airfuelEddie wrote:What a class act Lewis Hamilton is. He is truly a man of Honor and F-1 is a better sport with him in it.
Actually, he's a PR pro. He and his agents managed to build a "good guy" image for the media right from the start... Just look what happened when his teammate Alonso passed him last sunday : he was so furious he made two big mistakes (actually, one big and one huge) trying to overtake him again (and lost several places in the process - that was before the shifting problem). He has the same kind of temper Ayrton Senna had (or Tony Stewart has, in another sport), he just never shows it in front of a camera. He even disobeys team orders to let Alonso pass him during qualifications.
He makes a few mistakes sometimes (saying during an interview that Alonso tried to fishtail him during the Belgium GP when he in fact tried to overtake him at the first turn by braking too late), but the early PR work at the beginning of the season was done well.
This phony "good guy" image will be worth hundreds of millions more when he starts endorsing products...
With the kind of media attention he brought to F1, I think he will make much more money than Schumacher did before he retires.
As far as being a man of honor, can you really imagine any pilot saying anything else in his position?