Driver styles/preferences

[Jolle]

I sometimes wonder if Hamilton drove his 2007 now would his style be the smooth and precise style it is now or would it be the lairy style he had in his rookie season.....

Yes, an interesting question. My guess that he would be smoother, maybe not by much, but noticeably. I think smoothness comes from experience, which allows getting the tyres in the best possible shape, predict where and how much grip there is on track, etc.

This is a very tough call, not only the change from grooved back to slicks, than slicks with smaller fronts, tires that overheat, cars getting longer and longer (the Mercedes has a very high grip ceiling, but when it comes down to it, it understeers)... it's nearly impossible to know what guys would look like with rules reset, i'd say Hamilton still has in him the capability to go around "dancing with the car" from his wet performances...
How he would choose to drive i don't know.

I have to say that getting reminded of Mclaren+grooved tires Hamilton kinda makes me think that in terms of one lap speed the current rules kinda takes away a bit of his "special sauce".

Plus the cars are getting more and more predictable, especially the Mercedes. Gaps between team mates is a bit of an indicator for that.

[Sevach]

Plus the cars are getting more and more predictable, especially the Mercedes. Gaps between team mates is a bit of an indicator for that.

Yes style analyses are getting harder and harder.

There are outliers like the fact that Gasly couldn't handle the Red Bull (i'll keep the jury out on Albon).
But it's often very difficult to distinguish.

[Sevach]

What do you mean by "impressive"? For me, it's the one that looks like they're not trying but still put in the lap times. Chucking it about with lots of opposite lock, sawing at the wheel etc., doesn't fit in with today's cars. Back when it was manual steering, manual boxes etc., it was different, but even then the quick guys were often those who looked effortless.

Impressive never meant much, Alesi was the "impressive" guy of the 90's, always on edge, always dealing with some instability in a very visible way... lots of people assumed that if he got a Williams he would be way better than Hill, but that's not how it works.

[Fulcrum]

One of the enigmas for me would be Jarno Trulli. Fantastic in qualifying, not so much during the race. Was the driving style responsible for both outcomes (overworking tyres, etc...), or was he simply not fit, relatively speaking, to maintain his pace throughout a race distance?

[Jolle]

Plus the cars are getting more and more predictable, especially the Mercedes. Gaps between team mates is a bit of an indicator for that.

Yes style analyses are getting harder and harder.

There are outliers like the fact that Gasly couldn't handle the Red Bull (i'll keep the jury out on Albon).
But it's often very difficult to distinguish.

also quite possible that the RedBull of last year wasn't as predicable as the Toro Rosso, Mercedes or Ferrari, making the difference in drivers abilities bigger. We've seen this in the past with changing conditions, like wind coming from an opposite direction between Hamilton and Rosberg.

There was a interview with Button not to long ago for his new book (I think), and he was telling the biggest difference between him and Hamilton was that he needed the car just right for him, Hamilton could adjust his style better to a difficult car.

[PlatinumZealot]

Lewis will never admit this but I feel he learned bucket loads from Jenson Button, this almost certainly moulded him in to the driver he is today.

Agreed. I saw it happening as Jenson would pull sneaky overcuts all the time! Those overcuts were a pain! He also learned more about team building too from Button imo.

[Just_a_fan]

Lewis will never admit this but I feel he learned bucket loads from Jenson Button, this almost certainly moulded him in to the driver he is today.

Agreed. I saw it happening as Jenson would pull sneaky overcuts all the time! Those overcuts were a pain! He also learned more about team building too from Button imo.

The overcuts are called by the engineers, not the drivers. The driver might ask "anything we can do?" but the team has the data to make the call.

[Just_a_fan]

There was a interview with Button not to long ago for his new book (I think), and he was telling the biggest difference between him and Hamilton was that he needed the car just right for him, Hamilton could adjust his style better to a difficult car.

Indeed so. Button was very opent hat Hamilton was just straight up quicker than him most of the time because he didn't need the car to be "right". When the car was as he wanted it, Button was as quick as anyone, but most of the time Hamilton was quicker because he was just naturally more able to handle less optimum cars.

[raymondu999]

The driver i see most in Leclerc is Alonso, he beats the car into doing what he wants.
If he overshoots he is still comfortable correcting and just keeps going.

Hamilton did do a lot of microcorrections back on grooved tires, but he always had a soft touch on the wheel, which imo is quite similar to what Max is now.

