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"

 

[FB]

This is running a bit off topic but we've had one set of tyres for a race, indestructible varying compounds, marshmallow varying compounds and tyre wars were certain teams get a huge advantage as the "chosen ones". Frankly, it doesn't make a great deal of difference what tyre rules we have as someone will find cause to complain.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Vettel manages his tyres very well indeed and is still lighting fast for the whole race Rocky sounds exasperated at times trying to slow him down but he still brings home the bacon more often than not so obviously this means that the tyres can and indeed are raced to their maximum, well by one driver at least...

Lets not forget the tyres are the same for everybody...

 

[Fenderman]

The tyres are the same but the cars are different. Lack of inherent downforce and difficulties to gain and maintain tyre temperatures in all conditions is a recognised, and admitted by the team, inherent weakness of the Mercedes. The Red Bull has proved to be the car with most downforce and thanks to the thermal imaging camera we now know of another trick in their armoury. Red Bull have engineered a means to soak heat into the wheel rims so that the tyres are kept in a better heat window than their competition. Without those advantages Vettel would have no choice but to follow team instructions to ease off.

So enough of the baiting already

 

[Hamberg]

He also rarely follows, defends or uses DRS which can't be a bad thing for tyre deg. A tiny bit less technical than fenders.

 

[RasputinLives]

I think Lewis problem is that he was bred for the refueling era where you could just go flat out and not care about the tyres because you were coming in after 20 laps to change them anyway. Now F1 has gone BACK (yes ladies and gentlemen tyre management was always part of F1) some drivers have struggled to adjust to it but that is the way of F1.

In all honesty I think Lewis has adapted exceptionally well to the change but has been extremly hindered this year by having a car that eats tyres like Pacman eats pills. I think that is whats left him grumpy rather than the tyres themselves.

Next year the driving style will change again and we'll see who adapts best.

 

[Fenderman]

That's a very good point Hamberg . That's got to be worth an extra lap or two not to mention some 10ths off the lap time.

 

[Hamberg]

Agree RasputinLives with Lewis and refuelling but were the tyres deliberately designed to degrade? There wasn't also this weird two compound rule or Q3 tyre rule so not completely BACK but... I don't like refuelling or this level of deg. As I've said elsewhere pit-car radio is my peeve, ban that to sort the men from the boys.

 

[downforce]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111615

I hope this is true and he's not just saying it for an interview, I'd like to see him focus 100% on F1 and put in the levels of off track work that Alonso and Vettel are said to do.

Hopefully he has also laid the foundations this year for a fantastic 2014/5 and learned of a year of being paired with Rosberg.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Does that mean he's been slacking of late?

 

[downforce]

Sounds like it

 

[Hamberg]

I doubt he's been 'slacking off', the interview heavily implies given its a new team and very new rules he needs to approach next year like he is new to F1, nothing else. Perhaps he should have taken taken that approach last year given it's a new team but with experience comes complacency I guess for anyone plus the move was about 2014.

From what Vettel so modestly told the world on the podium it sounds like he is unique in taking that approach every year which is yet another possible reason for him being in his own class. I'm glad Hamilton has taken note.

 

[downforce]

Hamilton has said a few times this year he has struggled with the nature of the Mercedes because he is not used to it and this was a particular problem in the wet.

Now that they are in the off season can't he and the team take a 2 year old car to the nearest track set up some sprinklers to get the track wet and rack up a load of mileage?

Can't hurt surely?

 

[Mephistopheles]

Yeah why don't they all do that?

Hang on problems

• It's against the rules.
• Who's gonna supply the tyres?
• If it were legal Ferrari would be putting millions of miles doing just that on their very own test track
• Why just Lewis and no one else?
• And I thought Lewis was the man for being able to drive any car beyond it's potential no matter what problems that car has and now you are telling me he isn't that man? Well I must say I'm absolutely

And IT'S AGAINST THE RULES...

 

[downforce]

Isn't the rule that they can test with a 2 year old car?

 

[The Artist.....]

downforce Mephistopheles

My understanding is that the tyre manufacturer is allowed to test with a 2 year old car.

Teams can use two year old cars for "filming days", but these need to be with demonstration tyres- which would tell nothing to Hamilton!

 

[sushifiesta]

I think...

Filming days and straight line tests are done with current cars. They are the only sort of "testing" that can be done with current cars outside of the arranged tests that everyone attends.

Any running done with a car that does not substantially conform with the current regulations is not considered testing. The rules explicitly ban last year's car, this year's car and next year's car. Anything done with a two year old car then is not officially testing. This is why it's allowed for Martin Brundle and Mark Webber to make a feature on the Sky coverage about the wet tyres in a 2011 Red Bull, for example.

But finally, I think Hamilton would gain very little by testing in a car that is completely different to this year's car, let alone next year's. He's much better off spending time at the factory/in the simulator trying to understand next year's car... which is what he says he's going to do in that article.

Also, you have to do a hell of a lot of reading between the lines to decide that Hamilton has been slacking off from that article. Hamilton has not been entirely comfortable in the car all season and as a result hasn't been satisfied with his performances for most of the season. Despite that he's beaten Rosberg, who's very well embedded in to the team and highly rated. Not bad in my book.

 

[The Artist.....]

sushifiesta ... I was bored so I went and looked up the exact wording:

Track testing shall be considered any track running time not part of an Event undertaken by a
competitor entered in the Championship, using cars which conform substantially with the
current Formula One Technical Regulations in addition to those from the previous or
subsequent year. The only exception is that each competitor is permitted up to eight
promotional events, carried out using tyres provided specifically for this purpose by the
appointed supplier, to a maximum distance of 100kms per event.

So, as long as the car wouldn't be legal to run in this year's, last year's or next year's F1 world championship, then it's fair game! However, I suspect that finding tyres to run on would be rather tricky!

 

[Blog Zbod]

...Lets not forget the tyres are the same for everybody...

Everyone being on the same tyres does not equal the tyres being the same for everyone. Not since the coming of the disinte-Pirellis. The consequence of the reversion to the stiffer 2012 sidewalls after the summer holiday was evidence of that. Before the holiday, Vettel was fallible. After, he was a god. Lightning would be easier to catch. And I would contend the change in tyre construction had far more to do with the change in performance than Newey spending an entire month undistracted refining the RB9.

 

[downforce]

Not so against the rules after all then...

 

[Mephistopheles]

Nobody made this rationalization for Mark Webbers woes...