In the world of Formula 1 three drivers currently dominate the drivers table: Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Räikkönen, and Felipe Massa.
Lewis Hamilton is the leader in the standings, but may be the most arrogant driver of 2008. His career has been plagued with moments where his arrogance—and perhaps even his skill—has outmatched the abilities of his McLaren racing car.
The most notable moment came during the very last race of the 2007 season. In Brazil he was trying to take the lead during the first part of the Grand Prix and ran wide of the corner in turn four, dropping to eighth. Although, to his credit, he did race his way back up to seventh after falling as low as 18th.
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In the 2008 season Hamilton has rammed the back of Alonso's car in the Bahrain Grand Prix and finished a disappointing 13th. Also in the practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix he crashed and completely destroyed his car. This could be his fault or the car's—either way he must have been pushing the car far too much.
This might not be arrogance, but still a major fault by Hamilton was when he crashed into the back of Kimi Räikkönen in the pit stop in the Canadian Grand Prix.
Don't get me wrong, I do think Hamilton is a brilliant driver. But could he be too arrogant to ever win a championship? He will do anything to take the lead and sometimes this can be fatal to his race rankings.
What do you think? I hope I am wrong and he does win a championship—and he does get over his arrogance.
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3 months ago
Simple answer is no. I can't see how someone recognizing how good they are is beeen arrogant. Alonso has won 2 titles so far, and he has to be the most arrogant driver in the last 5 years. He can win two titles, and Lewis is nowhere near as arrogant. In-fact, he isn't. He just knows he's good, very good infact.
Couple notes here, Hamilton did not crash in qualifying for Bahrain, he crashed in parctice, big difference.
Hamilton dropped to 18th in Brazil because of a problem with his car, not due to the fact that he tried to pass alonso. big difference
Kimi should not have been next to Kubica, we all know that. Hamilton braked at his normal distance in a red-light situation and could do nothing to stop the car. big difference, again.
from 3 months ago
yeah you sorted the errors out, but the glaring one still exists. practice, not qualifying. huge difference.
from 3 months ago
Michael, you need to read the article I'm accurate about the incident in the Brazilian Grand Prix...
from 3 months ago
Why is is that when a black man ascends to the pinnacle of a particular discipline and realises how good he is and pushes himself past the pre-defined boundaries of his race, he suddenly becomes arrogant - I think arrogant is wanting your team mate to play second fiddle to you because you won two world championships. I think arrogance is spying on another team and getting your team fined and booted out of the constructors championship. Arrogance is trying to run your own team mate off the track just so he can't outdrive you as he had been doing all season. But then nobody sees this because what's good for a white goose is no good for a black gander.
Ever seen the you tube video of Kimi avoiding a woman who wanted an autograph. What does Hamilton whenever he goes out in public? Who is blind, deaf, dumb here?
from 3 months ago
Gerard mate .
In the Brazillian GP :
He did drop from third to 8th at turn four thats correct .
However When he dropped back to 18th there was nothing he could do about it , his engine Cut out .
They had to find a different setting to restart the engine and then the car worked perfectly after they did so .
I Have never thought he is arrogant .
People misconcieve his CONFIDENCE as being arrogant .
Confidence is the key to anyone winning , he believes in himself , and there is nothing wrong with that .
I class Juan P Montoya as Arrogant . Lewis isnt like that .
from 3 months ago
Jarrod, your comment is offensive and racist. Who, in the blue moon, mentioned race except you "But then nobody sees this because what's good for a white goose is no good for a black gander."
Disgusting, people like you, whatever cause more racial problems than any other type!
from 3 months ago
Jarrod, you joined just to make your bigoted comment!
from 3 months ago
Jarrod, this article has nothing to do with me being racist. Race isn't even mentioned in this article! Mark, I'd just like to say that i knew that the problem that dropped LH 10 places was a broken gear box it just isn't mentioned in the article
from 3 months ago
To Paul Heffernan .
I just read your comment hitting back at Jarrod .
A few weeks ago i suggested you may of been on the racist side .
Having seen your response on here , I take my words back , you are no racist .
That was sticking up for equality what you just said .
