Hamilton tells critics of his domination to ‘get over it’

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton points out he isn’t the first F1 driver to have the advantage of a dominant car.

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Comment of the day

Rossi’s taken Merhi’s place in the field, but not at the press conference
Manor’s late decision to replace one of their drivers this weekend came as a surprise:

I wasn’t expecting Merhi to reach this point in the season, to be honest. I think Rossi would have been a slightly better option to begin with, but getting rid of Merhi now he’s had time to rack up experience and get to know the team, the car, the tracks, now he’s starting to improve, is pointless.

Of course if it’s to get money into the team the debate ends here, if it’s to give Rossi experience for a full-time seat next year it’s understandable, if it’s just to go from one driver to another it’s pointless, again.

Not that Manor will have much to fight for, but Rossi faces some challenge with Suzuka, Austin and Interlagos on his calendar, having only practised in his home circuit, and Merhi would have been the obvious decision to continue.
@Fixy

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On this day in F1

On this day last year an unhappy Fernando Alonso complained that rumours he would leave Ferrari and be replaced by Sebastian Vettel were “not helping” the team. They turned out to be true, however.

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Keith Collantine
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135 comments on “Hamilton tells critics of his domination to ‘get over it’”

  1. I wish Hamilton would stop talking about Senna like that.

    1. He’s not even that bad, its the media. Sky has been shouting the Senna comparison about Hamilton all week. All of Hamilton’s questions last race were about his hair. All the questions this race will be about Senna. He’s going to answer the questions, don’t you wish to be mates with your hero’s.

    2. Why?

      He’s sharing insight into how Senna inspired him. And it will probably make interesting reading for future drivers that Hamilton will inspire, it will be nice for them to know that a normal person just like them, prone to hero worship just like them can go on to do great things.

      Drivers like Schumacher, Alonso and Vettel are exceptional, but they aren’t relatable to normal people. Hamilton for all his ‘faults’ comes across as far more flesh and blood.

      1. I wouldn’t call Lewis Hamilton a normal person, he seems to have changed his personality traits a lot over the last few years. He is almost a different character compared to the man who started out in a McLaren 8 years ago. How can anybody relate to someone who changes so much as a person?

        1. Looks like you’re just wishing to find something to bash about him.

          I watched Canada 2012 again the other day, and that Hamilton, from his last days at Mclaren was just like the one on Meulbourne 2007. A bit more frustrated, maybe.

          He said more than once that Mercedes gives him space to be what he want to be and to look how he want to look. So, it’s not like he changed that much from his start. He changed from his Mclaren days. Had he stayed at Mclaren, he would still be that guy,

          1. Mercedes will give him space as long as he is winning, once that stops expect them to be like McLaren..

        2. Because no one changes between 22 and 30…

        3. Just the contract with Mercedes allows much more personality than the one with McLaren.

          1. Sadly McLaren has also changed, I don’t think they have the same authority over their drivers at the moment which comes as a direct result of failing to produce a decent car for several years. It is now changed positions whereby McLaren needs the drivers more than the drivers need McLaren. Look at the fact that both current McLaren drivers are sporting uncorporate scruffy beards despite having Dennis back in charge. If Dennis had the authority as he did when McLaren were a leading team he would have made them both have a shave (see David Coulthard’s relaxed attitude and appearance in his immediate post-McLaren phase).

        4. If you can’t look at yourself from 8 years ago and see big changes then either the you from 8 years ago was awesome or you’ve stagnated. I think most guys hitting 30 can probably look back at their early twenties self and see a lot of progress.

          Hamilton’s become comfortable expressing who he is, that’s all that’s changed. At McLaren he felt pressure to meet certain expectations and be a certain way which he made the mistake of trying to meet because he thought that would give him his goals in life. Moving to Mercedes he’s felt liberated to just be who he is and love him or loathe him you can’t argue with the results.

          I don’t share his tastes, but I don’t get why people criticize him as a person given what he’s achieved, is achieving and all the evidence from the effort he makes with fans and good causes that he’s actually a decent lad.

          1. @jerseyf1

            “Look at the fact that both current McLaren drivers are sporting uncorporate scruffy beards despite having Dennis back in charge.”

            Are you for real? Do you want to check how polished their helmets are as well?

          2. @pirespt I have no interest in checking how polished their helmets are, but then I’m not Ron Dennis. I’m pretty sure Ron would be checking if he wasn’t preoccupied with more significant matters!

          3. I always cringe a bit when people post about how they view some drivers and their personalities. 99% of the time what you see is not that person but the pr image he wants to project. The 1% is when something surprising happens and the driver has not been pre-programmed for that peculiar situation.

            You learn more about the cashier in your local supermarket during the checkout than you learn about f1 driver over a season. Even during a career of any f1 driver you can’t be sure whether you are seeing a more mature and grown up driver towards the end or just better actor and more flawless and smooth behaviour based on experience. Not mental change.

            I personally try to avoid as much as possible trying to figure out what kind of person some driver is based on his public appearances. Some drivers are really good at spinning their own stories so if you go by analyzing their own behaviour you are just not getting one side of the story (a team will never comment on a driver publicly) but you are getting something you have no chance to verify at all.

        5. Complete nonsense.

      2. Give me a break. Senna would hold himself to a much higher class than LH as of late, and certainly wouldn’t be ‘buddies’ with a bleached out fashion nightmare.

        1. Agree 100%. I would never see Ayrton being buddy with a rapper. I can see some great fights on the track between the 2, but that’s it. Plus, Ayrton died way too early and he would possibly win another few championships in a good car. Ayrton was a much more balanced person off the track and of a class that I haven’t seen yet again. Lewis is phenomenal with a helmet on but they should immediately close him in his room right after he crosses the finish line. I remember we were all dying to hear what Ayrton had to say, in any circumstances. His speeches were all very intelligent and very deep and he was very discreet about his private life. Lewis is completely the opposite in this sense. My opinion

          1. Senna balanced? Hahaha, he couldn’t even play with his nephew without weighting up his kart to make sure he won. Senna was so up himself it was unreal.

