellos88gt was talking about [fake] racing before in another thread because of the DRS and KERS, well this is more "fake" racing than that. when they regulate the drivers we all lose.

on a side note, major props to the FIA and F1 for not letting that red flag ruin a potentially great finish! sucks for my boy HAM though, damn red flag killed him this weekend along with the penaltys. (no, thats not why im bitching)

On the contrary it saved him, he would've been forced to retire otherwise. Agree with the rest though.

 

[fochkoph]

In all honesty I find Hamilton's comment about other drivers being "idiots" relatively light to what Rossi said about young MotoGP riders. Yet Rossi garnered only laughs and praise from adoring fans for his comment yet everyone and their mom is frothing at the mouth to take a stab at Hamilton. I swear Formula 1 audience needs to grow a thicker hide and maybe, just maybe, at the least try and empathize with Hamilton in his situation because I'm sure everyone on the internet is the perfect prince/princess we all make ourselves out to be. I do agree that someone should have pulled him aside to calm his head before speaking to the media because who knows what kind of repercussions his comments will have down the road, but who knows, maybe they're forced to speak to the press immediately after.

In any case, only comments I have about the race are that the battle between Schumi and Hamilton was great fun to watch, those Pirelli tires, again, really mixed things up and the red flag at the end of the race totally spoiled what could've potentially been a colossal ending. Oh and the Forum is floating around on YouTube if anyone hasn't had the chance of watching EJ and DC (the terror in his voice was just HILARIOUS) being thrown into the Red Bull pool.

 

[Mercury]

In Hamilton's defense he did move out of the way when Schumi tried to overtake him in the same place where he bumped Massa, and we can all clearly see Massa turning in really very early and that causes a crash. What ever happened I don't think anyone deserves to be punished about this as it was a racing incident.

The crash with Maldonado was roughly the same story as Pastor also turned in early and Hamilton was already waaay too overcommited to brake in time so they crashed. Again, racing incident, no punishments necessary.

After yesterday and all the crap that happened today I truly understand why Hamilton said what he said, I don't agree or condone it but he's gone through a lot throughout the weekend and then McKenzie caught him in the worst moment possible.

BTW anyone who thinks the whole "Because I'm black" farce is anything more than a joke is an idiot, and after watching BBC Forum I'm quite convinced Eddie Jordan is an idiot as well.

 

[Karoug]

*snip*
Coulthard and Brundle both state that it was a great pass.

I agree, i don't think that there is anything wrong with that pass.

 

[rowd22]

I can't believe some of you are complaining about that pass. The race was at Monaco, it was a move like that or nothing. After passing, Webber also set the fastest lap of the race and pulled a 3 second gap over Kobayashi; it wasn't a reckless attempt to gain another position at the end of the race.

Coulthard and Brundle both state that it was a great pass, yet some of you think he should retire?

Great pass by Webber

 

[fusen]

The problem with EJ is that he always seems to want to be ridiculously politically correct, like when Coulthard said that no one cares about the Torro Rosso cars so they shouldn't waste their time covering them up at the end when TR put a blue cover over one of their damaged cars, immeditaly EJ came out saying Coulthard shouldn't say that. He always feels there will be repercusions to every thing you say.

He's also pretty old and probably isn't even really aware of the whole Ali G thing. Older people on the whole most likely wouldn't have got the reference.

I find it hard to see how a lot of people can't see where Hamilton is coming from with his argument though, it's might have been a little much to call Massa and Maldo idiots but Hamilton is known for that sort of aggressive style of overtaking. He simply saw a hairpin and went for the closing gap, now if the driver being chased wants to stay in the race they should think about making space and move to the outside of the bend otherwise a crash will occur.

That's where real overtaking happens, not just tyres falling apart so that someone can breeze easily past them on a straight.

A similar example would be the Webber video above, Kobayashi has the inside line for the corner but Webber sees the spot and so forces Kob off the track almost, if Kob tried to stay within the track lines and turn left instead of going over the bumps, he'd have hit Webber, but then Webber was the one that did the initial squeeze. He's just lucky that Kob was willing to give the place up instead of cause an incident.

Hamilton was also smart enough earlier in the same hairpin as his Massa accident to not go into the side of Schumey and instead creating space.

It seems there is a huge difference in how people perceive whose fault it is depending on the driver trying to overtake and if the driver being overtaken is nice/smart enough to get out of the way.

 

[Brillig]

i just have a problem with the fact that 2 cars trying to make the same turn during a race should be penalized when there is contact. isnt that the point of "racing"? i understand a penalty for speeding on pit road or cutting a corner but stuff like that is a racing incident. its exciting when drivers take chances like that, thats one of the things that makes it great and they just shouldnt be penalized for that.

It might be exciting to see the driver behind taking chances, but if the overtake has too high a risk of a crash, it's widely regarded as unsporting, if not downright dastardly. That's what we used to hate about Schuey, back in the days when he'd crash people out if he couldn't overtake them. Hamilton is fueled by aggression more than cold calculation, but that kind of aggression belongs in a demolition derby, not in F1.

Hamilton was also smart enough earlier in the same hairpin as his Massa accident to not go into the side of Schumey and instead creating space.

Completely different. Schuey had his front wheels alongside Hamilton a long way before the corner, giving Hamilton plenty of time to find his line. Hamilton's move on Massa was a last second banzai (puting 3 wheels over the red and white) when Massa was already committed, giving Massa only two choices: contact with Hamilton or hitting the wall.

 

[DubyaStep]

It might be exciting to see the driver behind taking chances, but if the overtake has too high a risk of a crash, it's widely regarded as RACING, if not downright dastardly. That's what we used to LOVE about Schuey, back in the days when he'd crash people out if he couldn't overtake them. Hamilton is fueled by aggression more than cold calculation, but that kind of aggression belongs in a RACING, AND in F1.

i changed it, this is how i see your quote