mac_d wrote:Clarky wrote:I'm interested to read what people's thoughts as to what he owes F1 are!
I think owe is a funny word in this context as it doesn't really mean what it does normally (to me anyway). He doesn't owe the sport anything in the sense it's a business he turned up and did his job then went home. I usually think in the sports context owing is more acknowleding a gratitude for being able to be in the sport. Hamilton might have ended up a multimillionaire and world famous without it, but I doubt it. So yes, he doesn't owe anything in a strict sense. But in the way that so many sports stars admit they owe a lot to a team or sport, I think he does.
And to go against that is likely his honest feelings and I respect that, but I don't like it.
When evaluating the worth of a sportsman to his sport I reckon the question to ask is:
has he contributed more to the sport than he's taken out? It's a nonsensical question in many ways, the sport itself isn't an entity capable of giving or taking away, but as he's made the link himself.... he's raked in somewhere in the region of $160m in wages and probably half as much again in endorsements, sponsorship, freebies etc. By his own assessment what's he's given back is exposure.
I'd suggest that if he thinks embarrassingly hanging onto Kanye West's coattails at a few awards ceremonies amounts to a quarter of a billion in positive marketing value he's a massive narcissistic moron. Just be grateful your talent was rewarded and don't tell people you're worth it. There are hundreds, thousands, of sportsmen with just as much talent and who worked just as hard, sacrificed just as much. Only a tiny percentage of them have been fortunate enough to be rewarded so richly. Be modest about it. Secondly, there's nothing altruistic about inadvertently gaining marginal exposure for your sport whilst desperately, ceaselessly, promoting
yourself.
I'm a Hamilton fan, at least on the track (as much as I try to avoid that sort of thing). He's the one I generally want to win out of the front runners because I think he's the fastest and because I think people have been unfairly negative about him in the past. But my god he's grown into a wretched phony over the last few years.