21/09/2012
NEWS STORY
Mat Coch writes:
While Lewis Hamilton fended off probing questions about his future with a flat refusal to discuss it, McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh simply laughed them off.
Obviously tired of answering the same questions over and over and over again and giving the same, canned responses, at today's FIA press conference Whitmarsh was asked whether his laughing could be taken as a suggestion that he's not taking the Hamilton situation seriously.
It was a 'deer in the headlights' moment as Whitmarsh, team principal of perhaps the most serious and at times sterile teams on the Formula One grid, scrambled for a response. But in that moment his demeanour showed just a glimpse of the frustration he, and no doubt the team as a whole, is faced with as the media refuses to take no for an answer.
The facts have been laid bare; Lewis Hamilton is out of contract at the end of the season and now faces the decision on whether he stays with McLaren or moves to a rival.
The problem is that until a decision and formal announcement is made the speculation will continue, and only get sillier as outlets sink to ever more desperate lows to stir up a headline. When Hamilton said he would not discuss his future with the media because he had nothing extra to say on the matter he was accused of stonewalling the press. That Whitmarsh had the petulance to laugh at the mundane line of questioning which went over and over the same old ground meant he wasn't treating the situation seriously.
Neither Hamilton, nor McLaren can win. Having witnessed the barrage of drivel they both face Hamilton's reaction and attitude is understandable. It is the media that is behaving like school children; that Lewis has not lashed out is commendable.
It does not excuse the mistakes of Belgium, where he took to Twitter to express and demonstrate his frustration, but it at least goes some way to explaining it.
If only it had been Ron up there.
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