Post-race Hat toss and Paddy's Face

[Ryan Soucy]

I thought the hat toss was humorous, but then the camera turned and you saw Paddy Lowe's death stare at Nico! Priceless. Its the face I give my kids when they do something I just told them not to do in public. Its a looks that says "wait until we get home..."

 

[Chris]

Yeah I remember seeing that look. Wow. Wouldn't wanna get in Paddy's bad books.

 

[Peter Klawitter]

good throw though I have to say and Hamilton could have been more polite in the first place throwing the hat to Rosberg...I would have actually thrown it at his face! what a douchebag move from Hamilton, shows the little respect he has for other drivers let alone his team mate! (u are winning anyways, given the better car by the team, have team orders on your side, pushed Rosberg out in US GP...a little respect would be nice!) don't get me wrong here, i like Hamilton, wonderful socialy "active" person and great driver! but sometimes he really behaves like a 15 year old, no manners and no respect.

*as for Paddy: should say something to both drivers, death stare or whatever the **** he is trying there...useless, since both drivers were out of line. bottom line!

 

[Blkout]

good throw though I have to say and Hamilton could have been more polite in the first place throwing the hat to Rosberg...I would have actually thrown it at his face! what a douchebag move from Hamilton, shows the little respect he has for other drivers let alone his team mate! (u are winning anyways, given the better car by the team, have team orders on your side, pushed Rosberg out in US GP...a little respect would be nice!) don't get me wrong here, i like Hamilton, wonderful socialy "active" person and great driver! but sometimes he really behaves like a 15 year old, no manners and no respect.

*as for Paddy: should say something to both drivers, death stare or whatever the **** he is trying there...useless, since both drivers were out of line. bottom line!

There was nothing wrong with a hat toss, especially among people that should be friends and/or peers. People are only scrutinizing the hat toss because it appears that Nico was upset when it happened. If you watched the broadcast on TV, not even 30 seconds before the hat toss happened, Lewis came into the cool down room and Nico hugged him and congratulated him and Nico didn't look visibly upset at all. Then he sat down in his chair and his facial expression started to change, at which point Lewis was just tossing a hat as he likely would to any of his friends if he was in a room with them. It was really poor taste of Nico to throw it back. At the very least, he could have just put the hat down or dropped it to his side. Its pretty clear to me that most F1 drivers feel that Nico is a bit of a sore loser by the way they treat him. Even Seb seems to get along better with Hamilton than Nico and they are much great rivals in my opinion.

 

[Ryan Soucy]

Even Seb seems to get along better with Hamilton than Nico and they are much great rivals in my opinion.

I feel that too, which is very odd at the pinnacle of F1. We'll see next year when (or if) Ferrari keeps improving and they're head to head more.

 

[Turk]

It seems clear Hamilton won the mind games long before he won the championship. All year Nico has been quick to snap and take up everything Hamilton says as a direct insult against him. There have a been a few times in interviews where someone's asked him for a comment on something Hamilton said and he's taken it up as an insult and reacted badly.

It wouldn't surprise me if behind the scenes Hamilton has been running a campaign of winding Nico up and getting in his head. I don't see anything wrong with that, it's all part of the professional sports game. Drivers like Nico and Hamilton are perfectionists. It's often not about who's better at driving but who cracks and makes the first mistake. So getting under the other guy's skin is a legitimate way of forcing those mistakes.

Nico has the skillset he just doesn't have the mindset. You can see in Hamilton that he has that believe in himself now, it's going to be very hard for anyone to unsettle him (only his car can do that now). Nico needs to stop letting Hamilton get under his skin, he probably feels like everything (including his team) is working against him and for Hamilton, the more he feels like that the worse he's performances will be.

Nico needs to get his head straight before the start of next year.

Although the drama between the two has been probably the highlight of the last two years of F1.