Hamilton deserves more respect

Hamilton is not going to get a ride that's a title contender if he leaves Mercedes. He knows that. Ferrari and Red Bull know that his prime is probably behind him now, as his struggles against Max last year showed.

To be fair, it's the car. Just as I make sure to give the car credit when he's dominating, I'm fair to say his struggles are down also down to the car. Mercedes are struggling and so Hamilton will as long as they do. The question is whether this is like Ferrari's 05' for them, where they can bounce back in a years time, or whether this is like 09' was for Ferrari, and the beginning of several seasons of struggling. If their struggles continue into next year, Hamilton will retire. He might retire at the end of this year if he believes they will continue to be far behind in development. I'd be surprise to see Hamilton to stay for cars he knows can't win championships. Not in his blood.

He'll retire with Mercedes, because they brought him to the top. He knows he owes his career to them.

 

Let's wait and see before calling Time on Mercedes. Supposedly Mercedes has ICE "reliability" upgrades in the pipeline. Bas care to comment?

 

In any case, I don't think that Hamilton would consider changing team so late in his career.

Hamilton will probably finish his contract and retire (as planned) at the end of next year.

 

Sure.

So rumours are that Mercedes will upgrade the ICE (Sorry, reliability concerns...) in Spain. Even though upgrade the ICE isn't allowed because it's homologated....except for reliability. FIA will have a strict eye on to ''ensure'' the engine won't gain power. Here's the catch though: If during said upgrade they also bring a new floor and wing...what's stopping Mercedes from claiming that the extra speed came from that? Absolutely nothing.

Bizarro world F1...

 

Yeah, it would be stupid for him to do that.

He's got all the records. The one he wanted was an 8th WDC, so he could break his tie with Schumacher on that. If/when he comes to terms with that being more trouble than its worth, he'll hang it up. Knowing Leclerc and Max are the new kids on the block for titles will also factor into that.

 

I don’t think Lewis has lost his edge , he is driving as well if not better than he has in the past . He is a very wise driver , thing is last year he had competition for a change , had to work hard for his wins and none of the cake walks he has had the previous years .

we can only speculate on his future plans , he certain doesn’t need the money . My guess is that if he has a competitive car , he will keep on going .
As far as changing teams , there are only 2 other teams that can offer him a competitive ride and they are not hiring , not that we know anyway .

Hopefully he calls it quits when his performance declines as it will eventually, and not follow the path of other WDC who switched to lousy teams just the sake of driving .
Seb is a prefect example and kimi not that far behind

 

I haven't heard any such thing.

What's to stop them? The fact that the FIA will submit the request to the other teams, explaining what they intend to upgrade and why. That will give Ferrari, Red Bull, and Renault the opportunity to protest against the modifications as simply being a ruse to increase HP.

 

You said it all here, I don’t think he lost his edge more like he’s lacking now that the car isn’t the star and George is knocking

 

I agree. Those last 4 races from him, especially Brazil shows he is just as sharp as ever. If Merc can fix their problems in a few racers he has a shot.

 

How F1 manufacturers are still allowed to upgrade their engines | RacingNews365

 

It should be frozen, if

It should be frozen, if Merc did not do a good job on the base design hard luck live with it.

 

As Ferrari did for the whole 2014 year.

 

When it is about money , and let’s face it , F1 is money first and sport 2nd , every team will try and get an edge , whether legally or by cheating . And if you don’t get caught , it isn’t called cheating .

In my opinion , there isn’t a single F1 teams that can preach the higher moral ground to the others , they are all guilty one way or another , some are better at it than others and when a team like MB shows such utter dominance for 8 years , one has to wonder whether all of it was in the up and up and my guess is that it wasn’t , but whatever they did worked .
Hence all the conspiracy theories , maybe some of them are tru, we need a rat like Alonso to spill the beans lol .

 

I'm actually more annoyed with the FIA regarding this. They kept going on about a full on locked engine spec, everything had to be locked in before the first race...then 3 components can actually be altered until september, and now for ''reliability reasons'' you can change the engine spec again, but only at the discretion of the FIA...

Listen, I understand the need for a reliability upgrade if engines where blowing left right and center. But before I'd allow said upgrade, I'd download the data from their ECU's. Then I'd put the engine in a sealed room and have them run all the tests they like, with all possible engine modes. Then we can put in their new fixed engine and run the same tests again. Any power advantage more than half a percent, the reliability upgrade is deemed a performance upgrade and therefore disallowed. And you can be damn sure a close eye will be kept on the ECU maps they use.

FIA want the clarity and honesty they keep preaching? There it ****ing is. Publish the numbers (hell, a video of the test session, temperatures and power read outs). Suddenly selecting an untested engine map? On the dyno you go, and you're paying for it, too...should've tested them all in the chamber when you had the chance.

FIA is trying to be 2 things.

 

FIA , FIFA , IOC and I can go on , all these outfits are as corrupt as they get , comes down to money again . They are supposed to be unbiased and provide a level ground for all , far from the truth.
Payoffs and kickbacks are the norm , not the exception . I am sure you read about the scandals , that is just the surface , much more going on that we will ever be privy too unless someone snitches because their envelope was lighter than usual

 

Do you have a current example of the "Payoffs and kickbacks"? Asking for a friend.

 

So who is carrying the Mercedes team on his back right now, Hamilton or Russell? They both are racing the same problematic car but one is bringing home more points.

 

Russell currently 2nd in the championship is pretty good for a Mercedes newbie

 

Before long the FIA will also back-pedal regarding the budget cap.

 

I genuinely wonder how it's actually policed. There are so many exceptions I actually doubt the budget cap makes any difference whatsoever.

 

No matter how you cut the caps...Mercedes will always be a threat until they are mathematically eliminated from contention. Hamilton rode the E ticket to the top, and now he experiencing the downside. He's just another human being. So is Russell but he's hungrier than Lewis.

 

Of course they will. They'll have to.

 

All of the other engine manufactures will be informed in writing by the FIA of the nature of the intended "reliability" upgrade. No one team is going to be able to sneak a potential massive power boost past the others.

I expect Ferrari are hiding their PU advantage for as long as possible, because they know the other engine makes will be begging the FIA for a grace period to develop and close the gap, and it will be granted like one was to Renault in 06'.

OTOH, Ferrari are both ahead of everyone else in the engine department, as well aerodynamically ahead. They will be in contention for the title for several years to come.

 

I genuinely hope you're right.

 

No engine manufacture is going to be able to sneak anything by. All of the teams will be provided bulletins by the FIA, whenever a request is made for a "reliability" upgrade, and they'll get to see exactly what that requester wants.

I'd be willing to bet Ferrari are up 20-25bhp right now. The engine department did an amazing turnaround, hid their massive performance gains, and waited to exploit the engine freeze Red Bull begged for, and Mercedes believed would lock in an advantage for them. It's their own fault for underestimating Ferrari.

If the power gap becomes something of a talking point, my guess is Ferrari will would (maybe) work towards a compromise for the others PU's to catch up, but there's no way Ferrari won't make Mercedes and Red Bull also stick to their budgets. That will be the ace Ferrari will hold, just like the tokens were for Mercedes.