Has Lewis Hamilton taken over from Michael Schumacher’s as the most hated man in F1? Over at F1 Fanatic, Keith Collantine makes a convincing argument suggesting he has and analyses why that should be.
Lewis Hamilton: Formula 1’s most successful rookie, 2007 championship runner-up, five times Grand Prix winner. And the most hated man in Formula 1.
From the banners at the Spanish Grand Prix, to the streams of abuse on internet forums, the crop of hate websites that have sprung up and even the series of anti-Hamilton Youtube videos, the British driver has taken over Michael Schumacher’s mantle as the man who is liked and loathed in roughly equal measure.
Why is that?
Among the answers he suggests are excessive hype, perceived insincerity and his relations with Fernando Alonso – but not, he suggests, racism. Take a look at the full post here – well worth a look.
Personally, we reckon David Coulthard has taken a lot of unfair stick during his career too – his rather world-weary reply to it is here – but it is of a rather different nature.
The Coulthard-haters dislike his elder statesman role and continued career in the context of his failure to win the World Drivers’ Championship when running in decent teams. The Hamilton-haters just don’t like him.
We’re good at that in Britain, aren’t we?