Maurice Hamilton
Celebrated Formula One journalist Maurice Hamilton is a regular columnist for Grandprix.com. Previously an award-winning writer for leading British newspapers, including The Observer, The Guardian and The Independent; Grand Prix editor for Racer magazine; editor of the Autocourse Grand Prix annual; and Commentator for BBC Radio 5 Live at grand prix events, Hamilton is also the author of more than twenty books.
Hamilton has been a full-time Formula One journalist since 1977, and has attended over 500 Grand Prix as a working journalist. Maurice also competes regularly as a co-driver in national rally events, and won his class on the 2002 Network Q Rally GB as co-driver to Tony Jardine.
Maurice's column, which appears every Wednesday, was Highly Commended in the 2011 Newpress New Media Awrads.
Maurice Hamilton - Me and my boy
Martin Brundle has described the Le Mans 24 Hours as 'unquestionably, in motor sport, the greatest show on earth'. Martin should know. He won with Jaguar in 1990 and also raced in the French classic with Nissan, Toyota and Bentley. And now he's going back.
Maurice Hamilton - Only in the movies
Just as we were saying how uniformly ugly F1 cars have become, Paul Boggan, a race fan, happened to post this picture on Facebook. Okay, it's from 1976 when race car design did not need to be as tightly controlled as it is today.
Maurice Hamilton - Is testing worth talking about?
The sound of sweet music returns in Spain as F1 testing begins after a mute couple of months following the last Grand Prix of 2011. With the urgent revs of a V8 comes the annual flow of nonsense as the watching media desperately tries to drum up stories from not very much at all. The cars are going round and round. End of.
Maurice Hamilton - Starting standing still
I can't remember my first McLaren F1 launch. And, no; that's not because the power of recall has been dulled by nights in our local pub, the Three Horseshoes. I do remember being at the original small factory in Boundary Road, Woking, in 1981 and having John Barnard, designer of the revolutionary MP4-1, persuade us to pick up a bare carbon fibre chassis to demonstrate just how light this amazing innovation was.
Maurice Hamilton - The art of fibbing
I had afternoon tea with Sir Frank Williams two weeks ago. We had a long chat about his team, past and present; about F1 and how it has changed. Being Sir Frank, the rose-tinted spectacles were kept at a distance. Yes, he does enjoy anecdotes about the good times but his focus is unfailingly on the future.
Maurice Hamilton - Racing oasis in the off-season desert
As I kicked off my sensible shoes last Thursday evening and massaged my feet after a day spent walking the floor of 'Autosport International', it was an appropriate moment to reflect on how what we used to call 'The Racing Car Show' has changed - mostly for the better - during the past few decades.
Maurice Hamilton - Noise at work
This is not a Health and Safety briefing about the perils of excessive noise in your place of work. Quite the reverse, in fact.
Maurice Hamilton - Old Mo's Almanac
A look forward at Formula 1 in 2012.
Maurice Hamilton - Gobshite of the Year
And so, we come to Gobshite of the Year. Just to remind you; a Gobshite is the idea of Hugh Leonard, an Irish playwright who used a column in a Dublin newspaper to distribute his annual awards. Leonard described a Gobshite as being a jackass, often harmless but always hopeless. Actually, 'Jackass' is perhaps too strong a term in most cases here, but you get the general drift.
Maurice Hamilton - Lotus: edging forward in black and gold
More than 40 journalists from the motor industry and motor racing sat round a long table on Monday for an end-of-year lunch with Dany Bahar, the CEO of Group Lotus. This was the second such gathering and, truth be told, some of us didn't expect Group Lotus to get this far.
Maurice Hamilton - Peter Gethin
The death of Peter Gethin on Monday has prompted a flood of tributes, all of which mention somewhere along the line that the Englishman won the fastest and, at the time, the closest race in F1 history.
Maurice Hamilton - Lotus position
I get easily confused. For a second or two on Monday, I did think that Lotus - as in the green and yellow 'real' Lotus - had signed Kimi Raikkonen for 2012. My immediate reaction was: 'Wow! What a way to end a great weekend for this team. There's no stopping them now.'
Maurice Hamilton - The McLaren MP4-12C: in your dreams
I'm not into high-performance road cars for the simple reason that I can't afford one. Sure, I'll stop on the street and admire a passing example; I'll grin rather foolishly if it makes a lusty sound as the driver blips the throttle with his Gucci loafer. But I don't devour every written word extolling the advantage of having 592bhp at 7,000rpm, or 600Nm of peak torque at 3,000 rpm (to quote the McLaren MP4-12C macho minutiae).
