http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87023
I am happy for Webber, he ran a good race, great strategy, and I think karma caught Hammy a lil bit yesterday.
He certainly has been having very good luck lately - but you make your own luck, so I'm not complaining. I still think he will have be very lucky to get WDC. It's still a 5 horse race!
Talent + Luck - Sense =/= WDC He's a dangerous driver and should have penalised for yesterday. I hate Hami, and rarely stick up for him...but Webber NEEDED to back down. From what I've seen, he seems to think F1 is a demo derby.
How far wrong is he? Polite sportsmanship is no longer seen as a viable route to championships. Sad but true and not unique to Webber.
After walking away from this.... saying Webber is" lucky" is an understatement at the least Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Was it Webber that had another car slide on top of his a few seasons ago? The sharp carbon edge of the bottom of the other car nearly sliced his neck open... Let's not forget him flipping into the woods off of LeMans in 1999 in the Benz CLR.
Hamilton knows Webber gives no quarter in a wheel to wheel duel and yet he still opted to try to squeeze him out mid corner (and please don't give Me any of that: "Hamilton didn't know he would be there" nonsense!, anybody who's ever seen Webber race knew exactly where he'd be!). He got half a car ahead and thought he could just close out the exit and Webber would have to slam the brakes on and slip in behind him, problem was, Webber figured he could still defend the position through the apex and through the exit when Hamilton started to close the door. Had Hamilton not tried to slam the door in Webbers face mid corner then he would still have been in the race. Don't believe Me?, Kubica made an identical manoeuvre in the exact same corner and pulled it off without any contact. And how did he manage what Hamilton couldn't?, because he didn't try to squeeze his opponent out!. Kubica left a good cars width going through the corner to avoid the very sort of accident that Hamilton ended up having. I've seen Webber pull some seriously dodgy manoeuvres when trying to defend a position, including swerving and trying to run an opponent off the road, but in this latest incident it was at least a 50/50 situation and Hamilton has to accept his portion of the blame for not finishing the race.
Hamilton should ask McLaren to build their cars stronger if he sticks to his line of attacks! So far, the McLaren often comes out worse in contacts with other cars!
So far we know the Ferrari rear end is stronger than the McLaren tierods, and the Red Bull front suspension is stronger than the McLaren rear suspension. But, I also agree that Hamilton had room over the curbing to complete the pass without trying to close the door on Weber. Perhaps he will learn from these episodeS.
There must be some justice after all... Hamilton didn't manage to eliminate his opponents during his two last 'encounters' on the track.
Well Lewis Hamilton awsome. But Maclaren is going down day by day.They must be thinking seriously building new and stronger cars.
I don't think Hamilton's goal was to try and eliminate either of his opponents in his "two last 'encounters' ", he saw two half opportunities, took the gamble, went for them and they didn't pay off for him. There was no malice involved, he simply made an error of judgment. McLaren are not going to build completely new cars this late in the season, and while they might beef up the suspension a little bit, I doubt it'll be by much for this season. However, I wouldn't be surprised if next years suspension is a lot stronger. McLaren would do well to study the lesson that Ferrari learnt with Schumacher. When you have a driver who goes wheel to wheel with his opponents, you need suspension that can take a knock and stay in one piece. (To be honest though, they really should have learnt this lesson a couple of seasons ago!).
+1 Absolutely not. Sure he was a *little bit* overextended, but it's not anything extreme, not anything every driver on the grid hasn't done. I call it 60/40, 60% Hamilton's fault. Hamilton had him beat *anyway*, just needed to give him that little bit of extra room.
I'm just waiting for the first thread to pop up titled: Webr is not a worthy champion because... Every year somebody on here finds a reason to nag. I'm sure somebody will find reasons why Webber doesn't deserve the championship. My suggestion: Go argue the case in the Aussie section.
We both know that no one "deserves" to be champion. Webber will win it or lose it based on luck and talent. Just like any other driver.
That never stopped the peanut gallery from chiming in (the speaking included). And while we're at it: *IF* Webber wins, I will applaud him as a deserving champion. He (would have) fought and won a battle against a super talented Vettel, who was the darling of the team. He (would have) fought and won against two WDCs in mighty McLarens and ond double WDC in a powerful Ferrari. Whether he bumpchecked Hami in Singapore is irrelevant (even if he did, he got away with it, that's all that matters and maybe he didn't, either way I'm ok). That said, I'm still rooting for Alonso of course. But should Alonso not win the WDC, I'd be perfectly happy if Webber gets it. PS: I have some crow in the freezer, which I soon will have to defrost: I used to bash Webber and say he is totally useless. Definitely not true since his first victory at Nuerburgring.
My default setting is Ferrari, period. Among the rest there are some I like more than others. Generally they are the ones who come across as mature and human (in F1 very relative terms). Webber and Kubica top my list at the moment. The Mrs. Likes Nico but for less cerebral reasons.
weird turn around isn't it?? Fascinating to know what's caused it. Surely it's more than just confidence.
