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"

 

[nenoste95]

He's my favourite driver for WDC, he has to take advantage of Red Bull's problems and of the difficult relationship between Fer and Kimi

 

[Fenderman]

Favourite with the bookies and a lot of pundits, for the early races at least. Showed his mettle today in P2 after what must have been a nerve wracking wait sitting out P1. Had I a bean to bet with it would be on him and the Merc', fo' sho'.

 

[Lewywo4]

I was really encouraged to see how quickly that Lewis recovered to head the time sheets during P2, after that disaster of P1, and not being able to complete one lap.

 

[PeeJay]

Each race with no result could be big at the end of the year. Rosberg appears to be Hamilton's biggest competitor and he has maximum points while Hamilton has none. Alonzo, Button and several youngsters also have points.

 

[Galahad]

With the new regulations causing reliability issues for Mercedes in testing and now at Melbourne too, it seems highly likely that Rosberg will also suffer at least one unavoidable retirement. The pressure is, I suppose, on both of them not to have any avoidable ones.

 

[KekeTheKing]

I saw a mention of this somewhere that Hamilton's Pole conversion rate has been pretty bad over the last 3-4 years, and quite frankly, it's looks bad, but let's dig deeper.

15 Pole Positions since 2010 - 4 Wins - 6 Podiums - 4 Retirements (and one Tire failure)

2010 Canada - Won
2011 Korea - P2 (Lost lead to Alonso on SC restart)
2012 Australia - P3 (Lost lead to Button on GP start)
2012 Malaysia - P3
2012 Hungary - Won
2012 Italy - Won
2012 Singapore - Retired (Engine component failure)
2012 Abu Dhabi - Retired (Fuel Pressure)
2012 Brazil - Retired (Hulkenberg slid into him on wet circuit)
2013 China - P3
2013 Britain - P4 (Recovered after massive tire blowout while leading)
2013 Germany - P5 (Rosberg finishes P9)
2013 Hungary - Won
2013 Belgium - P3 (Incredible Pole lap)
2014 Australia - Retired (Suffered immediate engine malfunction)

In 2012 he would likely have won in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, Brazil was marginal, and last year the British GP was probably his. In "The Red Bull Era" a 7 of 15 conversion rate isn't awful, especially when you consider that hardly anyone else seemed capable of consistently challenging Vettel for Pole. It's natural that when you put a car in a place it might not deserve to be, the chances of falling back are rather high.

If the Mercedes can hold together the next couple times Lewis puts it on Pole then he should be in good stead for the rest of the year.

 

[olegg]

Tech trouble and command faults is strong reason Hamilton lost so many points at least the last 2 season.

 

[RasputinLives]

Lewis does appear to have Jean Alesi luck at times it has to be said. The Hulkenberg thing at Brazil was gutting for both drivers as it really was a racing accident.

I was interested when rewatching the race start to see both Lewis and Nico swerve towards each other and playing hard ball. Friends off the track but you start to sense they love nothing more to beat the other one.

Hope to see more of it

 

[olegg]

There was sorry that we didn't see Lewis Vs Nico in the Australia race.
It would be more useful information.

 

[Lewywo4]

Lewis in the simulator for Sepang.

 

[Lewywo4]

Lewis felt understandably proud to be able and equal the great Jim Clark's record, for pole positions.

That must be a fantastic feeling.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/26800514

 

[teabagyokel]

He is certainly one of the best qualifiers we've ever seen in Formula One; we've got two wonderful Saturday men on the front row.

The failure to convert poles has assuredly not been his fault, and I expect a reliable car 44 to cross the line first.

 

[teabagyokel]

And the British pole record:

 

[Mephistopheles]

I'm not trying to be funny or anything but aren't these sort of records rather silly? for instance Alonso has scored more points than any other driver but that stat is meaningless due to the changes in the points system over the years, and Jim Clark scored 30 poles but he only took part in 93 F1 races and Lewis has scored 30 poles and has taken part in 141 F1 qualifying seasons including Malaysia and so we are not really comparing eggs with eggs here are we, so when Lewis reaches about a 30% qualifying hit rate then he can claim to have equaled Jim Clark.

This isn't to say that Lewis is not a great qualifier because he obviously is.....

I'll go and don my tin foil hat now...

 

[Kewee]

There's some truth in that Mephistopheles but you also need to consider a lot of Hamiltons pole laps haven't been in the best car, The majority of Jim Clarks were set during the Chapman/Clark partnership, one of the strongest the sports seen. Considering that I think Lewis is right up there and will soon have the record to himself, deservedly so.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Yes I agree the Chapman cars were strongest for pace but weakest in reliability and safety, and so they took a man with much bigger balls to drive to the the limit than any of the current drivers have, actually I believe that most of today's drivers would shit themselves if they had to take one of those cars to the limit...

 

[Mephistopheles]

Actually is it possible to create a graph showing the poles to win ratio of the current drivers? I am absolutely sure that Clark holds that record for his era I am also sure that Jim holds the record for poles to win with fastest laps and leading every lap for a race the Grand Chelem as some people call it..

 

[teabagyokel]

I'm not trying to be funny or anything but aren't these sort of records rather silly? for instance Alonso has scored more points than any other driver but that stat is meaningless due to the changes in the points system over the years

The value of a point system has changed, but the value of a pole has not. Clark took far more poles per race than Hamilton, but Clark was in the fastest car.

Yes I agree the Chapman cars were strongest for pace but weakest in reliability and safety

Reliability was far less of a relevant factor when talking about poles because qualifying sessions were longer. Clark converted more poles than Hamilton (15/13, each with 10 wins from not pole). But both lag behind Mansell for the British record for converting poles (17).

Actually is it possible to create a graph showing the poles to win ratio of the current drivers? I am absolutely sure that Clark holds that record for his era I am also sure that Jim holds the record for poles to win with fastest laps and leading every lap for a race the Grand Chelem as some people call it..

Clark has the record for Grand Chelem, and is second to Schumacher on the hat-trick. On Grand Chelems, it is not a fair comparison - since 1994 there has been a pit-stop formula in F1 which makes it far more difficult to lead every lap than it was in Clark's time.

 

[siffert_fan]

Everyone always goes on about how Clark had the fastest car etc, ignoring the role HE played in developing it and making it the fastest car out there. It is telling that Clark's teammates rarely occupied the front row alongside him.

 

[teabagyokel]

siffert_fan - Clark's record is much better, but on the other hand if Hamilton hadn't had to deal with high-fuel qualifying then I think he'd have got more poles in 2007-08.