Bernie Ecclestone has expressed his concern over the way Lewis Hamilton approached the 2011 F1 season, believing the McLaren driver was misguided and mixed with the wrong people. For the first time, the Champion of 2008 was managed by a professional show business company instead of father Anthony.
Following a disagreement with his father, Hamilton signed up with XIX Entertainment, run by Simon Fuller and which also looks after the careers of football’s David Beckham, tennis star Andy Murray and pop star Jennifer Lopez to name just three. Father Anthony is now concentrating on the motorsport careers of Force India's Paul di Resta and karting World Champion Nyck de Vries.
“I think he had some personal problems during the year which affected him quite a lot,” FOM head Ecclestone told The Guardian of Hamilton, whose year included a somewhat public separation from pop star girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger. “It depends an awful lot on the people you surround yourself with and who are in a position to influence you.
“I think he just fell into a lot of people that I think weren't good for him; obviously it didn't suit Lewis…I think he didn't appreciate how much help his dad was. I think it's a disaster. He gets to meet people that probably he wouldn't have met and have probably the wrong sort of influence on him. He's at the age, perhaps, and he has the amount of money where when he's influenced and he can carry things through which he wouldn't normally have done.”
Ecclestone admits that Formula 1’s ability in attracting celebrities can have the wrong effect on drivers, such as when rapper Ice-T was invited into the garage by Hamilton.
“It's our fault because we tend to encourage celebrities,” Ecclestone continued. “It's good - not so much for those of us who get our hands dirty, but for all the sponsors who turn up with their guests and like to say, 'Oh, we saw whoever it was.' They forget they've come to watch Formula 1. The difference is that we can handle them because we're not directly involved. He (Hamilton) sees somebody like that and he admires the guy, so he'll start copying what they're up to a little bit.”
After rediscovering his form and winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which followed his and McLaren’s only pole position of 2011 in Korea, Hamilton has promised a new and reliable approach en route to challenging for next year’s crown.
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