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Lee McKenzie on Lewis Hamilton’s emotional Italian roller coaster

Lewis Hamilton is very reactionary and, after writing off the championship to me on camera after the Italian Grand Prix, he has since backtracked.

Although it will be extremely difficult, he says he will give it his all. He does change his mind a lot as his emotions go up and down.

From that point of view he is the exact opposite of Michael Schumacher, who was controlled and calculated and didn’t seem to be at the mercy of his emotions. Fernando Alonso is somewhere in between. His comments on team radio are emotional and frustrated, in interviews he claims nothing is a problem and his tweets suggest he is the next Samurai. Maybe he can be as emotional as Lewis, but just tries to hide it better.

I am not a psychologist, but it struck me that once the damage had been done on Saturday, when Lewis qualified 12th, he couldn’t mentally bring himself back or even accept that he had driven a very good race. It’s a shame. His mind is on the title but now he is even farther from that goal, even though he came into this season with no expectations of Mercedes and yet has scored four podiums and a win. There is some light in the darkness.