Quote from keiran :

At the moment he is on a high but there is nothing stopping it from coming crashing down, something I don't think he is used to.

Yeah, I think the true test for Hamilton will be how well he bounces back when he has a bad race or crash. I have the feeling so far that when this happens he'll be the kind of guy that can get back into things without it bothering him or affecting his confidence, but as I've not watched him race prior to F1, I don't know. Anyone who has watched him race in the past have any comments on this?

Quote from Michael Denham :

Yeah, it would have been much more interesting if there were close battles between Hamilton and Alonso as well as Massa and Raikonnen, as well as a few others further back. Oh wait, that DID happen.

I saw Alonso following Hamilton, realising he couldn't pass him because he wasn't sufficently faster and Hamilton wasn't making mistakes and then throw a wobbly because McLaren wouldn't use team orders.

Quote from mr grady :

once again, lewis showed what a class RACER he is.

He's yet to show any above average racing skills in F1 yet, if anything he has failed to prove he is it is being a racer. He is clearly very good at driving consistant fast laps and

anyone that has followed GP2 will know how much of a racer he really is. No questions about that imo. Maybe he hasn't really been tested yet but imo thats testiment to his skills. Commanding a race is how it should be done, not having to fight for it, good to watch though

Quote from ajp71 :

I saw Alonso following Hamilton, realising he couldn't pass him because he wasn't sufficently faster and Hamilton wasn't making mistakes and then throw a wobbly because McLaren wouldn't use team orders.

That's just sometimes how it goes...I would have loved them to be switching positions every lap as much as you, but it doesn't always work out that way. At least they were close for most of the race and it wasn't a snoozefest with each driver 10 seconds back from the one infront. For me, part of what made it good racing was that Hamilton didn't make any mistakes. If Alonso was a fair bit faster, managed to pass Hamilton, and then pulled away, how would that have made the last half of the race more exciting?

Quote from ajp71 :

I saw Alonso following Hamilton, realising he couldn't pass him because he wasn't sufficently faster and Hamilton wasn't making mistakes and then throw a wobbly because McLaren wouldn't use team orders.



He's yet to show any above average racing skills in F1 yet, if anything he has failed to prove he is it is being a racer. He is clearly very good at driving consistant fast laps and

I cant believe you can say that, podium every race and won twice what the phuck else does it take to prove it to you? Theres another 23 odd guys behind him every race that arent stepping up and racing him including his team mate.

I totally agree theres enough hype and bullshit about LH to fuel the world for the next 40 years but and its a big but this guy is doing the business unlike every other new and hot young superstar that people rave about..

Quote from richo :

I cant believe you can say that, podium every race and won twice what the phuck else does it take to prove it to you? Theres another 23 odd guys behind him every race that arent stepping up and racing him including his team mate.

Well that's not all together true. There are only two cars on the grid capable of winning and today both were very well matched.

With the way the cars are at the moment it's hard enough for cars with a significant advantage to pass another car, yet alone trying to pass a pretty much identical version of the car your in...

I think McLaren have a little drama on their hands in the case that Alonso and Hamilton are so close in pace that qualifying is going to decide the race. Now how are they going to decide which one carries less fuel than the other to have the better chance of pole...

Quote :

I totally agree theres enough hype and bullshit about LH to fuel the world for the next 40 years but and its a big but this guy is doing the business unlike every other new and hot young superstar that people rave about..

That's a bit harsh, don't you think?

Rosberg was awesome in his first race last year but faded off dramatically and now this year has bounced back very strong. Kovalinen had a bad start but has finally started to show some strong pace. Kubica is also another impressive driver and so is Sutil in the Spyker.

But do you see the pattern? None of these guys are hitting headlines as they don't have the machinery to be winning races... Hamilton is in a very rare position and he is driving a race winning car from the off. Not many rookies are in this position, look at Webber and Alonso both had to prove themselves in a Minardi.

Quote from keiran :

Now how are they going to decide which one carries less fuel than the other to have the better chance of pole...

Yep. Shows how messed up the qualifying system has been for the last years. WTF does anyone think that fuel loads should have any influence on qualifying? If you would do a worldwide poll max and bernie would be the only 2 to vote yes.

