Will Lewis leave Mclaren?

[sebbe]

Lewis lies and McLaren is to be blamed?
He is not a 9-y-o little child that does everything adults tell him to do, is he?
He lied, knew he was lying and lied because he wanted the 3rd place.
He chose to lie, now he has to pay, not the team.

If he wants to quit McLaren is because he knows he did wrong.

If I were Martin, I'd fired him right away. Who, by the way, was on holidays in Australia while these two were doing nonsense.

As a McLaren fan, I want Lewis out of McLaren.

[Ciro Pabón]

I think ernos5 is right. Hamilton is not a fool.

[dave34m]

Yes he will leave. He has to now, whatever the truth is about who lied etc. If it was LH who lied he will leave because its the only way for him to untangle himself from the whole mess. If he was told to lie then McLaren have damaged his image with the fans so he will leave also. Thats what I think at the moment but of course all that can change with the ruling in a couple of weeks. I dont really see how LH can stay at McLaren thou. Its a real shame because I think the LH and McLaren combo were in for a lot of success in the future.

[dp35]

IMO, this scandal will grow and grow until LH/McLaren win another race. If they win the next GP, it'll blow away. If they don't win all year it'll be huge, Lewis will leave the team, and Mercedes might as well.

[ernos5]

No he cannot possible leave, he said that he will stay with Mclaren for his whole career, that means he has to stick with them no matter what, if they pull out of Formula 1 then he is without a seat, even if other teams offer him one cos he said that he will stay with Mclaren forever. Easy question.

What the hell is this forum turning into [-X

what? He said that last year that he'll never leave Mclaren so it's not gonna
happen. I don't get what's the problem here

Lewis lies and McLaren is to be blamed?
He is not a 9-y-o little child that does everything adults tell him to do, is he?
He lied, knew he was lying and lied because he wanted the 3rd place.
He chose to lie, now he has to pay, not the team.

If he wants to quit McLaren is because he knows he did wrong.

If I were Martin, I'd fired him right away. Who, by the way, was on holidays in Australia while these two were doing nonsense.

As a McLaren fan, I want Lewis out of McLaren.

yes well now we are starting to see the real side of things, all those Hamilton supporter saying he's the greatest.


If he must leave, then it's better he leaves F1 in general, maybe cross the lake to Indy Car.

[Spencifer_Murphy]

Lewis lies and McLaren is to be blamed?
He is not a 9-y-o little child that does everything adults tell him to do, is he?
He lied, knew he was lying and lied because he wanted the 3rd place.
He chose to lie, now he has to pay, not the team.

If he wants to quit McLaren is because he knows he did wrong.

If I were Martin, I'd fired him right away. Who, by the way, was on holidays in Australia while these two were doing nonsense.

As a McLaren fan, I want Lewis out of McLaren.

As I recell the incident started at the Australian GP, when Mertin Whitmarsh was NOT on holiday, but in fact on the pitwall. And at the beginning of the Malaysia GP weekend, when, if you were a team boss and you had that sort of story hanging over your head it might be a good idea to be there for any fallout not "on holiday".

Also, why is everybody so hung up on this whole lie-gate thing, as if it's the ONLY driver behind a possible move for Lewis. The topic here is, "Will Lewis Leave Mclaren?" not "Will Lewis Leave Mclaren because of the recent "LieGate" Scandal?" Sure the thread may have come about because of this latest incident, but Lewis & his father are no fools, they won't leave a championship winning team like Mclaren over one isolated incident.

There are many more dicisive factors that may make Lewis contempate this move:
+ Lack of competitive machinary in '09 (and beyond?)
+ Spygate
+ Dodgy pit strategies (China '07)
+ Alonso-Gate
+ He may feel he gets harsh penalties (Spa '08) because he is driving a Mclaren and Mclaren are being targeted by the FIA.

Now I AM NOT saying all the above is fact. I'm suggesting what may be going through HIS mind. Take for example this whole Lie-Gate saga, the person he listens to most is his dad, his Dad will likely tell him something like "Son, you messed up, and I'm disappointed in you, but I understand it's because you were mislead." IN HIS MIND, it is now mostly Mclaren's fault.

This COULD BE the straw that broke the camels back for Lewis.

On the otherhand, it may not, he may see all of this as nothing more than the various trials and tribulations that one must go through to reach your goals. In which case he'll stay. We can only speculate.

[Crabbia]

Unfortunately this is another speculation style thread, but it is interesting to see and take into accoun all the permutations...

IMO he'd be foolish to leave, Mclaren, for all there faults are a top outfit and i think, with Ferrari, they were stuck in a down-to-the-wire development battle. So they were caught with their pants down for this year and the other teams devoted almost a complete extra year of resources and development into the 2009 cars when the most performance for development could be gained due to the rule changes.

Sorry i'm digressing but the point is next season McL will be back (or should very well be) and LH has an oppurtunity to prove his skills as a development driver, or at the very least hone those skills... and to have a share in the glory and respect of McL's return to the top. That sounds corny and sensationalist but you know what i mean.

I dont think he'll never leave, as he said at the end of last season. You have to take comments like that in context, and the context of that comment was the euphoria of winning the championship with McLaren. also he said the begining of this season something along the line of: i'd be stupid not to listen to other teams offers...

