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"

 

[Josh]

In my opinion Lewis will need to beat Jenson by more than 12 or 15 points in the WDC standings for it to be considered an "even" Championship, assuming no more mechanical/McLaren-related DNFs

Why?

2 DNFs mid season which were not Button's fault.

Imagine the uproar had it been Hamilton's MP4-26 which had had those 2 retirements?

Lewis has been given a bullet-proof car this year so no one can say he got the worse end of the stick from that perspective.

That's bloody ridiculous, there have been times where Lewis (and Jenson) arguably ended up in a lower position (both in qualifying and in races) than they could have been due to errors made by the team.

If you want to look at points they missed out on because of car failures/team errors then you have to not only look at DNF's but at every race and check whether a tactical and/or pit stop error was made which harmed their eventual position.

If it was only one man (Jenson) who had all the failures and/or bad pit wall decisions then maybe I'd agree with you, but this isn't the case at Mclaren.

Even if Lewis ends up with 1 point more than Jenson he will have beaten him, it's as simple as that.

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

Spoken by a true dyed-in-the-wool Hamilton fan who can't appreciate the idea that Button lost about 20 points because the car didn't allow him to finish 2 races.

Fine. Have it your way.

Let's see if Lewis actually out-scores Button first.

I honestly thought that Lewis would beat Button in this year's standings but even if Lewis get's back in the grove starting this weekend, Button's known for bringing the car home and he's looking mentally bullet-proof.

It would be quite something indeed if Lewis finished ahead of Jenson in this Championship.

I'd put the odd at, say,

9 - 4



33 extra needed from 100 available.

 

[Slyboogy]

Spoken by a true dyed-in-the-wool Hamilton fan who can't appreciate the idea that Button lost about 20 points because the car didn't allow him to finish 2 races.

Fine. Have it your way.

Let's see if Lewis actually out-scores Button first.

And Hamilton hasn't lost out due to team errors?

 

[Josh]

Spoken by a true dyed-in-the-wool Hamilton fan who can't appreciate the idea that Button lost about 20 points because the car didn't allow him to finish 2 races.

Fine. Have it your way.

Let's see if Lewis actually out-scores Button first.

?? that's the first time I've been called a Hamilton fan.

I fully accept that Button lost 2 point scoring positions (we don't know where he was going to finish so putting any number to those 2 is frankly quite ridiculous in itself) but for example in one of those races (Silverstone, where Button retired) Lewis had to massively slow down at the end while he was second, which allowed Vettel and Webber past and nearly allowing Massa to pass him too. He lost 6 points there, too. The team did not anticipate Hamilton to make such progress throughout the race and did not put enough fuel in his car. They said this themselves.

See what I mean? It's not as simple as you claim it to be.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

I hope Lewis can get through this weekend without issues

Let's hope he can qualify the car in pole and that team don't make any clangers

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

I hope Lewis can get through this weekend without issues

Let's hope he can qualify the car in pole and that team don't make any clangers

Firstly, let's hope he can get the correct amount of Q3 laps in. By that I mean that if Button and the others are looking like doing 2 flyers...then he should also be in position to do 2.

Secondly, let's hope they're at least as 'clean' or just as 'clean' as the other Top guys.

Thirdly - and lastly - I do hope he can manage the degredation well. If it's true that it wasn't a tyre pressure or puncture issue, then i'm sad to say that Button gave Lewis a good hiding at Suzuka.

China showed that Lewis is well capable of sorting out the deg better than Jenson...but that was a long time ago. One, however, can only hope that he Lewis hasn't forgotten how to beat Jenson in the tyre management department. I'm sure he hasn't but Button's proving to be no push-over when it comes to Pirellis.

Good luck to Lewis in Korean qually and the GP!

 

[Cookinflatsix]

I doubt any WC forgets how to adapt or manage tyres

His tyres were already older than the rest and he was slow soon after the start in Japan. I don't think he trashed his tyres on the formation lap.

Let's hope his setup is in tune with his driving style

Getting pole is the key for his race

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

His tyres were already older than the rest

What do you mean?

He didn't get a 2nd Q3 run so he wouldn't have used that set up as much as the others...so i'm wondering what you mean "his tyres were already older than the rest"?

 

[FB]

Weren't the tyres he did his first run on in Q3 a set he had used in Q2 as well?

 

[The Pits]

The set that Lewis set his fastest time on in q3 was a scrubbed set that had also seen action in q2, so his tyres were a couple of laps older.

Had he got a clear run he would likely have gone faster, maybe got pole, maybe also taken out by Vettel on the run to the first corner. Who knows.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

I thought the others used a fresh set for the second run, whereas he had to start on older tyres used for first run and q2,

Edit: I was beaten to the explanation by 2 super quick gunslingers

 

[FB]

Do you think Ray might have got the message by now

 

[Jen]

Please don't be horrid to Ray - it's not British.

 

[Fenderman]

Well, I'm befuddled. It seemed perfectly clear and simple to me. We are told by Crofty during FP2 today that Hamilton's tyres fell off the cliff because they had been used in Q2 and Q3 when, lest we forget, Hamilton was setting the fastest laps. This was not news as we were told this last weekend as well.

 

[FB]

I wasn't being horrid, just that 3 of us posted the same thing within a minute of each other which was complete overkill.

 

[Vortex]

Hamilton had to start the race on the tyres he set his faster lap in Q3 on, which was also the set he set his Q2 time with. He used the used sets to get a banker in then put a new set on to hopefully improve and start the race on those, but he didn’t improve so had to start on a set he’d qualified with twice.

 

[FB]

Is there an echo?

 

[Hamberg]

AND

The new set weren't a brand new set because he did an out lap and started what he thought was a fast lap so actually his 'new' set were only a lap younger than the others.

 

[Vortex]

Is there an echo?

lol, Tell me about it, the other posts weren’t there when I began typing the message, as soon as I clicked send.. Boom! Must learn to type with more than 1 finger! lol

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

Thanks, gentlemen (and gentlewomen (if one or some of your are female)). That clears it up.

Do you think Ray might have got the message by now

Ya, FB...I got the message.

Shame he didn't get Webber, though.