          2. Senna was probably no more discreet about his private life than Lewis might like to be. 2015 is so very different to 80s and 90s with social media, image rights and constant media attention meaning life is very different for a current F1 driver and not just as a result of their own decisions.

          3. What’s with today, is it post something ridiculous day?

            @nuvolari71
            “Agree 100%. I would never see Ayrton being buddy with a rapper.”

            What a load of tosh.

          4. Well said. I think people will always have differing opinions of the types of egos that come from F1 racers, and especially the WDC level ones. But I think you have nailed it. Senna was imho and many peoples’, an ultra-religious deep thinker and very philosophical, and I get nothing of that whatsoever from LH. I think of Senna as a genius and there is nothing about LH that is relatable to AS.

        2. bleached out fashion nightmare

          haha :D:D:D:D

        3. Is Lewis regretting the blind look?

      3. Really? Do you really see Hamilton as a more flesh and blood person than Vettel??

      4. I can see your point about Hamilton beeing more relatable to normal people, but that depends on how you are as a person. In that regard, I think that anybody can relate to pretty much any driver.

        Personnaly, I absolutely cannot relate to Hamilton flying around the world every week, partying with celebrities, with his constently changing wardrobe and posting his life on twitter.
        I relate a lot more with how down to earth Sebastian Vettel is, and his sense of humour, how he wants to keep his private life private and also is a new father.

    3. Me too. Hamilton is sounding really depressed now that he’s at the top. He only seems to get excited with his statues is worth outside the world of F1.

      1. That might have something to do with the fact that he knows his domination is due in very large part to the engine, the fact that his engine is not available to any (truthfully speaking) competitive rival, and the fact that the rules (truthfully speaking) do not allow any rival to catch up by preventing them from investing in the required development and testing.

        He sees his own records, and you’d better believe he knows they ring hollow.

        1. @knoxploration In relation to the very point Hamilton made in the article, which champion hasn’t enjoyed a (relatively) crushing car superiority?

          Even Alonso & Button’s championships cars were class of the field at least most of the time.

    4. I’m not a Vettel fan, but Hamilton never got over Vettel’s domination. Here and here are proof:
      Says Vettel’s dominance is killing F1, yet F1 viewing figures have dropped even further since Hamilton started dominating and no talks of it “killing the sport”. And don’t even start on Rosberg; he’s not up to the task of challenging Hamilton.

      Maybe I’m ranting, but Hamilton doesn’t nearly get as much hate and complaining as Vettel got. And as a neutral for both these drivers, it gets on my nerves.

      1. It’s because of the British media, which is only natural for a compatriot driver. Although I find it extremely frustrating too, Vettel’s cars were not as nearly as do inant as Hamilton’s yet everyone says Hamilton is a racing god where as Vettel only won because of the ‘car’.

        I’m not a fan of either driver, so from the perspective of a neutral viewer it comes across very hypocritical. I don’t mean to take anything away from Hamilton’s success but his victorys of late do seem ‘hollow’, he only has Rosberg has competition whom I only rate as a decent F1 driver.

        1. @robocat Alas, Vettel is also now doing interviews about how the Mercedes is so strong.

          At the end of the day, all competitive drivers want to be in the best car and any media is going to feed off trolling them for answers that they feel aggrieved about.

      2. context…. When I hear that, I think to myself that they are kind of missing the point.

        All the top drivers who have had periods of dominance, whether it be Sebastian Vettel or Michael Schumacher or whoever, they have all been in top teams with great cars. So people need to get over that.

        Motorsport is not like tennis or golf where results are solely down to the athlete.

        But there are still significant differences between the drivers. They might only be a tenth of a second in terms of lap time, but in our world that is worth a lot of money.

        Teams spend millions to find that amount of time in the cars.

      3. During Vettel’s championship era, viewership figures was pretty consistent. It was one of the most consistent periods of time actually. I think there was only some drop during 2013 or something. Other than that it was constant, even increasing. And that’s really unusual, considering the fact that more and more rights were given to pay tv each year.

      4. @mashiat and I still remember Lewis saying he wouldn’t want to win like vettel so far ahead in a dominant car, He said he prefers to fight for his win. No one seems to remember that, not lewis and not the media

        1. @hypnoid Did he really say that?

          1. “I tried to imagine what it would be like if I was winning races the way he is winning races. Me, I don’t want to be able to be that far ahead, I want to be able to fight with him or whoever.”
            – Lewis Hamilton on Sebastian Vettel, Singapore 2013

      5. @mashiat It sounds like you are saying that it gets on your nerves that more people don’t hate on Hamilton? Surely a much better position is that neither Hamilton nor Vettel deserve any hate, their records stand to make them the best two drivers of the current generation and I don’t see why they deserve any hate at all!

        1. That’s not at all what I’m suggesting, but maybe it does have to hold true. It can’t be denied that Vettel and Hamilton are being treated unequally by the fans, media etc. And I don’t know, whether Hamilton ‘deserves’ more hate, or Vettel deserves less (the latter would be more favorable, but let’s be honest). All I’m saying is that Lewis is coming across as hypocritical, with him previously saying things such as “Vettel is making F1 boring” and “I don’t like dominanting by myself”. Well, where are those complaints now?

    5. I think that If Hamilton feels they would be friends, he really does not get Senna @meander. The only way they could be would be after the Career of Senna was over and being somewhat impressed with Lewis.
      Senna would never be friends with anyone who would pose serious competition, but as his relationship with Prost changed after Alain stopped racing into one of mutual respect and even friendship something like that would be possible, I guess.

      1. @bascb I thought the same thing, I love Hamilton and Senna is probably the best driver ever but I highly doubt that they could be friends and competitors at the same time. Their rivalry would be fascinating to watch but fur would fly and talks about ‘friendship’ is most likely nothing more than wishful thinking.

        1. @girts Although realistically it’d be talks of them being rivals being unrealistic…..except maybe as team owners (or principals) in the future.

          1. @davidnotcoulthard Come to think of it, perhaps he was really talking about a friendship between him and a 55-year old Senna, who obviously would not be racing in F1 against him. Somehow it seemed to me at first that Hamilton was talking about a parallel reality where Senna would race alongside him in the same era (like in those surveys where you have to create a dream team and can put e.g. Vettel & Fangio in Colin Chapman’s team…).

