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Lewis Hamilton's clash with Fernando Alonso on the first lap of the 2022 F1 Belgian GP drew a rather angry reaction from the Spaniard. Part of Alonso's rant on his team radio was accusing the Mercedes driver of only knowing how to race at the front.
The Spaniard faced a lot of backlash for it from the Hamilton fan brigade but a rather interesting retort was from Martin Brundle. In his weekly column for Sky Sports, the former F1 driver-turned-commentator took aim at Alonso, calling his words 'an error of judgment'. He further went on to call Hamilton 'one of the cleanest drivers' in the history of the sport. In his weekly column, Brundle said:
“Fernando’s radio comments, albeit fuelled by anger and adrenaline, about Lewis only being able to win from the front were in my opinion wholly inaccurate and unfair. Lewis is one of the fairest and cleanest drivers in the history of F1, he hasn’t needed to resort to too many professional fouls given his relentless speed.”
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Having said that, if one looks at it close enough, there is a pattern that dents the 'Clean Driver' narrative that has been plastered on the Mercedes driver all this time.
Hamilton's clash with Fernando Alonso has opened up a debate that defies the claims we tend to see during F1 coverage all this time. The debate is whether Lewis Hamilton's 'Cleanest Driver' narrative has been dented by his collisions in recent years.
Lewis Hamilton's history of collisions in the last few years
Fernando Alonso's anger at Lewis Hamilton in Spa was justified in a way. The collision was egregious and for Alonso, these moments of fighting for P2 do not come often. A damaged car from the clash would have destroyed his hopes of a strong result on Sunday.
If that had happened, the Spaniard would not have been as gracious to Hamilton as he was after the race. He would have doubled down and demanded a penalty for the Mercedes driver in the next race. Regardless, what the crash has revealed is a pattern of collisions that Hamilton has had in the last few years.
Last season’s clash with Max Verstappen at the F1 British GP sent the Red Bull driver flying into the gravel for a 51G impact. In the 2020 F1 season, Alex Albon's victory charge was thrown into the gravel after the Red Bull driver was punted off the track by Hamilton. In the 2019 F1 season, it was once again Hamilton colliding with Albon that took away the Red Bull driver's first-ever podium result.
The Thai-British driver had rather infamously called Hamilton "a sore loser" in 2020 as the Mercedes driver was penalized for his crash.
In the last three years, if a driver has been called out for his driving standards twice by his compatriots, can he be considered "one of the cleanest drivers on the grid"? If that is the benchmark we're going by then more than half of the grid would fall in that category.
Ghosts of the past make you question the 'cleanest driver' image even more
Lewis Hamilton's career was transformed in 2014 when Mercedes aced the new regulations. With a dominant car at his disposal, fights in the midfield became scarce. With that being the case, the driver did not have to fight in the midfield pack and hence the collisions decreased drastically.
With Hamilton's career spanning more than 15 years, many fans have either not seen or forgotten the phase when he was a McLaren driver. While the Briton was still a very high caliber driver, looking at his career during that time does not shout 'cleanest driver' on the grid.
For instance, the 2011 F1 season, arguably one of the worst seasons of Lewis Hamilton's career, saw the then-McLaren driver called by the stewards a whopping 14 times! The driver was penalized 7 times by the stewards, one of them for weaving on the straights, and had two reprimands to add to it. That's not a description you would want to associate with the 'Cleanest Driver on the grid' now, do you?
It wasn't limited to the 2011 F1 season only as Hamilton would often get tangled here and there, something that could happen while driving in the midfield.
Lewis Hamilton is not a dirty driver!
At this point, let's get one thing straight: Lewis Hamilton is not a dirty driver! He's a really good driver, one of the elites of the sport, and when it comes to skills, he belongs to the top echelon. In terms of fairness, there's nothing wrong with the way he goes about his racing and he should be a model that young drivers try to emulate.
Having said that, Lewis Hamilton is not the 'Cleanest Driver on the Grid'. It's a debate for another day to pick who is the cleanest, but a driver that has been called out twice for his driving in the last three years and has a history of questionable behavior on track is certainly not one.
F1 is a sport of narratives. 'The Greatest', 'The Fastest', 'The Best', or 'The Cleanest' are just some of the many that have been brought up. It's safe to say that not all of them that get propagated by F1 pundits are true or objectively verified.
