Is Lewis Hamilton the next Micheal Schumacher ?

Lewis Hamilton stuns me every time I watch him. He is faster than the 2-time defending world champion sometimes, and he is easily faster than some people who have been in it for 10 or more years. I can't see I watched F1 when Schumacher started, I was barely alive, but I don't think it was this strong. Then again, it was with Jordan, this is Mclaren. I think Mclaren is playing a huge part. If he was driving for Spyker or Super Aguri it would probably be different. I just don't see how he has the good fortune to race for Mclaren his rookie year, and every other rookie always gets crappy seats as friday drivers or something for the back of the grid teams.

 

Michael Schumacher WAS this strong when he started. Despite driving a Jordan he immediately qualified in the top 10 and soon he was pissing off a certain driver called Ayrton Senna, who criticised young Michael for being too "aggressive"... had Michael started his career on the '91 McLaren instead of the Jordan, he would almost certainly have won the World Championship right away. Yes, he may have been an aggressive arrogant kid, but he was THAT good.

Hamilton is driving the best car of the lot, let's see what he can do. I think he has huge potential, but let's not compare him to Michael so soon...

 

Excellent Analysis..

 

+1

 

No, he just bashes all things not BMW M5 and most things Ferrari... while on a ferrari site. Just add him to your ignore like most here have.

 

Lewis doesn't seem to have the same will or heart as Michael. Michael started out with very humble beginnings and got into F1 at a time when many had to pay to race. Michael worked his way to F1 by completing dominating everywhere. Lewis on the other hand has been groomed by McLaren for almost 10 years. He has only needed to go fast not worry about anything else. If you have 10 years of practice and backing by McLaren anyone could drive in F1. Lewis doesn't have the same heart as Michael and never will.

 

Well just how much of this did you pull out of your rear end? I'm guessing all of it.

Lewis started from humble beginnings, so much so that his dad had to work two jobs just to be able to support the karting, and even then they could barely afford it. His dad had to go looking for sponsorhip to help keep them afloat. I don't know about you, but that sounds rather humble to me. Lewis dominated everything he was in before entering Formula 1, including the most important of all, GP2. Ron Dennis started looking after Lewis AFTER Lewis was dominating everyone in karting. Also, Many teams including Renault, have a young drivers program where drivers are looked after from when they're in karting. It sounds to me like you want to get off on some overly nostalgic and biased sonnet, to talk up Michael. The problem is, you'll pull things out of your ass and degrade someone else to do it.

 

+1

 

MS and Senna were probably the two most self-centered, "win at all costs" people to have ever driven in F1. Not the least bit of sportsmanship between them. I can not see why so many people think they are some kind of heros.

 

Superhuman talent. Especially Senna.

 

Clearly he has the driving skills..

but I don't like his personality that is portayed publicly.

here in Oz, the V8 supercar champion Rick kelly is very similar... just a product, trained and groomed to say and do what is the Politically correct thing to do, say and be.

They're like one of those dolls... pull the string and wait for the expected response...

gag him and hide him in a box.. and just put him in a car when a race needs to be run..

But it's early days... lets see what he becomes as his F1 carrer matures...

good onhim so far... he's giving Alonso something to think about..

 

IMO he very well could be.

 

Why do all the sad one eyed MS fans on this board seem to think Ferrari are/were/will always be worthless without MS? He is just a driver, someone else will come along who is faster, and no doubt you will all rise up in arms against him. I am a Ferrari fan in spite of the fact that I can't stand MS and can't quite see why anyone would think Ferrari revolves around him.

Pedro Rodriguez
Nino Vaccarella
Mario Andretti
Gilles Villeneuve

There are dozens of drivers who drove for the Scuderia in Endurance and F1 and battled on in some uncompetitive machinery that I would put ahead of MS.

Point is, would all the MS worshippers give it a rest, he is gone and the team hasn't crumbled yet. Sit back and enjoy the new talent coming through. Calling for his return after two races is pathetic.

