[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by BlueFreedom

Hoping we have a 2-3 way race for WDC and Leclerec wins the WDC in the last race

man that would be mindblowing

The season is already a sell out, if this is what it culminates into - will be a mega Motörhead fest!

[saats07]

For me the best part of the race was Sebs recovery.
The way he recovered after going into run off area left me speechless. He lost only 2 positions and ended in 6th position.
Had he not misjudged it he would surely be in P4 or P5.

[Johnnny]

Somehow I still reckon that Kimi would be still the last World champion from Ferrari garage if these reliability issue continues.

[adhil412166]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

Did anyone notice any issue which caused his stop to be so long.

I believe Checo's delayed pit stop was because the front jack got jammed or something of that sort. I distinctly remember Crofty mentioning it in the live commentary.

Originally Posted by saats07

The way he recovered after going into run off area left me speechless.

I agree. That flick spin was amazing. If you also noticed, his rear wing goes extremely close to the Tec-Pro barriers when he spins the car. Not sure if he got lucky, or if he calculated it...

[ZenMaster]

Originally Posted by Mik

If i miss a race/QF, i keep off the known devils - Youtube and google feeds and then watch the replay of the race on Hotstar. They generally upload it a few hours after the race has ended. You need to search for "formula" to really get there though. Can't seem to figure out Hotstar UI.

Formula 1 is under the Sports section. Usually Cricket, Football etc are the ones visible immediately. But if you swipe right Formula 1 will be visible.

[CR07]

Well I am new F1 follower and would like to know this-

I have seen Lewis Hamilton and his fans give excuses for his poor performance this season. Sometimes something is wrong with car, sometimes it's his back ache and the likes. But George Russell (a complete newbie to Mercedes)is (probably) driving the same car yet outclassing Hamilton in every race ! Is it like till date Hamilton has been a great driver, just that Mercedes has been ruthless in providing him the best car on the track for all his (7?) Championship victories? Now that they have a equally great driver and other competitors have caught up , the way Hamilton obtained the 7 driver's championship is getting exposed?

Can someone please explain this ?

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by CR07

Can someone please explain this ?

Oh boy, you're going to cause riots.

Is Hamilton a terrific driver? Yes
Is he the GOAT? Maybe not
Has Mercedes' car superiority played a role in his championships? Yes
Is Mercedes' car superiority the only reason he won those championships? No

Go back a few years when Vettel and Hamilton were locked in for the Championship, and look at how Vettel squandered away winning positions. Hamilton is without doubt a top driver.

Having said that, looks like Hamilton hasn't really got a hang of this year's car. That seems to be a thing. How well drivers do seems to have a lot to do with how well they "understand" the car.

Despite what they say, every team does have a subtle no. 1 and a no. 2 driver. Do they get wildly different cars? Unlikely. But 1-2s or consecutive finishes aren't common. Look at how differently Norris and Ricciardo finish each race. Same as Bottas and Hamilton earlier. Russell isn't significantly better than Bottas to cause such a big difference in fortunes.

So, it's the car, and the driver's tuning with the car, along with the driver skills to begin with.

[Red Liner]

Drivers who are fantastic but haven't gotten a hold of this years regulations and car:

1. Carlos Sainz
2. Daniel Ricciardo
3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Latifi - not fantastic but whatever
5. Mick Schumacher
6. And dare I say it, Checo has managed it just slightly better than Max.

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by CR07

Can someone please explain this ?

Libran has explained things very well, let me add a wee bit.

Every time there is a rule change the team that gets it right from the get go, normally rules. No driver has won the drivers championship without a great car or the best car. It’s always a combination of both.

Coming to Hamilton, if only statistics are brought into the picture then he may be considered the greatest of all time. It’s much more complex than that, different times since F1 started have had cars which were unsafe and extremely difficult to drive. Nowadays Formula 1 cars are among the safest in the world. Hamilton is not being able to extract the best from this car the way it is that’s why he is lagging behind. He is an extraordinary talent, that much there can be no doubt due to his achievements.

Age also plays a factor, Russell is much, much younger and more used to driving a difficult car because of his time at Williams. Russell also seems an extraordinary talent, though how much and how he will eventually compare to Hamilton only time will tell. Currently he is the runaway leader, points wise for Mercedes.

