Doubt it. Not now in any case. He's pointing out that the WDC is an individual award, but a team prize. Guy's got nothing to prove. Consistently out drove the cars he's had. It's a pity he didn't get a WDC with F, that would have been a very special one. Hope he gets a competitive car once again. LH: "Come on" -
Lewis is a great driver, clearly a winner and has speed over a lap that's probably only rivaled by Senna, and maybe Max...but not recognizing or acknowledging that some of those titles with Mercedes were a two driver competition makes it seem like blind faith. I don't know why it's offensive to say that he won some titles that he only had to beat his teammate to get. He's also had closer calls where there was legit competition. His teammates all regarded him highly, he was almost always quicker over a single lap than them. Clearly a great driver. But simply counting titles doesn't make the argument because of the dominance of the car. With Max, he's literally destroyed every teammate on a single lap, probably even by a larger margin than Hamilton and maybe even Schumacher. One thing I'd love to see is putting someone really quick in the second car, not sure if any of those sans Riccardo was really fast at the time they had the drive (i.e. Gazly) - would be very interesting to see Alonso alongside him as a reference.
Gasly is quick but IMO when his motivation fails him/stress catches up he does something like he's done this year (i.e. look completely average). Albon is seriously fast but Max made him look completely ordinary. Look at how Albon is driving against Latifi (of course, far from the greatest yard stick...but Albon has a larger margin over Latifi than Russell did). Norris had the offer and refused. Lewis would never take it. Leclerc would be interesting but it would never happen. I'd really like to see Alonso and Max together but he's too old for RB to consider him. We've already seen Max v Sainz. I'm not the most unbiased person here when it comes to Max but I honestly struggle to see who they could put in that car to match Max. IMO this is Schumacher all over again. Anyone they put alongside him is made look ordinary and the usual suspects will say "#2 driver by contract". Comes with the territory. It's clear that RB looked very hard to find a driver capable to come closer and the best they could find so far has been Perez. The other problem RB has (ok, not so much a problem right now I guess), is drivers they do want but don't want to risk their career being sat next to Max.
But Riccardo scored more points than Max during the years they were teams mates. Something like this happening is a major deal around here. So how is Max "Schumacher all over again"?
I went back and looked, I think Riccardo had him the first two years and Max beat him in 2018. Clearly Max was young at that point and still figuring it out and I honestly don't know the answer to this, but has there ever been a long driver career where they never lost to a teammate? I think Schumacher did lose one year when he broke his leg, but I don't remember if he also lost earlier on as well. Hamilton lost at least twice I remember (once to Button and an obvious once to Rosberg for the title). Certainly in the more recent years Max does look head and shoulders ahead of his teammate, Perez certainly isn't a single lap demon so it's hard to say, I'd really love to see someone fiery get in there and challenge him over a single lap.
Yes Schumacher got beat by Rosberg. In his earlier years he was undefeated. Schumacher was a force. But Schumacher is not the champion you want to gauge team mate rivalry. Schumacher is waaaaayyyyy waaayyyyy down the list when you talk about team mate strength. To look at past champions with great team mate competition, you want to start with Senna and most recently Hamilton.
HA! I completely erased those Mercedes years! Too true, Rosberg did have a strong handle there. What was Senna's record against teammates? Unfortunately for me I wasn't watching F1 when he was racing, well not until his last year or two.
I wasn't watching F1 in that era either. I only saw the documenteries on Senna. Most notable is his battles with Prost, a driver who some also consider one of the greatest.
+1 IMO Max losing to Ric isn't something people can wave in his face too convincingly. Max went from a single season of F3 (which he nearly won, 10 victories in a low ranked team...vs Lewis first f3 season only 1 win). Max went from 1 season in car racing to F1, Lewis had 6 seasons under his belt. Comparing it directly to Max's teammate, Ricciardo was in his 10th season of car racing and 5th season of Formula 1 by the time they became teammates. When Max dialed his ''I need to be first in everything I do" down by 0.1% in 2018 it was game over. After monaco 2018 Max didn't look back. Max lost out to Ric in the beginning of his career. Lewis lost out to his teammates in his prime. Schumacher at the end. No driver is immune to losing.