Please dont think i,m some LH fanatic , Im a Webber fan (wonder why) sure LH has been given the best car of the season so far yet he is still right up there if not beating his team mate who is also in this wonder car, i take my hat off to a guy that comes into a new category and sticks it to the Two Times World Champ in the same equipment , i,m sorry but thats something a little special...

LOL at your post^^ and im gonna go and watch some dirt bike racing now got bored OF F1

Quote from Michael Denham :

Anyone who has watched him race in the past have any comments on this?

Decide for yourself. 6 minutes of LH hamilton onboard in Hungary last year, coming from the back:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5JP3GKZG

Hamilton has been "bigged up" by some very knowledgable people in F1, he supposedly is fairly unique where he has a number of key attributes where other F1 drivers only have a few of these attributes.

Mclaren must have seen this, seeing as he is the youngest person ever to secure an F1 contract at the age of 13!!!!!!

Quote from Michael Denham :

Yeah, it would have been much more interesting if there were close battles between Hamilton and Alonso as well as Massa and Raikonnen, as well as a few others further back. Oh wait, that DID happen.

I don't know why it's so fashionable to knock F1, but I really enjoyed the race. And same with Hamilton. It's cool to say, 'well he's good but I dunno how good he is', 'he didn't really impress me', etc. Well, he's been on the podium in every race, for two races in a row he's started from pole and won, and in this last race he held off the 2-times world champion without too many problems. Sure, all drivers in F1 are pretty damn good to even get in F1, but a lot of others would have made mistakes in the same situation Hamilton was in. And for this to be a boring race, well what needs to happen to make it an interesting one? There was action all the way through the race, lots of passing.

Maybe saying all F1 races are boring and not impressive is a way of making oneself feel better than others, like they need an even better race than everyone else in order to enjoy it, in some elitist kind of way. Or perhaps F1 is just not their cup of tea and should try something else.

Viper, this whole post is not directed at you personally, just my general feelings on the topic...the only part that was directed at you was the first bit about the second half of the race.

Thats ok I can take the any comments =) Better to have people honest than trying to walk on eggs all the time. I think part of the issue comes with the way the cars are built. They have so many areo things done to these cars the second they get anywhere near each other they have to go much slower than they do than when they are by themselves so they don't tend to battle it out for very long. Boring I think is being a bit dramatic, there were things going on, but there wasn't many passes happening and it could have been much more exciting the last 1/2 of the race.

Most of the passing was done 1/2 way through the race and because of that it was great to see =)

I think it's academic to talk about LH vs FA, or whatever. Simple fact is the Hamilton is out there getting the job done and all that really matters.

I think now I'm just waiting for Hamilton to do something that proves he's human, and not some secret McLaren experienent to genetically engineer the perfect racing driver.

I'm a self confessed worshipper of Alonso, and even i'm enjoying Master Hamilton Esq stuffing it to the double champion.

Quote from Mazz4200 :

...If i heard correctly Alonso's side of the garage ar'nt sharing setups' or strategies with Hamilton's team ! ...

Where did you heard that? on ITV's LH fan club.. As far as everybody knows all the settings and telemetry data are equally shared on McLaren's Team. The only secret is the pit (fuel, tyre) strategy on race conditions decided with the race engineer, well... at least the second stint. The first one is something we dont know, PDLR said that on Canada and USA they had the same amount of fuel and the first stop was/is determined by how they manage to save fuel on qualy, formation lap, etc...in case they had to stop in the same lap, the second positioned car would stop first...(Im not saying this is true, I just saying what I heard)

The thing is that both drivers are pretty good. Hamilton with advantage of having the same car as his adversary and ten points more is the favourite to win the championship. If he doesnt, he has an excuse as he said after Monaco: "At the end of the day I'm a rookie with the car number 2".

Sorry but I couldn’t resist to remember the years lost with Ferrari supremacy, Schumacher won some championships with the best car and no real adversary (Rubinho was a friend). Imagine a top or semi-top driver with the same car and free to fight...Imagine this year Hamilton were said: "mate, don’t even think of getting ahead of Alonso's car", that would be a shame, don’t you think?

Don’t get me wrong, IMHO Schumacher is still the best F1-driver as a whole package I've ever seen : driving, helping to developing the car, always focused on race, knowing how to cope with problems on races, etc...

