Lewis Hamilton refused to be drawn into Monaco post-mortem at today's official press conference in Montreal.

Many tried but none succeeded.

Centre stage at today's official press conference, it was natural that the assembled media wanted to ask the world champion about his feelings following his Monaco nightmare.

However, no matter how carefully they dressed the questions, no matter what angle they took, all were met with one of several stock responses; that the event was "in the past" and that Lewis "only looks forward" and has "moved on".

It was obvious that the strategic saga, which has dominated headlines ever since, was going to be the main talking point but the world champion was having none of it, brushing al questions aside as if swatting a fly.

Days after it was claimed by the team that the episode had been blown out of all proportion, and it was revealed that Hamilton's own role in the initial decision to pit him might have been underplayed, it will be interesting to see how forward looking all concerned might be come Abu Dhabi, should the Briton lose the title by 7 points.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by scf1fan, 05/06/2015 19:33

"@Spindoctor - Actually, and being quite candid here, I think I'm being very charitable. And I don't say that lightly, nor am I trying to be antagonistic. If you've read my other posts I think you will see that I've been reasonably consistent in this. Overall, I try pretty hard not to allow my personal opinions of any driver to color my discussion of specific F1 issues; I am mostly a fan of F1. Pardoning my humor and poor typing skills if you would, everyone is otherwise free to agree or not as they see fit.

To your post, I’ve tried to think up a really relevant way to answer your specific comments, but I don’t think I can without getting into way too much detail with example and counter example. (That would make for a good “Pub” discussion though.) The fact is at this point, none of us really knows exactly what transpired between LH and HIS team at Monaco . . . From what I’ve seen and heard; I feel that LH had some significant input into the matter. To simplify my argument, I’ll make these comments which lead me to a conclusion counter to yours. Winning races and championships, for a driver, is by having some combination of the following: the best equipment you can get, driving faster than you competition, having a little luck, (where things that are extraordinarily beyond your control don’t bite you) and making fewer (or of lesser importance) mistakes than the guy behind you. All of those are part of racing; all of them.

At Monaco, NR and NR’s team did the better job of that! So to say it was unearned and undeserved is, to my mind, uncharitable. (A bit lucky, I'll agree with. ;-)

LH is a VERY good driver, no doubt. The fact that he and HIS team made a decision that didn’t work out for them was . . . unfortunate, for them. (Frankly, I still don’t understand why LH wasn’t able to come back out ahead of NR. Safety car pickup point, pit delta and all; I missed something somewhere.) What racing proves is that it isn’t “in the bag” until it’s actually in the bag! (Which is when the checkers drop . . . most of the time . . . ;-)
"

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2. Posted by Spindoctor, 05/06/2015 16:59

"@scf1fan
I think you're being a tad uncharitable here. Lewis was far and away the best driver on the day, and had it "in the bag". It's the Teams' job to work-out strategies, not the drivers' and they got it wrong and that cost him the race.
This gave Nico a totally unearned & undeserved win. When Mercedes' traditional reliability failures and frequent in-race cock-ups (like this one) are factored in it might just cost Lewis the Championship...

I'm sure Lewis made a few choice remarks in the privacy of the Team de-brief, but the days of expletive-filled tirades and\or fisticuffs in public are long gone"

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3. Posted by scf1fan, 04/06/2015 22:50

"Tough crowd here today! LOL

@Ro - If it was James Hunt he'd have said "I F'd up didn't I. Where's the beer?" then "Where's the party?"

LH Certainly did everything he needed to do, but THE one thing! The good news for LH (and for you ;-) is that Lewis (at this point) seems to be able to get that little bit more out of the car (than everyone else) over the entire race distance. So as long as the car is in a good state the odds are still pretty much in his favor. My point (or criticism if you like) was that it's not really fair to allow your team to get itself ripped up about a decision that you (LH, assuming he did) also participated in. And there are better and worse ways of dealing with that. I think he could have been a little more out front about that. "

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4. Posted by Ro, 04/06/2015 20:33

"scf1fan....thanks for your comment...and I'm glad LH handled it the way he has. I was reminishing. My point is that the drivers of old had a different way of handling the media. HG would have made an inane joke about it and that would have been the end of it. Now its all about the press and we all know they make their own stories up to suit the columns.
In all honesty I was gutted when LH didnt win it, It was his, TOTALLY. "

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5. Posted by scf1fan, 04/06/2015 20:09

"@Ro - If LH said that, (i.e. he didn't want {another} tantrum from Nico) his currency as a driver would have gone WAY down . . . (I hope you were joking with that statement.) I thought LH handled Ok, for the most part; but personally I would have thought a good dose of (self) reality and openness would have been refreshing. (i.e. We as a team made some mistakes which cost us, and we'll be working on those areas to prevent any recurrence.) I don't think it was a tongues being tied with parlava or a PC thing going on; I just don't think LH likes to show his cards . . .

(Better yet would have been, if LH had contributed to his own demise - "Yep, I helped to screw that up, and I'll be trying really hard not to be doing that again in the future.")"

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6. Posted by Ro, 04/06/2015 18:25

"Its a shame that current drivers have their tongues tied up with all the parlava and to being Politically Correct. I wander what Graham Hill would have said if he had lost the win?
More like : "That was a bit of a cock-up, wasnt it?, still, I didnt want another tantrum from Nico, so I let him win"...
The old days....better racing, better drivers, more in the public eye for all the right reasons."

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