      2. Senna would be 55, so I think we can be very sure that yes, his career would be over and he would have matured a little from the surly nonsense-spouting pseudo-intellect he was off the track.

      3. Maybe he should be just honest and say “I want to emulate Sebastian”.
        Or, “If we weren’t rivals, I think we would be great friends”.
        That sounds more realistic now.

    6. Yeah, people should not have heroes or personalities. How dare Hamilton like somebody. This has been going on since he was a child and nobody has stepped in. Being on the top of your game should not be allowed and all dominant teams should be hobbled to stop them winning.

      I really don’t understand F1 fans.

      1. I thought the same.
        Winners win,Losers hate. Its all good its called sport.

    7. For some reason, it’s so annoying and ridiculous.

  2. Cotd; Well of course it’s about the money, it’s always about the money for the smallest teams and maybe the FIA should amend the rules to allow an unrestricted number of drivers drivers per season, that way the teams could hold an auction for the drives at every race. :-)

    1. I know that Manor said Mehri will drive at Russia and UAE but, wouldn’t you bet Manor is trying to sell both races to someone else. I say Sirotkin.

      1. I don’t think that will happen @peartree, if they were going to do that, they wouldn’t confirm Mehri for those races now, they would just stay silent over it

  3. I think all this talk of Hamilton’s life is because there are not many topics in F1 itself. If the cars would have been much more spectacular for people to watch (like in pre-V6 era) and the field would have been competitive then things like Hamilton’s hair colour or gun or his dog or (insert want you want) would have been simply overshadowed by racing. People have enough seeing Hamilton vs Rosberg with threat-behind-but-no-materialising. They want racing not bussiness show with Rolex boards in the background.

    1. There was a lot of attention on Hamilton’s life even before the current V6 era.

      Much of 2011 for example was focussed on stories about if Lewis & Nicole’s relationship was in trouble.

      1. It was but in tabloid press, not in professional motorsport media (including F1’s official twitter account) as it is now. But I am not blaming the media.

    2. I think the F1 media talking about Eddie Irvine and Jenson Button (believe it or not) in the early 2000s did the same thing, but we had ‘amazing’ V10 engines and utter Ferrari domination then. It’s almost as if the engine format doesn’t have anything to do with it, just a lack of news in general.

      One of these days I’m going to read on this site how the current engine regulations kicked someone’s kitten.

  4. What baton is Lewis referring to? What is he carrying on for Senna? It strikes me as a bit presumptuous to talk of a deceased man’s legacy in such a way, to say they will carry on something of theirs – without the others say in the matter.

    1. This is exactly what I meant with my first remark that people have been questioning so much. I’m glad you managed to put it into words.

    2. Yeah, that was my first thought too. LH is in no position to pick up Senna’s baton, no more than any driver. SV already reached Senna’s numbers in fewer starts, and there was no baton-pick-up then either.

      I don’t fault LH for dominating. Virtually every season, the WDC winner needed the WCC winning car to get the trophy. But I think Senna would absolutely hate this current formula of conservation and would have been doing everything in his powers to have swayed the powers that be from this type of racing, which I don’t think he would even consider racing nor the essence of F1. I think AS would have been frustrated to the point of leaving F1.

      I’ve never been an LH fan, nor am I a hater. I’m just not a fan of his incessant self-promotion and he comes off as disingenuine. As if he doesn’t know Senna’s numbers nor his own. Saying he wouldn’t want to win the way SV did, and then saying get over it.

      But that’s fine. He’s gotta be who he’s gotta be. That’s him. Nobody is going to be for everybody even as much as LH tries to sell himself. As they say, most WDC’s, indeed most F1 racers, have pretty big egos, as did Senna. But Senna’s was a totally different ego…that to me being of a genius. All I can say is for me personally nothing about LH has ever reminded me of Senna.

      1. Really?

        What is it about current (or old) F1 fans that have cloaked Senna in some kind of mystical ‘genius’ layer.

        He was an outstanding driver but he was not in anyway some kind of immortal ‘God’ he was just like us all, flawed and it showed under stress. Some of his life threatening moves, would today have you lot up in arms and banning him for life! Yet LH changes his hair or flies to NYC between races and the world falls in on him? He is 30 years old. Senna was 34 when he died. Did no one on here change between 22 and 30 or even 34!

        You miserable hurting lot out there try to name any single move LH has made in his 8-9 years as anywhere near as dangerous as any single one of Sennas first corner ‘I will die rather than lose to you’ moves. Or even Shumi in his heyday… Nope – thought not.

        Get real people – Senna had a completely different championship scoring method to deal with and it was get to the front ASAP and hope for no more than 5 blow ups in a year. The cars were tuned to that. Shumi had incredible ability, an amazing team and unlimited testing along with unrivalled reliability to work for him when the scoring method changed. Alonso and his ‘consistency’ benefited from it completely during the SV years, KR got a championship out of it!

        LH won without and despite such team type ‘help’ in a tight fought season and frankly (22 race wins before Merc! Beating the two times champ as a rookie and a race and pole in every year including more wins than Button in his Angus horrible of 2011 and a WC teammate for most of his career) was always being done over by the Macca Achilles heel – reliability even in the best or third best car (his 2008 car was evaluated as the third fastest on the grid using a mathematical and quite reliable model – not a bad result frankly)

        Yet all around crowed it was the end of his career when he upped and left…

        All I see these days is absolute hatred towards the fact the kid took a decision at 27 that proved everyone wrong (and then some!) and now at 30 with absolute confidence in himself and the car, the chance to win and win huge. We know your hurting but really pipe down please. It’s not his fault he is an excellent racer.