Maurice Hamilton - Just not there
I know you shouldn't pay much heed to some of the feckless ramblings you see expressed on forums but I was struck by one comment on the BBC website. Responding to a report on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, a correspondent was of the opinion that Lewis Hamilton simply inherited first place (because of Sebastian Vettel's first lap retirement) and that his drive was 'pretty routine and never really threatened.'
Maurice Hamilton - 'After you.' 'No, I insist; after you.'
Doing my homework for this weekend's Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi, I came across an interesting clip from coverage of last year's race.
Maurice Hamilton - You can't start from there!
In India, 71 per cent of the grid was out of qualifying position. The following official bulletin explains why the well-meaning action of a cloakroom attendant, Mahatma Coat, had unexpected consequences for the starting grid.
Maurice Hamilton - Road to nowhere
As my accountant will confirm, I understand very little about economics. All I know in very broad terms is that we're in a financial mess largely because of irresponsible bankers and the absence of decent legislation to contain their arrogant excesses.
Maurice Hamilton - Dealing with Tragedy
I'll leave it to those who know the facts to comment on the rights and wrongs of the Indycar race at Las Vegas on Sunday. Similarly, I won't claim to have known Dan Wheldon personally. The last time I saw him was in the paddock, chatting with friends during the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The Indy 500 had been less than a month before but you could see that Wheldon's engaging personality was attracting the fans just as much as fresh memories of that fairy-tale victory at the Brickyard.
Maurice Hamilton - Vettel: On the verge of greatness?
Whatever you may think about Sebastian Vettel, surely there can be no argument that he deserves the 2011 title more than anyone else? F1 drivers rarely compliment each other but the generous praise from Vettel's rivals say everything about his emergence as a worthy champion. And possibly a truly great one.
Maurice Hamilton - Pass the hammer, Bob, there's a good chap
Pit stops? Know all about them. Been watching them for years - as the photo proves. I'm the butter-wouldn't-melt-in-the-mouth kid with the schoolboy cap (didn't recognise me without a beard, did you?) peering round the REDeX banner and watching a pit stop during the 1953 Tourist Trophy at Dundrod.
Maurice Hamilton - Patience and priorities
Interesting post-Singapore debate over Lewis Hamilton. Okay! Okay! Don't go away: I know we've been here before. Bear with me because I'm not necessarily referring to Hamilton's questionable incidents; it's the punishment handed down by race stewards advised, on this occasion, by ex-F1 driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
Maurice Hamilton - Spirit of Goodwood
The Goodwood Revival is about sounds, sights and smells, all of which can bring grown men close to tears. With the last international race having been held at Goodwood in 1966, anything up to and including that date is kosher. And I mean anything.
Maurice Hamilton - Leading, but not by example
Martin Brundle wrote a post Italian Grand Prix column, and the former F1 driver-turned-commentator discussed the behaviour of Fernando Alonso when dealing with Sebastian Vettel and, more specifically, the robust tactics employed by Michael Schumacher in his lengthy defence against an attack by Lewis Hamilton.
Maurice Hamilton - Giving something back
The latest video race edit by formula1.com does the usual slick job of summarising the Belgian Grand Prix. There was so much going on that it can't have been easy to distil 44 dramatic laps into 3 minutes 21 seconds.
Maurice Hamilton - Running the risk
"If you have two cars - one is completely safe and the other is bloody dangerous, but the dangerous one is two seconds a lap quicker - you know which one a true racing driver will always choose. It's the FIA's job to make sure they don't get in the dangerous one."
Maurice Hamilton - Very unpleasant reminder
The title signalled an obvious clue of what was to come. 'Grand Prix : The Killer Years' brought tabloid film production to a documentary for BBC Television on F1 in the 1960s and 1970s with, as the sensation-seeking signature suggests, the emphasis on the larcenous nature of the sport at the time.
Maurice Hamilton - Dundrod
You'll have to excuse me if I indulge in a bit of nostalgia this week. We are in the middle of the holiday season and I'm at home in Northern Ireland (as opposed to my adopted home in England) enjoying a few days of doing nothing.
Maurice Hamilton - The Next Newey
I went to Silverstone recently and saw the future of motor sport. But I didn't hear it...
Maurice Hamilton - Race abuse
Grandprix.com has been leaked a copy of the minutes from a Parliamentary Select Committee on F1 Racial Abuse.
Maurice Hamilton - It's the pits
I saw a Grand Prix from a different angle last weekend. And I have to say, despite the apparent attraction, I didn't much enjoy the experience...
Maurice Hamilton - Hot and cold brewing
Grandprix.com has hacked into the minutes of the FOTC (Formula One Tea Council) meeting in the old cafe at Silverstone on Sunday morning...
