Lewis Hamilton - Why so many haters?

vincenzo19

As the title says, Im interested to know why so many of you guys have such a hatred for Lewis Hamilton?

I am a fan of Lewis...(im not a fanboy, im not a fanboy in relation to anything to be honest).
At a time when my interest in F1 was dwindling, and I found it a bit boring 2004-2006, I was delighted to hear F1 was about to get its first black driver ever! and furthermore the GP2 champion (I'd been following GP2 during the 06 season and he was exciting as hell). 

Fast forward to his rookie in F1 and my mind was blown at how he matched Alonso throughout...I dont think many would have in that position.

Now I look back today and see a driver who isnt the stereotypical F1 driver, yes he wears gold chains to press conferences, and enjoys a snapchat or two... attends fashion shows and has alot of celebrity friends.... but I dont get the smug/arrogant claims! 
Why should an F1 driver be concealed in a box of how to present themselves? 
Do any of you know the guy personally in order to harbour such hate?

I personally dont dislike any f1 drivers, I dont know them personally....but the hate I see on social media and in these forums is unreal, so any explanations would be welcome!

Chadwick8505

This thread will go well.                                            

Jiggy

Chadwick8505 said:

This thread will go well.                                            

If anyone even responds, the winter months means this forum is about as active as M-

You know what, never mind.

I don't understand why the OP seems to talk directly to us, asking for an explanation, this part of the forum has been very positive about Lewis Hamilton generally and is usually quite fair when delivering criticism. Not always, but usually.

Not sure if I appreciate OP taking his experiences in other places and sort of transferring them to us like we're part of that.

MBKF1

I was thinking of replying to this the other day but couldn't think of anything worthwhile to say. I think Jiggy summed it up well though. I've always thought this forum was pretty positive about him. No one here seems to actively hate him, sure, people dislike him, but they're never frosty about him.

AMS97KRR

"At a time when my interest in F1 was dwindling, and I found it a bit boring 2004-2006, I was delighted to hear F1 was about to get its first black driver ever!"

Firstly, I'll never understand how the colour of someones skin can make you interested in a sport. An exciting young driver that matches a double world champion? Sure, it is exciting to watch. But his ethnic origin? Irrelevant. I cannot wait for the day that people drop this ****, making everything about race. Sadly society seems to be going deeper down this rabbit hole everyday.

Mini rant aside, I don't hate Lewis, I don't like him much either. But I won't deny he's a top quality F1 driver and he'll go down as a legend of the sport. If in 20 years from now someone asks who I thought was the best driver I'd watched personally, right now he is 2nd behind Fernando Alonso.
I suppose his lifestyle and ideas (the limited amount we see anyway) differ too much to my own for me to like him, or form any sort of connection with his personality. That also describes a lot of the population, people are different. Some of the things he says unrelated to F1 are some what questionable as well, but then that's hardly unique to him as a person, there's tons of people I'm not that fond of. But there's few people I truly hate. 

I guess on a scale of 0 to 100 (50 being neutral) he'd be about 40. And 40 is probably where I'd place most people who are like Lewis, that's just not what I'm like. Vettel or Kimi are quite private people, that speaks to me, hence why I like them. In reality though, I've got no clue what he is like as a friend or anything so I'd never call him a bad person. 

Jiggy

"Firstly, I'll never understand how the colour of someones skin can make you interested in a sport."

Same way Brits started watching more F1 when its greatest hope shifted from David Coulthard to someone who could actually properly challenge for a title.

Same way Dutch people love F1 now that Max Verstappen is a thing.

AMS97KRR

I think that's silly as well, but that's just me. The sport isn't more appealing because 1 person who grew up within your country is in it. You either like the sport and the concept of it, or you dont. I'm English and we are good at Cricket and Rugby apparently but I honestly couldn't care less about those sports

Edit: Apparently half my comment disappeared, so;

I can at least understand the idea of following someone from your culture and country, the idea of following someone based on melanin or appearance? Nah, that's just bringing race into things where it's not needed. 

