Romain Grosjean - Abu Dhabi Young Driver test 2011 c/o www.sutton-images.com

Much is being written at the moment about Lotus’ reactive ride height system and how it could change the playing field in 2012.

Essentially a development of the J Damper system seen a few years back, there have been numerous explanations online, which have gone into some depth about the technicalities of the RRS and of the J Damper… some, such as this one, mind bogglingly so.

Today I was talking to my SPEED channel colleague and tech whizz Mr Steve Matchett, and he gave me perhaps the simplest and by far the best explanation I have yet heard on the technology.

Buckle up kids, here goes…

“J-damper: one bouncy thing offsets another bouncy thing.

Reactive ride-height front suspension: a crude version of the active ride actuators we had on the cars twenty years ago.“

So there you have it. The biggest technical talking point of the 2012 F1 season so far. Sorted.

But then came Abu Dhabi, and a win that reinvigorated the 2008 world champion. In Brazil for the final Grand Prix of the season, I sat down with Lewis for what turned out to be a frank, open and honest interview for SPEED, which aired in our pre-race show. I won’t attempt to turn the quotes into a feature article, because in its raw, pure form it is perhaps all the stronger and will, I hope, give you a true insight into what has been a tough year for one of the sport’s greats.

Lewis Hamilton wins the 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
c/o www.sutton-images.com

Lewis, first off that win in Abu Dhabi must have been a big weight off after everything that’s gone on over the last few months.

It was. It’s been an interesting year, a year of growth and a year of interesting experiences but to be able to go to Abu Dhabi and have the performance that we did and to come away with being on the podium, I was ecstatic. I was able to go away, have a great flight home and you’re just buzzing for the next few days. It’s actually lasted all the way to here so it’s been positive.

It’s been a tough season for you personally and on the race track as well, but let’s go back to the start. The team came out with quite an aggressive design on the car, testing began… at what point did you know that the car wasn’t quite going to be up to scratch in terms of the pace of the Red Bulls?

I think we knew from day one really. We tested the car and it wouldn’t do more than 20 laps without failing. I think we knew that we had to put so much effort into fixing that problem that we had less time to focus on other areas such as improving the actual overall performance. If we’d arrived with the right exhaust it would have kept improving from there, from the first test. So we already knew by the time we got to the first race that we were on the back foot, and even though we were competitive in the first race with our new upgrade, it was still unknown. We still hadn’t improved the rest of the car, which was needed.

How difficult is that, going into the season knowing that you are on the back foot, that everything you do is not just about racing but about developing that car, catching that gap back to the guys who are starting the season as the strongest?

It is very difficult because from like now [end of the season] onwards you put yourself in the frame of mind that “I’m going to do everything this winter, train six days a week, whatever it is, train everyday, to get myself ready for that first race, that first test. I’m going to be so ready that I’ll be more than ready to win and in the right frame of mind etc etc.” You do all that training for the two, three months, whatever it is, and you get there and then you realise that it’s out of your hands. Then all you can do is channel that positive energy that you have into other areas such as your team to try and just steer them in the right direction. It’s not easy.

But you channelled it fantastically. China was an example of you just racing your socks off. I think, for me, it was one of the best races I’ve ever seen you drive and it resulted in a win early on which I guess must have come as a bit of a shock for you and the team given from where you started.

Thank you. It definitely was. We never expected it. I think we weren’t expecting to be that high up, and it just so happened that our exhaust system worked. The second and the first race we were quick enough to win or be second but due to procedures, they didn’t put the right tyres on so we finished eighth with the penalty and it was tough. But then we went to China, bounced back from a tough weekend which was another low in Malaysia, to bounce back and have a win was a great feeling.

Hamilton and Massa came to numerous blows in 2011
c/o www.sutton-images.com

The season from that point got a bit difficult. Obviously the win in Germany was fabulous, but Monaco was tough, Spa a big crash, and quite a few contacts throughout the season. How much did they knock your confidence? Because you’ve always been a hard racer, you’ve always gone wheel to wheel with people, but in the past you’ve taken some knocks from people for racing what they would term as aggressively. Did those incidents start to play on your mind?

I won’t lie. I think things do play on your mind. The last thing you want is to go into a race weekend hoping that you don’t come together with someone. That’s the wrong way to approach things and that’s been part of the learning process, just knowing how to come into a weekend on a different approach rather than thinking negatively about what could possibly happen. It’s about coming in, putting the positive energy out there. So many people around me; friends, family and loved ones always say “You’ve got to put the positive energy out there,” and that’s what I’m feeling this weekend. I feel this weekend, there’s no reason why it can’t be the beginning of next season, of the future. Rather than wait all the way until the next race, which is miles away, I want to start here.

Those contacts… quite a few with Felipe. It seemed like you guys had magnets attached to your cars. How come it was always him?

