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For those who like and support Lewis, why not simply acknowledge that he did a great job yesterday and leave George out of it? So George had a not so great race yesterday, but that will continue to ebb and flow during the season as it has in the past two years. They are two quite evenly matched drivers and will continue to be, so why try to invent a narrative that will constantly be proven wrong? It will only lead to pages and pages of my driver is better than yours which there is enough of on other sites…
It’s both camps; one camp is hung up on Lewis and the other is hell bent on seeing Lewis fail.
Of all the driver pairings, those two are indiscernible, and it distracts from the real issue of the team’s issues and it being a mid pack team now.
Like I said, Lewis and George are much closer to each other than Merc is RB, Ferrari, and now Mclaren, and that should be the real story.
It's extremely childish to be fighting for one driver over another. It was a great race by Lewis with some really fine driving. At this point, there is nothing for George to prove and it seems he is focusing on just bringing the car home without much risk.
As someone who has been mostly lurking here since the mid 2000s, there was a real shift in this forum around the start of DtS and then Covid. Now it just feels like another reddit.
Straight facts tbh it makes sense why there so evenly matched over 3 seasons with these fundamentally flawed cars. Its distorted the narrative between them. I will say this though if theres a chance of victory or a great result Hamilton over the last 3 seasons (Apart from Brazil 2022) Seems to have another gear he can enable. Of the top of my head Zandervort 22 , Texas 22 , Texas 23 ,Britain 22 (before SC), Singapore 23 . Ive seen it too often where he will just start pulling out ridiculous laptimes just to stay in the hunt. I do feel Russell is faster of the two in Qualyfing, he just digs abit deeper to extract that performance that Hamilton fails to do these days. Also Russell is more aggressive in overtaking and battling. Not saying Hamilton isnt but he's not so do or die on the brakes like Russell is overtaking and is less impatient. Overall they complement each other well.
Im still fascinated to see who partners him next year. It will give even more context where Russell stands in the pecking order, for me personally hes near the top 5 but we really need confirmation when he has a championship winning car. Him and Max would be absolute box office. Russell isn't so pally pally like Lando is with him. Spain 22 Brazil 22 Baku 23 Vegas 23 They actually have some rivalry and abit hotheaded.
“And that’s part of the game, is being able to be adaptive, and we’ve got this new car – I don’t know how it’s going to handle, hopefully she’s great.”
For those who like and support Lewis, why not simply acknowledge that he did a great job yesterday and leave George out of it? So George had a not so great race yesterday, but that will continue to ebb and flow during the season as it has in the past two years. They are two quite evenly matched drivers and will continue to be, so why try to invent a narrative that will constantly be proven wrong? It will only lead to pages and pages of my driver is better than yours which there is enough of on other sites…
I find the constant denigrating of one driver every weekend annoying as well, this week being George's turn.
Before you call me a Hamilton hater, I've watched f1 for going on 15 years because of him; I support him, not necessarily mercedes.
Indeed. And the key thing with my comments is I give George his flowers. He is good and he is talented. I will say when he has a bad or average weekend. But I wont say he is rubbish or a fraud like some Lewis haters tend to do by reflex.
There are anti Lewis fans that just turn to "Lewis' teammate fans" depending on the driver line up.
I will be jumping to Ferrari, but I did like the Brawn team and will always be somewhat of a supporter of Mercedes next year. They have a good engineering team despite the struggles.
Straight facts tbh it makes sense why there so evenly matched over 3 seasons with these fundamentally flawed cars. Its distorted the narrative between them. I will say this though if theres a chance of victory or a great result Hamilton over the last 3 seasons (Apart from Brazil 2022) Seems to have another gear he can enable. Of the top of my head Zandervort 22 , Texas 22 , Texas 23 ,Britain 22 (before SC), Singapore 23 . Ive seen it too often where he will just start pulling out ridiculous laptimes just to stay in the hunt. I do feel Russell is faster of the two in Qualyfing, he just digs abit deeper to extract that performance that Hamilton fails to do these days. Also Russell is more aggressive in overtaking and battling. Not saying Hamilton isnt but he's not so do or die on the brakes like Russell is overtaking and is less impatient. Overall they complement each other well.
Im still fascinated to see who partners him next year. It will give even more context where Russell stands in the pecking order, for me personally hes near the top 5 but we really need confirmation when he has a championship winning car. Him and Max would be absolute box office. Russell isn't so pally pally like Lando is with him. Spain 22 Brazil 22 Baku 23 Vegas 23 They actually have some rivalry and abit hotheaded.
I think Russel is better than Leclerc and Max. But just my opinion. He doesn't have any weakness. His only weakness is mental. He is impulsive and that's about it. The impulsiveness will go away when het gets more wins; or gets a known elite young driver that is not Lewis to go up against. Right now the comparison to Lewis is not so important, as it is to his peers in his age group. That 24 to 30 group are who are in the market now. Russel needs to measure up against them.
Definitely Russell will give those two a run for their money. Max and Leclerc are not invincible. They both were barely ahead of Carlos at equal F1 experience. We see young Lando here ripping away when his car has a turn off pace. These young guys are all extremely close talent wise. George and Leclerc are probably the most elite in qualifying. Lando is up there too but he is more inconcistent in qualifying.