I feel that if Lewis was white , He would just be the same as he is now , Confident and Smart in a race car , it has nothing to do with colour .
from 3 months ago
Mark, racisim in sport is bed enough at anytime, to use race as an issue when there is not one is just dirty. That is why I was so opposed to Hamilton being compared to Tiger, The only reason that one would compare those two is race. Yet both people have led charmed lives, for a fact I know that Tiger has played at the best courses Sth Cal has to offer, he would have never experienced a hardship in golf because of the color of his skin. The other issue is that the two guys themselves are nothing alike, Tiger has very little to say and he is by far the biggest spots star in the world. He is also the toughest guy mentally that you will ever find. Hamilton, should be compared to his contemporaries, not another sports star because of his color!
3 months ago
Welcome to the F1 community but being arrogant doesnt make you a worse driver ... He could be the biggest TW@T on the grid, which by the way he isnt ... There are far worse but it wouldnt effect the fact that having more points than anyone would not make him champion based on his arrogance ... Lewis has just as much a chance as anyone else whether he is arrogant or not ... There have been a couple of articles on this community over the last couple of weeks even one on my profile called "The BIG Debate" ... Check it out and see what you think ... Do I think that Lewis will win the championship this year ... Got a good chance ! Yeah probably !
3 months ago
Hamilton is one of the LEAST arrogant drivers in F1, whenever he wins a GP and they broadcast his team radio he's always thanking the team, saying something like it was the pit stops that won it for him even if they blatantly didn't and in his TV interviews he's incredibly modest.
I think you need to look up the definition of arrogant in the dictionary. not being able to handle the pressure of being one race away from winning the world championship in your rookie season and making a foolish mistake in the last race doesn't make him arrogant, it just shows his lack of experience. The point about crashing in qualifying is ridiculous, there are a lot of reasons that could have happened, and again even if he HAD been pushing the car too much, that isn't an indication of arrogance.
I suppose the short answer would have been, did you never see someone called Micheal Shumacher?? He was one of the most arrogant drivers ever, which was justified, and i seem to remember he may have won a world championship or two...
from 3 months ago
You summed it up right there mate. Schumy could teach lessons in arrogance and smugness, and like u said, with good reason too. What gets me is he mentions the Bahrain incident, that occured in practice, NOT qualifying. Was he even watching?
from 3 months ago
Michael was not arrogant, me thinks English stereotyping at it's best. Did you ever meet him, what did he say to make you think he was arrogant. What did he say in public, that would lead you to think he was arrogant (Hamilton has had more to say about nothing, than Michael, Prost and Senna combined). Is Hamilton cocky, well he has had enough to say, that it would be fair for some to think so. So Dafydd, you were quick to condemn Michael, yet even quicker to justify Hamilton. Would you please, explain why and answer my questions.
from 3 months ago
Well Paul, http://www.feedmef1.com/html/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=10753, http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2006/aug/17/formulaone.sport,
a quote from that 2nd link: "What particularly annoyed Villeneuve was Schumacher's arrogant defiance even towards his peers during a meeting of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association convened at Silverstone over the British grand prix weekend specifically to discuss his behaviour at Monaco.
"But he lies not only to fans but to his fellow drivers, too," said Villeneuve. "At the GPDA meeting at Silverstone he lied to us [about his qualifying incident at Monaco] and he didn't even have the decency to appear embarrassed about it. He just stared in our eyes and lied."
I hope this is sufficient for you Paul, but a simple Google search finds plenty more first hand accounts of Shumacher's arrogance if you need it.
3 months ago
Arrogant maybe, reason for not winning a title no. Unless one defines the word arrogant with a broader brush. For my money, his real weakness is between the ears. This guy should be a blond space cadet, how can one guy say and or do so many stupid things. He is fast, a lot of young guys are that way, he is however not quick, some mature and get quicker. Once again, we can all be proved wrong, but for my money, he is mentally and emotionally weak.
from 3 months ago
Paul .
Thats the Nicest you have ever been about Lewis :-)
Are you ok ? he he
Only joking .
3 months ago
what has arrogance got to do with winning the title ? sorry mate, i dont even understand the gist of it
welcome to br
3 months ago
I dont see how you guys can dis-agree with what Gerard Elliot is saying. Whenever the public get hyped up about Lewis winning a race for example,lately it has been winning 3 races in a row, he lets us down. Lewis tells us that he has never been in better shape but yet he still produces errors which link back to him being arrogant.
And quote "very illiterate for an article on here, disppointed to see such grammatical errors on an article.
sort it out."
Give him a break. One of his first articles. Come on.