[Laughs] I don’t know why it was always him. When you look at it, it was generally races where I’d put myself in an unfortunate position where I was seventh or eighth, and when I was ever in those unlucky positions the person I needed to get past to have a successful race, was Felipe. He is a fantastic driver and the toughest guy to overtake, second only to Michael Schumacher and that is really why.

I never give up, so I keep trying and keep trying and when you do try [sometimes] things don’t go as well as you planned. It was all an experience that I don’t regret and I’ve moved on from that. I’ve got massive respect for Felipe, we’ve still had some great races in the past and I still enjoyed the races even though we collided together and I think now that’s in the past we can move on and work on having positive results from now on.

How difficult has this year been on you mentally? Because there have been occasions when you haven’t seemed yourself, you’ve been incredibly low. The knocks must have taken an effect.

Yeah definitely there have been times when its been hard and its not been easy to keep a positive frame of mind. But it is about your surroundings. It’s about the people that you have, the people that you don’t have… or, it’s about the people that you have, sorry. Your family. It’s about the balance of the people that surround you and support you and I feel that I’m working towards having that fully, and it’s really looking positive right now so I’m really excited. I know it could be something special.

Lewis and Nicole in happier times
c/o www.sutton-images.com

I mean, I know how difficult it is. Drivers always say that when you pull the visor down all you think about is racing, but was it easy for you to do that? To move beyond something that is so personal to you, something that affects you not just outside the car but affects you deep inside? Was it difficult to get around that?

It’s not easy. Depending on what kind of person you are, and I’d say I’m quite an emotional person. I wear my heart on my sleeve, and I think it affects you and even though you put the visor down and consciously you’re thinking about what’s happening now and you’re positive and direct, it’s subconsciously that it affects you because it is in your heart and it weighs heavy on your heart. Yeah.

You talk about the happy bubble and getting that happy bubble back. You had your Mum with you last time in Abu Dhabi, how important is that happy bubble moving forward, and who is going to be a part of it?

Firstly I want to stop using that word. It’s a word I put out there, I said it, let’s leave it in the past.

That’s your word now.

[Laughs] No, no it’s not. What could be a better word to have?

Inner circle?

Circle? I don’t know. Something like that. Entourage? [Laughs]. Yeah, it’s good to have a good entourage. It is about having positive people around you and people that you care about. You can’t enjoy what you do on your own. I think one way to do it, to enjoy it fully, is with people that you can share it with and people who helped you get there. Sharing it with my parents, my family, with Nicole, my brother and my friends who have supported me throughout the years through the good and bad times.

They’ve been the ones, when it has been bad, to have really, really been there for you. To be able to share the experience with them and try and give something back is a positive thing. The energy that they bring to the circuit with you, like my Mum for example brought great energy at the last race and look at the result that I had. It doesn’t always work out that way but you always come out of the race no matter what has happened in a positive frame of mind.

Management has been a big thing this year. A big change with them. A lot of people have said that they changed your thought process, they made you look at the sport in a different way, they hadn’t been as supportive as they could have been with an arm around the shoulder. Do you think they’ve taken an unfair amount of the blame this year?

I think this year 19 [XIX Management] have taken a huge amount of criticism which has been massively unfair and that’s a lot to do with me, my fault really. They’ve wanted to be here every single race, they’ve been nothing but supportive. I control it and I decided not to have them at every race because I wanted to be on my own at some races. For the future I’ll have them at every race, but they’ve taken negative criticism and they’re still there supporting me. They’ve never ever had any impact on my thought process of how I handle things. I’ve really taken that all on board myself.

This year I’ve not used the resources that I have to the optimum. They’ve been there to help and I’ve not used them when I needed them. But I know that moving forward it will be a successful relationship and partnership. I think they’re fantastic. I just had lunch with Simon [Fuller] in New York and I loved it. He’s a really fantastic guy. I couldn’t be happier with the decision that I’ve made because I’ve got some incredible people around me and, yeah, I’m really looking forward to the future.

Lewis with Martin Whitmarsh, GP2 Silverstone, 2006.
c/o www.sutton-images.com

Talking of the future, you’re out of contract with McLaren at the end of next year. I know most everybody in this paddock can’t imagine you racing anywhere but McLaren. Can you ever envisage the day when you’re not racing for McLaren?

I think, it’s difficult to imagine that because I’ve been with them since I was 13 years old so its been a long partnership. I’ve been here with the team for longer than some of the people who are actually in the team, but you know… what will happen will happen. I think we’ve got such a great relationship that it’ll just be natural that we continue. But there is no rush at the moment to go into anything because I’m still contracted and happy with where I am and, again, some great results. And I’ve got an incredible atmosphere back at the factory.

I did a conference call with them recently and I was at the factory the other day with people wearing the winning shirts. The whole factory wears them the day after the race which is just fantastic. I can imagine the guys and girls waking up the day after the race just happy, and they pull out their drawer and have that special t-shirt to wear. It’s a great feeling and I don’t think you have that with any other team. Its difficult to imagine being somewhere else, definitely.

