Sir
Jackie Stewart has claimed
Lewis Hamilton's ‘over-the-top' manner of late – both on and off the circuit – has cost him the
Formula 1 World Championship lead, and has re-iterated his conviction that the young Briton is in need of a professional driver coach.
Hamilton led the drivers' standings following his flawless Monaco Grand Prix triumph, but failures to score in the following two outings in Montreal and Magny-Cours have subsequently seen him slip back to fourth spot in the table, ten points adrift of new leader
Felipe Massa.
In Canada the 23-year-old calamitously ran into the back of chief title rival
Kimi Raikkonen in the pit-lane, and in France he had to contend with a ten-place grid demotion for the aforementioned misdemeanour, before going on to receive a further penalty for running off-track immediately after passing the
Scuderia Toro Rosso of
Sebastian Vettel.
Stewart – who has previously contended that Hamilton is struggling to replicate his 2007 form this year because he has effectively gone ‘from kindergarten to university overnight' [see separate story –
click here] – is adamant there are lessons to be learned.
“The discipline of not making mistakes is what wins,” the 1969, 1971 and 1973
F1 world champion is quoted as having said by international news agency
Reuters. “To finish first, first you must finish.
“My record was 99 starts and 27 wins, and it wasn't that I was necessarily that fast. It was just that I thought fairly carefully about how you had to go quickly, but you couldn't go over-the-top.
“Drivers shouldn't go over-the-top, even now. The over-the-top thing has probably taken the world championship lead away from Lewis Hamilton right now.”
That being the case, and with Hamilton still having only 25 grands prix under his belt, Stewart advocated the use of a driver coach to help the young Briton to remain calm and think strategically.
