Hamilton deserves more respect

IMO his biggest hurdle in his comeback was the Pirelli's gave him completely the opposite of what he asks from a car, and Mercedes was incapable of building the strong front end he wanted. I'm sure the motivation was still there, but age + that neck injury offer it's limitations. He could've easily called it quits in 2010 and no one would blame him. He felt he owed it to Mercedes to help them prepare as much as possible, so he did (Michael drove for Mercedes in Sports Cars and paid Eddie Jordan for his opportunity at Spa).

 

+1 excellent post

 

Didn’t know that.
This a fact all of this world championships cars were all designed by Rory Byrne with very specific characteristics.
Sometimes very tricky cars to set up like the Benetton B195 ( just ask Johnny Herbert) or the undriveable Ferrari F310.
Nevertheless I tend to believe that his bike accident was unconsciously decisive for his intrinsic speed.

 

If you enjoy the story read the comments at the bottom !

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-10770103/McLaren-F1-team-investigate-abusive-message-Lewis-Hamilton-allegedly-sent-employee.html

 

Most eye opening was when Alesi and Berger came from Ferrari to drive Benetton, and they both had a few goes in Schumachers championship winning cars. Neither could understand how Michael won a championship in that car. Both actually crashed the benetton several times! Here's a quote from Berger, and then later a chat between Damon and Michael in 2000:

And that's Berger saying that...a guy that hopped from team to team year after year, never having any real trouble driving anything...yet the Benetton he found impossible!

I always chuckle at the fact that "michael had #2's", as if that was the reason why he won so many titles and races. The reality was, everyone was a #2 next to Michael. Had Schumacher stayed in 2007 he probably would've beaten Kimi (who struggled a lot more on the switch to Bridgestones than people remember, same for Alonso). Schumachers tyre problem came with Pirelli.

 

The "haters" are proven right once again. He's a cancer within the team.

 

They're all various levels of incredible in their own right. I rate Hamilton very highly (top 10 all time), just not as high as some....and many of those then start pointing fingers and making up insane statements as to why I must think that Lewis is not the greatest. IMO many of his fans do a very good job making Lewis more unlikeable than he perhaps is.

Back to Berger, here are a few more quotes directly from his book. Interesting is the last quote, which is explains he had a bit of a feud going with Michael for a while...these small things can always (subconsciously even) adjust ones' rankings:

This is Gerhard Bergers description of his first days at Benetton in 1996, from his book "Zielgerade" (Translated).

Some pages later he said with regard to his little feud with Michael he had at that time:

An eye opener and very interesting for sure...And then with Michael having driven the V12 Ferrari, his opinion was "damn, winning the title would've been easier for me in this car!"...he loved the torque of the engine, allowing him to manipulate the car. .I wonder how far he could've come with the F310 had it been a V12 for another year...

 

A driver with more than 100 victories and poles would never be rated as average.
He’s a great driver but not worth of a top 10 in my modest book.

 

Michael Schumacher liked his car to have the front well planted and accepted the rear to be loose. He certainly convey that preference to the designers, and himself set up his car to have that characteristic. He needed to trust the front and learnt to take care of snap oversteer better then most; one could say it was one of his skills that stood him among his peers. Schumacher anticipated the reactions of his car where others would have been intimidated by them. Thus his cars must have felt diabolical for anyone no warned.

Prost, in the opposite, prefered understeering, saying it was less treacherous and easier to control. In the extreme, underseering can be quite unsettling for some drivers. When he came to McLaren, Keke Rosberg didn't like at all the way Prost and Lauda had directed the designers, and had problem to extract the most of his car. Also Prost used to put more brake balance towards the rear than most; I heard Lausa commenting on that in one of his interviews.

 

I don't think those are overrated, but appreciated at their right value.

- I don't remember Mika as mistake prone but on race skill, he was as good as Schumacher, IMO.

- Like his father, Damon Hill wasn't a "natural", both worked very hard to get to speed.

- Vettel is a mystery to me. He was good for 4 years, and then went stale. Since 2013, he lives on his reputation.

- Rosberg was unfortunate to have Hamilton as team mate when he got hold of a good car.

 

Coulthard was an average driver, a good #2 I think, who got on well with his team mates.

He drove for the 2 top teams at the time, for Frank Williams and Ron Dennis who knew about fighting inside a team.

 

Wolff is "protecting" Hamilton amidst his struggles.

Pay no mind to Russell, he knows what he's doing in a crappy car.

 

Understandable in view of the money they have invested on him !

It has to be said that Mercedes let him down this year.

 

IMO Toto wants to avoid a situation where Hamilton gets fed up, slams the door and leaves.

There is a situation to negotiate there to preserve both Mercedes' image and Hamilton's legacy.

Toto must still hope that the car will be improved this year.

 

I'll be fair, and agree.

That W13 is a dog turd so far. No downforce and steers like a ship. Yes, Russel is coping better with it, but the age difference is helping him. The porpoising is physically beating the drivers up, and I'd be willing to bet it's affecting Hamilton worse. Depth perception, vision, all of that stuff changes when a car is a physical monster like that.

 

The W13 is garbage. They'll be lucky to win even one or two races with it by sure luck and strategy.

That having been said, Hamilton owes it to Mercedes to see out his contract. They provided him a championship car for 8 straight years, where in a few of them anybody could've won the title in his equipment. Walking away a year early and not proving he can do well enough to at least podium still, won't be a good look for him.

Hamilton has beaten by teammates before. Button and Rosberg did it. Russel doing it too will put Hamilton in the same regard as Vettel to many, in that he's not as good as his 7x WDC he was able to get, with the team he was.

What Hamilton shouldn't do is do like Vettel and keep staying waaaaay past his prime.

 

I don't believe in miracles. Even if they make this year's Mercedes driveable, I don't think it will compete for a win.

Hamilton experiences the same dilemma any top sportman faces: knowing when to stop.

 

Don't get this, why is he at fault for receiving hate tweets?

By the most liked comments on that article, seems British people also hate his guts. I guess the BLM stuff made him very unpopular everywhere.