Finally, then, it’s been a long year for everybody. Probably the longest in F1 history. It’s hit us all physically, emotionally, but what’s the one thing that you personally have learned over everything else that you can carry on into next year to make you stronger as a person and as a racing driver?

I think, not so much learned, but have been reminded that family is everything and you should keep your family around. Keep your enemies close, and your friends closer… yeah, that’s what I think. This year has just been a reminder that family means everything to me. Without them I am nothing.

Thank you Lewis.

Father and Son. China, 2008.
c/o www.sutton-images.com

Matt runs Abu Dhabi
c/o www.sutton-images.com

Ever since I have known him, my friend and colleague Matthew Kingston-Lee has been running around the Grand Prix tracks of the world. An avid (and very good) marathon runner, it was a great way for Matt to keep in shape throughout the long seasons. As the years rolled on, more and more people seemed to be running the tracks. Not me, however. “You will never see me run a Grand Prix track,” I remember once stating in categorical terms. “I don’t do running.”

For the last two seasons, running the Grand Prix tracks of the world got a bit more serious. It had become such a craze that a website was started (www.runthattrack.info), and members, who all now seemed to sport GPS watches or GPS apps on their iphones, inputted their times for a championship.

This year, the competition gained the support of F1 Global Partner UBS. The bank would donate $150 for every person to run a lap of the track on an F1 weekend, to the Make a Wish Foundation charity. But they would donate $300 to every lap completed on a few special group runs, which took place at various tracks over the season on a Saturday night.

The start of Brazil's group run
c/o www.sutton-images.com

Despite my historical reluctance, I agreed to give it a go. I’m not the healthiest man alive, but I have got to admit, I enjoyed the runs tremendously. I only ran two group runs, Hungary and here in Brazil, but I walked Suzuka and UBS still donated $300 to charity for that leisurely stroll.

In total, the Formula 1 paddock raised close to $200,000 over the course of the season, with UBS last night stating that whether that figure was met or not, they would donate at least the $200,000 to the Foundation.

Run That Track's Top 3
c/o www.sutton-images.com

But there was also the championship to be concluded. I was incredibly proud to see my friend Matt take the title representing Sutton Images, from Red Bull’s Ciaron Pilbeam and Total’s Vincent Fournier.

Puuuuuuush!!!!! c/o www.sutton-images.com

As for me? Well, I enjoyed last night’s run hugely. Matt’s time was an incredible 15 minutes 13 seconds. I managed a 22 minute 33 second lap, with a big push to the finish in a race with fellow journalist and snapper Peter Nygaard. Over the line however, I clipped someone’s heels, and went tumbling, taking a dose of road rash to my arm, shoulder and hands. All worth it though. I was a minute faster than Nico Rosberg. Result!

I really want to thank Matt for getting me into running, to runthattrack.info for putting on such a great event, and to UBS for sponsoring it. I’ll be training over the winter, and hopefully running every track in 2012.

Knackered! Better get training Buxton.
c/o www.sutton-images.com

I’m sure you’ll agree that in just a few days, “nothke” has done a pretty fabulous job.

The circuit looks tremendous. Incredibly high speed, some tricky corners… it’s going to be a thriller. Colleagues I have shown it to in the media centre here in India today have all been hugely impressed, whooping that at parts it looks like Montreal, Montjuic Park, Spa and Monaco. Overall, I think the best comment I heard was this. “My God. It’s like Monza in a city.”

With a rough laptime estimate of 1:38 for a 3.2 mile track, it’s certainly not going to be slow.

Enjoy

So we all know the Kimi Raikkonen to Williams rumours for 2012, right? Of course we do. The thing is though, they are gathering pace with every passing week. The latest rumour is that Sir Frank Williams has spent the last few weeks in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, trying to drum up enough cash to lure the 2007 World Champion back to the sport.

Anyway, here’s where it gets cool.

It is rumoured that Williams, along with finding some finance from the Qatar National Bank, is trying to get a few old sponsors back on board… namely Saudia, Albilad and TAG.

This year, Williams is running a pretty mega livery, in homage to the Rothmans livery of the mid 1990s.

Pastor Maldonado : 2011 Japanese Grand Prix
c/o www.sutton-images.com

Damon Hill : 1994 Portuguese Grand Prix
c/o www.sutton-images.com

What chances the 2012 Williams features a Green and White livery, with the old boys back on the sidepods?

And you know the even cooler thing? Think back to this photo… 1982. 2012 will be the 30th anniversary of Keke Rosberg, the Flying Finn, taking the title for Team Willie. A mega fast Finn? In a Green and White Williams? Thirty years on?

It’s too tasty, isn’t it?

