Not that great is he? I always had him marked down as overhyped, particularly when he bottled the championship twice last season. Now he's trying to jump over other cars while they are parked up. The fact is that because he's black they seen a marketing opportunity as the first one in F1.

He's no Michael Schumacher, come to that he's not even a Damon Hill.

Hes a TVVATT

One season wonder

Formula One is shit.

How can someone be classed as good or bad at 'driving fast'?

Well I would have thought that to be good at driving fast you can do it without crashing.

If you're bad at it then you're more likely to crash.

So the best one at it would be the one who can go the fastest without crashing.

Or is that too simple?

Now I'm not a massive fan of F1 (I used to be) But as these guys are doing 50+ Laps in a car that reaches G-Force's that the human body doesnt always go through and they do this over a period of 2 hours there is a lot of skill in F1, Mainly down to concentration and how they keep their bodies prepared for what the car puts them through and obviously not concentrating in a car thats hitting 200MPH can cause to a pretty major accident

If you watched the Monaco GP from 2 weeks ago from the drivers POV you would appreciate that these drivers are "Good" at driving fast.... Except for David Coulthard who just likes to crash

I've always thought that if you put any reasonably good driver in an F1 car he'll eventually get up to the standard lap times. This is obviously dependant on size and fitness being right. For example, Jacque Villeneuve did 50 or 60 laps of Silverstone every day for three months when he joined Williams. With that much lap time my granny would put in decent times.

What I didn't understand was why was Coulthard's 3rd place against such a weakened field considered a wonderful achievement?

All seems a bit harsh on Hamilton - saying he's shit and a twat.
Radio Five and good knowledgeable journalists state he's a natural driver and, though he had luck, that he was brilliant in Monaco. Plus of course, he's only young. He came from nowhere to nearly win the championship....shit?
Is this another case of knocking people when they're successful or reach a certain level? We like that so much in this country dont we?
Tim Henman? Shit
Frank Bruno? Shit
Lots of footballers? Shit
Everyone? Shit

Because he didnt crash out and the Red Bull cars are usually bobbins and in a normal field barring driver errors and car faults would finish around 10th

I can see what you mean MrI, But Jacque Villeneuve didnt just win at Silverstone he won at many different circuits and each circuit has different challenges

Darlow? Shit.

Yes Mr Ripper, some things really are shit, its true

Is Hamilton the new Henman then?

Successful English sportsman so lets hate him!

I don't give one iota for Motor Racing and you can write what I know about the sport on the back of a stamp but I don't know how anyone can dislike the lad. He is currently one of the best drivers out of 6 billion people on the planet- I think that knocks out the argument that he is 'not great'.

You beat me to it!

Its not that, I think he's a decent driver but not as good as the hype. Its the way he's hyped up I don't like rather than Hamilton himself. On the other side of the coin, Schumy crashed loads in his first season.

Well, like tax payer I dont know too much about Formula One - as, like Obafemi, I think its shit and boring too. The whole sport is overhyped in my opinion, about money as much as talent. As for Hamilton, I've never seen him interviewed etc so couldnt form an opinion on his character, but you could hardly blame him for being a bit arrogant at his age (if he is) considering where he is in the world.

Ah..thats the old days of the clique
Before all the downright reasonable people came on board

I agree, us new reasonable people are far better than the likes of Dibble and his black hand gang.

I think it depends on what kind of clique you belong to.
Personally I'd rather be in a Lewis Hamilton bashing clique than a bible bashing one.

Agreed.

He is an incredible driver, anyone who saw him on Top Gear doing that lap in wet conditions could not doubt it. His publicity has nothing to do with him being black, it is simply because he is British. Had a white rookie driver did aswell as Hamilton last year, the level of publicity would not have been any less.

Trying to drive for as long as those guys do seriously tests your judgement and concentration especially in hot climates.

It's not a sport though is it. You may as well go and watch the motorway.

The M6?

LOL, you moan almost as much as that 'Nobodys hero' fella!

That wes bloke seems like a bit of a nutjob.

Damon Hill was only in a decent car. He was never that good a driver.