 

Scumachers ability to pump out metronomic qualifying speed race laps and also his strategic and technical abilities FAR out weigh his human failings.. and put him night and day superior to any other driver to come before him... on a pure race and development basis..

sure, personality/character/spur of moment decision making wise he has faults..

who doesn't?

 

I would say that Gilles Villeneuve and Ayrton Senna were definately better at this. Guys like Mika Hakkinen, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, Kimi Raikkonen could probably match him on his best day also.

I would also say that Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna were better at that, just to name a couple.

Michael is amazing, but I don't think he was the greatest of all time in any aspect save for the politics outside of the car, getting his own way and his demands heard/met for a long period of time. Alain Prost was quoted as saying that this was the main thing that impressed him about Schumacher, although he was probably in the top 5 in terms of driving/racing skill in the modern era.

 

Maybe the availability of statistics and data makes MS seem supreme.... But you have to remember MS dominated in an era where the cars are almost easy to drive... which normally neutralises a driver advantage...

 

I see what you mean. If what you were saying was the case, then there would be no difference between Michael and Rubens, Eddie and Felipe. There would be no difference between Hakkinen and Coulthard, no difference between Frentzen and Hill. Obviously this isn't the case, but I will give you that cars were more difficult and dangerous to drive a bit earlier on.

 

Oh come on everyone. This discussion is moving in a pointless direction. How can you compare MS, Hamilton, Senna, with Nuvolari, Farina, Varzi or anyone else from a different era??? The cars have simply NOTHING in common between them, the driving skills required so different that it's like comparing a WWII Spitfire pilot skills with the skills of a modern, highly trained F22 pilot. Yes the Spitfire was more "difficult" and not supported by electronic aids, but it's ridiculuous even to propose a comparison. Take a Spitfire pilot into an F22, he won't even be able to take off, let alone fly it as proficiently.

The same analogy is valid for cars. Would Vaccarella be at the top of the game if he were 40 years younger and driving Hamilton's car? Would Nuvolari score win after win in Raikkonen's Ferrari? These questions are ridiculous. Today driving an F.1 car is about more than the driving. There are months and months of set-up, getting in tune with the scores of team engineers and mechanics to do what you (the driver) need in order to win, and of course if a car is fundamentallyonly - slightly - inferior to the best, the season is lost.

A Maserati 250F or an Alfa 159 were crude, simple machines, with low grip limits and incredibly low speeds in the curves. Today a street F430 driven by Sutil would put a '50s 250F or Ferrari 156 driven by Raikkonen to shame on any racetrack. In those days "driving" meant simply jumping in, going as fast as you could and hoping you'd get home alive. There were no different tire compounds, no aerodynamics, no downforce, no "manettinos" to set-up (have you seen how complex an F.1 steering wheel is? Do you think Nuvolari would feel at ease trying to change scores of parameters in the car set-up while braking into a corner at 5G???).

Come on. Let's see sense and get this discussion back on track.

 

One thing all those Ferrari drivers had in common was that they had to put up with a competitive driver in the other car whether they liked it or not. Sorry, I meant all those drivers except MS. Would Enzo have put up with his dramatics in demanding he decided who was the other driver? Don't think so.

 

That's very odd reasoning. Lewis was spotted when he was 10 years old. So from that age forward he had to perform to stay in McLarens sights. How many 10 year olds do you know can stay focused that long outside of a video game let alone in something as serious as this sport? How much heart can Michael really have since he had contracts stating his teammate could not go as fast as him? Lewis has stayed focused all this time and now he's performing beyond McLarens hopes. I'd say he has more heart than Michael, it's just different times and circumstances.

 

You're right, we shouldn't compare him to Schumacher so soon, Schumacher had a much rockier start to his F1 career...

 

You're right, we shouldn't compare him to Schumacher so soon, Schumacher had a much rockier start to his F1 career...

 

A little history on Hami;

LONDON, England -- In his first few races McLaren Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton has risen above the other rookie drivers to become the undisputed star of the 2007 season. But, beyond the hype, does Lewis Hamilton have what it takes to become a future world champion?