Nobody's perfect.
3 months ago
I don't think he is arrogant...he is self assured!
3 months ago
Gerrard welcome to Bleacher report.
I see some of your points but they do not support your claims LH is arrogant; it's drive, ambition and the will to win and that my friend is something to be respected. Arrogance is different yet the line between confidence and arrogance is very thin and yes it is a toughie to call.. However I don;t think we've seen an arrogant Hamilton just yet... Let's see when he wraps a world title or two and we'll have this discussion there and then... In the mean time would like to see some more articles from you - young fresh writers with new ideas - well done!
3 months ago
i think that it was inexperience more than anything that let him down last season... he'd been racing in GP2 and trust me, the guys in that series try overtaking moves you wouldn't see in f1... they haven't got anything to lose. hamilton had been used to racing in GP2 agressivly and impatiently like all drivers and he couldn't get to grips in f1 that you have to be a little more patient.
he's even come out this season and said he needs to be more patient... if he falls low down, he said he will still push of course, but be a little more patient when he has a slower car in front of him... wait for the exact time.
so in answer to your question i don't think that lewis is too arrogant to win a championship... he will definatly win the WDC at some point in his career. he lost the championship last year because of inexperience (IMO)
3 months ago
Well, he's definetely not being arrogant. He has self confident, and that's about it.
3 months ago
I think whether he is arrogant or not isnt the really the point- all atheletes at the top of their sport need to have this self-confidence, call it arrogance if you will, and a relentless ability to back themselves. its how they've been successful and no lewis isnt too arrogant to win this world championship!
3 months ago
Lewis may be too inexperienced or immature to win the world champioship - yet. But he has proven to be among among the most quickly successful drivers of all time. When he learns to play the long game he won't make silly mistakes like unncessary dicing with Alonso in Brazil. This last race in Hungary could/should be a good example of how steady driving and accumulation of points (for both Lewis and Kimi) makes champions.
With a team focussed on his success and with Heiki to play the role of Ruebens he could well clock up as many championships as MS did.
3 months ago
i am going to say arrogance is the wrong word !!
3 months ago
If he didn't believe he was the best then who else would?
Have you ever seen a 100m sprinter after he won a race?????
3 months ago
This article is pretty annoying. I guess the author has nothing better to write about. First of all as a huge Hamilton fan, I accept that Lewis probably IS a little arrogant. But so damn what? The guy is incredibly talented and is one of the UK's very few bona fide superstars. what do you want, a humble loser or a slightly arrogant, exceptional winner who is putting the UK on the map, who dealt with racism and bullying by confronting it head on and learning to defend himself, rather than crying to his dad like most kids. A kid who handles sever pressure with a smile when most people would have fallen away into obscurity. Who deals with obstacles head-on, accepts his mistakes like a man, rather than blaming others or burying his face in the sand. Lewis is British regardless what colour he is, he has British blood running through his veins. The UK needs to celebrate this exceptional young kid and bring up their kids to be like him, or at least learn from him. No one is perfect, we all have flaws and I'd take a bonafide winner over a loser any day.
3 months ago
All the comments have gone!!!
from 3 months ago
Never mind there,ve all appeared now.
3 months ago
Hey Michael, can you read, Elliott's article states exactly what you are saying it did not and by the way, check your own spelling and grammer, its crap!
Grant
from 3 months ago
The article states what michael says because the Author changed it once Michael pointed it out to him that Lewis crashed in Practise instead of Qualy .
3 months ago
As to Hamilton being arrogant, F1 is an arrogant sport, look at the FAI, Mosely, Ecclestone, Domenicali, so where is the issue? What should he do, be the nice guy like Coultard or Webber, any world championships from thise two? On the other hand I wonder how many of the people commenting actual follow the sport, Hamilton's problem is his aggressive style of driving which is hard on both the car and the tyres and it is this that prevented him winning in 2007 and is causing problems in 2008. It is his aggression that has also produced errors and it will be his aggression that will win him world champioships. Elliot just used the wrong word.
from 3 months ago
How is Domenicalli arrogant?
from 3 months ago
How do you know which is arrogant and which is not. Aggression does not win titles, when a driver is aggressive and wins, it is the car and not the driver. Hamilton is at best a racer, he is for sure not a driver, he never will be. That does not mean a racer cannot win the title as Senna and Mansell have proved that you can. It however takes a driver to keeps the wheels on and bring it home. The thing that I have always disliked about racers, is that they do not care about the machine, they have no respect for the cars, drivers or the sport!
