You make me laugh everyday. You are making me too happy. I wish you can stop making me happy sometimes.
A win can come as a fluke sometime; Gasly or Ocon didn't get their wins on merit but through a set of circumstances. So far they have been unable to repeat, or come near a podium since!
Gasly was on the podium this year at Baku. Anyway, concerning Lewis : Having an ultra dominant car seven years in a row is an amazing set of circumstances!
What makes you say that, given all he could handle by Ricciardo and then had teammates that made Barrichello look like a big rival of Schumacher at Ferrari.
2013-2014-2015 His karting results are just mind blowing. His one and only season in Formula 3 with 10 victories either. His first formula one season in Toro Rosso was terrific for a very young inexperienced driver.
Alonso has had some great performances in that Alpine. If it was a better car he'd be on the podium frequently. Plenty of life remains in Fred.
Nevertheless, it’s not like they both fell completely ass backwards into their victories, and if they weren’t talented, they could have just as easily thrown them away.
I believe Mercedes hesitation has a reason... Mercedes talent scout in karting is Dino Chiesa, who was the boss of Team MBM Karting. MBM is the anocromyn for "Mercedes Benz/Mclaren", and it was the team where Hamilton and Roberg raced together in 1999/2000. The current youngest Mercedes driver is Andre Kimi Antonelli, who finished his carreer in karting this year with Dino and next year will race on F4 with Mercedes support. In 2012 Verstappen did one race at Chiesa Corse and was beaten fair and square by his team mate (my friend). I was there and will never forget when after looking at the data overlay of the two drivers, Dino came to my friend and spoke in his ear a few words. On the other side of the tent, I could see Jos suspicious look towards us... So my guess is that Mercedes asked Chiesa about Verstappen and his feedback was not super enthusiastic.... Maybe Dino thought that if he was a really an extraordinary talent, he would beat his team mate after the training sessions and qualy. Anyway, that's just a guess why Mercedes wanted him to do GP2.
+1 It's also the team. Wolff is the alpha gorilla of the paddock, and Mercedes reliability is without precedent. Happy Days for SirLoo
Nice try at stretching the truth to say he was almost 19 when he joined RB, the average Ricciardo who has won nothing gave him hell as well bless.
Just like Alonso did? Button matured in to a very good driver and was actually a world champion but Hamilton was clearly better in 2 out of the 3 seasons they were teammates.
Senna only got close to a win on one occasion - Monaco in 84 - in torrential conditions - and later at Portugal, he finished on the podium... he needed good designers and engineers = which is why he never won when at Lotus... Ducarouge was good but could not do it all on his own.... Senna had the best designers and engines in the world at Mclaren. Schumacher - had Todt, Bryne, Brawn, and Domenicali ... as well as Montezemolo and Agnelli behind him... the days of Prost, Lauda and Stewart being the development head of a team are LONG gone. none of the drivers give feedback like they used to - the engineers go over the telemetry line by line and the driver has to perform to that... ( difficult yes, but not the same as interpreting what the car is doing - and then how to make it better. ) I doubt many would be able to set up a car on their own.
More seriously : 1/First ever season in a monoplace ! 2/His team was far from being the best ( van amerstorf racing) 3/engine problem because lack of budget 4/European championship with very good level. Just as a reminder, Lewis results in his first f3 European championship year ?
Hamilton had Uncle Ron in his corner. Alonso was battling more than just Hamilton but you already know that