Maurice Hamilton - Yesterday and tomorrow
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is not simply about the past. If you look hard enough you can find the future, tucked away in marquees and pavilions arranged around the manicured acres of Goodwood House.
Maurice Hamilton - F1 down in the docks
Valencia is a beautiful city with a lot going for it, particularly in the perfect summer heat of late June. Yet you can be there and not have a clue that a round of the F1 World Championship is taking place. Valencia does not embrace its Grand Prix. Perhaps that's because it's down by the docks, in an area that's shabby by comparison with the understated elegance elsewhere.
Maurice Hamilton - The moving picture show
Talk in the UK has been about BBC Television abandoning its coverage when the F1 contract expires at the end of 2013. The story broke in The Sunday Times.
Maurice Hamilton - Making your luck
Funny how things work out. John Button was making his way towards the airport terminal at Nice last week when a large bird dumped on his white jacket.
Maurice Hamilton - Drawing a shaky line in the sand
Who would be Lewis Hamilton? Quite a few of you, if responses on Twitter are anything to go by...
Maurice Hamilton - Good guy; bad guy
Who would be Lewis Hamilton? Quite a few of you, if responses on Twitter are anything to go by...
Maurice Hamilton - The pinnacle of motor sport?
So, how does this work? Fernando Alonso leads the Spanish Grand Prix for 18 laps and then, through no fault of his own, finishes a lap behind the winner. I know that tyre degradation, 2011-style, is supposed to throw a curve-ball, but someone is having a laugh, surely?
Maurice Hamilton - More than a wing and a prayer
The new Silverstone pits and infrastructure are far-removed from the old in every sense. No surprise, then, to have difficulty knowing exactly where you were when negotiating the internal roads en route to Tuesday's opening of The Wing, so-called because of the futuristic shape given to a roof spanning the building's 390-metre length.
Maurice Hamilton - Unhappy returns
The Mercedes GP hospitality area in Turkey laid on cake and a rendition of Stevie Wonder's 'Happy Birthday' to greet the arrival on Saturday of Dr. Dieter Zetsche, the Chairman of Daimler AG. Dr. Zetsche must be aware that his F1 team is holding back a mounting tide of critical comment over Michael Schumacher's progress around the race track.
Maurice Hamilton - Senna revisited
The Curzon cinema in London's Mayfair was chosen for the British premier of 'Senna' on Tuesday evening. Regular readers of this column will know that I was fortunate enough to see the film in Sao Paolo last November. I had not planned to watch it for a second time, but events were to overtake me - and I'm extremely happy that they did.
Maurice Hamilton - Wet feet and no brakes in a Beetle
I didn't see a single racing car over Easter. I mention this because it used to be a given among family and friends that I would never be home during Easter. There was always a race somewhere; usually a Grand Prix. But this year, by taking a break, I was able to muse over some of the crazy schedules of my youth.
Maurice Hamilton - Up Front
Forget, for a moment, the tactics and the tyres and the manic 97 minutes of racing in China. For me, the funniest and most easily understood split second of truth occurred just after the finish. It came courtesy of Mark Webber.
Maurice Hamilton - Too much, too soon?
Early days, I know, but just where is F1 heading in 2011? Opinion is polarised. There are those who think the new technology and resulting strategy is something to behold and get their teeth into. Others say F1 has become far too complex and, whisper it, false.
Maurice Hamilton - Statue of limitations
The hastily convened FIA sub-committee (Statues and Erections) was late starting due to the Ferrari representative downloading the latest remix of O mio babbino caro onto his iPod. "Puccini," he said, dreamily.
Maurice Hamilton - Morning after the weekend before
Four times I'd waited for a tram at Middle Park station, just beside Gate 1 at Albert Park circuit. Four times I'd failed to notice a neat little cafe on the platform. That's because Tram Cafe had been boarded up and locked down for the Grand Prix weekend. Your average race fan is not the sort of clientele that would appreciate this bijou coffee shop trading on a normal day to young couples sipping their lattes and cappuccinos on the back veranda and gazing across the pastures of this extensive park.
Maurice Hamilton - Stop Go
Melbourne has a lot of things going for it, but the pit lane is not one of them. According to team members who care about these things, it is the second-most cramped pit lane in the season. When you watch the race on Sunday, take a look at how close the cars are to each other should neighbouring teams make their pit stops at the same time.
Maurice Hamilton - The Way It Was
Pirelli has finished pre-season testing. The final running was carried out at Barcelona, and the track was damp at times and allowed running on intermediates; a crucial experience for the teams as they attempted to find the cross-over between dries and wets when the track is at that inbetween stage. Better to discover that now rather than during a race when a wrong call could make the difference between winning and losing. Makes sense, doesn't it?
