Current Lewis Hamilton

A place to put all the posts from all the other threads primarily but love him or hate him, and even for the indifferent amongst us this is the place to discuss the marmite that is Lewis Hamilton, to learn a thing or two about his rise, talk about those controversial, genius or mad moments and something that i am bemused by, the recent articles that suggest something quite different to my perception of what's going on. Any experiences of meeting LH?

Brundle had to write a Lewis Hamilton article recently and in my tweets (which were probably ignored) I asked him to talk about LH the driver not LH the personality. It seems that you can't have one without the other.

So as a starter for ten, here is a fairly recent LH article. Posts should not be limited to this link but it can get some discussion going. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/13755883.stm

The only banned topic as it is clearly ridiculous involves these four things "Glock" "2008" "Brazil" "conspiracy"

 

[Jen]

Sounded more desperate than positive to me!

 

[Quintessentially]

to put it another way - Hamilton 153pts, Mercedes 136pts.

Therefore Hamilton + Mercedes = 289pts. Synergic driver team combo me like

 

[Bus Stop Chicane]

Therefore Hamilton + Mercedes = 289pts. Synergic driver team combo me like

So Mercedes will be running three cars next year?

 

[Bill Boddy]

They will need more than that unless they improve dramatically.

 

[Il_leone]

If Mercedes are serious next year I think at least one of the 3 engineers has to go for a start the fact that Merc hired Lauda on board meant they are taking it seriously on the money they;ve thrown at the F1 team and really can;t afford too many more disappointments

They threatened to pull out of F1 in 1997 after 4 years yielding 1 win at that point ( DC in Melbourne) and embarrassed by Mclaren failures not getting Schumacher and the disasatrous signing of Mansell

There is nothing more embarrassing for a factory team to be beaten by their customer using the same engines with the driver they ditched as well - Button

Really Mercedes have no more excuses in getting Hamilton they can't blame his age like Schumacher to excuse blaming the car now

 

[Mephistopheles]

Therefore Hamilton + Mercedes = 289pts. Synergic driver team combo me like

OMG Is that how the universe works..................?

 

[The Artist.....]

Personally, I can't believe how much people are hailing Geoff willis at mercedes! He was the Person who insisted that BAR/Honda didn't adopt the undercut sidepods, which eventually led to at least part of Honda's decline! Then of course, there's Aldo Costa, who oversaw Ferrari's move from being the top team to the third fastest team....

However, all three were technical directors of teams with dodgy developments:

Bob Bell- mass damper
Geoff Willis - underweight car/secret fuel tank
Aldo Costa - flexi floor....

 

[racecub]

Quite an innovative lot then, they need to be when doing combat with Newey.

 

[Fenderman]

 

[Quintessentially]

Click here for Hamilton's new chin strap

 

[Lewywo4]

Quite an innovative lot then, they need to be when doing combat with Newey.

That's for sure...........Mercedes dominating pace and win at China this season, show's that their is hope for them to be able and run against the top teams in 2013.

 

[The Artist.....]

That's for sure...........Mercedes dominating pace and win at China this season, show's that their there is hope for them to be able and run against the top teams in 2013.

True, and look at Williams in Barcelona!

To be honest, early season form this year was not really indicative of true form (And that includes JB's win in Melbourne!) Certainly, I wouldn't want to extrapolate one result from this season and say that it implies that next season the team would be right up there.

In terms of raw pace, I would rank the teams this year as follows:

Red Bull
McLaren
Ferrari
Renault
Mercedes
Sauber
Force India
Williams
Torro Rosso
Caterham
Marussia
HRT....

 

[Lewywo4]

True, and look at Williams in Barcelona! ...

The Artist
Mercedes win at China, as you agree, came about from the blistering pace set by Nico during qualifying, and his very strong race pace to an eventual win.

Williams win, on the other hand, could have been seen as being questionable, if Lewis had not had his stunning pole position taken away, and him being regulated to the back of the grid.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

There are amends to be made between the two headstrong individuals that are Ron Dennis and Lewis Hamilton. Lewis speaks of a plan to meet and, I guess, try and clear the bad air.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamilton-to-fix-dennis-rift-before-leaving-mclaren/

 

[Brogan]

Ron seems to have taken the news of Hamilton leaving rather badly.

The fact that just a few days prior to Hamilton announcing his departure Dennis was stating that Hamilton would definitely re-sign for McLaren shows just how arrogant and out of touch with Hamilton's frame of mind Dennis was.

 

[FB]

Ron Dennis? Out of touch? The man who was "unaware" that his team was cheating in 2007? Now there's a surprise.

 

[MCLS]

Well you could tell something was off with them back at Monza

 

[Quintessentially]

Well Ron is a big Lewis fan and it's natural to upset with the way things turned out. Maybe he felt it was time for Lewis to repay the faith he has shown in him over the years. This is akin to the football player who's plucked out of no where and nutured into a superstar only to hand in a transfer request. Only in this case I'm sure Lewis would've stayed at McLaren if the situation was right. He was engaged in advanced negotiations with them after all.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

They have both put a lot of faith in each other. Unfortunately for Ron Dennis and co, it was Lewis that lost faith in McLaren, not the other way around.

 

[The Artist.....]

I've been thinking (dangerous, I know), but a lot has been said about how 2011 was Lewis Hamilton's worst season. However, I'm not sure I agree. Certainly, there were some inner demons which attacked him during the season, but was it really any worse than his 2008 season? (Bear with me)...

In 2008, there were several occasions when LH wasn't necessarily at his best, notably in Montreal; then in the race following Canada (i.e. France), when fighting back from a grid penalty, again the inner demons seemed to strike, leading to Hamilton overtaking over the chicane, without giving back the place; There were notable collisions in Fuji (Massa's fault, but also the penalty in Fuji due to the over-enthusiastic first corner); then of course, there was being overtaken by Vettel in Brazil, which *could* have cost him the championship... (There were also incidents in Bahrain, Monaco and Monza which could have been costly)
However, as with 2011, there were moments of supreme brilliance - the British and German Grand Prix are a prime example of this, just as in the drive at Abu Dhabi was sublime in 2011... There were, of course, other incidents in 2008, which were not of Hamilton's own making (Spa anyone?), yet the actual driving in Spa 2008 was superb.

The difference between 2008 and 2011? The simple difference is the difference between a sublime Vettel in a dominant Red Bull and a generally second-string rated Felipe Massa in a Ferrari.....

Yet, in a year where the only real opposition was a Ferrari, Hamilton won 5 races (2008), and in a year where the opposition was utterly dominant (2011 and Red Bull), Hamilton won 3 races. Was 2011 really that bad?