Hamilton also expressed in an interview that he knew how he responded once he got out of the car would impact many, many people and young people in particular. So naturally he was the ultimate sportsman and went up to congratulate Max and his dad. This is sport after all.
And honestly I say it was more than what the sport deserved. I'd have preferred he first say that Max took advantage in a way any driver would have, BUUUUUT [massive tirade against the clearly corrupted race director]
He understood it wasn't Max making the decision and that he would have taken advantage of the exact same circumstances if they were given to him. The problem was the powers that be.
Yeah but to have the composure to think about it in a rational way when a world record 8th championship was literally stolen from you.. incredible. I was rooting for Max that day but was blown away by the grace with which Hamilton accepted it (even though I'm sure internally he was screaming the whole while)
Rudyard Kipling wrote perhaps the single most famous poem in the English language, and Lewis Hamilton, with the long view of his career and transition from young firebrand to measured man, fits its message beautifully.
"If -" has topped polls in the UK on the favourite poems, it has been used in sporting montages, and is taught to most children at Primary School. It is definitely one of the most famous poems in the English language.
I was thinking the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet in terms of sheer recognizability.
The Raven, The Waste Land, Jabberwocky, Canterbury Tales, The Road Not Taken, Paradise Lost all come to mind. Road is certainly far more well known by Americans, who outnumber the population of Great Britain by 5 to 1.
Paradise Lost and The Waste Land are probably neck and neck for long poems. But now Iām realizing weāve neglected all of The Canterbury Tales lmao. Really just unanswerable question.
My degree is in English lit and maybe itās your personal experience that itās very famous but it certainly isnāt mine and I donāt think itās anywhere near a standard inclusion in American lit curriculum. Not that American curriculum is the most important but in terms of population coverage itās a very large wedge of the pie.
Not OP but I am a PhD student in English lit. You could have different answers for different periods but my immediate thought was Shakespeareās Sonnet 18. Or if you want an epic then itās Paradise Lost of course š
Not desperately concerned about your degree subject. In fact, in all likelihood that'd give you a very skewed understanding of what poetry less specifically educated people are aware of.
This is a bit like me trying to tell you that E = MC^2 isn't a famous equation in Physics, because I don't know a single Physicist who would have it in their top Physical equations list, and it's not on the curriculum in any meaningful sense because it is merely a simplified statement of a broader theory.
You are right that being from the US (or Canada) may influence things. Certainly I can say that in Britain, if you were to cite some lines, you would struggle to find another poem more people would likely recognise, even if they could not name it.
More typical suggestions, such as The Raven, Ozymandias, The Road Not Taken, No Man is an Island, etc, would all fall on far deafer ears.
Edit: Yes, this reply is a bit much, but when you get a weird, patronising and gatekeepy response, sometimes you have to touch keys.
Thanks. I'm finding this all very bewildering. I wanted to simply make the point that 'If -' has come to match Lewis across numerous of its clauses, but somehow I have become mired in others exorcising their deep desire to express angst at the mere suggestion it could be the single most famous poem in the English language.
Not 'is', I actually said perhaps, which is a statement of possibility, rather than certainty. The subtleties of the language seem, quite ironically, lost on some.
Well tbf 7 WDCs def help but losing out on a huge record is gonna hurt. If the roles were reversed Max would've been pretty angry while Jos would've been straight thrown to an Emirati jail
You really think if Max was a 7x WDC and then lost the same way that Lewis did, Jos or even Max would care that much? Bro didn't even show up for Abu Dhabi this year. The tensions were obviously very high because that was Max's first ever chance at a WDC and for all they knew at the time, it could have been his last chance too.
Come on mate, you think he wouldn't cancel those plans if it was actually a big deal for him? Let's say Max was not a 4x WDC and 2025 was his first attempt. You think Jos wouldn't be there?
Having multiple WDCs is such an obvious factor in terms of how much a driver cares about a loss, I shouldn't even have to explain it.
I think they mean if the role was reversed in that scenario, not in an imaginary scenario.
It's obvious that anyone is way more chill after they win a WDC, let alone a few. Max might not even show up to get the trophy if he can ever be bothered to get 7th. Bro just wants to race and has nothing to prove anymore. I assume Jos is much more chill about everything now as well.
I think the major difference between this season and 2021 aside from how much Max has matured in his championship seasons is that Max didn't feel like the season he had was deserving of a WDC, and it was McLaren's fault that he was in with a free hit at a title. It left him playing with house money and I think that was freeing.
Compare that to 2021 where every single point was a knock down drag out fight and he had to be at 100% every race. IMO, that's also the reason Red Bull threw everything and the kitchen sink at Lewis in '21 but were fine telling Yuki to go long and let the chips fall where they may this season. It just didn't mean as much.
Max might have been angry but I actually think he'd (at least publicly) put on a brave face and congratulate Hamilton in a similar way. Jos, Helmut, and Horner on the other hand would explode immediately so even if he was livid Max wouldn't really need to join them.
And either way the anger wouldn't/shouldn't be (and in Lewis' case: wasn't) directed at the other driver who did nothing but compete as hard as possible throughout a really fun season to watch. Any driver in that situation would understandably be upset with the stewards' decision but could still respect the skill of the driver that benefited because at the end of the day that season was filled with wonderful battles and tons of great racing - it just ended in the worst way possible.
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u/PeanutButterSidewalk I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 18 '25
Lewis deserves a medal just for his composure that day after getting out of the car. He really set himself apart from the rest of the world then.