Hamilton: Too aggressive or wrongly charged?

Friday, 24 June 2011 16:30

Lewis Hamilton’s driving style has come under close scrutiny in recent races due to the increasing amount of penalties he has been hit with.

Hamilton has a reputation for being an aggressive overtaker, but this is not currently reaping him any benefits. He is wrecking his car when he needs to be securing points. Two penalties were incurred at the Monaco Grand Prix, the first for his collision with Felipe Massa and the second for his incident with Maldonado (footage of both incidents is available online). Unsurprisingly, Hamilton felt that the penalties were unjustified and that he was being punished for simply racing hard. Some fans agreed with this, believing that the stewards acted too harshly. Is this the case?

Lewis was unable to make a clean pass on either driver; both moves came across as desperate and frustrated attempts to get ahead. He was attempting to execute a move that there was not enough track for, and ended up tapping Maldonado. This move was a far cry from the aggressive yet controlled moves we are used to witnessing from Hamilton.

His move on Massa was in the same vein. This attempt to pass on such a tight corner was never going to end well. Massa was slower going around the corner, but he had the racing line. Hamilton in effect tried to drive over him rather than around him. For such a move to work, Hamilton should have been directly alongside Massa. He was not and the banzai move up the inside came too late. Whilst it could be argued that Massa did not give Hamilton enough space, how could he have done so on such a tight corner? Massa defended strongly, but fairly.

The next race in Canada saw things go from bad to worse for Hamilton. He made contact with Webber on the first corner, and it is this that led to him coming together with Button. This was followed by a tussle with Michael Schumacher. By lap 8, Hamilton had managed to be involved in three separate incidents. Button’s radio call of “What is he doing?” summed up the race for Hamilton.

It seems to be that Hamilton is trying to wring more out of the car than it can deliver. Poorer qualifying pace is seeing him start races behind cars that have a slower race pace than him. Hamilton is trying to over compensate for this by attempting moves that he is not fully committed to, and which therefore result in incidents. His off track demeanour is similarly erratic. His verbal attack on Massa and Maldonado after the Monaco Grand Prix and his poorly timed joke against the stewards surprised and shocked many. He has to be admired for always attempting an overtake, but this it is very quality that has worked against him recently. Hamilton needs to find peace of mind with himself and the car, and regain the control and poise that we have come to expect from him. By Jessica Murphy

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