These last 9 races were in a dominant car over several years. In most of these his only competitor was Rosberg and it is known that Rosberg was not good in the wet. So yes, Lewis is good in the rain but he is not the only good rain driver. You neither need to hate anybody nore to love anybody but just as some people root for someone others do the opposite and I think both Lewis and Toto are very unlikable characters... As just by chance there is an article up here that says this power advantage of Ferrari is nonsense...So I would say that Ferrari is driving less downforce and therefore gain on the straight but loose in the corner, this is even more important in the wet...So I still do not see why Ferrari necessarily need to be the faster car under these conditions and I am still asking why you think that BOTH Mercedes drivers were faster and not only Lewis when it is not the car but only the driver....Do you rate Bottas as high as a rain driver, he was within 2 tenth of Lewis! Bottas himself said he think he might have had a chance on pole if it was him driving behind Lewis and not the other way round on the fresh tires. Obviously Mercedes managed to get the timing best and got the most out of the tires because they were fast on the FIRST lap when the tires were brand new. And if it has nothing to do with the car, why was Max even further back although he proved very much that he can at least match Lewis when it is wet...I think someone over here even explained how the rain tires affect the aerodynamic and that not every car reacts the same way.
Funny, I saw the GPS data and it was 2 tenths for Ferrari on the straight...not 4 tenths as was claimed by one Toto Wolff (the **** he spews is not gospel, funnily enough). IMO Schumacher is without any shadow of doubt the rain god of F1. Gilles was amazing in the wet, as was Senna. Lewis certainly not bad in the wet, and definitely above average...but one of the best the sport has ever seen? Nope very much disagree. Vettel, Alonso and Verstappen are more impressive in the wet. As was Button. Kimi's had stunning races in the wet, too. And those are just the guys Lewis raced against...
Clearly Vettel is the best out there. When he is in a dominant car - he completely wiped the field. Its up to Ferrari to give him the machine to win in. So far he has been doing a very good job with an average car. If he goes to Mercedes - I would think he'd easily beat Hamilton once he's settled in. Ferrari need Vettel much more than he needs Ferrari.
lol 2010 the car was definitely not the dominant force. Neither was it in 2012. In 2013 it faced stiff competition in the first half. After the tyre switch trick was banned it became dominant in Vettel's hands. Webber far from it.
So the guy who is not good enough has 13 point more than the guy you see as the only chance of Ferrari to get a WDC (aside Lewis).... Does not sound to reasonable to me Vettel crashes once and is a "waste of time" to be replaced by the guy who crashed in more races than not this year...yeah sure.... Edit: advantage of Max in a Ferrari: if he wants to take out both red cars he only has to drive into one instead of two
You must've forgotten how Ricciardo obliterated Vettel in his debut year into a Red Bull, a team that clearly favored+surrounded itself around Vettel...and unsurprisingly Ricciardo has outperformed Max who is currently the team's favorite too...puts things into perspective doesn't it?
No it doesn't. Ricci hasn't accomplished much so far and the difference to Max is that he is a lot older. By the time Max is as old as Ricci, he'll be a WDC. Ricci is fast but not WDC material. Just my opinion.
Surely you mean the current RB car isn't WDC material right? Ricciardo demolished a 4-time WDC in equal equipment...if that's not a convincing demonstration of his WDC worthiness I dunno what is.
By the time Max is as old as Ricci he will only be a WDC if he gets a car that is able to win a WDC...Just like Ricci is...Ricciardo started to get into an upper team just with the beginning of the hybrid era and since then RB has built a decent car but none that is a real competitor for the championship. If RB does not do in the next five years either Max will end up with exactly the same amount of WDC as Ricciardo: zero... I start to get the impression that people over here differ less and less between the driver sitting in the car and the car itself. When Lewis wins in the Mercedes or Vettel in the RB they are the greatest and all those sitting in a lesser car are simply not good enough....And at the end there is always this stupid argument: only the top drivers end in the best car and if someone is not sitting in it he can´t be top material. Means that in the 4 RB years and the 4 Mercedes years now there was always only one single driver in the entire field that was actually good...
