Irvine slams 'disrespectful' Lewis
Former Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine has slammed Lewis Hamilton for showing “unbelievable disrespect” to McLaren team boss Ron Dennis in their fiery radio exchange during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Hamilton reportedly told his boss to, “Go f****** swivel” after he thought the team had deliberately held him up behind team-mate Fernando Alonso in the pit lane in the closing minutes of qualifying as punishment for him disobeying team orders at the start of the Q3 fuel-burn phase.
The 22-year-old admitted following his victory at the Hunagroring that he had got it wrong and duly apologised to the team for his actions and spoke to long-time mentor Dennis separately about the heated exchange.
However in his column for Virgin Media, Irvine blasts Hamilton for his behaviour towards his team boss and believes the rookie’s 'nice guy' image in the media is starting to wear thin.
“The disrespect Lewis Hamilton showed to Ron Dennis was quite unbelievable in my opinion,” the Ulsterman said.
“Lewis is playing a particularly polished and clever game when it comes to appearing cleaner-than-clean to the media but his arrogance is starting to come out now.
“Success is starting to go to his head and, whilst I challenge any man on the planet in his position not let it do so, the way both he and [Fernando]Alonso are behaving is beyond childish – and the way he behaved in Hungary is beyond belief.”
Irvine was known as Formula 1’s bad boy during his decade in the sport but claims he never disrespected any of his team bosses.
“I have no respect for people who disrespect their team managers and Lewis is rapidly beginning to lose mine,” he said.
“I've had some run-ins with authority in my career and some disagreements with the likes of Eddie Jordan, Niki Lauda and Bobby Rahal, but I've never disrespected anybody and certainly never sworn at anyone over the team radio.”
The four-time grand prix winner also poured scorn on Alonso’s conduct in the McLaren pit box.
Irvine likened the move to his former team-mate Michael Schumacher’s ill-advised collision with Jacques Villeneuve at the title-deciding round of the 1997 season.
“As for Alonso, a two-time world champion should have more brains than he does,” he said.
“To block Lewis like that in qualifying was one of the most stupid things I've ever seen and it reminded me of Michael Schumacher's move on Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez in 1997.
“I can't condone cheating, but if you must do it, there's got to be a subtler way!”
Source: itv-f1
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