Hamilton switches gears after his Twitter trouble

Lewis Hamilton has acknowledged he needs to be more careful when using Twitter in the future.

The McLaren driver found himself at the centre of another furore on the social media site last Sunday when he criticised team-mate Jenson Button after believing his compatriot had unfollowed him.

But the 27-year-old was left red-faced when he realised Button did not follow his Twitter account in the first place, and quickly posted an apology.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The incident came barely a month after Hamilton posted telemetry from his and Button’s qualifying laps at the Belgian Grand Prix on Twitter, leading McLaren to order him to take it down.

He has also posted several crude tweets where he used acronyms in place of explicit words.

The episodes have strained the relationship between the two McLaren drivers, which has been portrayed as generally harmonious despite the inevitable tension of their situation.

The incident does little to help Hamilton as he tries to recover a 42-point deficit to championship leader Fernando Alonso before he begins a new three-year contract with Mercedes from next season.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And Hamilton admits he will need to alter his approach to using the site in future following his latest gaffe.

“Perhaps Twitter and I don’t go together too well. I don’t know what I am going to do,” he said.

“I like it because I like to be able to share the great experiences I have with the fans but it is a fine line. Lots of people get it wrong and I am one of those and I will hopefully try and improve on that.

“I obviously wasn’t in the right frame of mind, but that’s it. Hopefully I won’t do it again.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Hamilton revealed he had apologised in person to Button as the teams gathered for the Korean Grand Prix.

“I just have to put my hands up and say I made a mistake,” he said. “Sometimes we do that in the heat of the moment and you don’t actually mean what you say, but there is nothing I can do. I apologised and that is it, we move forward. I apologised to him, I couldn’t get hold of him on the phone as he had a night out on the Sunday, then he replied to me and then I saw him here today.”

Button, meanwhile, was left bemused by the number of questions he was facing on the topic.

People have their own opinion. For me it’s amazing we are sat here talking about it at a grand prix,” he said. “Lewis came and apologised which was good.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Twitter is good for someone in the public eye as you can give the public an opinion straight from the horse’s mouth.

“Anyone can follow you so you will get positive or negative comments, people with different opinions and it is always going to be the way so you won’t always be happy with everyone’s comments on Twitter. it is the way it is, it’s open to the whole world.

“We all have to do what we think is right. That’s it.”

When asked why he followed future McLaren team-mate Sergio Perez and not Hamilton, he said: “I think we are all allowed to choose who we want to follow. The fun thing about Twitter is you don’t always follow the same people, you can mix and match, follow or unfollow. I see him (Hamilton) every weekend.

“I follow him [Perez] because I purposely wanted to say welcome. That’s the only reason why I followed him. And now I can’t unfollow him. I’m not allowed to do anything on Twitter these days.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel and Alonso are refusing to write off Hamilton’s chances of snatching the world title from their respective grasps.

The Red Bull driver and his Ferrari rival arrive at this weekend’s Korean Grand Prix separated by just four points following Vettel’s win in Japan and Alonso’s failure to finish.

Hamilton lies fourth in the standings, but could have been so much closer had his gearbox not failed while he was leading in Singapore. He has played down his chances of landing his second title before he departs for Mercedes, and needs to turn around a difficult Suzuka weekend, where he finished fifth, if he is to keep himself in the frame over the final five races of the season.

But Alonso and Vettel are not of the opinion that they are locked in a private battle for the championship. Vettel said: “I think they (McLaren) are still fighting for the championship. I think that is their target, or has to be their target.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I think if you look at the races we had after the summer break, so far, if you summed them up, on average I think McLaren was the most competitive car.

“They are the ones which will be very competitive, no matter where we go, at least that’s what the last couple of races showed. I think they still have a good chance.”

Alonso added: “I think it is more difficult for him as it is not only one driver ahead that you need to take some points off.

“We are now two drivers with more or less the same points ahead and he is behind, so for sure the chances for him are a little bit lower. But if we see the form of McLaren and Lewis before Suzuka there is still plenty of time and points to do it, he still has the possibility.”