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1. How rude was James Allen, with Rubens in 3rd place, to ask Ross Brawn to put Hamilton's drive in perspective against other great drives he's seen? Main Man Martin Brundle swiftly moved him on realising that there was plenty of Honda based chat to be had. The other 80 mins of the race were reserved for Hamilton brown-nosing.

2. Did anyone hear Lewis talking on the BBC Chequered Flag podcast? "I'm the strongest driver, I'm the fittest driver", and so on.... He's been fluffed so much by the media and hangers-on, he's loosing all sense of reality. Schumacher may well have been arrogant, Senna too, but when did you ever hear them talking like that?! They didn't need to, everybody just knew it.

 It takes time to be a great, Hamilton needs to be reminded of that.

McLaren have created a monster in both LH and some of the British fans.

For the record - I totally agree with every word you've written, LH is a legend in his and his management team's mind. He is good, he will be brilliant one day with luck but he is a long way off of the finished article. Senna turned up and drove, Schumacher turned up and drove, Prost turned up and drove, Mika turned up and drove etc etc.

Dare I say it but has LH got a big old chip on his shoulder about something? 

Yeah, he's from Stevenage. Hardly the best start in life, is it ?

To be the best, look at the recent greats in sport, most are highly self opinionated, focused, strong willed big heads. This self determination is what is required to ultimately succeed.

Of course you will find some who are not like this but most are. It makes them easy to dislike, but what would you rather have, a jolly nice chap that consistently under achieves (Tim Henman) or some one who comes across as a bit an arse that wins (Schumacher)?

I would rather have the latter. Anyone remember Steve 'boring' Davies? while in the zone he was exactly that, he's not a bad chap or boring now he is past his best.

So your point is that its better to watch an arse that wins than a loser who is a nice chap ? Steve Davis is a nice chap that won. Don't understand your point there, John.

James Read:

So your point is that its better to watch an arse that wins than a loser who is a nice chap ? Steve Davis is a nice chap that won. Don't understand your point there, John.

Invariably, winners come across as arse's. There are some exceptions, but in the main the determination to succeed comes before all else. so to answer your question, yes, winning in sport is the bee all and end all.

 Couldn't agree more... that boy turned egomaniac big time too soon. Remember Senna's words "I drove many good races, but I'm still waiting for the best one?". Being humble and working hard is the shortest way to the top. Hamilton is just an average/very good driver, a PR corporate doll without any character and self-criticism. We can only imagine what will happen when McLaren's form goes south...

Should push some nosy photographers for starters, right? 

andymartin75:

Did anyone hear Lewis talking on the BBC Chequered Flag podcast? "I'm the strongest driver, I'm the fittest driver", and so on.... He's been fluffed so much by the media and hangers-on, he's loosing all sense of reality.

Having read Motoring News for many years, I can say he has always been like it!  This particular publication have followed him through his carrer, and have done several interviews with him.  Part of my dislike of LH comes from this part of his attitude which he has always had.

You can always justify it was because he was young and being driven by his father, but I was hoping that with age would come maturity!

Yes I agree that you need to have a harder arrogant edge to be successful in a highly competitive sport, it would just be nice to keep this side of him in check a little more.

One minute he's the blue eyed boy of motorsport and best of all he's British, everyone waves the flags and can't wait to see him do well. Then typical British attitude takes over, he makes a few mistakes and people start talking about his arrogance etc. Listen the bloke is still wet behind the ears in F1 terms, yet he just missed out on the title in his first full season and is still winning races. Fact!

Instead of knocking the up and coming star, why not look at the other British Failures in current F1. David Coultard cereal under achiever, but thoroughly nice bloke! and Jensen Button, still young enough to realise his potential, but gets locked into contracts etc. and makes a complete arse of them. (possibly bad advice from agent), oh, and thoroughly nice bloke.

Bol-ocks to nice blokes who turn up to make up numbers, lets have WINNERS and British ones, and our best chance of that is Lewis Hamilton. Fact!

I could not give a flying F--k whether he's arrogant or not, we British have to get out of this 'Jolly nice chap, but it's just not cricket' attitude and start being a bit more hard faced about winning. After all there is no point to sport without winning.

Jon Hardcastle:

David Coultard cereal under achiever, but thoroughly nice bloke!

Snap, Crackle and Pop are the same, apparently. And Tony the Tiger.

RobotBoogie:

Snap, Crackle and Pop are the same, apparently. And Tony the Tiger.

Well spotted. or should that be wheel spotted?

Never mind that whats your view on all this?

I believe there are two things going on with Hamilton at the moment. 

As discussed before, arrogance is welcome, but it needs to be correctly channeled.  I've had my doubts about him since the "monkeys at the back comment" last year, which is spectacularly arrogant, disrespectful, and can you imagine the fuss if a white driver made the same comment, even though there was no racial edge to it at all?  Recent personal experience allowed me to be fortunate to witness some outstanding driving and then later hear a complete arse, which did nothing to diminish my thoughts.

Secondly, there is a peculiarly odd "Brand Hamilton" thing going on that leaves a strange taste in the mouth.  This is not entirely his fault.  I think he is poorly managed, actually (*), and being told by dad you can't do one thing that you agreed to, however tongue in cheek it was, and then to turn out a week later "racing" a Learjet as a "Learjet Brand Ambassador", no less, leaves me feeling very cold towards him.

He is a cracking driver.  None of my opinions towards him are formed by the UK tabloid press, or just because he makes mistakes.  I've made plenty in my career and have been forgiven by my paymasters and by my critics.  He should be no different.  However, if he doesn't win the championship this season then I don't believe he will with Mclaren.  Unless they can get back someone like Raikkonen, I'm sure they will start going backwards relative to BMW and Ferrari, and possibly Renault, and then Hamilton will suffer as a driver. 

Personally I don't back a driver just because they are British.  I've always thought Button was terribly over rated (not something you can level at Hamilton actually) and Coulthard, as Jon Hardcastle said, continually under achieved.

(*) I agree with what Jackie Stewart has suggested about introducing personal trainers to F1.  I believe that all of the drivers need someone that is soley interested in managing the athlete, rather than the money making machine.