Keke Rosberg : 1982 Brazilian Grand Prix
c/o www.sutton-images.com

Indy 500 c/o www.sutton-images.com

I am a Formula 1 reporter, and a GP2 and GP3 commentator. I am in no way the most qualified person to discuss the events of last weekend in Las Vegas. I never had the honour of meeting Dan Wheldon. I have never been to an Indycar race.

But my interest in the championship is real. Anyone who follows me on twitter will be able to recall instances this season when I have been somewhat vocal over aspects of the championship’s organisation and its regulations which, to me, seem frustrating. My opinions are often met with staunch resistance from Indycar fans, who want to defend their championship to the hilt.

As a journalist who now broadcasts predominantly to the United States, however, I have had many messages asking for my take on what happened this weekend past. But I didn’t want to write something as a direct reaction to what unfolded on that tragic day in Las Vegas. I wanted to take the time and think it through.

Oddly enough, I was going to write something at the end of the Indycar season about where I saw the championship heading and the things I thought it could do with changing. Dan’s tragic passing means that the web is now littered with such articles from people you wouldn’t normally expect to see writing about Indycar, each one picking up various elements of that Las Vegas weekend and trying to find a reason for what happened. For many of those closely involved with the sport, this is part of the cycle of grief: to attempt to understand that which they are finding hard to accept. As Karun Chandhok wrote this morning, as a racing driver, for him to understand how and why something like this happened is hugely important, too.

Even before last weekend, Indycar had many elements which I believed needed addressing. Elements which, depending on my severity of feeling, I believed could be judged as being anywhere from archaic to asinine. This season just passed, the 100th of open wheel racing in America, is one which has been edged with controversy. NASCAR style two-wide restarts were adopted at the start of the season and were met with almost instant disapproval from the drivers after repeated contact race after race.

The decisions of the stewards were heavily questioned throughout the season, with Brian Barnhart coming in for pointed criticism from teams and drivers alike, in particular for his handling of the restarts on a wet track at the MoveThatBlock.com Indy 225 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in August.

And there was even controversy going into the final weekend. The maximum number of cars permitted for Indycar races in 2011 had been set at 26, with the exception of the Indy 500 which would see 33 cars as a maximum. And yet at Las Vegas, an oval track one mile shorter than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 34 cars would take the start, four over the pre-season agreement of a maximum of 30 for the season finale.

My own personal bugbear, as regards Indycar however, is with pitstops. There is far too wide a scope for pit crews to get injured in what is an overcrowded pitlane. Pit stalls are too close together, crews running into the pitlane and around their cars are at huge risk, equipment is often hit by cars. Watch the video below from the penultimate race of the season. It’s one of the worst examples I saw this year. Compare that to the slick work seen in F1 where we regularly see sub three second stops (albeit without refuelling) carried out with little risk to those involved.

I know many of the drivers in Indycar, either through contacts I have made in my time in the sport who have introduced me to their drivers, or as drivers I have had the pleasure of working with myself over the years. And while I love that they get to go out and race in the sport, I have to admit my fears for them when they went out to race in an Indycar. Because you don’t have small accidents in those things.

But Indycar was aware that changes needed to be made, and for 2012 had commissioned not one but two brand new cars from Dallara. One car will be used for road courses, and one will be used for ovals. The oval car has heavily protected rear wheels, and while some previously said it didn’t look all that nice (I always rather liked the design to be honest), frankly I think that’s the last of anyone’s issues right now. The capability of cars being launched over each other is high enough in open wheel racing, and is especially so on ovals. This new car should seriously reduce that potential. The driver who led the development work on the new Dallara had openly praised the increased levels of safety the new cars would bring. The car was, in its formative stages, dubbed the “Indycar Safety Cell.”

As a mark of respect, the car will now carry the initials of the very man who helped develop it, and whose life it might well have saved. Dan Wheldon.

Dan Wheldon and the DW01 c/o www.sutton-images.com

Going into the weekend in Vegas, www.autosport.com ran a fascinating article looking at the season finale and how it was crunchtime for the sport of Indycar, which has been losing fans and viewers in recent years. Randy Bernard had even threatened to quit if the Vegas race didn’t get the percentage share he’d been hoping for.

Following the Vegas race, it would seem that Indycar has some soul searching to do. Some have called to drop oval tracks all together. Some have called to replace the catch fencing at ovals with plexi-glass. It is worth remembering that the SAFER barriers, now used in Formula 1, have been commonplace in American open wheel racing for years. Indycar is safety conscious. It does push forward with innovation. Now is the time for it to redouble its efforts.

Its new Dallara DW01, is the first step on that path. Where it goes next, only the bosses, with the input of teams and drivers, can decide. I think we’ll most likely see two-wide restarts abandoned next year, and quite possibly a limited field on short course ovals. Pitstops, to my mind, need an almighty overhaul, too.

