Lewis: Shackle me and I’ll quit F1

Lewis Hamilton revealed he would quit Formula One if he was forced to change his gung-ho racing style.

Two rival drivers blasted Hamilton after costly collisions in Monaco put a major dent in his title hopes.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa said he should be punished for his own good after their clash on Sunday.

But the McLaren ace has vowed he will never give up his attacking approach - even if it landed him in hot water with the Monte Carlo stewards.

Hamilton, 26, said: "If it ever came to the stage where I had to just cruise round, that wouldn't excite me.

"I probably wouldn't stay around for that, I am here to race and to win.

"If I have to lose that passion, that blows all racing.

"In all honesty I will never stop racing the way I do. It's the way I do it, it's what got me here and it's the way I am.

"I don't do it to offend or to hurt anyone, I do it because I love racing. I feel like I can do it better than others.

"This is motorsport and we're supposed to see racing. Not many people overtake in Monaco and I tried to do that."

Hamilton finished in sixth after being hit with penalties for colliding with Massa and Williams' Pastor Maldonado.

Herts-born ace Hamilton reacted by claiming he was being punished because he is black, a joke inspired by TV character Ali G, for which he later apologised.

Hamilton is still waiting to hear if he will face a disrepute charge for that ill-timed jibe.

He has also said 'sorry' to Massa and Maldonado after blaming them for the weekend incidents.

Hamilton told Twitter: "With the greatest respect I apologise if I offended you. Both of you are fantastic drivers who I regard highly."

Hamilton is frustrated by bad team calls that are stopping him taking the fight to Red Bull's reigning champ Sebastian Vettel.

The German's fifth win in six races has left him 58 points clear ahead of the Canadian GP on Sunday week.

Hamilton added: "He has kind of gone but lots can happen."

The Brit would have been even worse off had he not disobeyed team orders and carried on racing despite a badly-damaged rear wing, which was repaired when the race was red-flagged.

He added: "I am lucky I refused to retire as I managed to get a couple of points."

Taken from: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/motorsport/3608981/Lewis-Hamilton-Shackle-me-and-Ill-quit-F1.html#ixzz1Nv9b83VJ

I think he sounds like an idiot, as if the other drivers dont race to win and compete?..

He just sounds like a spoilt brat who is angry at not winning and not being able to barge his way there...

He has lots of talent no doubt and most definitely one of the best on the grid. But I think he is and always has been to big for his boots, and this is allot to do with his easy root into F1.

all ill say to is don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.

there's plenty of talents in f1 anf gp2 that would kill to be where he is now.

Interesting comments in the OP.

Agree with the majority of them, though I believe he was fairly penalised for his collisions with Massa and Maldonado. That said, his racing style is what has got him where he is and I don't think he should change. He is, after all, one of the most exciting drivers on the grid.

Also pleased that he ignored team orders and stayed out, earning the himself and the team points he'd have otherwise lost. Good to see that despite all the problems and controversy around him at the moment, he's still focused on doing as well as he can.

I wonder what he'd do if he DID quit? He strikes me as a bit of an adrenaline junkie who needs to be doing something risky.

I can't believe i'm reading some of these comments, listen to yourselves! Lewis Hamilton is a racer, its formula 1 the pinnacle of motorsport! Hamilton and Kubica are my favourite 2 drivers because they actually race, pushing themselves to the limit, trying to entertain and put on a show for the audience! The only reason DRS was brought into f1 was because the least talented drivers could not overtake, now f1 has artificial overtaking but the quality has gone down. F1 is full of p*ssy drivers who complain just because theres a bit of contact (OH MY GOD, GROW A PAIR)! F1 isnt about racing anymore its about conservation of tyres which in my opinion is a joke! I want to see the drivers pushing to the limit, risking damaging their car in pursuit of a world title. There being paid millions of pounds a year and you lot just want them to race without incident! Hamilton is racing in f1 in the wrong era which is a shame for him! I hope he leaves and joins a motorsport series where people actually race flat out and make overtaking manoeurvers! F1 without hamilton will be a duller place and everyone knows it!

John wrote:I can't believe i'm reading some of these comments, listen to yourselves! Lewis Hamilton is a racer, its formula 1 the pinnacle of motorsport! Hamilton and Kubica are my favourite 2 drivers because they actually race, pushing themselves to the limit, trying to entertain and put on a show for the audience! The only reason DRS was brought into f1 was because the least talented drivers could not overtake, now f1 has artificial overtaking but the quality has gone down. F1 is full of p*ssy drivers who complain just because theres a bit of contact (OH MY GOD, GROW A PAIR)! F1 isnt about racing anymore its about conservation of tyres which in my opinion is a joke! I want to see the drivers pushing to the limit, risking damaging their car in pursuit of a world title. There being paid millions of pounds a year and you lot just want them to race without incident! Hamilton is racing in f1 in the wrong era which is a shame for him! I hope he leaves and joins a motorsport series where people actually race flat out and make overtaking manoeurvers! F1 without hamilton will be a duller place and everyone knows it!

And Vettel and Alonso dont race and push the car to its limit?

I'm referring to the topic which is Lewis Hamilton. Yes of course Vettel & Alonso push their car to the limits, I'm just stating that formula 1 at this current juncture does not suit Lewis Hamilton. F1 is about conserving tyres and being on the correct strategy. Actual racing has gone out the window with the introduction of pirelli tyres and DRS, seeing as overtaking is now easy within the zone and easily achievable through pit strategy instead of on track. 50/50 overtakes are where the men are separated from the boys. ''when you don't go for a gap that exists then you are no longer a racing driver". Hamilton is a racer along with Kubica, Alonso and Vettel but the rest are p*ssy drivers who complain when someone touches them!

What about Kobayashi?

Also do you really think there was a gap there when he tried to take Massa on the inside at the hairpin and ended up just hitting him? I don't think there was if the gap was truely there he wouldn't had to go off the track and that didn't stop him hitting Massa.

tunes666 wrote:

John wrote:I can't believe i'm reading some of these comments, listen to yourselves! Lewis Hamilton is a racer, its formula 1 the pinnacle of motorsport! Hamilton and Kubica are my favourite 2 drivers because they actually race, pushing themselves to the limit, trying to entertain and put on a show for the audience! The only reason DRS was brought into f1 was because the least talented drivers could not overtake, now f1 has artificial overtaking but the quality has gone down. F1 is full of p*ssy drivers who complain just because theres a bit of contact (OH MY GOD, GROW A PAIR)! F1 isnt about racing anymore its about conservation of tyres which in my opinion is a joke! I want to see the drivers pushing to the limit, risking damaging their car in pursuit of a world title. There being paid millions of pounds a year and you lot just want them to race without incident! Hamilton is racing in f1 in the wrong era which is a shame for him! I hope he leaves and joins a motorsport series where people actually race flat out and make overtaking manoeurvers! F1 without hamilton will be a duller place and everyone knows it!

And Vettel and Alonso dont race and push the car to its limit?

when was the last time Vettel had to race anyone ?

Vettel is in the dominant car and has no competition due to the fact his teammate is inferior in so many ways. Lewis is the only threat to Vettel and he proved this in Spain. The way f1 is heading however, seriously impedes Lewis' style of driving. Lewis is trying to win a world championship and making 50/50 overtaking manouevers and completing them are what have given many drivers the world title throughout history. Vettel is winning each race with ease and basically the reason why the red bull has such improved reliability is because on most occassions this season they have been able to turn the wick down on their engines significantly and coasted home. Vettel has still not proven to the f1 community that he is a competent overtaker within f1. In spain he overtook people just because he was on new fresh tyres. We all know what happened in Spa 10'.

Agree. F1 has been ***** and its too easy for Vettel at the moment.

However sometime down the line RB will not have such a dominant car whether through rule changes or rival development and we'll get to see just how good Vettel realy is when he can no longer plant his car on pole.

I know we're going off topic but the major thing that annoys me is that the FIA have investigated this off-throttle blowing of the exhaust that Red Bull have seem to have perfected but have reacted too late. Banning the off-throttle blowing of the exhaust is a reliability issue for Renault and consequently Red Bull. It is much less of an issue apparently for Mclaren, but the damage has been done, just look at Vettel's lead in the champioship. We can only hope that when the FIA act, the advantage RB has over Mclaren is severly reduced. Also if this majorly effects the reliability of the red bull then the emergence of mechanical issues that they experienced in 10' may give Hamilton or Alonso a sniff.

Good, hopefully he's good to his word.

Good Riddance as he's a danger to other drivers, if he doesn't face a penalty for his outburst then there is no hope for F1

Just imagine if all drivers some fans don't like for one reason or the other left the sport, the end result would be a procession and a driving miss daisy style of (so called) racing.

The very same fans on this thread with their blind hate would then start moaning about F1 not being exciting, if the top drivers are not there.

The drivers at the top of their game provides the show for us all, when we let our naked hate dictate our wishes, it just proves that we are all a bunch of clowns and not F1 fans.

Gregers wrote:Good, hopefully he's good to his word.

Good Riddance as he's a danger to other drivers, if he doesn't face a penalty for his outburst then there is no hope for F1

-----------------------------
There you go pal - you're version of F1:

https://i.servimg.com/u/f23/16/53/59/55/cars11.jpg

Hardly Steve, if Hamilton cannot accept that Massa and Maldonaldo's crashes were his fault then he is a danger to the sport.

Personally I love the fact that we've got far more overtaking (My favourite driver is Kobayashi!) but Hamilton needs to be disciplined on the rules of overtaking. His "Massa turned into me comment" reeked of desperation.

Also, if you look at Hamilton's overtaking earlier in the season he has been brilliant. But, overtaking where he did in Monaco is undoable. He lets his emotions get the better of him and needs to learn to be able to bottle his aggression.

Gregers - Although frustration got the better of him in this particular race (blown well out of proportion IMO) Hamilton has proved time and again that he is a brilliant racer and probably the best overtaker on the grid. After China Martin Brundle (who wants to decide whos side hes on or he'll be in danger of being lumped in the same category as that serial horse switcher Eddie Jordan) even went as far as to say he'd be showing a video of the race to his son as a masterclass on how to overtake, So to say good riddance if he quit is absolutely rediculous. F1 would be far poorer without him. Ask any of the so called lesser drivers and the'd go along with it - why because they know hes too good for them and they don't like it. Ask Alonso and he'd be gutted. Why because he'd want the challenge - he lives to go wheel to wheel with guys like Hamilton and vice versa. Thats the difference.

Hami is exciting and has you on the edge of your seat cos he's there to race. A classic example is Sunday - if that Mclaren trundling happily along in 3rd place had've had a number 3 stamped on its nose as opposed to 4 it would have been all over Alonsos gearbox. Third would be failure and we'd have seen a grandstand finish. Thats the kind of F1 I want to watch

Good points SteveG. He was brilliant at China, just saying that moments such as those at Monaco are getting more common.

Hopefully he can settle back down to racing, maybe refuse to comment on marshalls again?

Its a pity that the race was stopped as I think the grandstand finish would have happened, probably with Button coming out on top due to tyres

The difference is though and the point I was trying to make is Hami wouldn't have sat back waiting for anyones tyres to go off. They might not and 3rd wouldnt have been good enough. He would have been attacking Alonso trying to make something happen - much more exciting.

BTW the irony in all this is if Hamilton did manage to overhaul Vettel (and its a mighty big if) and won the WDC by a single point everyone would look back at this race when he (rightly or wrongly) found a way past Maldonado and turned 7th into 6th. Its a mighty fine line between success and failure as they say !!

agree SteveG, also another point which i dont think has been highlighted enough is when Hamilton had his rear wing broken, typical Mclaren just went on the radio to Lewis 'we've cleared the garage for you'! classic Mclaren! So glad he disobyed that joke of a team and it enabled him (with luck from petrov i may add) but to a sensational 6th (that looked impossible after the drive-tru). more points which could be crucial come december!

The only slice of fortune he had all weekend was the red flag which allowed him to get his car fixed and continue. But he earned that with his determination and never say die attitude. His team want to take note.

it was a crazy move by lewis on felipe, it was always going to end in tears. it reminded of schumi against wurz in 98 and wurz going in to the barrier not long after they collided at the loews hairpin