Current Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton MBE

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"

 

[Mephistopheles]

 

[marksawatsky]

I hope Lewis surpasses Vettel for total wins next season, fingers crossed. Do you think Schumacher would have been so successful with Ferrari without the unlimited testing and close relationship with tire manufacturer?

 

[Mephistopheles]

An unanswerable question, so I will take it that you were being rhetorical...

 

[cider_and_toast]

As I posted above, Motorsport Journalist Denis Jenkinson reckoned that one of the most simple ways of working out who was the best driver was to divide the number of wins by the number of starts to produce a percentage. Just for fun, I've done that for every British driver to have won a race to see where Hamilton currently stands.

(I would like to stress this is in no way a fully accurate method for defining how good a driver is)

Reads as: Starts / Wins / Percentage

Jim Clark 72 / 25 / 35%
Jackie Stewart 99 / 27 / 27%
Stirling Moss 66 / 16 / 24%
Lewis Hamilton 146 / 32 / 22%
Damon Hill 115 / 22 / 19%
Nigel Mansell 187 / 31 / 17%
Tony Brooks 38 / 6 / 16%
James Hunt 92 / 10 / 11%
Peter Collins 32 / 3 / 9%
Graham Hill 176 / 14 / 8%
Jenson Button 264 / 15 / 6%
Mike Hawthorn 45 / 3 / 6%
David Coutlhard 246 / 13 / 5%
John Surtees 111 / 6 / 5%
John Watson 152 / 5 / 3%
Eddie Irvine 147 / 4 / 3%
Johnny Herbert 161 / 3 / 2%
Innes Ireland 50 / 1 / 2%

An interesting way of looking at it isn't it? Perhaps one or two drivers out of place (Graham Hill is badly affected by the twilight years after his bad crash in 69 for example) but on the whole I would say that is a pretty accurate order.

 

[Splash]

So Lewis just needs to win the next 30 races.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Lewis has never spent time in a car that is incapable of winning a race though has he..

Stats, Meh......

They mean nowt and prove even less..

 

[chris1981]

2009 McLaren?

Lewis has never spent time in a car that is incapable of winning a race though has he..

Stats, Meh......

They mean nowt and prove even less..

 

[chris1981]

I know he won races that year but it was a dog, and it was him that got it winning.

 

[Mephistopheles]

It was one of the fastest cars out there come the last half of the 2009 season as there was still testing allowed back then..

 

[cider_and_toast]

By that reckoning then, Jim Clark never drove a car that wasn't capable of winning either.

As I said, it's not a hard and fast rule or even accurate method of calculating driver performance but I'm reasonably confident that if people were asked to rate all British drivers who had won a race, the order would be something similar to the one above.

As we all know, statistics prove that statistics prove nothing and that 84.5 percent of statistics are made up on the spot.

There are so many variables relating to driver and car performance that a true statistical picture would be difficult to calculate despite many trying.

In finally, in my defence, I was bored during my lunch time at work and thought it would be interesting.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Check out my signature it's the stats I'm talking about.

The stats tell us that only two drivers in the history of F1 have ever won six out of the first seven races.

What does that prove?

Naff all...

 

[Il_leone]

Lewis Hamilton according to Moss can win 6 titles - talk about setting the bar high

I think he will be the most successful British driver so JYS record will go as well no doubt.

 

[Brogan]

Five years ago, perhaps.

If he had been in a Red Bull for four of them.

Not now.

 

[Il_leone]

Brogan that depends on what sort of car Mercedes give him.. he is at his peak now

 

[KekeTheKing]

It was one of the fastest cars out there come the last half of the 2009 season as there was still testing allowed back then..

It was only fast in Hamilton's hands. His teammate was nowhere. Not a single podium. And there was no in-season testing for 2009.

The stats tell us that only two drivers in the history of F1 have ever won six out of the first seven races.

That's not really a statistic, its an anecdote. An anecdote that means you're going to win the title though!


Il_leone - LH is only concerned with #2 for now. And so am I

 

[Il_leone]

KekeTheKing He was once asked about beating Schumacher's 7 and said he would be happy with 3

 

[soccerman17]

By that reckoning then, Jim Clark never drove a car that wasn't capable of winning either.

It was hard to find a car that was incapable of winning with Jim Clark behind the wheel.

 

[Mephistopheles]

It was only fast in Hamilton's hands. His teammate was nowhere

His teammate was shit that's why he hasn't got a drive anymore and to suggest that it was Lewis and Lewis alone who made the car fast is total bollocks, the team did that not Lewis.

His teammate was nowhere. Not a single podium

His teammate won a race that year and he was shit that's how good the car was..

 

[Mephistopheles]

It was hard to find a car that was incapable of winning with Jim Clark behind the wheel.

The greatest talent that F1 has ever seen by a very long way in my opinion..

 

[Mephistopheles]

That's not really a statistic,

Yes it is, and it certainly isn't a bloody anecdote.

anecdote
noun
Story, tale, narrative, sketch.
an account regarded as unreliable or hearsay.

If it ain't an anecdote then it is for sure as hell ain't an anecdote of an anecdote, what on earth are you talking about KekeTheKing

And if you read my post properly you will see it ain't Lewis per se I was talking about it was statistics that can be used to prove anything just like my sig says..