The statistics speak for themselves: 22-year old Hamilton made the podium on all of his first three races -- the first rookie driver to reach the podium on his first outing since Jacques Villeneuve in 1996, the first rookie driver to reach the podium on his first two outings since Peter Arundell in 1964, the first driver in the history of Formula One to make a hat-trick.

But statistics can mislead. In Formula One's recent history there have been other drivers who have initially dazzled but failed to achieve the results expected of them. Juan Pablo Montoya was tipped by some as a future Ayrton Senna, but his tempestuousness and inconsistency weren't an ideal match for Formula One, and he has since made a sideways move into NASCAR. And in his debut season for Jordan in 1997, some commentators tipped Ralf Schumacher as a driver who might eclipse the fortunes of his older brother.

One clear reason for the hype surrounding Hamilton isn't just his ethnicity (he is the first person of black origin in Formula One) but his nationality. Britain hasn't had a championship winner since Damon Hill in 1996. In the intervening years British F1 fans have pinned their hopes on David Coulthard and then Jenson Button to provide a return to the glory days of the 1970s, when Jackie Stewart and James Hunt ruled supreme.

Arguably, this expectation is because the sport is presided over by two Brits (Bernie Ecclestone and Max Moseley) and southern England is home to seven of the eleven Formula One teams, so British fans have a sense of ownership over the sport. As a consequence of this, young British drivers have unrealistically high expectations placed upon them.

For all the hype, it might be assumed that Lewis Hamilton is favorite to win this year's championship. At the time of writing it's a three horse race between Hamilton and two drivers with lots of experience. And while it's too early in the season to make concrete predictions, it is clear that the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen have more pace than the McLarens of Hamilton and Alonso.

As BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld told PA Sport, after the Malaysian Grand Prix, "I definitely think Lewis will do a really good job. He did especially well last week with the pressure from the two Ferraris and did not really make many mistakes.

"But then you have to see from my point of view that Alonso was still comfortably quicker. He is two-time world champion and he is a really good driver. People seem to forget he is leading the championship."

Former world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, who won his first world championship in 1972 when just 25-years old, also added a note of caution.

"This season will be a learning process -- we shouldn't expect to see him winning races," said the Brazilian.

Though another superstar of the 1970s, Austrian Niki Lauda said after Hamilton's first race: "Look, it's quite simple: Lewis is the best rookie I've ever seen -- any time, any place, any where."

Hamilton made his start in motor racing early, beginning in karts at the age of eight. Encouraged by his father Anthony -- who felt go-karting might temper his son's hyperactive tendencies -- Hamilton progressed through the karting field, attracting the attention of McLaren in the process.

At the age of just 13 he was signed to the McLaren Driver Development Support programme. This contract included a future option for an F1 seat. As a young teen, Hamilton could already see a future at the pinnacle of motor sport. Just four years earlier, in 1994, the nine-year old Hamilton approached McLaren team boss, Ron Dennis, at an awards show and asked if he could drive for McLaren in the future. And, as if in a fairytale, his wish was granted.

The move from kart to cars came in 2001, when Hamilton raced in the British Formula Renault Winter series, finishing fifth. Coming third in his first full season in Formula Renault, and first in his second, Hamilton's rise seemed unstoppable. But a disappointing debut in British Formula Three saw him crash out of two races.

By 2005, however, Hamilton became the dominant force in F3 Euroseries, winning 15 of the 20 rounds. In 2006 and Hamilton triumphed yet again, this time in the GP2 series.

Hamilton has had success at a young age and has experienced the kind of career trajectory of which many can only dream. But before people start writing the history books a note of caution is needed, Peter Arundell had a major crash soon after his record-breaking achievements. He never regained his form and retired from F1 two years later. In an unpredictable world, few things are less predictable than motor sport.


"In an unpredictable world, few things are less predictable than motor sport." - That's been said over and over again. Still so true.

 

Fair enough. Which will it be? Tiger Woods or Michelle Wie?

 

+1 Excellent article, Senna and Schumacher didn't have the benefit of starting with the best car. Senna had the Toleman which became the Benettton that Schumacher had in 91.