        He is however thankfully, a racers racer. More than happy in a dog fight just like say V Rossi. And as such it would perhaps be nice to reflect that at least he races when necessary rather than compute some mathematical model in his head about how the pits can get him through a given bad race. Or hope for reliability issues, or crash into people flat out, or get better engines, or claim immortality when some French and British chap scare the crap out of you, or God forbid, a German or Irish youth comes along and gets right up your nose…

        And long long may it continue…

        1. I’ve never heard so much crap in all my life at your attempt to try and support Hamilton’s emulation of The late Great Ayrton Senna, you’re like his little knight in shining armour aren’t you? Rushing to protect Hamilton’s honour like he’s a damsel in distress, with carefully thought out and boringly long posts, pathetic the both of you. Sounds like you and Hamilton ought to get a room together mate. Oh and you can dye your hair blonde too if you like. Oh and that’ll be a comparison for Hamilton to something or someone!!!

          1. Short one – exactly where did I support LH in his emulation of Senna. I did the opposite as I do not believe drivers of today race under the same circumstances.

            Your lack of comprehension is probably similar to my need to dye my hair.

            I don’t have any.

      2. @robbie

        I’ve never been an LH fan, nor am I a hater. I’m just not a fan of his incessant self-promotion and he comes off as disingenuine. As if he doesn’t know Senna’s numbers nor his own. Saying he wouldn’t want to win the way SV did, and then saying get over it.

        My feelings on Hamilton summed up beautifully. I respect the man’s clear immense talent at his craft but that doesn’t mean you, I and many others can’t have legitimate reasons to dislike how he comes across. That’s just how it is being in the public eye.

        Yet we get told that we are a

        miserable hurting lot

        (see Drg’s meandering, overlong comment below) for daring to suggest that Hamilton stating he’s carrying on Senna’s legacy for him is in bad taste.

        1. Wow I have got up some noses!

          Your on an F1 site – by all means let’s discuss races, racers, technology, stupid rules. We can even ‘moan’ about how bad F1 is…

          For those interested in hair styles, music and fashion – I am sure there other sites are available.

          :)

  5. Although some people complained (because their teams were losing), the technology Renault developed for Red Bull back in their glory days was astounding. It’s pathetic how fast that partnership deteriorated.

    1. I have an answer for that. Ever since 05 has RBR tried to get Mercedes engines. RBR never rated Renault highly. RB ditched Ferrari to STR because of the same reason, McLaren ditched Mercedes. In the end it was a downgrade for RBR, as Vettel beat the RB team on an STR. Reliability and power cost RB many races but ultimately no championship. Even when Renault was doing a good job with the engine maps, it took Total and Infiniti sponsoring to tame the bull, at least for a short while as from 2014 onwards RB is again disregarding Renault.

    2. @chaddy Well, F1’s got this habit of banning innovations (Fan car, Blown dffuser, double diffuser…)

  6. People do not like domination. It’s boring, that’s the truth. Closely fought championships are better for the spectators, that wait for every race not knowing who will come on top.

    So I don’t think WE, fans, should get over it. It’s what it is. I doubt people are saying “Lewis can’t drive”. People know Lewis is very good, to some one of the all time greats, but you can’t hide the fact that he’s getting an easy ride because he simply has the best car, to some one of the all time great coincidentially.

    Same with Michael, same with Seb, Ayrton, and everyone all the way back to Fangio.

    In a sense, it’s Lewis who should get over the fact that it’s normal that people critizice the sport when it’s just not as enjoyable to watch. Who really remembers 2002 and says “boy, that was a great year, Michael owned them”?! we remember 2000 and 2003 as much happier and tense days.

    1. Yes, you are right. Lewis should get over the fact people don’t/won’t like current style of F1 and domination overall.

      1. That’s quite silly there is no reason Lewis should on the alternative side feel bad, because the public is bored. What should he do, tamper with his car before the race to increase the shows audience, or should he slow down and be fake because it will improve the tv ratings because others have a better chance? Too all that it’s obviously no, in the end people really should get on with it and focus on the real problem which is the opponents having an inability to close the gap even with a the regs opening up partially. @fer-no65

        What the fans chose was a sport field with advancements in various aspects of engineering and those teams who end up with the greater innovations with in the limits of the specified rules usually win. More so when key inventions work, in recent years this was the case with DDD (Brawn among other things) and EBD (RBR among other things) and now the innovations in the Mercedes Engine and a great car but key is the engine innovations. That’s the point, if others lack to be as smart on their day as the winner guy, why should the winner be punished when they run away with the show? And why should fans get to lambaste people for the choice they made in viewership?

        1. @magillagorilla Lewis doesn’t need to feel bad, just to live with the fact that people don’t like domination. He’s dominating, so igore fan’s to-be-expected cries. (Or at least that’s what @michal2009b was saying)

          1. Comment was more at Fer, but ultimately both. From that vague comment though it could go either or to be honest. Point is drivers have as much right to give the view of their own situation among the sea of critics. Sadly too many people want to devalue a driver because of the car. It was stupid when they did it with Vettel and it grows just as inane as Hamilton does it.

    2. @ferno65, Bernie and the FIA have to shoulder some of the blame for this, donning my rtg (rose tinted glasses) I recall different engine configurations having different strengths and weaknesses so for instance Ferrari V12s were almost guaranteed to win at Monza while Monaco was V8 territory, so chassis aside, wins were more likely shared between top teams than they are when the PUs are simply, bad, better, best in all aspects.

      1. In the longer term, though, what we saw was an eventual reversion to the norm as teams settled on an engine configuration that saw them being competitive at the majority of tracks, rather than being competitive at just one or two – the V10 configuration was adopted by all of the teams before it became the standardised engine format anyway.

        Also, as an aside, Ferrari never actually took a win at Monza with a V12 powered car – they lead some races, but they only took podium finishes at Monza rather than wins. They only managed to win the Italian GP when they reverted to the V10 designs preferred by their rivals in 1996. Equally, Hockenheim was not a hugely successful track for them either – they only won one race there with a V12 engine, and that was a race where most of the field was taken out on the first lap.

        1. I stand corrected, Enzo must have been livid, and yes they all went V10 as the ideal compromise of their own volition but the 3L/1.5T rule gave us a lot of fun for quite a few years beforehand.

          1. It is more than just that – in the period from 1989 to 1995, Ferrari lead the field in the Italian GP in only two races, one of which ended in a double DNF. In that period, statistically you were actually more likely to see a V10 powered car leading the field at Monza than a V12 powered car.