I can’t claim to sit here and know the answers. I’m not going to debate what happened in Vegas because there is an investigation going on and frankly, I just don’t know enough about oval racing to make a comment that would be of any worth. But as an outsider looking in, I have thought throughout this season that Indycar needs to get back to basics, to drop gimmicks intended to spice up the show and just get back to the simple things.

Hard racing, on proper tracks, in safe cars.

Although I never met Dan, I’m sure that a safe and prosperous future for his friends and his rivals, in the championship he loved, would be the greatest tribute anyone could pay to his memory.

My solution, as silly as it seemed, was for Tony to simply bring on board Lotus sanitary products or Lotus Bakeries as a team supplier and give them team naming rights. Thus he could call his team whatever he wanted, and preface it with the word Lotus.

Well, look what I spied in the Team Lotus hospitality unit this morning… next to the coffee machine. And no, I don’t think my silly suggestion was taken seriously or that Team Lotus will try to remain as Lotus next season. I think we’re all pretty much sure that if the teams can agree unanimously to the change, then green Lotus will become Caterham and black Lotus will stay Lotus.

Still, it made me smile…

Lotus at Lotus

So when you read one of your own kind being laid into, it takes you by surprise. And it saddens you.

An article was posted this morning on a Formula 1 website, which I found distasteful in the extreme. Not only did it attempt to pull apart the reputation and call into question the abilities of one of the most respected writers and newshounds in this paddock, but from a personal perspective, it also had a pop at me. Charming!

For this article to refer to the journalist in question as a “blogger” is to attempt to belittle him and his work as being of little import, and for him to be little more than one of a number of writers on the subject of this sport who pen their opinions without the access to provide informed insight.

To quote from the offending piece itself:

There is no doubt that the market is flooded with F1 blogs and the majority offer little real insight into what is really going on in the sport. A few of them do break early news, which later proves to be accurate, but these are in the minority.

There tend to be multiple problems with the bulk of the blogs: they are verbosely written by people with little or no training in print journalism and often slip into rambles about the personal experience of the blogger.

To refer to the journalist in question as having “little or no training in print journalism” is a scandal. He has worked for almost every major motorsport print publication in the British language and has been writing about this sport for decades.

The thing is, the people in this press room, if they have a problem with a colleague, would take it up with them in person. Not via a vitriolic post on a website.

You may well ask why, then, I am not doing the same. And the answer is simple.

Because the writer who claims the moral high ground and questions the integrity of a friend and colleague, has no accreditation. He does not attend Formula 1 races. In ten years of reporting on this sport I genuinely cannot recall seeing him at a single Grand Prix.

This is the man pontificating on journalistic standards?

Where does he get his quotes, his information, his stories? I can only assume it is from those on the ground. From those who spend every penny they have to fly to 20 races a year. Life as a freelancer has never been tougher. But we carry on, because we love this sport and because we want to bring you closer to it.

I don’t really care if the writer in question has a problem with me and calls me out in his articles. If he ever comes to a race he can bring it up with me in person. But what I do have an issue with is him pulling apart a journalist I greatly respect, in a public forum, in such unashamed fashion. And yes, I do see the irony.

A few days ago, a former journalist who was regarded as one of the finest newshounds in this sport, referred to the journalist at the centre of the writer’s odious post thus:

“I came into F1 with the mantra ‘believe nothing until you know it to be true’, and, through reading this journalist’s work, I quickly altered that mindset to: ‘believe everything until you know it to be false’ because my eyes were widened to the scope and breadth of Formula 1 by reading his investigative reports – something that he continues to do to this day….”

I, for one, could not agree more wholeheartedly with that statement. Sure, it means that sometimes his stories are close to the edge. Sometimes they’re spot on. Sometimes they’re there but not quite. And sometimes they’re a bit off centre. But they are written from the heart, and having come from a list of contacts and sources accrued over decades. People who work in this sport and in this paddock and trust in this journalist because he is one of the best.

How a writer can sit at home and attempt to rip apart a journalist at the track, especially this journalist, leaves me aghast.

As one final point, I was interested to read the writer in question’s biog on his website. In it, there is the claim that he “still gets that special tingle when he hears an F1 engine burst into life.”

Must be one hell of a sound system on that TV.

Lewis Hamilton c/o www.sutton-images.com

Lewis Hamilton. 2008 Formula 1 World Champion.

Is that how the history books will record the career of one of the greatest enigmas of the modern era of our sport? It is a question being asked for the first time not in hushed tones, but in open conversation in the Formula 1 paddock. Was that one season as good as it is ever going to get for him?

We’re a cynical lot, and we always look for a story. But this isn’t one that brings along any sense of satisfaction. Because the guy looks lost. He looks dejected, desolate… destroyed.

The Japanese Grand Prix was a microcosm of the situation at McLaren. Hamilton pushing above and beyond; Button serene and imperious. How times have changed at the team.

