must have been one of the most boring races ever, you could count the amount of non lapped passes on the fingers of one hand, dc is looking good at the min, shame about webber,

Quote from CELTIC100 :

I think you need a history lesson

Racing career — highlights

GP2 champion 2006.
European Formula 3 champion 2005.
Masters of Formula 3 winner 2005.
Bahrain F3 Superprix winner 2004.
British Formula Renault 2000 champion 2003.
Third in Formula Renault 2000 UK 2002.

Where did you find all that info, CELTIC100? Is there a website with a race car driver database or something? Can you post a link?

Quote from andybarsblade :

must have been one of the most boring races ever, you could count the amount of non lapped passes on the fingers of one hand, dc is looking good at the min, shame about webber,

Actually it was not a boring race at all. Quite a lot of action and interesting throughout.

I fell asleep half way through, it was a done deal once Hamilton came out behind Massa in the last pitstop. I wish they would focus a bit more on the back end of the grid, the racing there tends to be much better and often means more to the teams and drivers.

Quote from CELTIC100 :

I think you need a history lesson

Work their way up in F1, starting from a smaller team. I guess the things have just changed for what they used to be. Teams scout their future drivers very early. Hamilton has worked with McLaren for years, so it's not like he is a rookie in the team or F1 car.

Quote from sam1600 :

Actually it was not a boring race at all. Quite a lot of action and interesting throughout.

come on, go watch wsb or moto gp now thats racing wsb last week the winner won by 0.009 of a second

Quote from Blackout :

Work their way up in F1, starting from a smaller team. I guess the things have just changed for what they used to be. Teams scout their future drivers very early. Hamilton has worked with McLaren for years, so it's not like he is a rookie in the team or F1 car.

It is how it should work, honestly.

Quote from Blackout :

Work their way up in F1, starting from a smaller team.

Why?

Looking at Hamilton now few years at Aguri, Spyker or Toro Rosso would have not done any good. Maybe he is not downright winner but his records in F1 speak for themselves. Of course some drivers are more ready than others; not sure if Räikkönen, Alonso or Rosberg would have been as good but at least Hamilton is getting the 100% out of his car. Consistently.

Btw. How is that first name written anyways. Is he Louis, Luis or Looollluuiiiz?
EDIT: Lewis, bah

Im super impressed with Lewis, I think he's been able to get more out of the Mclaren than Fernando has and his face on the 3rd spot told the story. I think the most over rated driver in the field is Kimi, the guys only quick when he's leading, even though he had a similar fuel load to Fernando, he wasnt able to keep up with Lewis. And I guess he drives cars harder as he broke his Ferrari again.

DC is impressing me at the moment, I thought he was on his way to retirement but all of a sudden he has a new lease of life! go DC lol.

Lewis didn't do ANYTHING amazing this weekend.

Qualified 4th behind his team mates. No big deal
Got a good start - more to do with electronics than driver skill
Drove to the end of the race on his own - wow!

He might be 'winning' the championship, but that currently has nothing to do with an amazing talent, merely the fact he's just sat in the races and finished them. With his car he can't do badly.

Don't get me wrong, he might be amazing. I don't see that yet, but he might be. Whether he is or isn't has nothing to do with the position he has held in races or championships.

As for the big list of other series, remember in most of them he either had a car advantage or crap competitors. And in GP2 didn't he spin out of most races meaning he HAD to do comebacks. Surely the great drivers don't spin in the first place as often as he did?

Quote from andybarsblade :

come on, go watch wsb or moto gp now thats racing wsb last week the winner won by 0.009 of a second

This is completely irrelevant as to whether the F1 race was boring or not.

No don't get me wrong guys, I didn't mean the way Hamilton should race in some slow crappy team for few years, the way he has done is more logical. I was just saying that the other drivers didn't have the opportunity to fast car, thus his record braking performances are irrelevant and as Tristan said, he has a car where he can't do badly. I guess that the media is over excited when Brits have a potential future World Champion on their hands again.


Oh yeah, Kimi broke the electronics in his car, he has a magnet in his head which ****s them up, sure.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Lewis didn't do ANYTHING amazing this weekend.

None of the top 4 did anything AMAZING this weekend, Massa drove away in a faster car, Raikkonen was driving a lacklustre first stint and went out, and Alonso went backwards off the grid and stayed there. The astonishing thing about Lewis is that he was more consistent and kept a cooler head under pressure then his much higher rated and higher payed teammate.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Qualified 4th behind his team mates. No big deal

If you adjust for fuel Lewis did at least as good if not a better quali time than Alonso. Admirable that on fuel adjust he would have beaten Raikkonen as well.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Got a good start - more to do with electronics than driver skill

The actual getaway is about electronics yes but the rest of the start is all driver skill. You didnt see alonso easily sliding past a similarly positioned Ferrari did you?

Quote from tristancliffe :

Lewis didn't do ANYTHING amazing this weekend.

Qualified 4th behind his team mates. No big deal
Got a good start - more to do with electronics than driver skill
Drove to the end of the race on his own - wow!

He might be 'winning' the championship, but that currently has nothing to do with an amazing talent, merely the fact he's just sat in the races and finished them. With his car he can't do badly.