Jiggy

People follow relatively successful people in individual sports because they can relate to them. In part (and I'm assuming the OP is black here), following someone who has the same skin color as you is something that relies on basically the same concept, you can relate to them. In a way, if you're black and someone like Hamilton enters the sport and that interests you, the attraction can also be culture-based.

I don't understand how you can follow where people are coming from with athletes from their own country, but you can't with people following athletes with the same skin color as them. It's literally based on the same kind of attraction, people gravitating towards their own.

AMS97KRR

This obsession with skin colour is purely a modern invention and it's totally meaningless. Causes nothing but division in a society. 

Support/promote/reward (etc.) people based on merit.

It's clear we aren't ever going to agree on this one so let's not continue to drag this out. 

Mexicola

I just think he's a bit of a wab.                                         

DiRTKiNG808

AMS97KRR said:

I guess on a scale of 0 to 100 (50 being neutral) he'd be about 40. And 40 is probably where I'd place most people who are like Lewis, that's just not what I'm like. Vettel or Kimi are quite private people, that speaks to me, hence why I like them. In reality though, I've got no clue what he is like as a friend or anything so I'd never call him a bad person.

That sums up my thoughts pretty good. I don't like Lewis but I don't hate him either. I don't understand his lifestyle or what he says sometimes, that's all. The reason why I like Seb and Kimi is because they keep to themselves. They are both talented drivers and after the race they seem to be normal people which I really like and respect.

vincenzo19

Jiggy said:

"Firstly, I'll never understand how the colour of someones skin can make you interested in a sport."

Same way Brits started watching more F1 when its greatest hope shifted from David Coulthard to someone who could actually properly challenge for a title.

Same way Dutch people love F1 now that Max Verstappen is a thing.

To clarify, Lewis being black isnt why im interested in F1... I was simply losing interest in the sport, and truth be told I was excited to see a black man in F1, I dont get whats so wrong with that? It was groundbreaking.
I've been an F1 fan since the 92 season.

Fact is, as you said above, the dutch now swarm f1 tracks because Max is a thing! That's how society works.

Jiggy

AMS97KRR said:

This obsession with skin colour is purely a modern invention and it's totally meaningless. Causes nothing but division in a society. 

Support/promote/reward (etc.) people based on merit.

It's clear we aren't ever going to agree on this one so let's not continue to drag this out. 

Well, you're not exactly listening or being flexible with me here to be completely honest.

AMS97KRR

Jiggy said:

AMS97KRR said:

This obsession with skin colour is purely a modern invention and it's totally meaningless. Causes nothing but division in a society. 

Support/promote/reward (etc.) people based on merit.

It's clear we aren't ever going to agree on this one so let's not continue to drag this out. 

Well, you're not exactly listening or being flexible with me here to be completely honest.

It's just not really a case of being flexible, is it? I listened but I disagreed. If two people disagree and have already stated their beliefs, what's the point in continuing to talk about it? May as well just accept you and I differ, and move on. 

AMS97KRR

vincenzo19 said:

Jiggy said:

"Firstly, I'll never understand how the colour of someones skin can make you interested in a sport."

Same way Brits started watching more F1 when its greatest hope shifted from David Coulthard to someone who could actually properly challenge for a title.

Same way Dutch people love F1 now that Max Verstappen is a thing.

To clarify, Lewis being black isnt why im interested in F1... I was simply losing interest in the sport, and truth be told I was excited to see a black man in F1, I dont get whats so wrong with that? It was groundbreaking.
I've been an F1 fan since the 92 season.

Fact is, as you said above, the dutch now swarm f1 tracks because Max is a thing! That's how society works.