I rarely see those microcorrections anymore I feel. I don’t think Max’s steering wheel inputs are microcorrections, either. I could be wrong. But it seems to me just that he’s constantly adjusting to the car’s feedback “oops a bit more grip than I expected. Let me push the throttle a bit or turn the wheel a bit more. Oops a bit less grip. Let me open up a bit more.” Kinda thing. Maybe these sre also microcorrections in a way, but if you watched Ham’s old poles they were very vividly correcting what looks like visible microslides. Ham’s 2007/2008 was more on microcorrectiosn to correct “mistakes” as it were

[PlatinumZealot]

The 2007 and 2008 cars had to be driven like that due to the aero and tyres. With the newer cars you won't see that swashbuckling style of driving.

For me I would see how Max would compare to Alonso or Lewis with the older cars. We cant really see any nuances with these limousines.

[Just_a_fan]

The driver i see most in Leclerc is Alonso, he beats the car into doing what he wants.
If he overshoots he is still comfortable correcting and just keeps going.

Hamilton did do a lot of microcorrections back on grooved tires, but he always had a soft touch on the wheel, which imo is quite similar to what Max is now.

I rarely see those microcorrections anymore I feel. I don’t think Max’s steering wheel inputs are microcorrections, either. I could be wrong. But it seems to me just that he’s constantly adjusting to the car’s feedback “oops a bit more grip than I expected. Let me push the throttle a bit or turn the wheel a bit more. Oops a bit less grip. Let me open up a bit more.” Kinda thing. Maybe these sre also microcorrections in a way, but if you watched Ham’s old poles they were very vividly correcting what looks like visible microslides. Ham’s 2007/2008 was more on microcorrectiosn to correct “mistakes” as it were

You can't compare 2019 cars/tyres to 2007 cars/tyres and then say "driver A did X" where "driver B, who never drove that car, is doing Y in a totally different situation". It's just meaningless.

[Sevach]

Lewis will never admit this but I feel he learned bucket loads from Jenson Button, this almost certainly moulded him in to the driver he is today.

Agreed. I saw it happening as Jenson would pull sneaky overcuts all the time! Those overcuts were a pain! He also learned more about team building too from Button imo.

I guess Button sneaking past him not because he could drive faster but because he was more clever was a wake up call "can't really rely on talent".

The driver i see most in Leclerc is Alonso, he beats the car into doing what he wants.
If he overshoots he is still comfortable correcting and just keeps going.

Hamilton did do a lot of microcorrections back on grooved tires, but he always had a soft touch on the wheel, which imo is quite similar to what Max is now.

I rarely see those microcorrections anymore I feel. I don’t think Max’s steering wheel inputs are microcorrections, either. I could be wrong. But it seems to me just that he’s constantly adjusting to the car’s feedback “oops a bit more grip than I expected. Let me push the throttle a bit or turn the wheel a bit more. Oops a bit less grip. Let me open up a bit more.” Kinda thing. Maybe these sre also microcorrections in a way, but if you watched Ham’s old poles they were very vividly correcting what looks like visible microslides. Ham’s 2007/2008 was more on microcorrectiosn to correct “mistakes” as it were

"Oops a bit less grip. Let me open up a bit more"
That's a microcorrection to a "T", adjusting in a small way, before you have to save it in a big way.
Obviously they've become more difficult to see and happen a lot less per turn, the current car simply digs and finds grip.

[Wass85]

Lewis will never admit this but I feel he learned bucket loads from Jenson Button, this almost certainly moulded him in to the driver he is today.

Agreed. I saw it happening as Jenson would pull sneaky overcuts all the time! Those overcuts were a pain! He also learned more about team building too from Button imo.

Yes he was much better on the tyres in 2011, by 2012 Lewis had got a little closer in tyre management. Jenson was still faster in damp conditions be that on dry tyres or inters, Lewis was better though on full wets.

I've said it many times before, Button would have been a bigger headache for Hamilton in this hybrid era than Rosberg ever was IMO.

[Jolle]

Don't forget that the clips are pole laps. They are by definition where everything goes like planned with maximum grip and due to the K-unit, the best throttle response you can have. Plus we only see the steering, not what de driver does with his feet. According to legends for instance, where most drivers used their hands to look for grip on corner exit, Schumacher used his foot.

[timbo]

According to legends for instance, where most drivers used their hands to look for grip on corner exit, Schumacher used his foot.

Quite the opposite: