Lewis Hamilton, once the darling of British media has now attracted the full venom of their wrath in the aftermath of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend where the world champion decided to go toe-to-toe with journalists.
Hamilton began the weekend by antogonising reporters of all nationalities as he turned the mandatory Thursday drivers’ press conference in to a Snapchat giggle. When his disrespectful behaviour was reported by these media outlets, he went on the offensive by cancelling scheduled media briefings at Suzuka.
As a result the serious Fleet Street journals and the yellow press tabloids have ganged up on the Mercedes driver .
Kevin Eason, F1 correspondent for The Times, wrote of the incident: “His overblown reaction revealed a delicate ego and a fragile mental state.”
“While Hamilton donned a tin hat and dug his solitary trench after declaring war on the world’s press, Rosberg kept himself to himself as he has all season; head down and focus on his mantra, he says. And it works.”
The Telegraph’s headline declared, “Hamilton hits the self-destruct button.”
Their correspondent Daniel Johnson writing that Mercedes “fear their lead driver is in meltdown at one of the most critical junctures of his career” while arguing that Hamilton is cracking under pressure from his team-mate who has won four of the last five races and after Japan leads the championship by 33 points.”
Hamilton has not won since July, and came under some heavy flack for hinting that he was sabotaged by Mercedes when his engine blew up while he comfortably led in Malaysia.
In Japan the Briton messed up his start and had to play catch up all day, toiling to turn the eighth place he was in on the first lap as the field roared into Turn 1, to third place at the end of the race which Rosberg won with ease.
Johnson added: “The extra few per cent which ensured in the last two years that Rosberg was left trailing have gone missing. More worrying are signs the apparent psychological fortitude he has built up can crumble so spectacularly under pressure from Rosberg.”
The Guardian’s Barry Glendenning focused more on Hamilton’s Snapchat shenanigans: “It is a testament to Hamilton’s apparently bottomless reserves of childishness that he somehow contrived to emerge from what should have been a relatively amusing wheeze looking utterly charmless.”
“Increasingly prone to conducting himself in the manner of a man who believes he is some sort of riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, more often than not his attempts to appear brooding and inscrutable come across as the childishness of a paranoid brat.”
The Sunday Telegraph took offence at Hamilton’s decision to skip his obligaory press briefings and led with the headline: “Hamilton’s bizarre behaviour left Mercedes red-faced again.”
The Sunday Mirror’s headline was: “Berk in the Merc” while The Sun’s headlines on the world champion read “Lew-sing plot” and “Ham snaps”.
The Sun’s reporter Jonny Fordham wrote: “Lewis Hamilton was all snap and no chat,’ penned Jonny . ‘Hamilton was livid at the unsurprisingly negative reaction to his childish Snapchat antics.”
“Now the growing feeling among the paddock is that Hamilton does not just run Merc but the whole of Formula One and he has become untouchable.”
“But this is Hamilton’s world. A social media bubble where his die-hard fans worship motorsport’s Mr Marmite like a leader of a cult,” added Fordham in his report.
Mercedes management are playing down the affair, with team chief Toto Wolff explained Hamilton’s demeanour, “Let him do his talking on the track. His performances in the car justify some collateral damage.”
“After such a race, it is not right to really put the finger where it hurts. In my experience of the last few years, the situation often looks completely different after 24 hours,” he said.
“Our main goal is to help Lewis, but there are ten days until Austin so there is no need to hurry — unlike last week. At the same time, it is true that Lewis works best under pressure and when he has a target.”
“I have no doubt it will be a tough fight until the very end. We are still very far from being able to say that it is over.” added Wolff.
Mercedes F1 chairman Niki Lauda observed, “In Malaysia, Lewis dominated but then there was the engine failure which was not easy to cope with for him.”
“Then there were the repercussions related to the [Thursday] press conference, but I don’t think that affected him at the start of the race – that was a mistake. After that, he had a great race,” Lauda concluded,
Much was expected at the start of the season, Ferrari capo dei capi Sergio Marchionne was full of naive bluster and expectations. Interestingly he has gone quiet of late.