In Max's case I understand it because people relate to him based on common history, language and culture. That's fair. Supporting someone based on skin colour? I mean where does that stop? Assuming you're British, would you support a Black F1 driver from Brazil or Senegal over a Briton like Button, a man who grew up in your culture, with your language and with possibly some common ancestry (Providing you've got some English heritage) purely based on skin colour? 

vincenzo19

AMS97KRR said:

vincenzo19 said:

Jiggy said:

"Firstly, I'll never understand how the colour of someones skin can make you interested in a sport."

Same way Brits started watching more F1 when its greatest hope shifted from David Coulthard to someone who could actually properly challenge for a title.

Same way Dutch people love F1 now that Max Verstappen is a thing.

To clarify, Lewis being black isnt why im interested in F1... I was simply losing interest in the sport, and truth be told I was excited to see a black man in F1, I dont get whats so wrong with that? It was groundbreaking.
I've been an F1 fan since the 92 season.

Fact is, as you said above, the dutch now swarm f1 tracks because Max is a thing! That's how society works.

In Max's case I understand it because people relate to him based on common history, language and culture. That's fair. Supporting someone based on skin colour? I mean where does that stop? Assuming you're British, would you support a Black F1 driver from Brazil or Senegal over a Briton like Button, a man who grew up in your culture, with your language and with possibly some common ancestry (Providing you've got some English heritage) purely based on skin colour? 

As Jiggy said, you're clearly not listening here... so I wont waste my time.
Thanks for the feedback all!

Jiggy

AMS97KRR said:

Jiggy said:

AMS97KRR said:

This obsession with skin colour is purely a modern invention and it's totally meaningless. Causes nothing but division in a society. 

Support/promote/reward (etc.) people based on merit.

It's clear we aren't ever going to agree on this one so let's not continue to drag this out. 

Well, you're not exactly listening or being flexible with me here to be completely honest.

It's just not really a case of being flexible, is it? I listened but I disagreed. If two people disagree and have already stated their beliefs, what's the point in continuing to talk about it? May as well just accept you and I differ, and move on. 

I will after this, but I'm saying it feels like I wasted my time when I come up with arguments and you basically don't acknowledge them, repeated what you said earlier and suggested we should agree to disagree. That hurts man. Well, not really, but yeah, it bugged me, but I've accepted it now, so that's it I guess.

Jiggy

So...... Are we, like, going to talk about the thing where Lewis Hamilton uploaded a thing and said a thing and now is in some things?

DiRTKiNG808

When did this happen? I'm not sure what he did.

baconbrawler

vincenzo19 said:

As the title says, Im interested to know why so many of you guys have such a hatred for Lewis Hamilton?

I am a fan of Lewis...(im not a fanboy, im not a fanboy in relation to anything to be honest).
At a time when my interest in F1 was dwindling, and I found it a bit boring 2004-2006, I was delighted to hear F1 was about to get its first black driver ever! and furthermore the GP2 champion (I'd been following GP2 during the 06 season and he was exciting as hell). 

Fast forward to his rookie in F1 and my mind was blown at how he matched Alonso throughout...I dont think many would have in that position.

Now I look back today and see a driver who isnt the stereotypical F1 driver, yes he wears gold chains to press conferences, and enjoys a snapchat or two... attends fashion shows and has alot of celebrity friends.... but I dont get the smug/arrogant claims! 
Why should an F1 driver be concealed in a box of how to present themselves? 
Do any of you know the guy personally in order to harbour such hate?

I personally dont dislike any f1 drivers, I dont know them personally....but the hate I see on social media and in these forums is unreal, so any explanations would be welcome!

I just find Lewis to be a general plonker and sometimes I want to slap him.

I sometimes think I am drawn away due to the media in the uk being quite biased and the fact that society says I should support him just because he’s British.

TAKIINOUE

Jiggy said:

So...... Are we, like, going to talk about the thing where Lewis Hamilton uploaded a thing and said a thing and now is in some things?

 Yeah that's no big deal as far as I'm concerned. It was just a bit of fun with his nephew, not sure why anyone else needs to get involved. But PCtards will be PCtards.