The Scot pointed out that other sports use coaches to good effect – highlighting in particular the example of 14-time major championship-winning Tiger Woods in golf – and insisted that in his view there is nothing wrong in seeking out the advice of those more experienced, revealing that in the early days of his own
F1 career, he had bombarded the late, five-time Argentine world champion Juan-Manuel Fangio with questions.
“One of the weaknesses that we've got in our sport, in my opinion, is the lack of training,” the 69-year-old underlined. “This is the only sport that I can think of that doesn't have coaching. If you think about coaching and communication, that's where I think there is a gap [in F1].
“For sure it makes a difference – you have coaches in football, rugby, cricket, golf. Even the great Tiger Woods wouldn't walk ten metres without his coach, yet racing drivers don't need any help at all.
“When you suggest that they might benefit from it, there is a resistance. I don't understand that.
“That (Hamilton and
Nico Rosberg's pit-lane errors in Canada) happened because there was so much distraction going on, so much interference going on in their young heads, that they didn't hear the message ‘The pit-lane's closed, the red light is on'.
“They came into the pits and needed to be talked down mentally. That's where the coach comes in, because the man who talks to him (the driver) should be the man who specialises in good, clear communication.
“Bring in strategy, but bring in strategy where the communication works, where understanding is clear and then the type of things that have happened can be avoided.”
Hamilton, however, gave short shrift to Stewart's argument, telling the
Daily Mail that whilst he appreciated the encouragement from former title-winners such as the sport's three-time world champion as well as British Racing Drivers' President
Damon Hill, he would not go asking for it.