Jenson Button’s move to McLaren in 2010 was considered by most in the F1 paddock to be a brave one. Going one on one with Lewis Hamilton, at a team which had been built around the 2008 world champion, where the youngster had been a part of the furniture since he was a child… that’s no easy task. But it made perfect sense for Jenson. It was his best opportunity to get to a guaranteed top team, and the expectation would be that Hamilton would tear him apart. Anything Button did of worth at the team would look good.

So when it was Button, not Hamilton, who took the first (and second) McLaren victory that year, Jenson didn’t just look good. He looked mega. He’s continued to look just that.

Jenson Button has settled in well at McLaren. c/o www.sutton-images.com

Button’s stock has risen and risen. His racing has improved every week, to the extent that in my opinion he is driving better now and is more complete a driver than he was when he won the title in 2009. And McLaren know it. They’ve signed him up on a multi year contract to extend their relationship up to an as yet unspecified date.

Lewis Hamilton meanwhile is out of contract at the end of 2012. This is Lewis Hamilton we’re talking about here. Hamilton IS McLaren. At least, he was. By extending Jenson’s contract, he now has the longer term future at the team. In the war of F1 psychology that is huge. By signing that contract, McLaren has essentially said that Button is their man. And you can bet that hit Hamilton where it hurts.

It’s why I believe Hamilton was so gutted to miss out on pole. Button, with a new contract, had been top of every session in Suzuka. If Hamilton could have taken pole, it would have been more than just P1 on the grid. It was a message of intent. A message that this was still his team. But he choked. He went against the requests of the team not to leave a gap to Button and he missed the cut. Far from showing the team that he was still top dog, he made a basic error while his team-mate was only denied by the slimmest of margins and after a little bit of magic from the world champion.

The race itself saw Button take an emotional victory in a country which has always embraced him. But it saw another Hamilton implosion. Not seeing Massa in his mirrors, running the wheels off his McLaren in that first stint. That wasn’t the Hamilton that blasted onto the scene in 2007 and made such an impression as an aggressive but classy driver. It had all the hallmarks of a drive from a guy with so much to prove that he’s pushing beyond the sweet spot. Hamilton himself described the race as “shocking.” And it was. But not so much for the gap between Button and Hamilton, but for how much Hamilton seemed to have let himself go.

Lewis Hamilton c/o www.sutton-images.com

He’s had a rough season, everything considered. He’s had decisions go against him and has felt the weight of expectation more keenly than ever. And all the while he seems to have lacked the guidance to deal with these situations in the correct fashion. His Monaco outburst against his fellow drivers, his ill judged quip over his colour, his post-race moment with Massa in Singapore.

Personally, I though he handled Singapore fabulously. He took himself away to cool off rather than react. Very mature. He’d learned from Monaco. The problem was he never came back. And so all the quotes after the race were from Massa and were negative. Why on earth did nobody from McLaren or from 19 Management tell Lewis to get back outside and talk to the press? To give his side of the story? Why did nobody advise him to take Massa to one side and talk it out as men on Thursday in Suzuka?

All Lewis Hamilton wants to do is concentrate on racing and winning Grands Prix. But the external pressures are a necessary evil of the sport. And those pressures are showing.

It is interesting to read the two McLaren drivers’ twitter feeds. Jenson tweets photos of himself, his mates, his girlfriend Jessica. Always smiling, always laughing, at race weekends. He is so comfortable at McLaren, so comfortable in himself. Lewis meanwhile will make a few post race comments, and little else. Sitting in the McLaren motorhome and people watching has been interesting this season. Lewis is the one who will skulk in, shades on under his cap, barely registering those around him. Jenson is quite the opposite.

Is that focus? Perhaps. But I’m not sure.

The 2011 spec Lewis Hamilton is not the same person I met at the tail end of 2005 on a windy day at Circuit Paul Ricard. He’s a Formula 1 world champion now. But he also strikes me as a troubled soul, and one who is not enjoying his racing as much as his incredible talent should allow him to.

Hamilton appears to be a troubled soul of late. c/o www.sutton-images.com

The ultimate question remains, if he cannot pull himself out of this funk, and if his management continue to apparently let him get on with things of his own accord rather than putting their arm around him and giving him the emotional support he so clearly requires, could Lewis Hamilton leave McLaren? His contract is up at the end of next season, and so are many others. If McLaren is now Button’s team, will Hamilton leave the nest of the squad that created him?

I’m sure that 19 Management would love to put Hamilton in a Red Bull, and I’m sure it is something Hamilton would relish, too. Put him into the team alongside Vettel, give him the best car in F1 and allow him the chance to do to the German, what Button did to him. Go into his team, where he’s been since he was a child, and take it away from him.