    3. What on earth do you expect him to do about it?
      He was slaughtered by the press and ‘fans’ when he went to Merc yet look how it has turned out. Do people expect him to crash or drive slower to make it the obvious joke season of early 2013 just cos any idiot could win and it was ‘exciting’ regardless of the gulf in talent distribution. If so – please go watch something else. Anyone with a 1/4 of a brain can tell that is no different to wrestling yet everyone moaning seems to thing there are years of F1 where fifty cars and drivers can win any race.

      It’s never ever ever been like that and it is that very aspect that makes it interesting along with any engineers out there, the absolute precision that makes racing and wins possible.

      I can only assume most of the people moaning have never raced a single thing – perhaps they should..

      Because you won’t comment on how boring ‘winning’ is again if it’s you doing it.

  7. Eventually Keith is going to have to invent a new colour for Honda on the PU component usage table.

    1. @tdog They’ll get to Black/Red, which is their new colour scheme!

    2. @tdog Hasn’t he already (with purple)?

  8. I want to see Rossi race Herbie!

    Herbie would make it to the end, so he might beat a few Renaults and Honda’s.

  9. The obvious solution to the calendar issue is to swap Malaysia and China. Australia-Malaysia back-to-back and China-Japan back-to-back makes much more logistical sense.

    Cut a week one side of Baku (after, in case Germany drops out) and, voilà, you have a summer break again, with Singapore as a standalone event, although that wouldn’t be popular as a week either side is preferable for a new race.

    The only other solution is to put Spain and Monaco back-to-back, but that’s a lot of races to advance by 1 week!

  10. I think Lewis has a point to be honest, Throughout F1’s history you have always had period of driver and/or team dominance & for as long as F1 is a formula where teams design there own cars & where you had multiple engine suppliers your always going to see periods of dominance & those who feel that this shouldn’t happen do need to get over it or watch something else (Maybe one of the many spec series where dominance is impossible).

    Only way your ever going to stop it is by making it a spec series or by doing something stupidly artificial like success ballast, Neither of which I would ever want to see.

    Is it frustrating at times, Of course but as a long time F1 fan (45yrs for me) its just part of the sport for me & its never been something that has overly bothered me.

    Also something different to the past now is that there is plenty going on behind the Mercedes so its not as if its been as bad as 2002 or 2004 for example where Ferrari were dominating at the front & there wasn’t really anything else worth watching going on behind them. Now even if Mercedes walk away unchallenged at the front you have good racing going on behind.

  11. Hamilton is so up himself. What a flog. He rubs me the wrong way. I just cannot be happy when he wins- but I was happy for Sebastian when he did (and I’m Australian!). He doesn’t seem to have a passion for Motorsport- it’s a means to an end for him to a music career.

    1. I agree with you about the passion thing, the Hamilton of a few years ago was quite passionate about motorsport, now it’s almost like a distraction from his music for him. I find myself liking him less and less.

      1. Oh you mean he’s doing his job, promoting the sport like no champion in recent history has done?
        F1 is ENTERTAINMENT and he’s doing a damn fine job of making a young untapped diverse demographic aware of it.
        If music fans start showing up in droves at races maybe Bernie should give him a piece of the action, it’s 2015, times have changed, the kid’s living the life, winning races and seems to be 110% steely serious at the races.. it’s all good.

        1. ColdFly F1 ( @coldfly ) (@)
          18th September 2015, 9:29

          Hamilton seems to be promoting Hamilton! ‘Promoting the sport’ seems to be a by-product. @budchekov
          Still good for the sport though; but I can see why people find this annoying!

        2. “Maybe he’s gone too far in recent months,” the 84-year-old now tells Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
          When asked about Hamilton’s latest exploits, Ecclestone answered: “I don’t know if it’s good for him.”
          Earlier, Ecclestone had criticised the fiercely private Sebastian Vettel.
          But he now says: “People are beginning to respect Sebastian that he is the way he is. I don’t want everybody to be like Lewis. Perhaps it was unfair to criticise Sebastian. Actually he’s a bit like me.”
          “We don’t want the limelight. I want to do my work, and if there is no drama then I’ll see if I can make one! But the big show, I’ll leave that to the others,” added Ecclestone.
          http://www.grandprix247.com/2015/09/07/ecclestone-lewis-has-gone-too-far-in-recent-months/

          What do you trust the judgment of a guy like Ecclestone?

      2. A driver who isn’t passionate about F1 won’t be dominating the sport in such fashion. Sure, hes got the best machinery, but he’s absolutely owning Rosberg every race weekend.

        He might be vocal of his interests outside of F1, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s a focused and talented racer

    2. I thought a driver shows his passion for the sport by being motivated and always performing on track.
      There is no testing in F1 and a simulator doesn’t do it for everyone. So unless there is a new procedure to get used to, or something else, there isn’t much reason to hang out with the engineers except perhaps for a beer or two.
      Hamilton obviously doesn’t enjoy meditating on the different race tracks in his spare time. He really must have felt like being locked up on a castle while at McLaren.

    3. He’s no more using F1 to start a music career than Jenson Button is using it to start a new life as a triathlete… i.e., he isn’t.

      He just has interests away from the track. Nothing wrong with that.

      1. @neilosjames I agree with you. Even if F1 has become easier as some suggest, it is not possible to win there if the sport is not your primary focus. It is rather fascinating how Hamilton manages to combine his personality and lifestyle with being the best F1 driver, I think that is what I like about him most.

    4. Cmon Marcos! You liked it when Vettel was winning and especially against Webber! Un-Australian

      1. I’m not Marcos- just a big fan!

        I respected Vettel when he has winning- I didn’t particularly like it. I just don’t feel that with Hamilton.

      2. It has nothing to do with being Australian. Ric says it the best:

        Asked what is the main thing he’s learned from Vettel this year, Ricciardo said: “The way he brings the people that work with him close to him.
        “Basically the way he demands and gets what he wants. We’re always never happy with our cars; we always want something better from it and I think the way he approaches that.
        “He’s quite ruthless but also quite fair at the same time. He’s got a good balance of being serious and looking the team in the eye and saying ‘I need this’, but I think at the same time he earns their respect by acting that way. He doesn’t rest, he’s not going to be happy being behind. I think the way he goes about it is pretty good.”

