Williams’ Nico Rosberg has given his vote of support to his old friend and adversary Lewis Hamilton as the April 29th FIA hearing into McLaren and Hamilton lying to the stewards comes into view.
People are openly talking here in the Bahrain paddock about the possibility that McLaren may face a similar punishment to the one Honda received for it’s fuel tank irregularity, namely a two race ban. This could include Spain and Monaco, if it were to come into immediate effect.
Rosberg said that he didn’t know the details of the case but, as one of Hamilton’s oldest friends in the paddock, was keen to stick up for his character.
“I feel for Lewis, it’s not a nice situation, ” he said. “Lewis is not a liar, I know him very well and he’s a very honest person. It’s very unfortunate.”
Hamilton has again gone silent as far as the media is concerned. Angry about stories in the papers last weekend that he and the team had fallen out, he’s keeping out of view, with only a brief appearance after practice tomorrow afternoon on his media schedule.
Meanwhile Rosberg reckons that the form book will return to how it was pre-Shanghai, with Brawn fastest, from Toyota, Red Bull and Williams with the rest behind. He says that Shanghai was an anomaly,
“You can neglect Shanghai completely. Everything was messed up. It wasn’t about how quick your car was it was about how well your car made the tyres work. Some cars for reasons that are nt known to any engineer in F1, made those tyres on that specific track.
“The cars don’t have to be better they just made the tyre work. Red Bull is the best example, they’ve always got the tyres working there and look at Buemi, he was in the top ten and he won’t be here.”
He accepted that Williams has so far not fully delivered results to match its pace
“Points wise we’re not where we deserve to be but not far off either, we are the third or fourth best team. It’s not gone that well, there have been some difficult races, we’ve made some mistakes as a team. Things will come our way again. This is a track which suits our car and the performance level will be similar to Malaysia.”
allenonf1.wordpress.com 
Off topic, but bye-bye budget?
http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=37646
Yes but he did lie on this occasion, for whatever reason.
Lewis’ general personality does not matter in this case. The fact is that he lied to the stewards in Australia. This lie could have been a product of irrational thinking because he just finished the race and was tired or as he claims was ordered by david ryan to do it.
The problem is he lied again in malaysia. Lewis had a week to think about what he said to the stewards in Australia but he chose to stick to his original story. This second lie will not and should not exonerate him from sanctions. His act of sticking to his story in Malaysia showed a deliberate and intelligent intent to lie. Bad faith on the part of Lewis Hamilton is clear beyond any reasonable doubt.
Lewis Hamilton is the reigning world champion and the superstar of the mclaren f1 team. There is no way he can claim that anyone in the team has such an influence on him that he has no other choice but to follow his orders no matter how wrong it is and thus he was compelled to lie.
Getting rid of david ryan and the retirement of ron dennis clearly is a legal maneuver of mclaren so that the WMSC cannot compel them to testify at the hearing. This move by mclaren in reality is obstruction of justice. They are deliberately hiding evidence and in the end it is possible that Lewis Hamilton will be the one who will get severely punished as no evidence is needed against him cause he already confessed and apologized on tv.
Maybe this is why Anthony Hamilton is angry at mclaren, because the ultimate fall guy will be lewis.
– I like Rosberg because he speaks his mind. Maybe Frank Williams does not demand that he maintain a certain persona to appease his sponsors.
They should get a 2 race ban as per Honda…
This is a touching demonstration of friendship by Rosberg, but it doesn’t change facts. Someone in McLaren ordered Hamilton to omit certain details when he spoke with the stewards, and Hamilton complied with those orders. That’s lying, and that means Hamilton has been a liar at least once. One must question McLaren management’s risk assessment skills when what the team stood to gain is weighed against the possible costs of such actions.
The attempts by various parties to make the McLaren team management look like the only offender only made matters worse. Hamilton could have refused to comply with such orders but he did not refuse. Therefore, Hamilton is also culpable. Hamilton’s skill as a driver is undeniable, but he has much to learn about the rest of the business, and make no mistake, it IS business.
This must be the nadir of the existence of what was once a fine team, as well as one of my personal favorites for many years.
[Quote]One must question McLaren management’s risk assessment skills [/Quote]
There was no risk assesment, it was like an episode of “The Thick of it.” Panic, hands not talking to each other, running in small circles, more panic, then disbelief, “Who said what, when, to whom?”
Then realisation, damage control but without proper thought or planning, which backfired in a spectacular fashion. Total cockup compounded by incredibly bad decision making.
Umm… didn’t Buemi finish 7th in Australia after starting 13th? Not top 10 in qualifying but not far off. At least he goes forwards in races Nico! 🙂
[…] Rosberg backs his mate: “Lewis is not a liar” – James Allen on F1 "People are openly talking here in the Bahrain paddock about the possibility that McLaren may face a similar punishment to the one Honda received for it’s fuel tank irregularity, namely a two race ban. This could include Spain and Monaco, if it were to come into immediate effect. […]
Nice to see Rosberg speaking his mind – wonder where he gets that from 🙂
Cant agree with him on williams form though, looked to me like they had fallen behind alonso’s renault with its hastly bolted on diffuser. Cant believe they wont get more out of it this weekend either = williams 5th fastest team.
As a Ferrari fan, I am not particularly a fan of Lewis and infact, I was happy every time he made a mistake, but not this time.
I think Lewis and Macleran had been treated very unfairly and they made a big fuzz out of nothing. To be fair, if you look at the footballers, they all dive for a penalty kick or two and its the referee’s job to make a decision on run time. You don’t see them checking the videos AFTER the match and change the results.
F1 shouldn’t be any different because its only a show at the end of the day. At least, its FIA’s responsibility use all the information they have (such as radio transcripts etc) and make a decision.
We have seen enough people losing their jobs and we certainly don’t want to see certain Maclaren’s employees losing the job because of this small issue.
If I remember correctly, Montaya brake tested in Monaco 2005 to Ralf and there were a few cars crashed. So ‘not so big name” driver made a mistake or something, nobody seems to care too much about it.
If someone with exceptional talent (like Lewis or Schumacher) does something like footballers’ diving, everybody jump on them. Perhaps, its their talent that makes people hate them.
The FIA did it’s job. They immediately punished lewis after he was found to be lying. Now, what is under trial is the team, as lewis stated he was ordered by dave ryan to lie. This is totally different from what has happened on track. Any team that acts in bad faith brings the sport into disrepute. The FIA are not being arbitrary, they are giving mclaren their day in court. All the FIA did was file charges. You will notice all the press coming from this is from mclaren themselves. Apart from making public the charges brought against mclaren the FIA never made press statements about the issue.
Mclaren are making so much drama on this issue. They are trying to clear their name by indirectly discrediting the FIA. The truth can never be hidden, it will come out soon. The more someone tries to hide the truth the more severe he should be punished. I hope mclaren will come clean so as to get them some leniency from the FIA.
So Britney thinks that Hamilton isnt a liar.. But he did lie. What about that? And Trulli nearly quit F1 because of it. Luckily Hamilton got caught. What a stupid comment from Rosberg.
Lovely blog! Thanks for the useful information.