from 3 months ago
well Paul, I do think they have respect for the drivers and the sport, but certainly not the car. The punishment handed out to the cars due to their erratic style is ridiculous in some cases.
from 3 months ago
Senna and Mansell really never showed respect for anybody or the sport, as for the way they treated cars, almost a crime.
from 3 months ago
Guess that has been one of my biggest bugs about some drivers. Racing is about a man AND a machine. A team pours their hearts into building a car, it means a great deal. When their guy wins, their pride is in the machine. Now I know that the drivers that don't care about their cars, seem to be more popular with many, for my money take away the GP cars and you have lost the heart of F1
from 3 months ago
Yeah stefano is NOT arrogant , he doesnt even like to talk to the Reporters , you saw at Hockenheim when Ted Kravitz tried interviewing him , he just wanted to go to the garage .
We dont see enough of domenicali to say he is arrogant .
3 months ago
How very opinionated Paul.
from 3 months ago
Grant that would be the pot calling the kettle black!
3 months ago
Jane, are you kidding me with that question?
from 3 months ago
I think that was a fair question, why did you not answer her?
from 3 months ago
I think my question perfectly valid. Domenicali is a nice guy, unlike his predecessor Todt who , and I say this even as an avid ferrari fan, is quite a nasty piece of work. He once told Kimi Raikkonen that 'not joining Ferrari will be the biggest mistake of your life.' That was of course when he was still driving for sauber and had just signed a contract with McLaren. Jokes on him, but Domenicali would never say that, so I do not agree with your opinion that Stefano is arrogant.
3 months ago
I think he lets slip some stupid comments such as this just after the montreal pit lane incident:
'I'm sorry if I ruined Kimi's race.' - I don't think its a question of if and I find him a little cocky at times because of the whole 'when i'm at 100%, no-one can touch me' - prior to the Hungarian Grand Prix.
But do I find him too arrogant? No.
I like Raikkonen infinitely better though because he just lets his driving do the talking. He may not say much, but he does what he says on the tin, he drives the car, and fast.
3 months ago
Oye Paul ! are you on here to be a distraction to the Article or just to nit pick o issues that has no relivance ? You the one without Brain or Spine.
To say a Guy that can handle a Formula One Car has well as Lewis have Brainless is the worst comment ever .
from 3 months ago
Your statement, clearly indicates that you know nothing about racing. As for Hamilton being an airhead, a driver who makes so stupid racing mistakes, can only be one of two things, somebody who knows no better (lack of track time) of he does not think
from 3 months ago
Hmm.... because Lewis Hamilton is the only F1 driver who has been racing all his life.......
3 months ago
Well well let me say this is all ducky to here about how arrogant Lewis is.
Lewis a young driver second year in formula one racing .This young man has
Brought a bit more than a little life into to the formula one game. Let me ask a question
Is the eyebrow-man arrogant?. I think so. All of a sudden there is lots to talk and
It’s all about Lewis . Lewis this Lewis that .Are we forgetting that Lewis is still a ROCKIE and he is going to make mistakes he is still learning and I will tell you one thing I know fore sure Massa will not try that move on Lewis again. Lewis is learning and yes that was a good move Massa put on Lewis in Hungary that’s what Formula-one is
All about. There is a lot of things we can no longer say anymore because the times has change lets keep it that way .Let me here about Fernando Alonso &Kimi Räikkönen&
Nico Rosberg&Robert Kubica and so on. Lewis will be CHAMP like it or not
from 3 months ago
The rookie tag does not work, Hamilton has been in racing most of his life and should know about track craft. He is making racing mistakes, thst is not good for a guy with so much track time. This guy is not even close to being the best talent in F1, he is living proof, that a good car covers a multitude of sins.
3 months ago
Well... I really don't agree that Lewis is arrogant...
A driver committing mistakes cannot be related to his arrogance...
It is just the hype that the media creates that make a lot of people hate him.
For example the television broadcasters in the build up to a Hungarian Grand Prix praised him so much as if he was invincible... and we all know what happened
Not broadcasting the live post race interviews because Lewis is not in the top 3... terrible
small things like these are watched by loads of F1 fans who just love the sport...
the media are really not helping Lewis image !!
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