There’s just one problem. As we understand it, Red Bull doesn’t want him. Neither does Ferrari. Which leaves only one real option… Mercedes. Michael Schumacher’s contract runs out at the same time as Hamilton’s. Might we yet see Hamilton link up with his former karting team-mate and good friend Nico Rosberg? Or might Rosberg jump into Hamilton’s vacant McLaren?

Nico and Lewis at the 2004 Bahrain Superprix. c/o www.sutton-images.com

Or, and this is a thought myself and a colleague had over lunch today, might Hamilton just throw his hands up and say, “Sod it. I’m not enjoying this. I’ve had enough.” Could he simply walk away? Would he simply walk away? There seems little doubt that he would be a huge star in the States, whether he was racing in Indycar or, as might be more likely, NASCAR. He could live in LA, hang out with his hip hop mates and spend more time with Nicole. 19 Management would turn him into motorsport’s David Beckham.

I’m sure all of us hope that the final option does not happen. Because there’s got to be more to come, right? That 2008 title… that can’t be it. Can it?

I’ve seen Lewis Hamilton pick himself up after crushing disappointment and put in the performances of his life, time and time again. But over the last two seasons that self-belief, that resilience, just seems to have slipped.

It’s got to the point where I almost want to grab him and slap him and ask where the hell Lewis Hamilton is? Where’s the friendly, open, passionate racer, who used to laugh off adversity and show the kind of racecraft on track that left you with your jaw on the floor? Would he thank me? Probably not. He’d probably slap me back and I’d deserve it. But I just feel for the guy. I want to see him back to his best. We all do.

But right now, he is far away from being at his best. And I worry that Japan could have been a tipping point for him. Drivers like Lewis who are driven by emotion are the kind of drivers who split opinion. But they are the kind of drivers that you want in the sport. History shows us, however, that the passionate ones are often the ones to make rash, hasty decisions.

For his sake, and for ours, I hope he’s getting the right support, and that somebody, somewhere, can be the motivating factor that gets him back to basics and gives him the wake-up call he so clearly requires.

Because if that 2008 title is to be the only one of his F1 career, it’s not just Lewis that’ll be short changed. It’ll be all of us.

GP2 Race 2 Start - Monza 2011

GP2’s end of season press release dropped into my inbox this week, and the words from the page filled my heart with a genuine moment of warmth. Because they put to bed a fear I had been toiling with for quite a few months.

In the current world of single seater racing, there is something of a rivalry between GP2 and the Renault World Series (WSR). It goes back years, all the way to the birth of GP2 and the fact that GP2 was never considered a “Renault” championship. Its cars never featured on Renault stands. It was spoken of in hushed terms by the big execs. Despite its huge success in providing future stars for F1, GP2 even lost its official Renault backing with its engine units now no longer branded by the French manufacturer. It was always the half brother. The bastard son. The black sheep.

And so it has been that in recent years there’s been this underlying tension between the championships. WSR took great delight in the fact that two of the inaugural GP3 season’s stand out drivers Wickens and Rossi opted to race there rather than in GP2 in 2011, even though GP2 got the champion Gutierrez.

Both claim to be the best preparation for F1. Both claim lineage, having both seen drivers promoted to F1 directly from their championship. Both can claim a graduate Formula 1 World Champion. GP2 has Hamilton. WSR has Vettel.

And yet the sniping continues. The one-upmanship.

Next year's WSR will feature a DRS rear wing

Earlier this year, WSR unveiled its new car for 2012 complete with a DRS style rear wing. No other feeder series can claim to have such a system, and in this essence it is unique as a preparation for Formula 1.

But what had worried me, and I mean genuinely worried me, is that GP2 would react. That with an update to the GP2/11 or with the new 2014 car, GP2 would do the same. They’d rise to the bait, and in so doing they’d make what I thought would be a terrible, misguided mistake.

And that’s why the press release actually made me smile.

Here’s what GP2 organiser Bruno Michel had to say.

“The first year of the GP2/11 car has been a great success, as anyone who watched the racing this year will have seen. We considered many new options during the design period of the car, including movable wings or KERS, but decided against them as we felt it was not in keeping with the spirit of our series. Although they could have enhanced the power of our car it could have been an issue safety-wise. The philosophy of our car is not about how powerful it can be. Our aim is to design the car that will be as close as a F1 car in terms of behaviour and thus give the drivers the opportunity to learn how to handle an incredibly complex machine.

“The F1 teams also appreciate this: they are watching the best young drivers in the world prove themselves in a car as close as possible to the challenge of an F1 car, and this is what we’ve always set out to achieve. By focusing on our cars, and optimising them for the same Pirelli tyres as used in the F1 races, we aim to give them what they are looking for.”

GP2 Series organiser, Bruno Michel

Common sense, then, seems to have prevailed. GP2 won’t react. WSR keeps its USP with DRS, and we can all move on.

