Indeed we are die hard Ferrari supporters. This brand is in our heart and above any drivers who have driven for it.
Nico Rosberg proved that anyone can win WDC in the Merc, even against Lewis in another Merc. Case closed. If your contention is that LH is Rosberg's equal (albeit better at politics), I agree.
Lauda was a man of his word. Ham wasn't getting very far at McLaren and they'd just offered him a pay cut.
So then.....what your saying is you're not a race fan, just a brand.....a "thing".....fan. It's just a "brand".....a "thing" that appears.....competes.....out of thin air? I thought a brand, be it Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, or whatever, is made up of the people that make it; and in the case of auto racing, those that drive "it"...... I guess I've been misunderstanding the sport. Nico by a WHOPPING 5 points (385 to 380)? Nico was just anyone? Anyone? Why hasn't Bottas then? "Case closed".
Quick how many wins does Nico have in F1? Lewis has 100. There are 7,874,965,825 people on this planet that could have won 100 races in F1, yet we are here talking about the only one person who actually did it. I'm here to chat about reality vs living in someone's version of a dream world. Here's a neat chart I found laying out how he actual did it. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Yes, he owns all the records. A great driver. Precocious. He outdrove two time champ Alonso as a rookie with McLaren.. destroyed Alonso's arrogance.. Amazing feat. But... he filed a lawsuit against his own dad. His father made all the right moves while he was growing up to set him up for greatness. What kind of person sues his father? Who on this board would do that?
Insight is a strong word. Lewis was sponsored by Mercedes-Mclaren (Mclaren being their factory team). Mercedes bought a title winning team, and after significant investment, and saw how good their engine/car was for 2014, with Schumacher retiring/too old to be part of the winning formula for the foreseeable future, they needed someone young, fast and experienced. Lauda explained all this to Lewis, and made very clear what would happen when Mercedes dropped it's factory support for Mclaren. Add in that Lewis had a Button problem (not Magic button, that came a few years later), and Ron Dennis wasn't really keen on paying Lewis what he wanted, let alone a chunk more (in fact RD offered Lewis significantly less than his salary at the time!), Lewis packed his bags. The move looked genius, but it made a LOT of sense when all information is laid out in front of you...
Tommy Boy - "But... he filed a lawsuit against his own dad. His father made all the right moves while he was growing up to set him up for greatness. What kind of person sues his father? Who on this board would do that?" Trying to change the subject... Tommy Boy? From what I've seen people that suddenly become very rich commonly file lawsuits against their family members when Dad's skills as a manager of what use to be the family budget suddenly turn into hundreds of millions or more with international tax complexities of investing in property all over the world. Right Brittany Spears? (File under - Suddenly Mega Rich people problems).
Ham has been at Mercedes for a LONG time. Unprecedented reliabilty with the best team. He should've reached 100 ages ago
The responsible decision for focusing on his young family. If Nico just had a dog he might've continued
I remember Nico consistently beating MS when he returned to F1. So if Nico beat both MS and Lewis does that say more about Nico’s talent as able to beat both 7 time champs when the moon and stars aligned for him. But there are more than a few one time champs with less then 25 wins in F1, what we saw this weekend is a man that was the first and only to win 100. Amazing outcome for an F1 career
If Max wins the championshipship this year, would he be the only champion to score points without racing(Spa)?
MSC out of retirement was firmly in his Giving Phase. He was happy to help his friends at Mercedes develop the team and their 2014 car, and Nico admits he learned quite a bit from MSC. Nico wasn't the most naturally gifted driver on the grid but he managed to transmute some of MSC's learnings into tangible results for himself. I suspect that if Button and Ham were at Mercedes it would have been much tighter.
This one is interesting. It does certainly seem that he is either held back or mysteriously something fails or keeps him in the pits a bit longer. Not taking away from Ham, he is a master at managing tires and generally makes very few mistakes. He is not the fastest but fast enough.
2 choices First choice-->Do a Nico and feel the wrath of Toto and get no contract extension. This first choice takes balls. Second choice-->abide by the politics of Toto and get a contract extension....year-after-year. So get a WDC title and your done OR do the song and dance political game
Be a real Schumacher fan and stop making excuses, he got stumped. There is a article somewhere of Schumacher saying he felt great and wanted to win again.
Please, Stop reducing the work done by Schumacher at Ferrari and Mercedes. Don’t wave your ignorance like a flag, it ends up hurting the eyes ..
Now you are making esxcuses. He and the team has done good work, meanwhile he was getting stumped in the actual races against Rosberg. Max has been driving better over all than Lewis this year. Real fans don't make excuses for their drivers, it makes them look like a fake fan.
2021 is truly a classic battle between two very special Grand Prix Drivers. Max has matured just enough to stop making the 'errors of youth' that thwarted him before and is taking advantage of an excellent Red Bull to challenge for the Championship. Lewis is using experience and skill to extract more from the Mercedes and create strategic opportunities in a manner that Max should mature to (but is not there yet). When Lewis was the upstart it was the other way around and this observation is not a knock on Max but a recognition of the basic lifespan of the top line F1 driver.
I would also add that Ham has benefitted from the supreme longevity of Mercedes. Never before has a team allowed to be unencumbered (by FIA meddling) until now. It took just 4 seasons for FIA to thwart Schumacher dominance with sudden tyre reg change Wolff and Ham have prospered under Todt. JT's resentment of his sacking at Ferrari has served Mercedes well
