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Lewis Hamilton’s antics during the season finale at Abu Dhabi have attracted the ire of his team and polarised popular opinion.
Despite threats from Mercedes that he could be disciplined, with even the possibility of him being benched, the most likely outcome is that they’ll wait until the controversy blows over and forgive all wrong-doings. Perhaps with some public stern words to satisfy Nico Rosberg.
But even if Hamilton goes unpunished in the short-term, he might have stressed his relationships within the team, even to the point that sympathy will slide to Rosberg’s side of the garage.
Certainly Hamilton’s tactics in the final race didn’t break any FIA regulations. However it doesn’t follow that they were sporting or admirable. You only have to look at Max Vertappen moving under braking or even the infamous Multi-21 incident for examples of contentious driving that aren’t against the regulations.
Hamilton certainly has his defenders, but two former world champions are less than impressed with the his antics.
Three-time world champion Jackie Stewart was most vociferous in his displeasure. “When you are paid between 20 and 30 million pounds a year and you are told to do something you have got to do it,” said Stewart, adding, “I don’t care who you are.”
Amen, brother!
Fellow British champion and frequent Hamilton-defender Nigel Mansel took to twitter to condemn the strategy.
“I am a sportsman no I would not do this thank you {sic}” and “This is wrong sorry” he tweeted.
Testify!
Asking whether the average punter thinks Hamilton’s driving was “right” or “wrong” will only bring out their bias against him, either positively or negatively, because they are loaded terms.
Although the tactic wasn’t illegal, nor immoral, there is something desperate and almost infantile about it. I feel icky about it, and that’s the best way I can describe how it sits with me.
Add to this the highly credible rumours that Hamilton threatened to quit the team. This came after Rosberg romped to four wins on the spin to start the season, and followed the team’s refusal to sanction or punish Nico for their crash during the Spanish Grand Prix. Any sympathy I might have felt after his misfortune this year is long gone.
Hamilton didn’t deny the rumour when asked about it by Martin Brundle for Sky F1, but his lengthy and awkward pause before claiming the matter was a private one spoke volumes. Hamilton has shown throughout his entire career that wears his heart on his sleeve and openly speaks his mind. Refusing to confirm nor deny the rumour suggests there is some truth to it.
Backing up the scuttlebutt is the fact that Pascal Wehrlein was drafted for the tyre test following the Spanish Grand Prix in place of Esteban Ocon, presumably to allow him to familiarise himself with the car in case Hamilton’s threat to walk away became a reality.
It wouldn’t be the only testing session that Hamilton would miss, a mysterious recurring ankle injury flared up which kept him from contributing to the October test for Pirelli which rectified itself ahead of the following race weekend, and just this week Lewis put in a minimal effort before delegating his testing duties after reportedly feeling “unwell”. Clearly Hamilton is driving for himself first and the team second. His problem now is that the gap between these positions has grown wider than ever.
It’ll take time and energy to repair the damage done, and Hamilton isn’t in the right headspace to even recognise it.
We’ve seen Rosberg crowd-surfing on top of the Mercedes engineers many times this season, but after Abu Dhabi the significance of it seems to have heightened. It’s as if their enthusiasm for Nico extends beyond the fact that he is now a world champion, but that he’s their champion.
Enough columns have been dedicated to the fact that Hamilton and Rosberg’s engineers were switched for this season. Clearly switching engineers won’t win or lose and championship, but it’s possible that along with it the team’s sympathies have switched from the all-conquering Hamilton to the never-say-die Rosberg.
With new regulations being introduced in 2017 and the chance of an actual threat to Mercedes dominance from Red Bull and Ferrari, Hamilton can’t afford to lose any favour within the team.
Naturally Hamilton will say the team let him down and reliability cost him enough points to ensure the championship, but as I’ve said previously the final result being so close just shows how costly Hamilton’s poor weekends in Baku, Japan and even Singapore really were.
And ironically, putting Rosberg under such intense pressure actually turned what could have been a mediocre drive into a stunning one, and thus even more worthy of praise.
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