Lewis Hamilton’s management will be at every race in 2012, following criticism that they have failed to support him, leading to a difficult season for the McLaren driver.
Hamilton, who signed with XIX Entertainment in 2011, has defended his management after Bernie Ecclestone criticised them earlier this week for ‘badly influencing’ him into a celebrity lifestyle.
“I think he just fell into a lot of people that I think weren’t good for him. He gets to meet people that probably he wouldn’t have met, and [who] have probably the wrong sort of influence on him,” said the 81-year-old about his new management team.
The 26-year-old responded on Tuesday, placing the blame on himself and insisting that they will attend every race next year to support him.
“I think this year XIX have taken a huge amount of criticism which has been massively unfair and that’s a lot to do with me, my fault really,” he told SpeedTV.
“They’ve wanted to be here every single race, they’ve been nothing but supportive. I control it and I decided not to have them at every race because I wanted to be on my own at some races. For the future I’ll have them at every race,” he confirmed.
“They’ve never ever had any impact on my thought process of how I handle things. I’ve really taken that all on board myself.”
Though Hamilton did admit he could have better utilised their services in 2011.
“This year I’ve not used the resources that I have to the optimum,” he continued. “They’ve been there to help and I’ve not used them when I needed them. But I know that moving forward it will be a successful relationship and partnership. I think they’re fantastic.”
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