sarcasm, right? 'cause as much as it seems to have been given the past couple of seasons, he really had to prove himself to get there in the first place. Not like Stroll, Latifi or Mazepin (though it does seem unfair to group Stroll with Mazepin as the canadian at least has a decent track record outside of F1)
That fact that Russell could jump in his car last minute and perform the way he did speaks volumes about Hamilton and his dominance.
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/the-ferrari-f1-stand-in-who-almost-won-mika-salos-99-german-gp
My point has been proven by the quote below. Anyway, we can all have diverging opinions about LH44, but still enjoy F1.
....or it says something about Bottas folding under pressure. Again, Russel's 8-5 race day results vs Latifi (despite a 17-0 qualifying record) should be noted also, in regards to consistency and his own ability to dominate at this stage in his career. I'll say again, while Russell certainly has a promising future, to equate him to a 7x WDC with 95 wins is an ambitious assumption. (I know many are not saying that, they're saying Russell can win a WDC in the Merc at a fraction of Hamilton's cost. My counter is a) Russell is still a relatively unknown quantity as he has only 2 pts in his career. He could have more if not for mistakes he has made during some races and b) Merc's margin for error is not as large as some suppose. If there were no dnf's this year, Verstappen would have finished ahead of Bottas. Is Russell better than Bottas? I believe so, but that's yet to be proven. I believe he is far better than Latifi, but Latifi had the best finish for Williams this year and finished ahead of Russell 5 of the 13 times both finished a race. I think the one thing we're missing in the whole "Russell vs Hamilton" argument is that George did not race against Lewis. If Hamilton beat VB by 100+ pts this season, is that really the comparative benchmark?
Hamilton has driven the Mercedes for 7 seasons - that's the key difference between him and Russell. With an ill-fitting car Russell was fast straight out of the box, and he also stuck one up the inside of Bottas from the dirty side of track. Impressive !
Store ?!? what is that thing ? Since Amazon and COVID there are no stores, just internet and shipping companies..........
Russell after 7 seasons with Merc would no longer be an enigma. That does come with its own challenges (in terms of pressure, expectations and Max or Charles in a competitive car). I think George has the goods though...in terms of the current banter, Hamilton is the surer thing in the now, Russell is the play for the future.
Bottas and Hamilton have again proved Mercedes is in a class of one. Nothing more. The last time Hamilton had a competitive team mate, Hamilton lost.
Toto is smart. More time on track, driving experiencing the circuits, conditions and a not super easy balanced car. Improves tactical awareness and improves car control. Russell will be a bit more polished when he does arrive. Superb experience with the PU.
F1 is so boring that i have stopped all viewing or interest who cares anymore ?, Mansel is gone as all of the rest Its the same with LeMans, and the prototypes,, who cares? i certainly don',t they all look alike, and its a mess gone are the old days F
Then again, the season before that he won. But they were a bad combination with all the aggressive blocking and overtaking causing crashes. Rosberg quitting was a good thing for the team. and again, when was the last time a champion had a competitive team mate? 1996? Hamilton has lost races many times as some driver/car/track combinations are just better than others. And then there's a bit of bad luck involved at times. And we have had drivers come in and be impressive in a race during a season but then fail to impress once they get a full season in the car. And drivers who impress in lower series but then fail in F1 and vice versa. Russel made an impression in the best car on the shortest circuit in a mess of a race. Let's wait and see what he does over a season before claiming he is WDC material.
Bottas is not WDC material, and yet he can still beat all the other teams in a season. Russell certainly has more speed over Bottas, and is a natural born racer.
How do arrive at that conclusion? Can't really see how you induce this from what I said. It's top sport, there is only 1 winner. Doesn't matter if you not-win for 1 season or for 22 seasons, you don't win, you fail. Simple as that. I quite like Danny Ric, but if he never achieves a WDC before retirement, he leaves stuff on the table. I don't have a problem seeing the negatives of drivers I root for, seems like that is a quite rare around here.
No driver is perfect or a hero. I admire their driving skill. The rest are just human traits we all have. Some manage that better than others. Perfect we are not. There is a certain level of conduct that we should hope they have. Not always the case. Again no perfect
Barrichello wasn't WDC material either and still beat the other teams a lot. An obedient 2nd driver to backup the 1st driver. Russel being better than Bottas... He might be. Looking at their past, they are both very similar. Actually, Bottas track record pre-F1 looks somewhat better than that of Russel. Their days at Williams seem about equal though Bottas in his 4 years finished better in the championship (but the williams car later on was a disaster). As for their times at Mercedes, Bottas scored 3 wins in 2017, 4 in 2019 and 2 in 2020 and have outqualified Lewis more than once. There really is nothing to support Russel ultimately being better than Bottas. What he is though is 10 years younger and at the beginning of his F1 career while Bottas is not far from retirement (he is just 2 years younger than Vettel who everyone keeps saying is far past his prime). There is still a lot left to prove for Russel and I think 2022 is when he will get to do so (I don't think Hamilton is staying beyond this year but you never know; Raikkonen is still there for some strange reason)
Coulthard wasn't WDC material either, and very much a supporting role to Mika. The past of George and Bottas is irrelevant. Today and now, George is faster and more racey than Bottas. Toto has a conflict of financial interests so won't be pairing George with Lewis. Bottas essentially has a Mercedes seat for life. Or until Lewis retires.
Also, I think to get the seat, Russell would have to be clearly better than Bottas in terms of raciness. For now, Bottas is a known quantity to the team, they know how to work with him, and retaining him is one less variable they need to prepare for in beginning a new season. As long as there isn't an untenable drop-off in form, I think any driver in the Mercedes program who might displace him would have to show that they'd bring the kind of form improvement that Mercedes couldn't pass up in the works team. Russell seems great and he's getting better, he might even be racier than Bottas at the moment, but I don't think there's currently a clear advantage to using him and he's another variable to introduce. All the best, Andrew.