Hamilton admits missed chances ahead of 100th race

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton says he could have achieved more in F1 so far.

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Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Reluctant and frustrated, Hamilton reaches 100-mark (Reuters)

“Asked if he felt he could have achieved more, Hamilton responded with a clear ‘yes’ during a media briefing at the circuit on Thursday. ‘But if I didn’t feel that, I wouldn’t be the driver that I am’.”

German GP – Conference 1 (FIA)

Sebastian Vettel: “I think it would be a real shame to lose Nurburgring as a race. Obviously we hope that the Nurburgring recovers quickly, it’s one of the most traditional races we have on the calendar so it would be a big loss, similar, for the Italians, to if we lost Monza for instance.”

Di Resta insists he has no fears about a move to F1 high flyers Ferrari or Mercedes (Daily Mail)

“Anybody would like to drive for Ferrari at some point in their life for what they represent in Formula One. With Mercedes, I’ve been part of that family for a long time. I want to be winning races and championships, that’s the important thing, the ultimate goal.”

Silverstone owners plea to members to end veto right (The Telegraph)

“The BRDC insists that Silverstone can survive without outside investment. But with some £40million having been spent on redevelopment work needed to secure the British GP contract, Rolt admits the club would probably look to sell off land if a new partner does not come in over the next 12 months.”

McLaren step up (Sky)

Sam Michael: “We’re not even halfway through the season yet and everything is still open. We should be able to make a good step this weekend and we expect to be fighting at the front. That’s our target.”

We can catch up again – Button (ESPN)

“We haven’t got slower. it’s just that other people have found themselves or made good improvements. The first few races of the year I didn’t feel like teams like Lotus had it sorted and had it together, but now they’re looking very strong – the same as a few of the teams. But you’d have to say Ferrari and Red Bull have really stepped forward compared to everyone else and I think that’s just big updates.”

Grosjean says driver coach not needed (Autosport)

“You can always learn and I used to work with a coach, but I don’t feel that I need one today, but it can change week to week. At the moment we are pretty happy with the way everything is going.”

Mark Says (Mark Webber)

“The race is at Hockenheim this year and, to be honest, I much prefer the Nurburgring. The old Hockenheim was a really cracking circuit; it was a flat-out blast through the forest and every time I brake for Turn 2 on the new track I wish we continued in a straight line, on the route of the old circuit.”

Q&A with Red Bull’s Mark Webber (F1)

“Q: Does such a normal person have his own Formula One hero?
MW: Alain Prost.”

F1 Fanatic via Twitter

“Drivers in the press conference asked if they’ve been to the Jim Clark memorial. Mark Webber says he did when he was in F3000. ”

Thanks to Bullfrog for the tip.

Former drivers make better Formula One managers claim researchers (The Independent)

“Researchers claim the key to success lies in hiring so-called ‘expert leaders’ – individuals who have built up years of experience within the sport – rather than chiefs who are merely general managers and were not weaned on the passion it engenders.”

Scuderia Ferrari renews the partnership with Mahle (Ferrari)

“As from next season – with a preview of it at this year’s German Grand Prix – the German company’s logo will be appear on the rear wing end plates of the Scuderia’s cars.”

Monaco on a Budget (The Little Backpacker)

“The vibe is brilliant with a truly eclectic mix of nationalities represented by passionate fans, all there to have an amazing weekend. Particularly good for this was Secteur Rocher, the deceptively steep rocky outcrop which overlooks Anthony Noghes corner where we spent qualifying (only in Monaco is a mountainside a legitimate seating position).”

Comment of the day

There was a lot of criticism yesterday of the positioning of the DRS zone for this weekend’s race:

Why on earth? You don’t need it there. It’s been the location of some great overtakes and this will just ruin them.

If you’re really bent on having a DRS zone on this track, either do it on the start straight or between one and two, which would help setting up an overtake on the straight after two in a more reasonable way.

But in my honest opinion you just don’t need DRS on this track (or any track for that matter).
Mbrio

Should DRS be used at every circuit in 2012? Which venues need DRS zones? Have your say here:

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to K, Steve and Arijitmaniac!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring.

He was left with work to do after not pitting during a late safety car period. After pitting on lap 50 he passed team mate Heikki Kovalainen followed by Felipe Massa and surprise leader Nelson Piquet Jnr to win. The latter took the sole podium finish of his F1 career.

Image © McLaren/Hoch Zwei

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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49 comments on “Hamilton admits missed chances ahead of 100th race”

  1. Re: Hamilton’s 100th race. Not to diminish his accomplishments (I’m a fan), but it wasn’t all that long ago that a driver would be lucky to even survive a hundred races behind the wheel of an F1 machine. In this modern era, he’s just getting started!

    1. Yeah, that’s a good point. I was looking up the list of most starts in F1, Jenson Button is 7th all time, and he’ll be around for years yet! Alonso and Webber already have 180+! Amazing longevity for drivers these days.
      I guess it’s a double edged sword – the best drivers stick around for longer, but seats in F1 are so limited it means that there’s less younger talents coming through, and the drivers market is stable for years on end at the front of the grid.

