Is Lewis Hamilton significantly better than all the drivers currently on the grid

Depends on what "significantly" means.

That said I vote no. To be better than the grid would mean to be better than Vettel and Fred and I doubt we could even measure that.

 

He possesses a strength in getting the edge of mechanical grip, in a way that perhaps no other champion on the grid possesses. However, there are other drivers with different strengths stronger than Hamilton in other areas.

He is certainly a powerhouse, but not the only powerhouse.

 

He is definitely better at making his team and FIA cheat.

 

Your poll should have more options. I like Lewis but I think he and
Alonso are tied for the best drivers on the grid - just my opinion

 

You said " SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER" So anyone voting for him would appear to be pretentious A** - Just saying

 

True.

You could replace the name Lewis with any other driver on the current grid and the results would still be the same.

Currently the top honchos are Hamilton, Seb and Alonso. I don't think any of them is significantly better than the other two. There might be marginal differences but how would you measure that without them sitting in the same car?

 

Well said

Hey Peter any thoughts ?

 

Vettel beat him in the rain at monza in a Toro Rosso. Lewis is way overrated ever time go pear shaped he goes nuts behind the wheel .

 

LOLO, i'm liking the results so far....

 

Ask yourself this:

If Alonso was in the Mercedes instead of Hamilton (and lets say Hamilton was in the McLaren), would he dominate as much as Hamilton has? - I'd pretty much guarantee he would!

If Vettel was in the Mercedes instead of Hamilton, would he dominate as much as Hamilton has? - Based on how he did in the dominant Red Bull in recent years, again I would pretty much guarantee he would!

If Hamilton was in the McLaren instead of Alonso, would he be doing any better in races? - I suspect not!

If Hamilton was in the Ferrari instead of Vettel, would he be doing any better in races and posing more of a challenge to Mercedes? - I'd say possibly, but there wouldn't be that much in it!

Hamilton is significantly better than most of the other drivers, and he is probably slightly better than Vettel (on the basis of being a natural driver), but I wouldn't say he is better than Alonso.

It's a close call, but I'd still give the edge to Alonso as the better all round package.

 

It would be fascinating to see just how many races he would win if Mercedes gave an identical car to his to the rest of the grid.

 

I would like to see that as well.

 

That would be fascinating for any world championship year. It would be fascinating to watch Hakkinen in a Ferrari, Kimi in a Renault, Alonso or Hamilton in a RedBull, etc.

Keep in mind Hamilton is the only one on the grid that shared his equipment with 2 champions and beat both.

 

If equal cars are your fancy, then I suggest one digs out some older tapes from Lewis' karting years. Like the one where he laps an entire field.

Then again, that field wasn't made of current F1 drivers.

It is impossible to solve this. Maybe GP2 is the closest to a fair comparison? OTOH we had GP2 champs who never went anywhere in F1.

 

As I said earlier, the results would be the same if you replaced Lewis' name with another one.

 

And lost to two of them too, he didn't beat Alonso, and button had him on the ropes

 

Quick lad but no head for strategy and poor overtaking ability. He has by far the quickest car at the moment which is making him look like a God.

He excels at braking. Poor placement of car and not knowing where others are is what hurts him during overtaking and results in frequent tangles. Obviously hasn't had many in the last 2 years because he's only been at the front.

To be ''the best'' you need to be great in all these areas, which he is not. This is what made Schumacher so good, and Prost, for example.

Looking at current drivers, I rate Alonso and Vettel the best. Tough to judge Alonso on this year since a) the car doesn't really work at any one point and b) it's not on TV at all.

 

Actually for someone that has been F1 for this long really should know where to place his car and know where others are.

I don't think he's lost much of the red mist he had in 2007. Which was fine because it was his rookie year. But he's 8 years further now.

 

You might want to check the 2007 standings. Who gets the crown if Kimi is not there?
If you need to go back and count 2nd places that is BEATING on planet Earth. He also had 3x more poles than Alonso.

For Button we have 2 out of 3 season ahead of him. 10 wins vs 8 wins for Button and 9 poles vs 1 pole for Button.

"On the ropes" LOL
If that is not BEATING then I'm not sure what is any more.

It's funny when people twist real results to fit their imagination.

 

Still rate Alonso highly.