        In an interview he said Vettel is the best team mate he’s had and respects him.
        “I could feel it was pretty genuine. He was happy for me, I got along with him pretty well. I know all the Mark Webber fans probably were hoping for me to say something else.”
        LMAO!

    5. He doesn’t seem to have a passion for Motorsport- it’s a means to an end for him to a music career.

      Alonso is into cycling and Button is into triathlon. Apart from the fact that it is Lewis, what is wrong with someone taking up music as his interest?

      1. The other drivers you mention have previously said they would like to continue in another category. I just feel that Lewis doesn’t.

        1. His comments on Hulkenberg’s WEC success was baffling.

  12. 21 races and triple-headers and it’s all too much. Probably right. And all Bernie would ever do is tinker around the edges while the obvious problem is staring at him in the face.

    How about maybe starting the season earlier than April? The solution that solves the hardest problem is Malaysia goes back to April 3, Australia two weeks before that (March 20).

  13. Hamilton is absolutely right. If there is such thing as DNA of F1, then dominance is definitely part of it. Sometimes one team does a much better job than everyone else and consequently attracts the best driver(s), which is obviously not very exciting. However, if you want to change that, then F1 is not what you need; you need “reality” television. Even if all F1 teams had the same budget, some would still come up with smarter solutions.

    Also, it would only be fair if Hamilton, Alonso and Vettel had about the same number of wins and championship titles at the end of their careers. It would be more interesting if they won those races and championships in close competition, such as we saw in 2008, 2010 and 2012 (2014 was not too bad either). But that is not always possible in sports.

    1. I think a big part of the criticism is because Mercedes and Hamilton’s dominance is bullet proof. The current rules makes this so, no one can match Mercedes if they can’t develop. It was different during the Red Bull days because their advantage was aero, which the other teams were free to develop during the season. Mercedes pretty much had the title handed to them on a silver plate at Australia, they were guaranteed to win both championships for this year, there is no competition.

      1. @robocat Well, development is not really forbidden, it is only restricted and Ferrari have proved that serious gains are possible under the current rules, too. I think it is pretty likely that we will have a close competition at the front next year. But I agree with you that it would be better if teams could freely develop their cars and catch their rivals easier, like their predecessors used to do years ago.

        Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions. Should we drop the development restrictions, start a new spending war and watch the fittest survive and the small teams bite the dust? Or are customer cars and B-teams the way to go? Maybe a standardised chassis / engine (that would be against the ‘DNA’ that I mentioned though)? I am afraid none of these options sounds really convincing.

      2. Sorry – absolute crap. There is nothing in the rules that stop any manufacturer of engines having 200+ different PU designs running 24 hours a day all day every day for years – there is only a restriction on what can be bought to the track at a given time via a token system.

        One that last year allowed over half of the entire PU unit to be redesigned and implemented Throughout the year…

        Yet still some got it wrong…

        Good job they still have enough tokens to change the other half even if the sanction free ‘reliability’ changes do not work.

        You may be unhappy but please do not believe the utter rubbish posted on forums or by vested interest in the last year and do your own research.

  14. So everyone’s bashing Lewis for his comments about picking up the baton and saying he thinks he would’ve been friends with the great man if he was alive?

    I’ve seen comments that Senna would never be seen with him and all sorts….. So who remembers the comments of Senna’s sister at the Autosport awards in 2007?

    “He reminds me of Aryton as a pilot and also a good man, we can see this in his eyes and his face”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-499442/Race-ace-Hamilton-choked-praise-Senna.html

    Can’t get much more backing than that

    1. Senna’s sister is not Senna. And just because she sees some of her brother’s skill behind the wheel in Hamilton doesn’t necessarily mean that Senna would want to hang out with Lewis.

      And anyway, Senna would probably be a high-ranking politician in Brazil by now (e.g. President) and have no time for such shenanigans.

  15. Romain’s face looks like someone died. I hope it’s not Renault Sport.

  16. tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
    18th September 2015, 7:48

    This made me smile –

    “In the era of the blown exhaust Renault was probably the best and most advanced (engine supplier) in Formula One. All of these achievements get forgotten way too fast, and I truly hope that they will stay in the sport.”

    Perhaps the reason Renault didn’t get a lot of credit is that Christian Horner spent every spare minute bemoaning Renault’s lack of HP? They can’t have it both ways!

  17. Didn’t they put a fourth engine into Rosberg’s car?

    “The uncertainty means that Rosberg will therefore take his fourth power unit of the season for the Marina Bay race, which will be to the updated specification that was introduced at Monza.”
    http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/rosberg-to-take-new-engine-in-singapore/

  18. All the top drivers who have had periods of dominance, whether it be Sebastian Vettel or Michael Schumacher or whoever, they have all been in top teams with great cars. So people need to get over that

    There are some, like me, who are enjoying this period of dominance. The best driver in the best car. Man and machine in perfect harmony. Isn’t that what F1 is about? Excellence. Mercedes Benz should not be faulted because other teams aren’t doing a better job, not should Lewis be faulted because Nico is not up to standard.

    1. I agree completely

    2. I disagree completely.

    3. So I hope you enjoy these excellent, inch-perfect performances that gave us thrilling and exciting races this and last year.

  19. Some interesting apparently sourced rumours doing the rounds linking Vandoorne with a McLaren seat next year. I am fully expecting Jenson to leave, but I think most were expecting Magnussen to be his natural successor. I am sure we will hear more as the weekend develops.

    1. I prefer to listen to facts not rumours. I think putting Magnussen or Vandoorne in the McLaren wouldn’t be a good move for either of them. If the McLaren is way off the pace again next year it would do little for their confidence. McLaren would be better sticking with JB for another year to get things sorted before bringing in one of the youngsters. If JB does leave I’d like to see him join MW at Porsche!

      1. ColdFly F1 ( @coldfly ) (@)
        18th September 2015, 9:47

        putting Magnussen or Vandoorne in the McLaren wouldn’t be a good move for either of them. If the McLaren is way off the pace again next year it would do little for their confidence.