      1. To get into F1 you should be an exceptional talent, not just young and promising.

        1. todays young drivers dont have endless amounts of testing before entering into F1. Its no wonder so many fail to live up to expectations.

          1. @hohum is right. Even without testing, the cream rises to the top of the young guns. Guys like Perez and Di Resta being good examples.

      2. Sure, it means that its harder to break through, but the fact the top guys survive longer and get to hone their skills also means we have an exceptionally strong field. Best would be to have some extra cars on the grid to free up a bit of extra space for promising new drivers to prove their talent.

    2. also the seasons are much longer now

  2. Well, after being so close to win the championship in 2007, Hamilton’s career could always be better. Still, I think he’s done well… others surely had it tougher. Kimi for example… or all those that suffered the early 2000s dominated by Schumacher.

    1. davidnotcoulthard
      20th July 2012, 1:42

      Including Rubens (The Austrian version of “Michael is faster than you” back in 2002)?

    2. There’s few drivers who couldn’t have probably won more championships. Kimi, Alonso, Massa his first. A scarey thought is how many more might Schumacher have won if it were not for a broken leg or car trouble in a few of the deciding last races.

      On speed alone Hamilton should probably be a two time champion by now but he does make his fair share of mistakes over a season.

      1. dont count “car trouble” in the last few races – remember also alonso being penalised in monza for doing nothing wrong. and equal them out with the 94 win with traction control and crashing an opponent out. also the tyre issue which won him the championship in 2003 when montoya or raikonnen would have won had it not been for michelin being forced to changed their tyres because of ferrari manipulation.

        1. Well, if Michelin had an illegal advantage, it’s not “Ferrari manipulation”- it’s just Michelin breaking the rules. Montoya in particular easily had the car to win that 2003 title, but squandered it through his mistakes, like in Indianapolis.

          1. oh when he got a penalty for a clear racing incident….

          2. q85 – Yes, if by “clear racing incident” you mean ramming Barrichello off the road.

  3. Maybe a mix of track with and without DRS could be interesting.
    Might have the teams developing to get the best out of the car on DRS tracks and the track where DRS isn’t available. With some teams possibly pushing towards one direction or another.
    …or they might just bring a new rear wing to each race.

    But I do agree that not all tracks need a DRS zone; and they shouldn’t have to add one for the sake of having it.

  4. Well, if it weren’t for the gearbox problems in Brazil ’07, or if he had been a little more sensible when pulling off overtaking moves in Italy and Singapore 2010 we could’ve been talking about a 3-time world champion. That’s the success Hamilton has enjoyed so early in his career.

    I’m certainly not saying Raikkonen or Vettel didn’t deserve their championships though, far from it actually.

    1. davidnotcoulthard
      20th July 2012, 1:45

      If Lewis should have been a triple champion, than Kimi should have been a double champion in 2003 and 2005….

    2. Hamilton was fantastic in 2010. Italy was a silly mistake – his only real cock-up of the season I’d say. Singapore, although he could have been more cautious, was a unfortunate racing incident though. He was being a little too aggressive but, to be fair to him, given how tight the championship was, he couldn’t afford to be anything else. It was a shame that those two errors came in consecutive races, as it probably drew greater attention to them. I personally think that might have been his best season so far.

      1. I’d say Lewis was easily the unluckiest driver bar Vettel in 2010, and if all the top 3 teams on the grid had equal cars, he’d be champion. However, frankly I still believe 2007 was his best season to date. How on earth he managed to avoid any real errors in his rookie season, draw a two-time champion teammate, and be within one point of the WDC is beyond me.

        1. I think that 2007 championship saw both Alonso and Hamilton pushed to their limits in talent, skill and experience from the tough competition. After that its been less intense for Hamilton, so he can more “take it easy” relatively speaking

        2. I agree that 2007 was also fantastic, but given he had a far from equal or best car in 2010 I reckon he may have been driving better then. 2008 still has many of his standout drives though- it’s a shame he normally followed or preceded them with stupid errors.

        3. if all the top 3 teams on the grid had equal cars, he’d be champion???
          Alonso will be 100% sure

      2. @matt90 I rate LH extremely highly but his end to 2010 I felt he made too many silly errors, as you say under pressure. I think those mistakes were what was expected in 2007, in his first season. The Italian GP was very ill-advised but you could easily see him winning that race if he had made the move stick. Signapore was careless as well. This further added to the pressure and he made the mistake in practice in Japan. This cost him over the weekend and he finished behind JB. Then onto Brazil, where he needed good points and he made a mistake to let Alonso, a key rival through. Given this, I believe that approaching race 100 the only season he can be truly seen as at his peak is 2007. In 2009 the car didn’t allow him to challenge and even in his championship year he admitting he wasn’t truly satisfied with him performance.

      3. dont forget in 2010 he crashed the upgraded mclaren in practice twice. both on vital weekends.