Lewis Hamilton is a different driver to most I've seen. He's prepared to take risks that others won't, approach corners differently, etc. The fact he's so young also lends credit to his ability under pressure and in the media. Race isn't an issue, that's just bollocks. Truth is that as long as it was a Brit, it's be the same publicity.

Still, F1's still shite

I disagree about Damon Hill, I used to go to countless GP's with some mates. For instance we did every European round in 96 (Hill's championship season) and I hold the opinion that he was far better than people give him credit for.

Damon Hill's problem was twofold; firstly in 94/95/96 he was up against one of the true greats in Michael Schmuacher and that made DH look bad in 95. Don't forget he competed well against Schumy in both 94 when he should have been champion and 96 when he was champion.

Damon Hill was moulded by Alain Prost whilst they were both at Williams. Prost was an immaculately smooth driver if a touch unexciting. Hill, before coming under his (Prost) wing was a completely balls out motorcycle racer who had moved over to cars. In 92 he threw the appaulingly slow Brabham round Silverstone to qualify it when nobody else had managed to qualify it. At Williams Alain Prost turned him into a machine that lapped incredibly rapidly but avoided any dangerous manouvuers. Don't forget he was thrown in as team leader after the hugely traumatic death of Senna. He would have won that year if it hadn't been for Mr Schumacher driving into him on purpose at Adalaide. Yes, the reverse side of the coin is that Schumy was banned for two races and could have scored 20 points but he was banned for a reason.

The second of Hill's issues was staying around too long after the motivation had waned. He wanted to emulate his father by becoming world Champion and once that was done (coupled with a huge slap in the face from Williams) he was never the same driver again. Apart from Hungary in 97 and Spa in 99, he was fairly uninterested, especially in his last few races at Jordan. Those last seasons took the gloss of the phenominal job he did at Williams.

Hill for sure was on the conservative side but by god he could make a car go round the track quickly.

I concur. I can't understand it. My sister used to spend whole afternoons watching this stuff on TV, and I used to keep surreptitiously eyeing her and thinking : I'm seeing cars going round and round a track, what is she seeing?

All afternoon! at the peak of this mad obsession I never ever missed a race live. getting up at 4am to watch the Australian GP for instance.

How about driving to Jerez (bottom left hand corner of Spain) in one hit, 6 of us in a Transit.

But what were you seeing? I need to know

You get to understand the tactics, strategies, tyres etc so simply watching cars going round is only half the story. The rest of the race is all about understanding what is actually going on other than cars going round fast.

Don't forget there's a great atmosphere around GP's. Normally quiet towns like Franochamps in Belgium, Never in France or Judenberg in Austria come to life in a huge way. Some of the best times I've ever had were GP related.

Does that mean no matter which French GP circuit is used there is no atmosphere?

I seen a nanna in a motorised wheelchair trundling along the pavement on Jesmond Road two days ago, she nearly got wiped out by a car reversing off the drive onto the road!!! She stopped just in time - nowt wrong with her reactions!!! Sign her up!!!

It means she had a vairy quick temper so you hadn't to let her see you implying criticism!

Damon Hills' Son is driving in the Formula Renaults (Support Acts for the British Touring Cars) and was leading the championship last time I checked, He's only 17 years old but is backed by his Dad and I think he's definatley a one for the future (IF he goes down the F1 route)

I agree with you about Damon Hill Mr I, Was unfortunate that he had Schumacher and at some points one of the true greats : Ayrton Senna to compete with

and as you said in a previous post, Theres more to F1 than just the car, Its the tactics used, Fuel Strategies, Tyres, Ride Height, Downforce etc, etc!

I'd love to see figure-of-eight tracks in F1 racing meself like.

They never left, its called Suzuka.

Yes but they cheat by putting a bridge in don't they.

In fact in these days of global warming, environmental disasters, yet another famine in Ethiopia due to drought, burning all that fuel to achieve sweet F.A. is totally obscene.

I mean they don't even go anywhere

And don't get me started on Murray Walker

Lewis can go and fook himself. Come to think of it Damon Hill can go and fook himself too