Quote from richo :

...

As I've already said, yes he's good, very good, at hotlapping but he's not actually made a memorable pass let alone had a race. The GP2 performances were varied, credit to him he doesn't seem to give up but for every great performance I've seen there's been a stupid move, be it that ridiculous Becketts incident or a dangerous rejoin. I'm not saying he's not going to be a great driver, he has impressed me but not as much as what others are making out, in ITV's broadcast he's been compared to Senna, Mansell, Graham Hill, Prost and the Beatles. All of those people (ok, maybe not Paul MacCartney) would have been capable of driving round picking up wins.

I do hear you ajp, and I mostly agree with you - we havn't had the opportunity to have seen Hamilton truly tested. What we have seen though is Alonso fail to pass him on a move that some drivers would have yielded to, but more significantly, Hamilton hasn't made any mistakes all season.

Until we get the opportunity to see him in a more difficult position, those two facts are all we have to go on - and they are, admittedly, mighty impressive.

There's no doubt the kid is delivering talent by the bucketload in my mind. I want to see him do well.

Whether he's as good as the greats, well, that remains to be seen.

I thought Alonso was, until I saw this season...

Quote from Michael Denham :

There was action all the way through the race

Yes, there was.

Quote from Michael Denham :

lots of passing.

But lets compare the starting grid and the final positions:

Vettel lost two positions and gained one due to Heidfeld's retirement.
Nice come back from Fisichella though after he went in the gravels.

Watched the race today.

I'd say it was good one, there was overtaking and some battling over positions. It was a good race, but it's a shame that to get pass you still need to have much more faster car than the other guy. I guess it's about the aero dependence with today's cars and tires. It's a shame as the fights between Massa and Räikkönen and between Hamilton and Alonso would have been awesome if the aerodynamics wouldn't mess up the cars so badly. Räikkönen was the fastest car on track and greatly faster than Massa but there seems not to be changes to draft the car infront. Too bad Kimi had a bad start and lost 2 positions as he was fast.

I heard that the statistics show that the driver leading the championship after US GP has always won the title. Interesting.

Quote :

It's a shame as the fights between Massa and Räikkönen and between Hamilton and Alonso would have been awesome if the aerodynamics wouldn't mess up the cars so badly.

Personally I think those two battles where more down to pit radio, they disrupt the airflow so badly that drivers are forced to throw their car at the pit wall in protest.

Quote from Viper93 :

Thats ok I can take the any comments =) Better to have people honest than trying to walk on eggs all the time. I think part of the issue comes with the way the cars are built. They have so many areo things done to these cars the second they get anywhere near each other they have to go much slower than they do than when they are by themselves so they don't tend to battle it out for very long. Boring I think is being a bit dramatic, there were things going on, but there wasn't many passes happening and it could have been much more exciting the last 1/2 of the race.

Most of the passing was done 1/2 way through the race and because of that it was great to see =)

Yeah, for sure, even when there is the potential for a lot of passing it usually dies down when people need to conserve their tires and stay out of the dirty air. I think we all wish that was not the case!

Quote from Lotesdelere :

But lets compare the starting grid and the final positions

Yeah, you have a point there, but I don't think it tells the whole story. There were a lot of battles and position changes, especially throughout the first half of the race I think. You could have a race where the lead was changing every lap and conclude that it was not that exciting because the drivers finished in the same position they qualified in.

Qualifying is designed to ensure that the drivers finish the race in the order that they start the race.

Quote from J.B. :

Decide for yourself. 6 minutes of LH hamilton onboard in Hungary last year, coming from the back:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5JP3GKZG

Nice footage again, but the jumping constantly between different onboards does get a little annoying. Oh, and in response to your question about the splitscreens, I personally prefer each lap played seperately (I can't concentrate on two things so I covered one on them up LOL). But thanks anyway.

It's just a raw recording of the race as it was broadcast on TV and reduced to the onboard shots afterwards. While I would also have enjoyed less jumping I think I have never seen a race where the TV director actually spent such a large amount of time in one car so I can't complain.

Quote from Clownpaint :

I didn't see much overtaking though.

In that race he came from 26th to 10th so you're right, you don't see much of that in the clip. But you do see about 4 overtakes which isn't bad for a downforce car at Hungaroring.