The big debate: Has Hamilton's season hit crisis point?
The 2008 champion has experienced plenty of periods of both glory and strife since he burst onto the F1 scene in spectacular fashion four years ago, but is his current predicament more concerning and left him at something of a crossroads as a disappointing season comes to a close?
We set out the arguments below and, as ever, invite your contributions in the comments section at the bottom.
LEWIS HAMILTON'S SEASON IS IN CRISIS
Lewis Hamilton's current predicament is not a myth created by an evil media or critics who resent his success.
It's a fact obvious to anyone who has glanced at a Formula 1 results sheet in recent months.
His Nurburgring victory is his sole podium finish in the last nine races.
It was a brilliant drive, but it was a rare ray of light amid a litany of misjudgements and calamities, starting with a Monaco weekend of non-stop chaos, and continuing via a clash with team-mate Jenson Button in Canada, the mistake in the damp in Hungary, and his wheel-to-wheel errors in Belgium and now Singapore.
The only recent race in which he hasn't made a mess of things is Italy – and there it was probably purely because his driving of late has been so wild he had spooked himself into a state of tentative muteness.
And that still didn't give him a podium finish.
As his team-mate's driving became ever more desperate, Button has delivered result after result in a masterclass of controlled (and Lewis, that's the key word here...) aggression.
Jenson has had plenty of misfortune and adversity to recover from, but has taken his chances cleanly, at the right time, and as a result he is the only man still capable of beating Sebastian Vettel to the title.
No one doubts Hamilton's speed, or that he is capable of the most stunning of overtaking moves.
Or that at his best, he is the quicker McLaren driver.
But right now, he looks by far the least likely of the pair to ever win a second world title – and that's the aim of the game in Formula 1.Hamilton's fans keep saying that he just needs a win to steady his jitters and get back to his best, but the German Grand Prix triumph was just punctuation to the mayhem, not a solution to it.
Or he just needs to start taking more care about where his wheels are and stop crashing into people...
LEWIS HAMILTON'S SEASON IS NOT IN CRISIS
Lewis Hamilton bashing is one of the most popular hobbies for a section of the F1 fraternity and fanbase, and it rarely has any justification.

Hamilton is a fast, ambitious driver with the talent to dominate this generation.
He's stuck in a car that is allowing him occasional victories, but often leaving him hamstrung.
And all the time has to watch Vettel storming to win after win.
Hamilton is not just a world champion, he's a potential all-time legend, and that's why these wasted seasons provide such acute frustration for him.
A man capable of humbling a mighty talent like Alonso in his rookie season, and winning the title in only his second year in the most heroic of fashion, delivering some of the finest wet-weather wins in F1 history along the way.
His driving at the moment is not wild, it's just a little rough at the edges.
He hasn't been endangering rivals with crazy swerves or zero-percentage moves, he's just had a couple of races where he's slightly misjudged where the extremities of his McLaren are, with costly consequences for his points tally.
But if he really was the whirlwind of chaos his critics are claiming, there would be more than 16 points (barely a third place) between him and his apparently flawless and heroic team-mate Button – but there are not.
Hamilton hasn't lost the plot, hasn't become a menace and isn't being blitzed by Button.
Lewis Hamilton must improve 'mind management' says Sir Jackie Stewart in wake of collision with Felipe Massa
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Lewis-Hamilton-must-improve-mind-management-says-Sir-Jackie-Stewart-in-wake-of-collision-with-Felipe-Massa.html
The 26 year-old was confronted by Felipe Massa after the Singapore Grand Prix following a near miss between the two during qualifying and a collision during the race. Hamilton, clearly upset, cut short his interviews and left the track. The Briton assured his Twitter followers on Monday that he was fine, saying: “Thanks 2 the fans this weekend, the support was incredible. Still got 5 races 2 go and I will give it my all until the end of the season!”
But Stewart, three-times world champion, believes there is a fundamental problem.
“I am a bit confused because he certainly knows how to drive and has a very large amount of natural talent,” Stewart said. “But if [Lewis] is going to be a great driver he cannot have serial incidents. And none of the great drivers ever drove in that fashion.
“The race incident was again uncalled for, so I think he needs to think about his mind-management. Michael [Schumacher] has had the same problem, but all the great drivers, the Fangios, Jim Clarks, Niki Lauda, myself - we didn’t have many accidents.” Neither McLaren nor Hamilton’s management agency, XIX Entertainment, would comment on Monday on accusations made by the driver’s father, Anthony, to the effect that his son lacks support at races.
Anthony Hamilton, who guided Lewis’s career for over 20 years until they split up acrimoniously at the start of last year, suggested on Sunday that Hamilton was lacking a personal touch from his new management team. No one from Hamilton’s new management, Simon Fuller’s XIX group which also has David Beckham and Andy Murray on its books, was present in Singapore.
But it is understood that Hamilton was consulted over that decision and decided himself that he would be fine with McLaren’s support as he was for the whole of 2010. Following Sunday’s race McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh dismissed concerns that Hamilton was not getting enough support from McLaren.
“Lewis is getting plenty of love from the team,” he said. “I’ve known him since he was 11 and there’s affection between us and many other members of the team. “Undeniably this has not been a good year for Lewis Hamilton. He’ll regroup as there are five more races and he’ll try to win them and try to win the championship next year.”
But it is understood that Hamilton was consulted over that decision and decided himself that he would be fine with McLaren’s support as he was for the whole of 2010. Following Sunday’s race McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh dismissed concerns that Hamilton was not getting enough support from McLaren.
“Lewis is getting plenty of love from the team,” he said. “I’ve known him since he was 11 and there’s affection between us and many other members of the team. “Undeniably this has not been a good year for Lewis Hamilton. He’ll regroup as there are five more races and he’ll try to win them and try to win the championship next year.”
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