        I totally disagree! @chrisr1718.
        It might do little for their confidence, but then they might not be the right material for F1.
        I want to see up and coming talent in lesser cars first (e.g. Vettel, Biancchi, Verstappen) where they can show that they have something special. If starting in a laeding car then people will always wonder how much it is the car and how much it is the driver (IMHO that is still one of the reasons some people are somewhat critical of LH!)

        1. @coldfly I agree with you, and it’s worth noting that Vandoorne won’t be able to drive in GP2 next year (if he wins it), and a second year of doing nothing would kill Magnussen’s career. I think they’ve got to sacrifice one of their two juniors, or lend him out, and promote the other. But their last two youngsters (Perez and Magnussen) prove McLaren need to give faith and backing to their drivers, they can’t all be Hamilton.

        2. Cold fly – that’s because no one can look beyond his 2007 arrival and see you don’t have to say words like ‘if he wins it’ because he won it all – sometimes in impossible circumstances.

          And, God forbid, he even used a manual gearbox!

  20. While we’re on the subject of records, I want to address some criticisms I hear from time to time about my position in Mercedes and our performance as a team at the moment.

    People sometimes say things like, ‘Well, he’s in the best team with the best car – of course he’s winning.’

    When I hear that, I think to myself that they are kind of missing the point.

    All the top drivers who have had periods of dominance, whether it be Sebastian Vettel or Michael Schumacher or whoever, they have all been in top teams with great cars. So people need to get over that.

    Motorsport is not like tennis or golf where results are solely down to the athlete.

    But there are still significant differences between the drivers. They might only be a tenth of a second in terms of lap time, but in our world that is worth a lot of money.

    Teams spend millions to find that amount of time in the cars.

    1. @matt You are right, the point is, the best drivers, tend to gravitate to the best teams, as both search for the ultimate prize. Senna had his time when McLaren dominated in the late 80’s, Schumacher with Ferrari in the early 00’s, and Vettel as well. I judge drivers’ abilities not by how much they win by, but how they end up in the position they did, Schumi built up the Ferrari team, Vettel won a race in a Toro Rosso, Lewis nearly won the WDC in his rookie season, these are all factors that make these drivers stand out.

      1. Agree, and Senna still won races when he didn’t have the best car, as did Schumacher and (to a lesser extent) so has Vettel. Hamilton has won in every season he’s been in F1 – in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013, the car he had wasn’t the class of the field, though more often than not it was at least competitive. And on top of that he has showed he doesn’t need to be on pole to win or always rely on fuel/pit strategy to do it. Hamilton’s wheel to wheel racing adds to his status, though this year he’s not really had much to do.

        The main problem this year is the car is so dominant and Rosberg is not having a great season, it leads to the races being more predictable and audiences dropping. I bet even if Mercedes and Hamilton are winning in 2017 by smaller margins people wil still moan even though the FIA will have changed the rules at huge cost to the teams.

        As for the rest of this year, realistically Hamitlon and Mercedes are going to have both titles sewn up with at least one race to go. If they do, I’d love it if Hamilton and Rosberg started at the back in Abu Dhabi just to watch a charge through the field. Why not even do a one-off reverse grid for that race? Even if Mercedes still won it’d be worth a watch.

        As for the other nonsense around his private life, couldn’t care less about it. Let them all get on with whatever they do between races. After 9 successful seasons in F1, wouldn’t any of us want to do as we pleased? I watch drivers at races and that’s it. The media print everything they can and sensationalise as much as possible (and Benson in his ghost written interviews is one of the worst at it in my opinion) but we don’t have to read of any of it, do we? Or the nonsense tweets, etc. Let’s just ignore it all and watch the races…

        1. At last – a sensible post.

          Well done Sir, much respected.

        2. Well, i can’t see much of a difference between the non-champion cars Senna had from 85 to 93 to Hamilton’s not champion cars.

          Competitive cars, but not the best. Senna was not the champion on 1989 but his team mate was. His 1992 and 93 cars were the 2nd force of both seasons for most of the time. His Lotus team mates, apart from De Angelis, were the only to help pay the bills.

          Schumacher had competitive cars from 1992 to 2006 (!!!) and not even once had a team mate to compete with him, every single one of them were there to help him and the team.

          Vettel, like Senna, only raced with less competitive cars for a season, a season and a half. Besides that, he raced cars that were more competitive than most Mclarens Hamilton drove.

          So Hamilton now is catching up. People tend to forget that he is now collecting the benefits of the choice he made on 2012, where some people even said it was the definitive “Villeneuve-path” to the end of his career.

  21. Credit has to be given to Sebastian Vettel for his recent article on F1.com. Not only does he back Renault for their V8-era performance (like he always has done, especially in 2013 mentioning them on the podium etc), he also mentions Hamilton and recognizes the work Hamilton has to put in to win even though he’s in the best car. Vettel has obviously been in that position himself, but none the less I find it very respectfull of him to say so. Hamilton and Alonso on the other hand were talking down Vettel’s performances a couple of years ago cause they couldn’t handle it.

    1. Mind linking the article?

  22. ColdFly F1 ( @coldfly ) (@)
    18th September 2015, 9:59

    Interesting comment:

    I just hope that, whatever the case, we all come out next year with a car we can battle each other with. And fight. One race the other takes points off you and the next race you swap it and change it right to the end, like it was with Felipe and [Lewis] in 2008.

    Lewis Hamilton before the Singapore GP……

    …. in 2013

    1. So what’s Lewis to do?
      It’s a team sport, his team are doing extremely well, they have a great engine but also gave great aero as evidenced by them being a long way ahead of the other Merc engined teams.
      Ferrari are also doing a great job by being the next closest to Merc, even still being in contention for wdc.
      So what is Lewis to do to silence his critics?
      Not have a life outside F1 like all the other drivers and ex drivers do (Hunt was no priest)
      Noble his car so he doesn’t win?
      Let the reserve driver have his seat for a few races so he can watch from the stands?
      I really don’t understand why people criticise him for being him. His job is to drive and do the very best possible, which no one can deny he does every time he’s in the car. Out of the car is his personal time so, leave the criticism just to his job which is his driving.

