Planet-F1

Hill warns Lewis: It's a game of cat & mouse

Monday 30th June 2008

Lewis Hamilton is the mouse in the media's game of 'cat and mouse' that it enjoys playing with its sports stars, according to Damon Hill.

Hamilton's place as golden boy of the British media has taken a knock of late with the McLaren driver making one too many mistakes for Fleet Street's peace of mind.

His relationship with the press began to spiral downward when he was heavily criticised for crashing into the back of Kimi Raikkonen's stationary Ferrari in Canada.

That was followed by the Brit sitting down in Thursday's briefly in the build-up to the French GP and saying: "I hear you guys have been writing nasty things."

And nasty it got when he failed to redeem himself in the eyes of the press in France, struggling to find his way back from a ten-grid slot punishment for Canada and earning a drive-through penalty in the process.

However, Hamilton's tentative relationship with the media is nothing new as British drivers of old have also faced their wrath.

"It's a bit like a cat with a mouse, isn't it?' The Guardian reports Hill told Autocar.

"I'm not saying that the cat wants to kill the mouse, but it's a test they put you through.

"It starts with fulsome praise, and before you know it, you've suddenly changed into a national embarrassment."

As for some advice for Hamilton, Hill says: "The real competitor motivates himself. All I wanted to do was achieve the results and you need to ride out what the media is saying about you. That's what Lewis has to do.

"You just have to keep a sense of humour about it, although I must admit I had sense-of-humour failure on many occasions.

"I think Lewis is fully prepared for success and he has that slightly messianic focus in his psychology which spells out that motor racing is his life and what his life means.

"The only potential danger is that he expects there will be nothing but praise.

"That's just not going to happen, and that's quite difficult when one day you're being hailed as the star who can deliver what Britain wants in sporting terms, and the next day people are saying it was all an illusion."