        Germany and Suzuka. I think these were crucial and silly errors that cost him and the team. Esp the germany one, before that they had the best car but from then on slipped back

    3. we couldve been talking about a no-time world champion too had it not been for the last 20 seconds of the 2008 season and a slowing toyota.

  5. Good on Mark Webber for making me smile when reading that Alain Prost is his hero.

    I rewatched the full 2010 Senna film yesterday and the way he’s portrayed to a massive outsider/casual audience is revolting.

    1. My sister knows nothing about Formula 1, yet even she could see how the movie directors cheaply tried to manipulate the way Prost was portrayed. Sad thing is, that 3 or 4 months before Senna died he and Prost actually became friends. Senna even regularly asked Prost for advice. I remember his words on the team radio: My good friend, Alain. That part was never told, it was all left in the dark.

    2. @alonsowdc

      the way he’s portrayed to a massive outsider/casual audience is revolting

      I think some people are getting carried away with this. It really isn’t that hard on Prost at all. As I said in the review, it’s Balestre who comes off worst. And it’s hard to argue that isn’t deserved.

      1. @keithcollantine

        That’s fair enough, and for the record I am speaking of the version that lasts nearly three hours. My feeling from the cut was that you were to interpret that Prost was in the governing body’s ear at all times, from Senna’s first time being noticed climbing up to Casino Square and until his retirement nearly ten years later. It offered very little of what exactly Prost’s strengths were as opposed to Senna’s.

      2. @KC I agree 100%!

    3. The director’s cut of the film was way less skewed. There was about an hour of interviews cut. The movie doesn’t flow as well, but it was much fairer to Prost.

    4. I don’t think I saw the same film as everybody else. It may have painted Prost as a little grumpy, and happy to accept questionable rulings against Senna, but Senna himself wasn’t shown as perfect either, and the real focus of hate was Balestre. The only bit where I saw Prost look particularly bad was the 1989 Suzuka crash, but that’s mostly just because there was an overhead which showed Prost turn into Senna.

      1. prost turn into senna? LOL.

        1. Well, I saw him turn into the corner very early, far earlier than the corner itself, and into the space occupied by Senna. So yes, very much.

  6. CotD – hear, hear.

    1. It really says it all, a missed opportunity to either try a race without DRS zones or have it in a bit of a different spot.

    2. FlyingLobster27
      20th July 2012, 12:14

      Alonso trying to overtake Massa in 2010 would disagree with the CotD… :D But I agree with it when saying it’s the wrong place. DRS should be used to create a new overtaking spot, not make life unreasonably hard for the defenders on long straights where overtaking already happens. If that can’t be done, then don’t bother with it.

      1. DRS is there to allow the driver behind to be in a position to overtake. not make a new overtaking place or to actually be the cause of a pass.

        it worked in valencia as it allowed the driver behind to be in the position to be close enough to have a stab on the brakes.

        Any place that a driver is clearly past before the braking zone by using DRS should IMO be changed for 2013.

  7. After Whitmarsh and Michaels ramblings prior to track time, dam that Mclaren better go quick! As for Silverstone, that a classic case of poor investment and the consequences may end up being similar to ones being faced by the Nuburgring. You have to love Mark Webbers honesty, maybe someone should ask him what he thinks of the DRS zone for this race. Great to see Mahle being featured on the Ferrari, it’s great to see a manufactures name on the car rather than pure sponsorship branding. I think cotd echoes most people’s views and finally happy b’day to K, Steve and Arijitmaniac! Let the weekend begin!

  8. Regarding Hamilton, how glum does he sound?! Fair enough he’s disappointed that he’s not won more championships but he doesn’t seem to value what he’s actually already achieved like he should as Alonso said. He belongs at McLaren without a doubt, but walking straight in to the team seems to have removed his sense of perspective. If there are two teams that you can rely on to be competitive it’s Ferrari and McLaren. He should be more aware of that.

    I’m interested to see more on these McLaren updates. I hope it can get both drivers back to winning, or at least a better chance of it.

    I think Grosjean has a point regarding coaches. He’s pretty much a rookie and a few mistakes here and there don’t really warrant a coach any more so than another driver.

  9. Somehow, I don’t think Webber would be so enthusiastic about the old Hockenheim layout in the Red Bull. It always was a circuit where sheer engine power ruled supreme – and with Red Bull consistently one of the slowest cars through the speed trap, I don’t think that even Adrian Newey could overcome the defecit.

    1. Their car has been good at Monza…

      1. Good at going off at the Parabolica, that is :P

      2. had been* and only once*

    2. Shows how much we all miss the old Hockenheim…

  10. it is also Mark Webber’s 100th race for Redbull in this race, he started with them the same time Hamilton started in 2007. isnt it also kovoleinens 100th race?

    1. HK didn’t start the 2010 Spanish GP because of a gearbox problem.

    2. I’ve seen Kovalainen’s name spelt in many different ways but that one is new.

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