How about he beat the current double world champion twice in four races, almost beat him in his first and hasn't made a single mistake yet? I honestly can't believe that anybody can fail to see just how amazing a job hamilton is doing. Compare his consistancy, speed and failure rate with other hot rookies. And isn't there a regulation that launch/traction control isn't allowed to kick in until 100 km/h are reached after the start?

Quote from tristancliffe :

And in GP2 didn't he win most races meaning he HAD to do comebacks.

Fixed it for you. (hint:reversed grids)

I have to say I've been waiting for Hamilton to knock the wheels off his car this year, each of the first three races I thought "fluke" , but now it looks like he is simply a safe pair of hands.

Whether he turns out to be fast enough to win championships we'll have to wait and see, but he's mixing it with the big boys and making it look easy at the moment.

I do see he is doing a great job. But not so great as to be worthy of all this hype just yet.

TC/LC might be banned for starts, but they still have throttle, clutch and ignition 'maps' to make it quicker. Get those wrong and there is nothing you can do. Get them right and there is very little to actually do.

You didn't fix it at all. Whilst he DID win a lot, and was generally very deserving, there is no doubting he threw it off the road like a noob too often in GP2. The fact he can make comebacks is good, but shouldn't need to be shown for the reasons it did.

I'm with Tristan here, he is just doing his job, the fact theat everyone around him has failed to do thier job to the standard they should be means nothing. Fact is, if MS were still at ferrari he'd have an easy 40 points right now.

I don't really remember a lot of spins in GP2 but I didn't watch all the races either.

I'd be interested to know what you think he would have to do for you to consider him worthy of the hype? Is it that you're still waiting to see how many mistakes he makes? Or maybe you don't see Alonso as top line driver?

I think I'd like to see him having to hunt someone down and pass (or at least try to) them. I'd like to see how he handles reliability problems (a la Coulthard or Schumi). I'd like to see how he copes with starting from the back or from grid penalties. I'd like to see how he reacts when a questionable manoeveur is done on him, or a questionable political decision. That sort of thing. Starting 4th and racing to 2nd because of 2 errors (reliability or driver error) is something most of the drivers could do in that car.

But I don't rate Alonso that highly either!

I agree with tristain here, lewis so far hasn't put on his own epic race that will define him as a world class driver. Like schumi in spa 1990, senna in monaco 1984, it's not the fault of lewis, there just wasn't the right ingredient for that to happen (but which I would firmly believe...will happen some time in close future.) He is wayyy too good to start with, so to look expectional, will be pretty hard.

Quote from tristancliffe :

I think I'd like to see him having to hunt someone down and pass (or at least try to) them. I'd like to see how he handles reliability problems (a la Coulthard or Schumi). I'd like to see how he copes with starting from the back or from grid penalties. I'd like to see how he reacts when a questionable manoeveur is done on him, or a questionable political decision. That sort of thing. Starting 4th and racing to 2nd because of 2 errors (reliability or driver error) is something most of the drivers could do in that car.

But I don't rate Alonso that highly either!

I think we're on very much the same wavelength. So far Hamilton has taken what appears to be the second best car in the field, with 100% reliability, to the podium 4 times in a row, when on 3 of those occasions one of the drivers in the best car has either made a mistake, started from the back of the grid or had a retirement. Yes, they've been solid drives, no doubt about that, but they're not exceptional. When Schumacher and Senna entered F1 they put up truly exceptional performances straight away. What we've seen so far is not, in my opinion, exceptional. What I do think Hamilton is shown, however, is that Alonso is one of the most over-rated champions in F1's history.

Quote from tristancliffe :

I think I'd like to see him having to hunt someone down and pass (or at least try to) them. I'd like to see how he handles reliability problems (a la Coulthard or Schumi). I'd like to see how he copes with starting from the back or from grid penalties. I'd like to see how he reacts when a questionable manoeveur is done on him, or a questionable political decision. That sort of thing. Starting 4th and racing to 2nd because of 2 errors (reliability or driver error) is something most of the drivers could do in that car.

But I don't rate Alonso that highly either!

I see. For me he has already shown enough to convince me that he will have no problems at all to deal with the of the situations you mention. But we'll have to wait one or two seasons to get hard answers to your questions.

From what i have seen in GP2 he has the ability to fight for position no doubt about that. Look at istanbull last year or the three wide pass at silverstone. He hasn't had the chance to really show it in F1 yet but the boy is good.

Sorry, but that three wide pass at Silverstone would have been slated if anyone but 'Britain's Golden Boy' had done it. Forcing two cars onto the grass at 170mph to get past is not something that 'top' drivers do. The Istanbul one was good, but the Silverstone one was decidely rough and unclean. People have been banned for better driving in LFS.

And I had the 'pleasure' of watching that pass in person, then on big TV screens, and on telly when I got home, so I think I got most angles...

Quote from tristancliffe :

Sorry, but that three wide pass at Silverstone would have been slated if anyone but 'Britain's Golden Boy' had done it. Forcing two cars onto the grass at 170mph to get past is not something that 'top' drivers do.

i got to disagree with you BIGTIME

only one driver went on the grass (piquet jr i believe) and that was more his fault than hamiltons.

imo, that was a stunning overtaking move. a controlled pass with no contact.

i think lewis has done very well in his first four races. dont you have your teammate as a yardstick? suddenly alonso is overrated? well sorry mate, but he was the guy that beat schumacher into retirement.