“This shit is killing me.”
These are the words three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton sent to the world via Snapchat as he begrudgingly sat in the Japanese Grand Prix drivers’ press conference last Thursday.
As Hamilton fumbled through the session, so distracted by his smartphone he didn’t realise he was being asked questions, it was hard to make any reading other than it being a blatant sign of disrespect.
A short time later he attempted to clarify that it had been a ham-fisted protest against the monotony of what is admittedly a dated weekend formality that offers little more than an excuse for team PR officers to restrict further access to their drivers.
Re press conference, it’s been the same for 10 years. It’s not the media or mediator, it’s the format. Fans should be asking the questions!!
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) 6 October 2016
It’s believable — Hamilton often styles himself as a somehow more thoughtful being than a mere mortal racing driver despite few buying the facade — but the world press chose to air their grievances regardless.
The protest escalated.
After losing the battle for pole to his teammate and with 48 hours to stew on the damning headlines written about his Snapchat-gate he got as close as an F1 driver can get to a drop-the-mic performance.
“I am not actually here to answer your questions, I have decided,” he told assembled media at his personal press conference.
“There are many of you here that are super supportive of me — and those of you hopefully know I know who they are — [but] there are others that unfortunately often take advantage of certain things.
“The other day was a super light-hearted thing … but what was more disrespectful was what was then written worldwide.“
We shouldn’t find it surprising Hamilton finds any member of the sport who isn’t ‘super supportive’ of him — journalistic integrity be damned — not worthy of his time given he only months ago expressed a feeling that F1 owes him rather than the other way around.
CNN reporter Amanda Davies: “Would you like to have more say [in Formula One]?”
Lewis Hamilton: “Not really. It doesn’t make any difference.”
AD: “Do you feel any responsibility to it, the sport?”
LH: “Nope.”
AD: “And that won’t change?”
LH: “… I’ve been there for ten years — I love the sport, and I have given my blood, sweat, and tears for the sport — so, no, I don’t feel like I owe it anything.”
So it’s of little wonder Lewis Hamilton World Champion™, who finds even the smallest extraneous obligation intolerable, snapped at something as innocuous as a handful of disparaging headlines.
This isn’t about lifestyle, the old ‘criticism’ so many have unsuccessfully attempted to tar Hamilton with, but about Mercedes’s reluctance to set boundaries amounting to even the most basic employer-employee guidelines.
Amongst the key reasons for Hamilton’s switch from McLaren to Mercedes was the freedom Toto Wolff et al. could offer at Brackley relative to the stifling rigidity at Ron Dennis’s Woking.
At first it worked a treat and allowed the Briton to thrive, but since his untouchably good performances last season he has started buying his own hype. Small liberties have given way to an attitude towards Formula One and increasingly towards his team that suggests he believes he is bigger than both.
Much like Sebastian Vettel passing Mark Webber against team orders at the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, Hamilton knows he is impervious to reproach providing his transgressions are individually minor.
From hinting at sabotage in Malaysia to completely frustrating the team’s ordinarily high quality race weekend agenda and even suggesting that he, rather than management, is calling the shots by tweeting Mercedes had withdrawn its complaint against Max Verstappen’s in Japan on his command, Hamilton gives the impression he is almost entirely rogue.
Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff told the BBC that he’s prepared to accept “collateral damage” in exchange for Hamilton’s speed, but how much damage is a major automotive manufacturer willing to cop before the benefits outweigh the costs?
Fascinating will be Hamilton’s reaction to losing the world championship, if indeed Nico Rosberg’s maiden title comes to pass — can he be brought back down to earth or will he only become further dissociated from the paddock?
If the latter, will Mercedes be willing to deal with the damage caused by a driver intent on division, uninterested in playing the team game and unable to meet his fundamental employment obligations?
I wouldn’t bet on it.
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Team Penske is under the same umbrella of ownership as the IndyCar Series itself, so it was imperative for to drop the hammer and protect their integrity—which, thankfully, they did.
Red Bull can’t rest on its laurels and if Perez can’t provide them with cover on the rare days that Verstappen is having trouble, it's time to look elsewhere.
The absolute vitriol against the Canadian that has come from the incident is beyond reprehensible.