Maurice Hamilton - IQ Zero
Mirelli (Ireland) has introduced an innovative scheme to spice up the mundane life of the ordinary motorist while, at the same time, boosting tyre sales, getting rid of unwanted stock and amusing the unemployed hanging around street corners.
Maurice Hamilton - Stock Markets and Soup
Time can play tricks, but I'm pretty sure I've got this right. According to my 1985 diary, on Thursday 24 January I've written 'Williams'. I'm prepared to bet, even though this was a low-key event for a handful of British motor sport journalists, the date marked the start of a trend in F1 public relations.
Maurice Hamilton - Those in the know
The postponement of the Bahrain Grand Prix has ended a raft of rubbish from writers who ought to know better.
Maurice Hamilton - Identity crisis
Burl J. Moneymaker adjusted his hairpiece and winced as the phone rang yet again. Even allowing for his clever St. Valentine's Day promotion 'The back of a F-150 makes it easy to get a leg over', February was usually a quiet period for sales in this rural auto dealership...
Maurice Hamilton - All about the passion
It took no longer than an hour, maybe less. Once the terrible news of Robert Kubica's accident had been digested, Twitter began to ask why Renault should allow their Number 1 driver to go rallying just as the F1 season is about to start...
Maurice Hamilton - Waxing lyrical
Motor sport officials are believed to have sent an undercover agent to the last week's launch of the 2011 Ferrari in the hope of catching a glimpse of Fernando Alonso's legs...
Maurice Hamilton - Monte Magic
Alex Caffi needed to find his spectacles in order to read the Monte Carlo Rally results sheet. Even then, the 46-year-old could hardly believe what he was seeing as he studied the positions after Special Stage 6, the fiercesome 15-mile climb over Col de Gaudissart.
Maurice Hamilton - Caught Short
Mikhail Aleshin almost missed the final round of the 2010 Formula Renault 3.5 Championship at Barcelona last October when he became locked in a toilet. Members of the Carlin team had to use a crowbar to get him out...
Maurice Hamilton - Champions Forever
Apparently, nostalgia can be classified as a medical condition. In which case, I picked up the virus the other day when someone sent me a link to a wonderful Formula 1 film made in 1973.
Maurice Hamilton - Gobshite of the Year
The moment has come to discuss the Gobshite Awards for 2010. Trouble is, there aren't many candidates - and that says a lot about one of the more harmonious F1 seasons in recent years.
Maurice Hamilton - What's in a name?
Colin Chapman died of a heart attack 28 years ago this Thursday. The founder and genius behind Lotus loved a good fight but you have to wonder just what he would have made of the current tug-of-war over the Lotus name in Formula 1, a messy dispute that will turn nasty before it's finished.
Maurice Hamilton - Release from Penury
Following the example set by F1 teams with their gushing press releases announcing a subsidiary sponsor supplying vital services such as embossed toilet tissue, a small racing team based in Dublin has issued its first communique.
Maurice Hamilton - Warr Stories
Peter Warr had a habit of pushing his heavy-rimmed spectacles further up the bridge of his nose and looking you in the eye. If he then said in stern fashion: "Look, Chap; I have to say..." it was likely you were in for a bollocking.
Maurice Hamilton - Another World
British television last week ran a documentary on James Hunt and Barry Sheene. This juxtaposition of sporting lives brought home just how much has changed since Hunt and Sheene won their titles during the glorious summer of 1976. If the British heroes tried to conduct their cavalier lifestyles now as they did then, Tiger Woods would not be alone in fighting a desperate rear-guard action demanded by commercial imperatives. Or would he?
Maurice Hamilton - Institute of Advanced F1 Motorists
Michael was becoming distracted by the lights on his steering wheel and didn't know how to adjust the brightness, so we had to explain it to him over the radio...
Maurice Hamilton - Memories of Senna
Twenty-five years ago this week, I had my first interview with Ayrton Senna. It was in the kitchen of a modern detached house he and fellow countryman Mauricio Gugelmin were renting in Esher, a wealthy southern suburb of London.
Maurice Hamilton - Flaunting Credentials
The mention of Love Hotels in last week's column brought a reminder that the Hungarians were actually ahead of the, as it were, game in 2000. They did it for real by establishing a rowdy place known as 'Erotik Camping' at the foot of the hill as you left the Hungaroring.
Maurice Hamilton - F1 Love Inn
A worrying trend has been set by South Korea offering Love Hotels as accommodation for F1 people. The British Racing Drivers' Club has issued the following advisory note to owners of hostelries within a 50-mile radius of Silverstone.
Maurice Hamilton - Bursting The Bubble
F1 personalities were asked for their opinion on Lewis Hamilton being given a Messerschmitt bubble car for the drivers' parade at Suzuka.
