Lost motivation: HAM.

[FrukostScones]

As many have recognised, HAM seems to have lost the motivation in competiting in those racing cars.
Is it true?
What do you think?

[marvin78]

He is simply no god and just a normal person. I don't think that he is a racing driver who needs a certain kind of car to show his best, like every other racing driver. If one thing is not perfect you can fall behind. It has happened to other driver after a dominant era. This is nothing special and I don't think it has to do with motivation.

[FrukostScones]

For me he doesn't seem happy in the circus somehow, as if he is questioning the whole thing in general. Not only his performance (which of course can vary). But he rather seems negatively inclined against what he is doing... like he doesn't think it is meanigful to him anymore.

[turbof1]

Fair warning: HAM will definitely close this thread if it gets out of hand.

[Ennis]

As many have recognised, HAM seems to have lost the motivation in competiting in those racing cars.
Is it true?
What do you think?

I definitely think something is off this season. I'm not even sure its just the 'lack of dominant car', I think he could motivate himself in a car that is just inherently short on pace. He seems to like to feel connected and in-tune with his car, and he seems completely out of tune with it at the moment.

The last time I can remember similar is when they changed some springs which resulted in an odd feel in the Mercedes for him, and again he just did not look happy even though it improved his lap times.

I guess the fact that Mercedes isn't the best in dirty air makes it less enjoyable too. There are times when you know you have the clear air pace, but just can't get it to work in dirty air. That must be frustrating for any driver, but off the frontrunners the Mercedes certainly seems the most frustrating.

To predict when he'll give up is to predict exactly how everything else will go. 6 months ago he probably had his eye on some of Schumacher's numbers, now he isn't happy, who knows where he'll be 6 months from now?

[LM10]

It's not lack of motivation towards this sports. He just seems to be annoyed by how current racing is. After Canada he made his opinion clear again when he asked the reporter how many overtakes there had been.

If he's not in a dominantly fast car, he wants to fight for the win, but he can't do that either because the circumstances are how they are. And this might frustrate him of course.

[zac510]

HAM to pair with EGG and make a tasty sandwich.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Did we not hear this kind of nonsense last season also? Why a thread to discuss the ups and downs of a driver? Any particular driver for that matter? Did we discuss the lack of motivation for Vettel last season after numerous gaffe from him?

This is how a normal racing season should be, where a car performs on some tracks and doesn't on some other, which also include the driver performance from race to race, purely driven by high quality competition.

Unlike in his early years and so typical of what Max is doing now, with over the top aggressive driving, Hamilton is at a stage in his career where he knows how to survive the tough day, collect as many points and live another day to fight, instead of trying reckless antics to try and win, like what Vettel did last year.

Hamilton had a similar rough patch in the beginning of last year too. He did not win Australia, Bahrain, Monaco and Russia. The car was still not consistent, even in Canada, but somehow he managed to get it working and won the GP, whereas his team mate suffered. It was only mid season when things started coming together.

[F1NAC]

Inb4 HAM. wins French GP by 20 seconds....


Regarding on motivation... There were simply better drivers out there who did weekend better than him. It happens..

[hemichromis]

Hamilton has had times before where he seemed to lose motivation then come back in the same or the next year.

I don't think Hamilton is that far from retirement but he'll probably sign a new contract first.

[turbof1]

Voting disabled

[Big Tea]

I really do not see him as lacking motivation. He seems to be trying not to be too down when he does not win and too up when he does.
I think it is a response to things said about him, such as bad looser expects to win everything etc even though the apply to all drivers or they would not be there.

None of my business but he seemed to have more of a downer when he was with nichole and some of the rappers he seemed to go around with at one time.
He seems to be fine now, still rapping and I have no idea of his love life., which is the way it should be

[Just_a_fan]

During the Canadian GP he was told be his engineer to turn down the engine if wanted to and was told the settings to use. He replied that there was still a chance to get by Danny Ric and the engineer said "that's what we like to hear" or some such thing. That's not the behaviour of a driver that has lost the motivation.

As for the OP's line about "As many have recognised, HAM seems to have lost the motivation[…]" I think many will recognise the real motivation of this thread.

[Manoah2u]

For me he doesn't seem happy in the circus somehow, as if he is questioning the whole thing in general. Not only his performance (which of course can vary). But he rather seems negatively inclined against what he is doing... like he doesn't think it is meanigful to him anymore.

I feel like i agree more or less with this.
Moreso, just a few years ago - as if it was yesterday - there was a huge spat @ Mercedes between him, Rosberg, and the entire Merc team. Not the first one, but it was quite a hefty one - i'm not sure whether that was in the collision incident between him and nico when he went on the grass, but i clearly remember Hamilton mentioning if his racing career is over, he might go public or 'write' about it. it was a really big deal to him atleast, and i wouldn't be surprised if now he 's managed to accomplish what there is / was to accomplish for him, these things start eating at him in the back of his mind again and further influence his motivation / vision of the future.

personally i do see a little 'burnt out' hamilton. the candle is not as bright anymore so to say.

[wesley123]

This season we've had a large amount of articles where Mercedes say they're 'behind in pace' or 'not expected to be that far behind'. I found these to be weird, because they never seemed to actually be behind.

For example, Canada this weekend; After the race, Mercedes said this race was a 'wake up call' for them. Why? Bottas qualified less than a tenth from Vettel in a car that didn't have the new PU and has had a lot of milage on its PU. And that on a track where power is important. It's reasonable to assume that with the new PU, Bottas would have qualified on pole.
Bottas also was very close to a win in I believe 4 races this season. He is really there, in this Mercedes.

There is nothing really wrong with the Mercedes, they are there, and probably still have the quickest car. The only 'problem' here is Hamiltons performance, which simply is depressing to say the least. At the start of the season I said he needed a strong win to get his confidence back, he had that win in Spain and yet, still he is nowhere. I can only agree that he isn't motivated anymore. Afaik his contract is up for renewal this year, so that should be enough motivation, even if he wanted to switch teams.

I believe this will be Hamilton's last season in F1. And it's not really all that weird to do so as he surpassed his childhood hero in all of these statistics. So in that sense, he has already proven himself.
Outside of that, F1 is changing, and certainly not the sport children looked up to when they were young. There always was a certain prestige to performing in F1, winning, becoming champion. I personally feel this prestige isn't there anymore, it isn't unique anymore, certainly not with Liberty Media's proposed changes. The unique sport F1 was gets completely wiped away and replaced with some dumbed-down "we'll tell you what you're gonna enjoy".

I can really imagine that you wouldn't want to be part of that downfall as a 4 time WDC.

I hope I haven't turned this into a Liberty Media-hate topic. Because someones state and how it affects his ability in the sport is a really interesting, and unique, discussion.