The back pain issue could also be exaggerated like Horner (Red Bull) says to force the relevant authorities to make some rule change on the basis of safety which will help Mercedes most among others and be detrimental to Red Bull and Ferrari because they have got it right.

Interesting times for us watching all the drama unfold.

Cheers

[am1m]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

So, it's the car, and the driver's tuning with the car, along with the driver skills to begin with.

Could also be that Hamilton with his experience realized quite early that there was no way he would be fighting for a championship with this year's car, so he's been easing off (by a top F1 driver's standards) a bit. F1 drivers are very professional, they give it everything of course, but I think they sensibly hold back when they know there is no chance. Which makes perfect sense. At Hamilton's level, anything less than another championship really doesn't make sense going all out to get. Russel on the other hand has everything to gain and sometimes that is the difference.

I'm not saying Hamilton is deliberately throwing it away, he's obviously a top talent, no doubt. Just that he probably made the sensible decision with the kind of car Merc has this year.

(All just my speculation of course!)

[SilentEngine]

Some hilarious translation of names in this Spanish news paper

Pierre Gasly= Pedro Gaseoso!

Never realized Ferrari drivers had same first names!




Source: https://twitter.com/roccoleclerc/sta...406764032?s=21

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by CR07

Can someone please explain this ?

Let me try to explain.

1. Every driver has a different driving style (you would have heard a particular current driver drives like a famous historical driver) ...

2. ...and that is amplified (or somewhat nullified) by how the car is designed (e.g. Red Bull cars worked very well for Ricciardo's driving style while that wasn't the case with Renault and now seemingly Mclaren)

3. With respect to design, the (changing) regulations also play a part and sometimes they work very well for specific teams (e.g. the 2014 FIA decision to change from 2.8L V8 to 1.6L V6 hybrid engines worked extremely well for Mercedes as compared to the rest)

4. Car component designs play a further part in how the car turns out. Many times these are dependent on external partners and the cars get handicapped by them (e.g. 2016-2018 Renault engines were not up to the requirements of Red Bull)

Given the above factors, there might be several scenarios why Hamilton isn't doing that well vis-a-vis Russell, and it's not only the car.

7 world drivers championships is only held by 2 drivers till date. That's the pedigree Hamilton belongs to and it can't be a fluke or luck or anything else that doesn't include sheer best-in-class driving skills. However this is not a driver-only sport - the machine and the immense team supporting the machine and the man is also key to winning races.

Plus remember he's still in his prime and one of the top drivers of F1, so he's got the bandwidth to cry/crib as much as he wants and Mercedes can do nothing about it. And Hamilton is known to speak his mind with absolute clarity leaving no ambiguity. While Russell is climbing up the ladder and can not be that vocal and still has to "earn" to keep his seat.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

Some hilarious translation of names in this Spanish news paper

Pierre Gasly= Pedro Gaseoso!

Never realized Ferrari drivers had same first names!

He is Chuck leclerc stateside!

https://youtu.be/03R-BMr0JvU

We have to remember what calibre Lewis is. He fought Nico Rosberg in the same car - all things being equal. The pressure was so much that Nico just quit overnight. He knew he could not never bring that level of aggression the next year again to retain the title.

And being the first coloured driver ever in F1 is a feat in itself. He is part of the panel of GOATs...lol.

[saats07]

I feel Hamilton is so used to fighting in front that he feels any non podium finish is a lost cause. I dont remember if it was in Monaco or Spain where he wanted to retire the car after loosing some positions but only continued after being pushed by his engineer.

[VICTOR-MIKE]

Originally Posted by saats07

I feel Hamilton is so used to fighting in front that he feels any non podium finish is a lost cause. I dont remember if it was in Monaco or Spain where he wanted to retire the car after loosing some positions but only continued after being pushed by his engineer.

I feel Hamilton has lost a bit of his motivation, following events that happened at Abu Dhabi in 2021 combined with the fact that this year Mercedes are not battling at the front of the field. George Russel on the other hand, has just got into a top team , so he is probably extracting more out of the car than it is capable of at this moment. I believe if Mercedes are able to solve their problems, which seems unlikely this year, Hamilton will again come back to his impeccable and majestic driving style.