He was good enough to hand Vettel his ass in the same car...when Vettel was the golden boy in the team coming off 4 straight WDCs...
Anyone arguing this has to be blind to how badly Vettel looked in comparison to Daniel. He was completely exposed and could not leave soon enough. The team were equally as surprised. Vettel is not at all the most complete driver on the grid. His glaring errors and useless hot temper expose his weaknesses well. Ive not at all been a large fan. He lost me in Mexico yelling like some football hothead. Pathetic. Ricci has more race craft as he has demonstrated again and again. Max as well. Against either I think Vettel looks average. His era is fast passing him by. He should have won the title last year. Yes the car failed, but his own errors were equal to that. No loss for me if he leaves Ferrari or F1. Not at all a legend in my book. FA is more so and more complete as a driver. No one else is close.
Totally agree. The best drivers often end up in the best cars, and not by chance. Put an excellent driver in a superior car and you risk having years of total domination. Then people get bored of the lack or overtaking, racing and predictible results The most vociferous start crying foul and imagine all sorts of special treatment, or a conspiracy somewhere, etc ... Others think the dominating combo (car-driver) should be penalised somehow.
In defense of Vettel, I would say that losing to Ricciardo happeed during the 1st year of the new hybrid formula that caught many off guard by the new driving technique needed. Ricciardo took it like a fish to water; Vettel took time to adapt. Kimi Raikkonen had the same problem, as he mentioned in an interview. The "lift-and-coast" technique to harvest energy before a corner, in view to exploit it for the next accelaration and save fuel at the same time, etc.. requires a different type of driving. So, you can say Ricciardo "obliterated" Vettel if you want, but I think Vettel just needed more practice at it. He doesn't seem to have problem driving now. Personally, I wouldn't go as far as saying that Ricciardo is better than Vettel based in that year only, even if he is my favourite driver at the moment. .
And what if there are more top drivers than top cars? In the last years with a clear No.2 at RB and Mercedes there was only one (!!!) spot for a top driver in a top car at a time. Now what do you do when you have Lewis, Seb, Max, Ricci and still Fernando around? Do you really think only one of them can drive because he is the #blessed one sitting in the right car of the time? So I agree that in every top car sits a top driver normally but not every top driver gets a top car!
You harvest less energy btw if you “lift and coast”, (turbo spins up less/more slowly, less harvesting from brakes etc) so I’d do some fact checking in that department. Common sense would have a driver put the car in different drive mode where less power can be diverted from the mgu-k on throttle to allow for better energy conservation. In short, your explanation is a farce and leaves little justification for the lackluster performance of a 4-time wdc...plus he had all year to “get used” to things, he didn’t show much at all that season from what I can remember.
Well, people sometimes has ups and downs. Hamilton was beaten by Button one season, yet now Hamilton is world champion and Button was kicked out of F1. So maybe if Vettel and Ricciardo met again, the outcome could be different. Having said that, I still prefer Ricciardo. If not faster, at least he seems more relaxed and level-headed. Pity that he was not available at the time and now we´re "stuck" with Vettel.
That’s why Hamilton sucks, but that Mercedes car, not so much. And unfortunately for us, Vettel would never allow Ricciardo into Ferrari while he’s there, neither would Ferrari (as we know it) let both drivers race each other. At this point we can only hope Renault put a decent car together next season and we enjoy some real racing.
If Vettel was so bad then why don’t ferrari terminate his contract? The team has one objective - and that’s to win the championship. Nothing else matters. Ferrari aren’t a charity and they aren’t fools. Vettel is there on merit. Other drivers may be in a similar level of performance, but there is no one on today’s grid who is clearly above Vettel. No one.
Ricciardo may still end up at Ferrari, perhaps, but in 2 years time. When his contract with Renault will be near the end, maybe both parties will contact each other again and re-examine the situation,who knows?
That's fine, but now, who do you suggest ? Currently available, not tied up by a contract, etc ... Hamilton is out, Ricciardo is out, Bottas is out, Verstappen is out, Hulkenberg is out, etc ... That must leave you with Alonso only - déja vu. The others wouldn't make the grade, IMO. Ferrari coud gamble on Leclerc, but don't expect immediate results.
