After publicly taking full responsibility for the incident and admitting his disappointment over the failed move, Ham was backed by his team principal Martin Whitmarsh not to change his approach on the 2010 title. Meaning the McLaren boss wants the same aggressive Lewis Hamilton for the remaining 5 races of the season, even if this aggressiveness can sometime lead to failure.
“Lewis is hard on himself. He is striving to be perfect, striving to be the best racing driver in the world, and when you don't something like he did, you regret it. But it is millimetres and centimetres of track position at high speed and high adrenaline that are the difference between hero and zero,” said Whitmarsh after the race.
“That is Lewis Hamilton. He is an aggressive racing driver, who when viewing the slow motion replay from the comfort of an armchair probably wishes he had not done it, and so do we.”
“But that is being a racing driver - and you have to go for it. That is Lewis Hamilton. I don't want to change Lewis Hamilton. I think he is a great product, a great human being and a great racing driver.”
The McLaren boss added that he went to see his racer in his room immediately after the race was over and they had a meaningful conversation about what happened.
“I went in to see him to talk to him. He had time to reflect on it, we discussed what happened and we will learn from it. The important thing is that Lewis jumps out of bed in the morning, gets in to training, focuses on Singapore and wants to do the job there. And he will,” added Whitmarsh.
Hamilton is currently trailing championship leader Mark Webber by 5 points, after heading to the Italian GP with a 3-point advantage over the Australian driver. He will now go to Singapore to defend his win last year.
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