Will Lewis quit & who is available to replace him ?

Russell was driving Hams car and I don’t think the bottas car was the same. Bottas showed after his contract release that he was / is fast. As bottas had 1 year contracts renewed annually he was number 2 and was always that.


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Hamilton was not criusing 2017-18. He trailed the championship,came back and won. He's already faced competition and beat competition. Just like he came back and beat Verstappen.
Mike Salo was not even racing the year he substituted for Schumacher and was winning the race. What you think about this:
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/the-ferrari-f1-stand-in-who-almost-won-mika-salos-99-german-gp

 

I remember that !

 

Mika was not racing that year right?

 

Nice try, but your effort to make Lewis look better than Michael isn't working.

Mika was racing in 1999, for BAR. And was also a test driver for BAR. Additionally, there was plenty of testing allowed back then (unlimited). Ferrari had their own track and immediately after Schumachers crash, Salo was doing laps in the 1999 Ferrari. You'll find those circumstances are ever so slightly different from what happened in 2020, with Lewis catching Corona, Russell had no chance to test the car at all. That very same (and so far, only) race, he very nearly won it despite everything that happened against him.

Mika was winning his 2nd race, after plenty of testing in between all this time.

 

He had no contract, but did some replacements at BAR, before being called at Ferrari for a few races.

 

That was quite remarkable, mostly because it did put Bottas in the shade! (Salo did the same with Irvine !)

To be fair, Russell was already doing a full season in F1 in a Mercedes-powered car, but his adaptation to the Mercedes chassis was sensational.

I hope we won't be disappointed by him getting what on paper is the best seat on the grid.

Warning: I'll be rooting for him !!!!

 

Of course you are, he's british after all! Rusel was a bit disapointing on sundays, but he showed he's very, very fast on a single lap, i do believe , if he's alowed to, he will give elton a hard time.

 

You trying to compare a driver who is not racing, but testing? Against a guy who is actively "racing" with Mercedes equipement? It doesn't matter anyway because the results are the same: Mika could win in the Ferrari.
I predicted that you would go into the " let me justify that is was ok for Micheal but not Lewis mode". I didn't work.

 

Both Salo and Russell were able to shine because they had the best car in the field on that day, IMO.

 

Salo did 3 races for BAR that year, so yes, he was racing. And testing. Can you even comprehend how much testing was done those days? An active test driver would quite easily do WAY more miles in testing than the active race drivers did in race weekends.

PS...Max won first time out in a car with unfamiliar equipment

 

Story is the same: Mika could win in the Ferrari. No need to make excuses for Schumacher. Be a real fan. Accept what happened.

 

I agree - 2021 was not a good year for Leclerc... but I also think its because not many people really rated Sainz as a top flight driver ... so that he did as well as he did was a suprise, where the expectation for Leclerc is way higher... at least to me that is the reality. This coming year will be make or brake for Sainz... he not only has ot do the same - but actually much better to stick around - or it will be that 2021 was a Lucky year..... I'm really not sure.

 

He conceded Hamilton had competition in 17', and that it was an excellent title win that showed his chops.

18'? Uh, no. His car was equal to Vettel's Ferrari until the second half of the season, when Mercedes upgraded their engines, and Ferrari were unable to counter with anything but clownish buffoonery. He was cruising again after that. Not saying he didn't win fair and square, but he had it made in the shade with that car.

As for Mika Salo, he actually did do some races in 1999. He didn't start flying in Schumacher's car right off the bat. He failed to score points in his first race in Austria. He did blast by Irvine in Germany, but then after that he missed the points 3 out of his last 4 races. Then when Schumi returned to the car in Malaysia, he put the Ferrari 1 full second over Irvine and everybody else, then on pole again in Japan, and got second place.

So, yes, having one of the top tier cars has always been a huge element in F1, but it was nowhere near as big as it is now. Hamilton has had what Vettel had at RBR when the Newey design fit the regs perfectly, only longer. Like Vettel in those days, he can make multiple mistakes in the car and still survive to either win or podium in it.

 

What you also fail to mention is that Hakkinen was a country mile ahead of everyone in Germany 1999, until a tire failure put him out.

Salo did not dominate the weekend and race as Russell did in Bahrain 20', until the final stages saw a very suspicious pit stop from Mercedes ruin things for him.

 

We will agree to disagree on 2018. Lewis had competition, trailed the championship, that Ferrari was fast. I refuse to put "cruising" and trailing the championship as the same.
The story is still the same: Mika could win in the Ferrari.
I have to correct you on 1999 top cars having a smaller advantage. They had a bigger advantage. 1999 the top car was 4-5 seconds faster than the last car. Today cars are 2-3 seconds faster. It was easier for past top drivers to make multiple mistakes and win.

 

Yeah, but the rules and regulations back then didn't hamper engine development like the token system of the turbo-hybrid era.

Not to mention there was unlimited testing for everyone back then..UNLIMITED!!!!

 

That happened on half distance of the race. It doesn't change the fact Mika was winning toward the end. Russell did not dominate the weekend. He woasn't on pole and didn't lead the race till late. End result is Maki had success in the Ferrari. Continue to make excuses for Micheal, your world.

 

An advantage is an advantage. No matter what the regulations are. Earlier top cars had bigger advantage.

 

At least in earlier cars, there was parity amongst all the team with reference to the engines

 

I look back at that period with nostalgia.

Unlimited testing, no development restriction and less GPs.

Ecclestone ruined all that when he offered the teams more money against more races, but limited testing.

PS: Also, the cars looked nicer.

 

Not making excuses for Schumacher. The stats are what they are, and tell the story for me.

 

Who cares that the cars were faster? The cars in the late 90's and early 2000's were also lighter, and the more difficult to drive by a long shot.

Attrition was a ***** back in the days of Mansell, Prost, Senna, Schumi, and Hakkinen. Aeropush was awful, and tires popped like popcorn.

Vettel's Red Bull and Lewis's Mercedes are dream cars. The former had the aero design genius of Newey's diffuser magic, while the latter has had the brilliance of Ilmor engineering being a country mile ahead of everyone in BHP, and that advantage lasted for 4 years in one case, and 7 in another.

 

The lowest teams of 99 comparing them to the lowest teams today...really? Those teams back then where still pretty much cowboy outfits, driving with 3rd rate everything. Undeveloped poor spec, old engines, shoestring budgets...comparing that to any team today (but for arguments sake, the lowest rated team), is lunacy. Even the lowest rated teams today have way more resources and compared to then, fairly partial in terms of resources...and besides all that, even today the gap in qualifying is 3-3.5 seconds.

Not that the lowest rated teams have anything to do with top rated teams, then or now.

 

FYI, for those who think I'm some Schumi worshiper, you're reading me wrong. Ferrari fan for life, but he's part of the conversation of the greatest drivers of all time, but not the GOAT. There really is no such thing, as each generation of driver had different challenges.