Oliver WhiteMuch has been made recently of some drivers absence from the GPDA, most notably three of the top; Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa (who stood down recently) and Lewis Hamilton. Adrian Sutil is also yet to commit, but has escaped the wrath of Mark Webber and Jarno Trulli so far. However, because some felt that lower-paid drivers were funding the organisation which, in essence, helps out with the improvement of safety at races, many drivers were upset with higher paid drivers not contributing. Which is perhaps why Hamilton had stated earlier in the weekend that he has made a donation to the GPDA, reported to be way in excess of the normal £2,000 admission fee.
It was reported in The Daily Mirror that Lewis had parted with $30,000, approximately £15,000 and more than seven times the fee asked for by the GPDA to join. The Briton had stated that he hasn’t joined the organisation because, at the time in his rookie year in Formula One, wanted to concentrate on racing. A fair reason, many thought, but more experienced drivers like Jarno Trulli have been openly critical of those not joining recently, which may have prompted the goodwill gesture.
Skip forward 24 hours to the end of qualifying, in which Hamilton looked annoyed with himself, and the McLaren driver has now allegedly denied donating the money to the GPDA. And you know what, even if he hasn’t donated the money, he really didn’t want to openly say so! It’s called bad-PR, and whether or not you think any PR good PR, well, sometimes there’s not quite so good PR.
If the original reporting that Lewis has made a donation was a simple ruse to get the driver to donate, then maybe Lewis should have actually done that. I’m sure he can afford £15k, and it would have helped ease the criticism from other drivers and Formula One employees and reporters.
Oh, and to those that think any PR is good PR:
BBC video of Lewis Hamilton flying.
Lewis Hamilton really needs to hire a separate company to deal with his non-McLaren activities, like this embarrassing scenario which was concocted up by Vodafone. Even Hamilton himself has admitted to being slightly embarrassed by his on-stage stint.
Lewis Hamilton stage performance was ridiculous and his performance today in Istanbul was ordinary, was a shame Kova got the puncture I think we could of seen him beating Hamilton.
Unfortunately, Kovalainen’s poor start was what really got him trouble and resulted in the damaged tyre. I too would have loved to have seen Heikki challenge Massa into T1, and I still think we are yet to see the best from the Finn. But Turkey was all about Massa. The McLaren’s did okay all things considering, but they really need to work with Brdgestone and sort out the tyre issues.
“The McLaren’s did okay all things considering, but they really need to work with Brdgestone and sort out the tyre issues.”
given the new bridgestone advert featured but one team, and given that lewis slammed said tyre supplier on worldwide tv, i don’t see them being so keen to work with mclaren any time soon.
‘Lewis’s performace today was ordinary’
He split the Ferraris on a Ferrari track. For whatever reason his strategy was compromised because of tyre problems and he still beat the reigning world champion whose team mate won the race. And he gave us the best overtake in some time. I wish F1 was such that what we saw was ordinary but it’s not. Today Lewis was very good. Especially when you consider he was being written off a couple of weeks ago.
I am a little divided on Lewis’s performance. He did do well considering his strategy was messed up. But from what Bridgestone et al are saying, this is his own fault.
I thought Lewis had done very well… …until I came on-line and saw him blaming Bridgestone for the tyres wearing out. He has lost my sympathy on this one.
Why Vodafone thought Lewis in a racing suit was in any way appropriate for a story about the Trojan Horse remains a mystery.
It was quite bad. For a driver to publicly say that he felt it was the worse thing he’s been asked to do, it must mean it was quite bad, even at his age. I’m sure drivers get put through a lot of ‘seemingly dodgy crap’, you’ve only got to watch the Schumacher-Fiat-Van adverts to see that. But flying through the air in full race-suit; quite poor. And yes, the post-race-tyre-comment, took me back to Monaco ’07 and his comments in the post-race interview there. Not the choicest of words to say the least.
[…] Raikkonen, “was looking about as pleased to be there as a fat kid at a salad seminar.” More on Blog F1 and more from me on McLaren’s PR […]
Lewis did a fantastic job there is no question about that. He achieved an unexpected result. There are not many drivers that could have done it !
But you’ve got it wrong Steven: his strategy was not compromised because of tyre problem, it’s his inability to deal with the tyres that forced him to use a poor strategy in this race. And this to me is the big issue : He had to use all his skills (and he has many) to overcome his own weakness ! Also do not forget Kimi had a damaged front wing but didn’t dare to stop to change it because of the time penalty it would have generated.
I think McLaren stategy was a win for Heikki and 3rd or 4th place for Lewis…
Whatever… Lewis did a great race but unfortunately he was the cause for his own problem and that’s a pity ! and a matter of concern…