I'm not a Hamilton supporter but you cannot deny that he has all the racecraft and speed and composure of a multi championship winner. Take australia, (up to the point of the Trulli incident) his performance was remarkable. he would be a waste at and underperforming team, he knows that and other teams know that too. So even taking the embarrament issue completely out of it, and focusing soley on the performance side, you cannot say he will never leave.

Ofcourse, again, this is all speculation and i can't see any mid season driver lineup changes happening, things like that dont happen in F1 anymore, the culture has become too corporate since the mid90s to expect anything rash like that to happen. Next season tho, I think the driver market will get very interesting...

[Saabjock]

I think the more important question is "Will Mercedes continue in F1 with McLaren or anyone else for that matter." This whole "idiotic" saga threatens to once again derail F1 as we know it. Lewis and McLaren were silly to lie to the stewards...that's a given, and I don't excuse that lightly. An important question to ask is "Why did LH and McLaren even feel they had to take the approach they did?" This is by far not the first lie in F1 and though it's a serious transgression, it does not warrant putting the whole sport at risk. I would have simply said to the stewards "Trulli skidded off the road and it was simply too dangerous to stop on track with cars approaching from behind, so we let him go by when he got back on track and it was safe to do so." Had McLaren not let Trulli back in front or had they lodged the appeal against Toyota which brought Trulli's initial 25 sec penalty...then I could see a reason for this whole sordid mess. That would be wrong and not in the interest of the sport and yes...I could then see really harsh penalties for McLaren and a reason for this. This whole saga stems from embarrassment of the stewards at yet again making a rapid and bad decision without all the information readily available to them. It may be very costly to all in F1. I think the whole sport is just way too over-regulated by a bunch of guys who know nothing of racing. The penalty at SPA for racing Kimi...The penalty of Vettel for having his car lose grip on worn tires and collide with Kubica...clearly racing incidents....yet resulting in very bad decisions by stewards. The guys are all a bit gun-shy and scared to race each other now, which may explain McLaren's position. I think this incident has gone way too far. How long do they think Mercedes will stay in F1 if the image continues to slide and the penalties keep hurting them financially? If they pull out is that good for anyone? I suggest, the answer is an astounding....NO.

[Houser]

I think, if Lewis keeps going the way he has been these past 2 races and ends the season with no wins, with his team bickering back and forth, he will be looking to leave and drive somewhere else next season. Even though he said he will drive for McLaren for his career, I believe every person has their breaking point. If the bad news for him keeps piling up, it will hit its threshold and Lewis will be out of there.

[jddh1]

I Mercedes-Benz withdraws from F1 then LH will leave Macca for sure.
But if Mercedes-Benz decides they'll withdraw from Macca, but stay on as an engine supplier to other teams (Brawn) then I think LH will join Brawn in place of Wuubans and win multiple championships there with Ross at the helm.

Personally, I think the second will happen.

[KJM3]

Lewis lies and McLaren is to be blamed?
He is not a 9-y-o little child that does everything adults tell him to do, is he?
He lied, knew he was lying and lied because he wanted the 3rd place.
He chose to lie, now he has to pay, not the team.

If he wants to quit McLaren is because he knows he did wrong.

If I were Martin, I'd fired him right away. Who, by the way, was on holidays in Australia while these two were doing nonsense.

As a McLaren fan, I want Lewis out of McLaren.

C'mon man, get real.

Hamilton drives for a TEAM. If the team asks him to do something, he does it. End of story.

Imagine if he had told the truth and they had lost the position and had been disqualified from the race. Can you imagine how all his mechanics and engineers would feel about him back in the pits and at the factory? They'd be pissed off because he screwed them all over.

Imagine your wife asked you to lie for her, but instead, you said "Screw you, I'm going to tell the truth". Imagine how that would put a huge strain on your marriage.

In this case, it's the same for Hamilton, he drives a car that the TEAM designs, creates, builds and services. The team are behind him 100% and thus he told the FIA what his TEAM told him to say.

Was it the right thing to do? Absolutely NOT.
Would I have done the same? Absolutely.

At least now, when it blows up in everyone's face, he can honestly blame the team. If he had told the truth and it had blown up in everyone's face, EVERYONE would be pointing the finger at him and turning their backs on him, INCLUDING YOU!!!

The TEAM should be taking the blame for this. Dave Ryan is the scapegoat in all of this. He's taking ALL the blame to save the team from further sanctions. I am 100% positive that the orders he gave to Hamilton about the "story to tell" came from higher up than him.

- KJ

P.S. In case you can't put it all together. Right after the race, Hamilton told all the reporters in the garage the 100% TRUE STORY. Then when he was summoned by the stewards and spoke with Dave Ryan before hand, his story suddenly changed. Why do you think that is!?!?! Did he suddenly change his mind about what story he wanted to tell? Or did someone persuade him to change his story?

[PlatinumZealot]

=D> =D>

[casper]

If FIA decides to exclude Mclaren-Mercedez from the 2009 world championship season, It may not be far from happening that Mercedez will take back the engines from Force India and BrawnGP. Mercedez does not earn any money from the engine deal. Mercedez Benz won't let themselves be screwed twice by Mad Max. Remember that during the Mosley-gate scandal, Mercedez Benz , along with BMW and one Japanese team formally issue a statement to the press condemning Mad Max. There is no love lost between the team and Max. Of course the Brawn (Button) fans will think otherwise but if push comes to shove, then we'll see who's got the balls of steel. If FIA blinks, a compromise will be made such that the management of Mclaren-Mercedez will be changed with Norbert Haug taking the helm of the team.