CycleChat Investigates - Lewis Hamilton

Should Lewis Hamilton receive a knighthood?

  • Yes. Ace driver, role model, great rapper and fashionista, can do no wrong.

    Votes: 16 29.1%
  • No. He doesn't live or pay taxes in the UK, so what right does he have to a title?

    Votes: 39 70.9%

  • Total voters
    55
  • Poll closed .
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CanucksTraveller

Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
Location
Hertfordshire
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Joffey

Big Dosser
Location
Yorkshire
No knighthood - he's a dullard and I can't be doing with him
 

Dirk

If 6 Was 9
Location
Watchet
If he was offered a knighthood, I presume that he would not be hypocritical and would reject it as an anachronistic symbol of Britain's imperialistic past.
Either way he's going to get pilloried whatever the outcome.
 

postman

Legendary Member
Location
,Leeds
Won't make one iota of difference in my life if he does.Awards like this are turning to brass.Pointless,but I know one retired person who would give his back teeth for one.
 

marinyork

Resting in suspended Animation
Location
Logopolis
The standard fare for world champions and team owners is a gong. There's not consistency on there with some getting MBEs, some OBEs and some CBEs or others. This even goes for commonwealth champions like Black Jack and the rather less talented Denny Hulme. Yes, a very famous unpopular team owner got a knighthood as did Sterling Moss and Jackie Stewart.

Lewis already has a gong. I think he should probably get a knighthood on retiring if you believe in consistency.

F1's always been about money. So many of them dodge their taxes and even did it before it was fashionable to dodge taxes. The FIA are knobbers too, although not as big a knobbers as they were in the past.

A knighthood or a lower end gong that doesn't have one attached is pretty much worthless compared to a few world championships though.

Yet another thing we're stuck with because of George V.
 
As far as the best racing driver

impossible

would Senna look as good to day - no way of knowing - or Prost - he was as good as Senna at the time
or Moss - totally different car
Schumacher - recent but the cars were massively different

you just can't tell

but when the chips are down and the car doesn't work on the track - the cream rises - and last weekend Bottas - who is a brilliant driver - couldn't keep the car on the track
Even Max had trouble - and $deity known he can drive on anything
but Lewis just kept going
and realised that the Inter tyres were coming to him
and he kept the car between the white lines (mostly)

which is the combination of talent that is needed at the moment

at the moment he is the best driver

overall - no - it is like comparing a terrier to a wolfhound - differnet beasts - comparing comes down to data which is not relelvant

Lewis is the best now

he is ONE of the best ever

a knighthood???

dunno - I would support it is he wanted to accept it

but either way - I think he may go on to a more political position - and use him fame to publicise it

which would deserve a knighthood

because his other option would be far more profitable
 
but when the chips are down and the car doesn't work on the track - the cream rises - and last weekend Bottas - who is a brilliant driver - couldn't keep the car on the track
Even Max had trouble - and $deity known he can drive on anything
but Lewis just kept going
and realised that the Inter tyres were coming to him
and he kept the car between the white lines (mostly)

If you really want to see exceptional drivers and good racecraft, then this weekend's BTCC finale from Brands was where it's at. Pouring rain, no visibility and even less grip, and the top four in the championship were racing hammer and tongs and doing it brilliantly.

I've always maintained that the true mettle of a driver can be seen in the cut and thrust of touring car racing, and it's quite telling really, that a lot of quite successful single seater drivers have struggled when they've a roof over their heads and two dozen other cars all six inches away from each other.

P.S. I'd love to see Max and Seb in the BTCC... :crazy:
 
If that were true, the big teams could save an awful lot of money by not paying top dollar for the best drivers.
You will fare even bettererer still if you have a superb driver in a superb car.

Further, a racer who is mediocre by F1 standards is orders of magnitude more talented than mere mortals - it is impossible to tell how a driver will do in a good car until they're given a good car. Fernando Alonso started his F1 career in a Minardi, for instance. Or more recently, Charles Leclerc in a Sauber before moving to Ferrari. (Although I'm discounting any results in the 2020 season because the whole season has been bizarre)

If you put anyone at the level of skill required to be in F1 in a car that is 0.5s a lap faster than the competition, so long as they keep it wheel-side down, no-one will come near them. (Which excludes Grosjean and his uncanny ability to break the car he is in)

What the teams pay big bucks for is results, which come from consistency, speed, and - crucially - feedback. The team with the fastest car in the world won't have it for long if they can't set the car up for the driver or design next year's car in accordance with the driver's feedback.
 
OP
OP
Drago

Drago

Legendary Member
Well, half a day in and the preliminary resulits look lime Lewis won't be getting his knighthood. But there is time to change this with your vote. How jolly exciting!
 
D

Deleted member 26715

Guest
I would be interested to see how Hamilton would get on if he raced for a team that was scrapping for the last point in every race instead of almost complete dominance.
Not sure that is correct, take one of our other ex World Champions, Jenson Button, Jenson is a brilliant driver, but also it seems from the outside one of moods, if everything was right with the car he would fly, but if something when wrong he would lose interest & just go around the track to the end of the race. In 2009 he was gifted the best car on the grid, no other car other than Rubens Barrichello's had a chance to get near him for the first half of the season, but several times in the year something would go wrong & he would drop towards the back & apart from Brazil that's where he would stay. But Lewis Hamilton in the same situation would still be firing on all cylinders & race until the chequered flag, never giving up.

I wasn't fond of Lewis when he first came into F1 the arrogance grated against me, but now I realise that was what is needed to be the best of something, the total faith that you are the best, he has matured & I'm sure he will mature more. I'm not convinced you'll see him in F1 or Toto Wolff for that matter after the end of next season, unless there are huge dramatic changes. I think they are both coming round to realise that F1 is a dinosaur that hasn't realised it's extinct but won't lie down. Honda has realised it, how much longer is it going to take Mercedes, Ferrari & Renault, they cannot continue spending vast sums of money on fossil fuel technology.
 
When McLaren first announced that he was going to be their new driver way back when I didn't think much of him and thought that it was all hype . My opinion soon changed after his first race as he showed that he had talent and potential . I think that it was within his first year that he finished 2nd in the World Championship, competing against his team mate who was a World Champion.
He could have possibly won more if he hadn't been let down by his team making the wrong decisions in races .
In the old days racing drivers used to compete in different fields . Graham Hill was the only F1 World Champion to win at Le Man's, whilst John Surtees was World Motorcycle Champion and F1 World Champion. Things have changed and there are more sponsorship committments these days .
I think he deserves a Knighthood , it's good to hear our national anthem being played at the end of the race.
 
If we were designing the perfect knighthood system, I'd rarely give one to F1 drivers. Multiple World champions in real sports - yes, I can understand them being almost a shoe-in. But F1 is not remotely inclusive, and has a serious fossil fuel problem; it's not a sport we should be pushing kids towards, or celebrating beyond the engineering/economic factors.

He needs to leverage his status for something more positive, in my personal view.
 

Sniper68

It'll be Reyt.
Location
Sheffield
F1 motor racing bores me rigid, and I don't believe sports stars or entertainers, or politicians, or business people (or anyone really) deserve honours for doing their (usually highly paid) jobs.
But if they are to be given out Hamilton deserves it a lot more than people like Murray or Wiggins.
+1.
They do seem to hand out knighthoods like smarties to Sportspersons etc so obviously in that respect of course he should get one.
 
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