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Monday Debate: Was Lewis Hamilton Right To Ignore Team Orders?

Monday Debate: Was Lewis Hamilton Right To Ignore Team Orders?

He won the race but lost the title.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Lewis Hamilton managed to bring more attention to the F1 World title not winning it than most people could by winning it yesterday, which was some achievement. But was the former champ correct to ignore team orders?

The situation going into the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi yesterday was simple, Hamilton on pole trailed his teammate, Nico Rosberg, in the driver's world championship by 12 points. That meant Hamilton had to win and hope the German finished outside the top three.

Midway through the race, with Rosberg having got past Max Verstappen earlier in the race, it was obvious that as much as Hamilton pulled away to win the race no one was going to catch the man in charge of the title.

So Hamilton slowed right down and let Sebastien Vettel and Verstappen close in on him and Rosberg. It was supposed to give the other men the chance to pass Rosberg. The three time champ's team, Mercedes, got worried that they wouldn't win the race and so twice gave the Brit instructions to speed up.

Knowing that speeding up would give his rival the chance to do the same Hamilton refused not once but twice. The race remained tight but the Red Bull and the Ferrari couldn't make enough ground leaving Rosberg as the champion.

Many complained that Lewis' tactics were disrespectful, dirty and underhanded and refusing team orders was inexcusable so we put it to a vote with a majority backing the 31 year old above his team:


There were those who had the opposite view though, thinking that Hamilton should have listened to Paddy Lowe over the radio and sped up:

Personally I can't see how you could say no. Sure Mercedes pay his wages and of course had the Constructor's title not been won already it might have been a different argument but Hamilton is a world class sportsman, find one who wouldn't have tried to win the world title.

The fact that Vettel chipped in to suggest it was disrespectful was pretty laughable considering the infamous 'Multi 21' run in with Mark Webber and the questionable tactics he employed when battling with the Aussie for the world title.

Hamilton suffered from the fact that F1 lives in a strange paradox where it is both a team sport and not a team sport at the same time. He also suffered from the fact that there is a perception that he's some what of a "cock" or some other expletive, he's just a guy who really wants to win.

Sure Hamilton went against team orders and he should get a punishment, nothing too severe, but he made the last race interesting and exciting and, no matter what you tell yourself, he did what we'd all do and tried to become World Champion!

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