Lewis Hamilton Slumps To Fourth Position in F1 Championship Standings
Jun 25, 2008
McLaren
Former F1 team boss Gian Carlo Minardi has suggested that Lewis Hamilton’s inexperience is causing him to make costly mistakes in his second season.
Lewis Hamilton may have slumped to fourth in the Formula One world championship standings, but former team owner Gian Carlo Minardi reckons that the Briton is currently only fifth in the category’s pecking order.
“In my opinion, as are proven by the facts, the number of drivers better than Hamilton are four,” Minardi insisted, “Robert Kubica has not committed errors since the beginning of the [season] and his only non-score [in Australia] came following the incident with [Kazuki] Nakajima, which was not his fault. Without that incident, he would still be far head of the world.
“Another [above Hamilton] is certainly Fernando Alonso. Despite having a machine that is certainly not competitive, he can always pull out something good, bringing his Renault in the first few positions. The, of course, there are the two Ferrari drivers.”
The next grand prix on the calendar might come as both a boost and burden to Hamilton, as the F1 circus rolls into Silverstone for his home race next weekend. The British Grand Prix always brings greater media pressure for the ‘local’ drivers, with Hamilton likely to be more in demand then fellow countrymen Jenson Button and David Coulthard due to his success, but the McLaren man knows that he needs to focus on driving if he is to get his championship challenge back on track.
“I just want the fans and supporters to know that I’m working as hard as I can, and doing the best job that I can - and so are my team,” he said after back-to-back scoreless races, “We are going to be there together and stand together whatever happens.”