You also said Stroll would beat Alonso. Some context for others...
He has outdriven Alonso on a few occasions. Miami being a good example. I underestimated his lack of mental growth. He has the pace and shows some good overtaking when his head is in the right place. Stroll makes silly errors but his ability is not garbage. He has speed.
Hamilton has the teeth on the team. As much criticism as he gets, George cannot make wine out of water like Lewis does.
This weekend in Miami was promising.
Fighting spirit in the sprint, and elite craft to navigate some tough competition in the race and chasing down Perez. A strong weekend for Lewis. He just needs a better car to get back into his driving god mode. Lol.
Russel was nowhere, but he did have a much better qualifying as usual.
The car deserately needs upgrades. It has potential when its in the right window. Still lakcs top speed too.
Russel just 10 points ahead of Lewis. This will soon evaporate in the next 5 races.
Russel is talented but just doesnt seem to know how to lead the development direction from a driver's perspective. He is just driving to outqualify Lewis race by race.
Seriously
In the one race that Hamilton out qualified Russell, Russell beat him in the race.
Hamilton has the teeth on the team. As much criticism as he gets, George cannot make wine out of water like Lewis does.
This weekend in Miami was promising.
Fighting spirit in the sprint, and elite craft to navigate some tough competition in the race and chasing down Perez. A strong weekend for Lewis. He just needs a better car to get back into his driving god mode. Lol.
Russel was nowhere, but he did have a much better qualifying as usual.
The car deserately needs upgrades. It has potential when its in the right window. Still lakcs top speed too.
Russel just 10 points ahead of Lewis. This will soon evaporate in the next 5 races.
Russel is talented but just doesnt seem to know how to lead the development direction from a driver's perspective. He is just driving to outqualify Lewis race by race.
Seriously
In the one race that Hamilton out qualified Russell, Russell beat him in the race.
Where has Russel threatened to gain a worthy position?
Last time he had the chanced he crashed into Alonso.
Hamilton has the teeth on the team. As much criticism as he gets, George cannot make wine out of water like Lewis does.
This weekend in Miami was promising.
Fighting spirit in the sprint, and elite craft to navigate some tough competition in the race and chasing down Perez. A strong weekend for Lewis. He just needs a better car to get back into his driving god mode. Lol.
Russel was nowhere, but he did have a much better qualifying as usual.
The car deserately needs upgrades. It has potential when its in the right window. Still lakcs top speed too.
Russel just 10 points ahead of Lewis. This will soon evaporate in the next 5 races.
Russel is talented but just doesnt seem to know how to lead the development direction from a driver's perspective. He is just driving to outqualify Lewis race by race.
Seriously
In the one race that Hamilton out qualified Russell, Russell beat him in the race.
Where has Russel threatened to gain a worthy position?
Last time he had the chanced he crashed into Alonso.
Tbf that was on Alonso, he suddenly slowed and Russell had almost no time to react, Alonso got a 20 sec penalty for a reason there
I think Russel is better than Leclerc and Max. But just my opinion. He doesn't have any weakness. His only weakness is mental. He is impulsive and that's about it.
Let me respectfully disagree. He is a 'reactive' driver, that's a gap that needs to bridged before he goes from 'excellent' to 'elite' category, where the driving is 'predictive of grip'. Lewis and Max were similar for the first few years of their career, then they made the jump with experience. No one makes their F1 debut with all the skillset already present. They develop their skills 'on-the-job'.
Otherwise, Russel has tremendous racecraft and 'game-reading' ability w.r.t overall status of the race as it's going on.
I think Russel is better than Leclerc and Max. But just my opinion. He doesn't have any weakness. His only weakness is mental. He is impulsive and that's about it.
Let me respectfully disagree. He is a 'reactive' driver, that's a gap that needs to bridged before he goes from 'excellent' to 'elite' category, where the driving is 'predictive of grip'. Lewis and Max were similar for the first few years of their career, then they made the jump with experience. No one makes their F1 debut with all the skillset already present. They develop their skills 'on-the-job'.
Otherwise, Russel has tremendous racecraft and 'game-reading' ability w.r.t overall status of the race as it's going on.
I'd agree with that. Over the years I've seen some hugely fast drivers, never to take some of these subtle elements into their overall approach ..... only for their career to slide on by. In comparison to the one's becoming consistent in their achievements, it's a small but appreciably powerful shift in stance.
In the one race that Hamilton out qualified Russell, Russell beat him in the race.
Where has Russel threatened to gain a worthy position?
Last time he had the chanced he crashed into Alonso.
Tbf that was on Alonso, he suddenly slowed and Russell had almost no time to react, Alonso got a 20 sec penalty for a reason there
It's all too very easy to put "blame" onto why these things happen .... also extremely unproductive and risky to give away this sphere of influence. It ultimately becomes everyone's else's fault why you didn't achieve. Real success comes from controlling the outcomes of this type of situation. His close counsel don't need to agree with him on this, it gives false outlook and approach, ultimately to happen again to his detriment.
