Motor Sport:Lewis Hamilton has insisted he will never hide his emotions, even if it means him attracting criticism for looking grumpy. That was the case following his performance on the podium in the wake of his third-placed finish in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
No-one could hardly expect the 27-year-old to be jumping for joy after trailing behind McLaren team-mate Jenson Button and double world champion Sebastian Vettel, not after starting from pole. However, Hamilton’s downbeat demeanour suggested the dark days of last year had returned to haunt him again.
Even former F1 star David Coulthard suggested Hamilton’s body language was “striking”, and that he was “stony-faced” on the podium. Describing Button’s victory as “a big win” in “laying down an early marker”, the Scot then mused: “Has it knocked Lewis?”
Hamilton, however, has insisted that to be far from the case as he said: “A few things didn’t go my way, and that’s motor racing. I finished third, I went backwards. If you start eighth and finish fourth, then that’s a great weekend.
“But if you start on pole and don’t win, you go backwards which is definitely disappointing because it means things haven’t gone your way and you’ve let yourself down. Definitely things have to go your way, but this was just one of those races where it didn’t. I was still there in the fight and I still finished on the podium, so I can’t be too upset with it.”
Hamilton, though, sees no reason why he should change who he is, nor pretend to be someone he is not should things not go his way. “I was disappointed and I don’t feel I should have to disguise that,” he said.
“It’s just that I worked massively hard over the winter, harder than I’ve ever worked, and the result of the race didn’t go the way I wanted it to. But I’m only looking forwards. It’s only one race and I still got 15 points. It’s very early days, another 19 races to go.”
As far as he is concerned, his mood on the podium had nothing to do with the events of last year when he allowed his personal life to affect his racing.
“It wasn’t a reminder of last year at all, it just wasn’t a great start to the season,” said Hamilton, who only awarded himself a “five or six” out of 10 for his race performance. “I started on pole, went backwards, and I’m not happy with going backwards.
“As I’ve said, there were several things that went wrong which were not fully in my control.”
Asked if what happened had dented his confidence at all, Hamilton sternly replied: “We’ll see this weekend won’t we? I thought I performed quite well, although I definitely would have liked to have had my car in a slightly different position set-up wise in the race. But I’ll alter that this weekend so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
The belief is that as the Sepang International Circuit is a fast, flowing circuit it should play to McLaren’s early strengths. However, it has not been a happy hunting ground for Hamilton over the years since finishing as runner-up in his debut campaign in 2007.
Although in the points, Hamilton has finished fifth, seventh, sixth and eighth in the subsequent four years. “I have another chance this weekend and I’m definitely here to do the best I can,” said Hamilton.
“We’ve had some interesting races here. The first was my best, and after that it’s been up and down, so we will see how it goes. But despite what happened to me in Australia there are positives with Jenson winning and we were the dominant team.
“We should be competitive here. I’m sure the Red Bulls will be a little more competitive, but otherwise we should be there in the fight. And if the others pull their socks up then we’ll pull ours even higher.”