Good news all round, it seems. But perhaps not for WSR. Many pundits already believe that DRS is proving itself to be superfluous in Formula 1 and are questioning its long term validity for the sport. Few expected Pirelli’s tyres to play such a dominant role in determining race result, and in Formula 1 the speed differentials caused by degrading tyres is creating enough of a spectacle without the need for DRS. As such, knowledge of the Pirelli tyres is perhaps the most important aspect of racing in Formula 1, and at the moment only GP2 can offer the same specification tyre as F1. GP3 also runs Pirellis, but a slightly different specification.

Tyres are one of the areas in which GP2 has always had its head screwed on. When it launched in 2005 it ran on grooved Bridgestone tyres, just as F1. But when F1 announced it would return to slicks in 2007 GP2 moved to slicks for 2006, in order to prepare its ’06 crop for F1 the next season. Champion Lewis Hamilton certainly showed he was more than ready when he then made his F1 debut in 2007.

GP2 moved to slicks for 2006. Hamilton was champion.

The war of words between WSR and GP2 needs to end. Because, the thing is, there isn’t a comparison. I mean, sure, World Series boasts it has put drivers into F1. On the current grid, three rose directly from WSR to F1; Vettel, Ricciardo and Alguersuari. But compare that with the 11 that rose from GP2. If Chandhok gets the ride for India, that’ll be 12. Half the grid.

It’s interesting to note that the three WSR graduates are all Red Bull drivers. Also of note is how many full-time GP2 drivers there were this year that were fully backed by Red Bull. None. This all falls back to the early years of the championship in which Red Bull sent its drivers to GP2 expecting a mega result. And watched them get smashed. Speed, Ammermuller, Zaugg… even Buemi didn’t fare all that well. He recorded two wins in 2008 but only finished sixth in the championship, becoming the lowest placed championship driver to gain promotion to Formula 1 from GP2, thanks to his patronage from Red Bull.

I don’t think Red Bull has ever really taken kindly to GP2 since then, and it is interesting to see the likes of Ricciardo, Vergne etc also being put through the WSR route. But is it worthwhile for other drivers?

Yes it is, on face value, more affordable than GP2. But what comes next? For most, the answer is… GP2. And with Pirelli tyres, GP2 is now a two year programme. The years of rookie champions are, I feel, over. The tyres take too long to learn. So if a driver tries to save money by racing in World Series for a year, with the only real shot at F1 being if he’s a Red Bull driver, then the logical progression is to GP2… and that means the year in WSR wasn’t saving him money but actually costing money and time because it’s put him a year back against those who stepped straight into GP2 and a year behind in terms of knowledge of the Pirelli tyre.

Will Rossi move to GP2 next season?

One need only look at the likes of Alexander Rossi or Robert Wickens. Would they have done GP2 in 2011 if they’d had the budget? I don’t think there’s a question. But with Rossi having recently tied up a sponsorship deal with Tony Fernandes, you can bet your bottom dollar he’s hoping to also land a seat with Tony’s GP2 team for 2012.

So why is it that GP2 is the best feeder category for F1? Apart from the simple statistics (45 drivers promoted to race, test or development seats in F1 direct from GP2 in the 7 years of its existence), I think Michel hits the nail on the head in his recent statement that what F1 teams want to see is a driver who can prove himself to be the best without gimmicks. GP2 has always prided itself on its rawness and purity. It always said it would never introduce driver aids and that it will stick to its core principles in the face of KERS and DRS being used in F1 is, I believe, hugely to its credit.

By keeping things simple, you remove much of the doubt. Those who rise to the top in GP2 do so not because they’ve had a hand, not because they’ve had a boost, but because they have taken on the best drivers at their level in equal machinery and beaten them. With no gimmicks.

And with GP2 finally merging the Asia and Main series, in 2012 there will finally be an International GP2 Series, taking in new venues and new circuits for the championship. Bruno Michel is already on the record as stating that GP2 will visit tracks it has never raced on before, and with a rich and vibrant F1 calendar to chose from, the 2012 calendar is sure to provide by far the best preparation for Formula 1 of any championship in the world. Because, if you look at its 2011 calendar for instance, it wasn’t a case of running on a few F1 tracks… every race was held on an F1 track. On an F1 weekend. In front of the F1 press, teams and fans.

You could argue I’m a bit biased. I used to run PR for GP2 and I now provide commentary on GP2 and GP3. But I’ll level with you. I wouldn’t say GP2 was the finest one make championship on earth if I didn’t truly believe it. And I’m not saying World Series isn’t a fine championship in its own right. The quality of the field is superb, and the racing is good. But GP2 it is not.

Reading that press release only reaffirmed why I love the championship so much. In this day and age, its only too easy to react quickly and emotionally and in so doing make the wrong choice, a costly choice not just financially but also for one’s reputation. In sticking to its core beliefs and principles, and holding firm to the foundations that have created its success, GP2 has shown once again why it is the only serious consideration for the Formula 1 drivers of the future.