  23. I guess that Ham and Senna could have been friends if Senna still was alive, 55 years old. But they would most certainly not have been friends for long if they both were competing against each other at the top of their game. I bet that their friendship would have ended as soon as Senna had put Ham in the armco on purpose and then claimed that it was his divine right to win.

    Senna was a genius behind the wheel and one of the fastest drivers that ever has driven a F1 car, but he was also totally ruthless and one could say the it was he that wrote the book of “Dirty Driving” to be honest.

    Schumi got a lot of flak for that too but he was just Senna´s most successful “pupil”, although he never purposely took out another driver at +300 kph as Senna did.

    Hamilton was very young when he entered F1 and almost everything that he did or said publicly was “masterminded” by the McLaren team and their philosophy to win at all cost, no matter if how. Remember “Spy-gate”, “Lie-gate” and the fact that they continuously gave him cred when he was making mistakes on track instead of trying to get him to learn from then and so on.. etc..

    So I think that it was very healthy for him to sign with Merc and leave the poisonous environment that he had been in since he entered F1.

    Some of us might not like his jetset lifestyle as of now (I don´t really care), but it´s his choice and as long as it doesn´t effect his performance on track I don´t think that Merc cares either.

    He´s grown up man now (and filthy rich too), starting to find himself and while doing so showing new traits like maturity and dignity too and I for one have a lot more respect for him as a person these days than I had a couple of years ago when he still was forced to be a “McLaren puppy”.

  24. I’m a former Hamilton fan. I was a fan of the Hamilton of early Mclaren days, of even before, the raw, talented driver that really impressed me in Macau vs his long time friend and Rival, Nico Rosberg.

    Hamilton was, like probably Max Verstappen today, one of those drivers that are exciting, that showcase immediate talent and potential. When he got to F1 and gave Alonso a run for his money, I was seeing a young contender, a raw talent that was putting one of the best drivers of the grid and double world champion in check, making him even lose temper and have to use “outside of the track” shenanigans to gain advantage. Back then, I really could see, on that yellow helmet wearing kid, a glimpse of the Ayrton Senna, the racing driver.

    When he won his world championship vs Felipe Massa, I was immensely happy he pulled it off at the last minute, even though I was seeing the race in a place full of Massa fans. I thought the greatest talent- even though making silly mistakes during the season- deserved the win. However, something suddenly started to change after that victory.

    Hamilton, after becoming world champion from Mclaren, started to enjoy his stardom. His on/off relationship with superstar Pussycat Dolls lead singer, his adventures in music reflected also the more and more poor form of Mclaren. He did outperform his teammates, but not by much. I know, as a fan of the sport and of the racing driver Lewis Hamilton, this shouldn’t matter. But it did.

    Ayrton Senna was a man concerned about his home country, about Brasil, about poverty. Ayrton was inspiring. Ayrton Senna, the man, even though also flamboyant, was a man that gave an image of integrity.

    Maybe the problem of Hamilton was that he got into F1 immediately at Mclaren. Ayrton got in on a Toleman, climbed up to a Lotus, and then, yes, went to a championship winning team. Senna had to fight with his talent, with inferior machinery, to the top. Hamilton, in F1, started with the best car at that time, won his championship a year later, then just seemed to let himself go into whatever distraction stardom put him on.

    Today we can look back at the 33 years of Ayrton Senna’s life and we can see his legacy not only on motorsport and in his own country, as well as the inspiration he was to millions. Lewis Hamilton is 30 this year. He is 3 years to get to the age where Ayrton’s life ended. What can we say of Lewis Hamilton, the double World Champion? I think that is the question we need to ask ourselves when comparing those two.

    I admit, I’m a big Senna fan. I grew up watching him race, and he was just inspiring. Lewis Hamilton is an exciting driver, but that is basically it. He doesn’t have much to say if not about himself, his love of music, his dog. Lewis Hamilton is like any other megastar of today in any sort of entertainment. Probably I’m asking too much from a formula one world champion.

    Inspite all of this, he is up there with the best formula one drivers of all time in terms of pure talent. But, you know what? I would love to see him and Vettel on the same team.

    As someone that was not a fan of “the finger”, I see in Sebastian Vettel that pure racing passion that I could also see in Ayrton. I somehow feel Hamilton is further from this than when he joined the sport. “Loss of innocence”? Heh, sometimes I feel like I’m talking about movie characters in this great storyline that we follow passionately, that is formula one.

  25. Lewis are right when he says the best drivers usually have the best cars, and we have a period of dominant teams and drivers, but for me it’s very easy to recognise that some years even if the best driver with the best car have some real opposition we tend to have thrilling seasons. If Senna in 88 with the very superior McLaren didn’t had a Prost as teammate and let’s say a Patrese (which is a bit like what Rosberg is today, a decent driver but not a great one) I,m pretty sure that season would be extremely boring like what we have in 2015. For me this is also what make Senna’s achievements much highly rated. He always had incredible opposition for most of his career and nowadays this almost don’t happen anymore.
    For me the real difference between a great driver and a legend is also the opposition he had to achieve his titles.

  26. I like how Lewis completely ignores the fact that he said just in 2013 that he would never want to win with an advantage like Vettel had. I like Lewis, and don’t have anything against him, but since he won the title last year, i feel like he has started acting a little smug (which happens to a lot of drivers). He grew up sort of modestly for a racing driver though, and i wish he would go back to acting that way, because that’s why i was a big fan of him for so long. I don’t have a problem with his new “Baller” attitude, but the Lewis of 2007-2013 was so much more likable in my eyes, because he just came across as a normal guy. I’m not trying to cut down everyone’s favorite driver or anything, i just wish he would quit trying to be Mr.Popularity, and would just be normal ole’ Lewis again.

    1. Cannot agree more. Add to that, Amongst all the cash, girls and Jet 7 life style, it never felt to me Senna forgot were he came from and what he was doing ( and the social impact it had).

  27. They’ll get over it in the same way they did when Vettel was dominating: by turning off their TVs.

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