F1
News
Date: 15/06/2011
F1 star Lewis
Hamilton, under fire from officials for his behaviour both on and off the
racetrack this year, hopes he can be compared to Ayrton Senna or Gilles
Villeneuve - but not Michael Schumacher.
Hamilton's attacking
style has seen him repeatedly penalised due to collisions with other drivers,
with a written apology needed after his "maybe it's because I'm
black" Ali G joke - spoken in the aftermath of a penalty-packed Monaco
Grand Prix - went down badly with the FIA.
When asked if comparisons could be made between the controversy he has found himself in and those of a young Schumacher, who went on to become the most successful driver in history, Hamilton seemed alarmed by the link.
"I would hope not," he said of the Schumacher comparison. "I think I’m a passionate driver. I can’t emphasise just how passionate I am about racing and about winning and the pressure that I put on myself.
When asked if comparisons could be made between the controversy he has found himself in and those of a young Schumacher, who went on to become the most successful driver in history, Hamilton seemed alarmed by the link.
"I would hope not," he said of the Schumacher comparison. "I think I’m a passionate driver. I can’t emphasise just how passionate I am about racing and about winning and the pressure that I put on myself.
"With the pressures that go
with the job and the admiration for what you do, I think that inevitably
sometimes you say the right and the wrong things.
"Like Gilles Villeneuve and
like Ayrton [Senna], they were also very, very passionate racing drivers, so I
prefer to hopefully one day be referred to as someone similar to them."
Racing legend Senna was a triple
world champion at the time of his death at Imola in 1994. Ferrari star Villeneuve
(father of 1997 world champion Jacques) was also famed for his flat-out style
and had won six races before being killed in qualifying for the 1982 Belgian
Grand Prix at Zolder.
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