During the 2013 offseason, Hamilton summited Mount Sinai where the Good Lord anointed him with supernatural driving abilities and deity-like status among his believers (e.g. fanbois). Since then, he's been unstoppable, except when his team makes errors.
As I said before, it's "the package". Good chassis, good aero, good power & good drivers. Merc have, currently, far & away the best package. So, yeah, maybe a 1/3rd of the guys out there right now would be winning in the Merc. But, don't forget Williams, Fauxtus & FI also have Merc power, and they're not challenging the Mercs either. In other words, it's a lot more than just "a superior engine". Cheers, Ian
Had they put as much effort into their engine development as they did into their PR campaign, they actually might have been in decent shape by now. All the best, Andrew
same stuff been going on for 35 years. 79 Renault Turbo is great, reliability sucks. BMW had killer turbo, that ended. TAG had awesome turbo, that ended. Renault turbo came back, for a year or three. Guys, it's called evolution, every single team has had it, chassis alone Tyrrell was hot in the early 70's, then Lotus, then Williams and Brabham, then Mclaren, back to Williams, then Benneton, back to Williams, then a long stretch for Ferrari, then Brawn, then Renault (Red Bull), it all floats around.
Ok I wasn't sure about some peoples comments that you are insane in love with Hamilton but this post locked it up. That is beyond star struck with any driver to make such a ridiculous statement. I do not mean this condescending, it is an honest question. What is your racing experience?
I agree to an extent, however the clue to me about the PU's is, Newey already knew they would not be contenders, because they had sunk all there resources into clinching 4 x WDC's and knew they would be behind on power the next season, and he is right. Merc have built a great engine and IMO had been working on it before the others, it has paid off, put simply Hamilton jumped ship at the right time, the restrictive rules have hampered the others catching up in the engine department, there is only so much one can do in the aero dep ..to compensate IMO. Whether or not Merc are genuine in wanting others to catch up is highly debatable IMO.
Redbull and Renault won too much and Merc threatened to leave so the FIA gave them a heads up and let them test privately. Ferrari can threaten to leave all they want but they won't so the FIA doesn't help them as much as they used to in the MS era. Honda got screwed with the new rules and this era of F1 due to not being able to test. I'm sure they'd get some help if they threatened to leave too but they are likely too proud to do that so quickly.
If it were that simple, surely Williams, FI & Fauxtus would be challenging for wins, no? IMO, they're "simply" doing a better job of it than the others right now. As Whisky noted, "always been that way, always will be". Want to beat 'em? Do a better job. Drive faster..... Cheers, Ian
I think it's pretty clear that MB had a lot of lead time on the PU / Turbo Engine - and they focused more on that developement vs. the V-8 Naturally Aspirated engines... so its not that they had more time, but concentrated their efforts into the new Formula. Chassis has been getting better and better since Schumacher left -so its their time. they have the best combination of engine, car & Drivers. i would hardly say that Hamilton or Rosberg are the very best - but they are both good, and can make use of the MB car.... A La Ferrari & Schumacher in the mid 2000's it all comes around and goes around.
Ask anyone on here what My opinion of Lewis Hamilton is and they'll all tell you that I am most definitely not "insane in love with Hamilton" and that in fact, I don't actually like him much at all! I do however recognise that he is an outstandingly talented driver with great natural ability. At the same time, I like Kimi. I like his "Don't give a s:censored:t" attitude and I know that when the car is set up right for him he's a damned fast driver. However, here's the reality of the situation: Right now, Kimi is being dominated by his team mate Sebastian Vettel. Seb is a pretty fast driver but he's not quite as fast or as naturally talented as Hamilton. Based on that, it stands to reason that chances are Hamilton would dominate Kimi even more than Seb does, in the same car. What is the relevance of that? Is it your contention that only people who have been racing drivers have the ability to assess driver talent? (If it is then I'm afraid you're a tad wide of the mark!)
In 2011 Mr 4x champ best of the best driver converted 15 poles into 11 victories. Talk about having a dominating car and no competition from your teammate. His teammate only got one win. Vettel had only 1 retirement the whole season. In 2014 Hamilton converted 7 poles into 11 victories (less than half of Seb's pole positions). Hamilton had 3 retirements that season. He also happens to be the only one that has won in every season he competed and the only one that brings a championship within 2 years of joining a new team. He is the only one that went head to head with 2 world champions and beat both. Vettel went once against a fast nobody and lost. He ran away from his team as soon as competition arrived. Like you said Hamilton is a good average driver in fast car.
They could throw most of the top ten drivers into the car and get wins, the car is king, the drivers are there to mix the fuel, heat the tyres and manage the pu till the end, there isn't much about racing required in the MB
Sorry Phil, but to me the quote about hambone beating kimi was to be compared with hambone in a Ferrari, and kimi in the merc, and there's no way that would happen, as to do so, surely you would expect rosberg to be beaten regularly by Vettel, which he isn't
Okay, going on that thesis: Rosberg quite often comes very close to being beaten by Vettel, and Lewis is much faster than Vettel (IMO). Hamilton (or even Alonso) in this years Ferrari would cause Rosberg a lot more headaches than Vettel manages to (again IMO). Kimi needs the car to be adapted to suit him, whilst the likes of Hamilton and Alonso have a better ability to adapt to the car (which highlights how bad the McLaren must be this year as even Alonso can do nothing with it!). This years Ferrari is no slouch (not quite as fast as the Mercedes but not massively off their pace and getting closer race by race!). Fast as the Mercedes is, if the set up didn't suit kimi's driving style, then there would be far more races where Hamilton in this years Ferrari would be causing him some headaches and even beating him. (Of course, if the car did suit Kimi then yes, it would be game over!) As I say, I love Kimi, but Hamilton is just one of those drivers who can make that difference to a car, and wring a performance out of it that will get results and beat others in superior cars. Kimi is damned fast when everything is perfect, Hamilton is damned fast even when things aren't perfect! I genuinely believe Hamilton is that good! (Still bloody annoying out of the car though!) Let's face facts here though, this is yet another hypothetical situation that will never be resolved and I'm not going to get into one of the regular Fchat dogfights over it so I'll leave it at that!
Perhaps McLaren needs to get handed another set of data from another team. If it worked once it may work again.....
Thank you toil for answering my question. On a side note, not that is should matter but if you in fact do know anything about racing. It would take someone completely lost or out of touch with reality to say: One current F1 world champion driver would beat another current F1 world champion driver every single time they race. That is beyond outlandish. Back to reality thanks for the input. So, I guess I am just completely lost that someone who has atleast some racing experience would agree. That some drivers are faster at different tracks, Some drivers are faster in the rain than others. Some even might say even superman has a bad day and might just lose a race. I am so sorry that I am completely wrong and just flat out Hamilton would always beat KIMI and that is all that matters.
Seb's got his short comings too. I think having Kimi as a team mate is flattering him a bit this year. Talented driver but not the best. Had the best car designed around his driving style for a long time. BTW, he failed to win in 2014.
