Alonso vs Hamilton

I suppose. But when you mention Prost in the same breath as Fisichella and Trulli, it comes off a little differently than you intended.

 

interestingly, when it comes to Lewis Hamilton, no one has noted how much he has to rely on his team for tactical decisions.

Take the Australian GP this year for example. When the team told him to come in for a second set of tyres, he dutifully came in, despite feeling that his tyres were ok to continue racing on. He then went into a strop, critcising the team on the radio for what he then felt was a bad decision. (As it turns out, Bridgestone said that the team were right).

Now compare that to Jenson Button in the same race. Out the blue, Jenson suddenly announced that he wanted to go onto slick tyres. The team tried to convince him that it was the wrong time and to leave it for a few more laps. Button ignored this and basically told the team: "I'm coming in for a stop and you'd better have slick tyres ready!". The team dutifully fitted Button with the slick tyres and he went onto win the race. This decision was later heralded by the team as an outstanding decision, made by the driver on his own!.

This is not a new issue for Hamilton though. Go back to the Chinese GP 2007 where despite the fact that Kimi Raikkonen was closing him down at an alarming rate, Hamilton stayed out on tyres that were wearing down to the canvas because the team told him it was the right thing to do. Essentially, this ended up costing him the WDC!.
Nobody on this site could convince Me that the likes of Alonso or Schumacher would not have told the team: "I don't care what you guys are saying, I'm coming in for fresh tyres, these are completely shot!".

Sometimes Hamilton trusts his team too much!. Don't get Me wrong, he's a phenomenally gifted driver, but sometimes it would pay him to trust his instincts more.



As for people arguing that Button is better at tyre management than Hamilton, i refer you back to this: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82635

In this article, bridgestone paint an even different story:

Speaking to AUTOSPORT, Hamashima said that both Hamilton and Mark Webber – who also stopped for a second set – needed to make stops while the cars ahead of them did not.

"Concerning Webber and Hamilton – their first dry tyres were almost worn out," he said following post-race analysis of their rubber. "They had to do a two-stop."

Hamashima has also revealed that Jenson Button's decision to push on through the race with a single set almost backfired because his tyres were nearly totally worn out when he took the chequered flag.

"Jenson's tread was almost finished," he explained. "It was a very, very dangerous situation for him."

Hamashima reckons that Fernando Alonso was actually the man who did the best job with the tyres – with the rubber on his Ferrari in brilliant shape at the end of the race.

"Fernando Alonso – fantastic! His taking care of tyres was tremendous. Great. Fernando was still looking very good."


At the end of the day though, this whole thread is a bit like trying to argue as to which is better, Pepsi or Coca Cola. Some prefer Pepsi, some prefer Coke and some can see that in their own way, their as good as each other!.

 

You're not getting the point. Fernando is an excellent driver and excellent at set-up. Lewis is an excellent driver but not as good as Fernando is at set-up. Lewis seemed slightly faster over one lap when they were at McLaren. He also always seemed to magically get the last lap in qualy. To me it means Alonso is a more complete driver than Hamilton.

 

Because of the testing ban there is no way to say that any driver has had any huge input in car development for the last two years. You pretty much have what you have, and test during the races. Even still, if we did give LH the benefit of the doubt in 09 and say it was down to him, it took him till midway point of the year to get the car figured out.

 

I totally agree that Alonso is a better driver RIGHT NOW.
IMO better meaning experience, determination, and raw talent mixed.
Hami has more raw talent. Raw talent is like speed to a sprint runner. You cant teach it. You have it or you dont.
The rest will come.
I believe LH to eventually be one of the real true greats if he gets the rides.

 

The testing ban is not so complete as to remove the driver from the process entirely. This is true both before and during the race season. Alonso still holds a meaningful edge here.

 

It's still meaningful but not as much as it was before. Remember the turn around at Renault in 08? The same didn't happen in 09 and I'm guessing the testing ban was the reason.