2017 Championship Permutations

[NathanOlder]

Yeah. Looks like its the end of the thread on page number 26. Looks like the end for 26 in more ways than one.


Edit. Damn my post was the first on page 27

[PlatinumZealot]

Vettel's fans had their first taste of Lewis Hamilton in equal cars that's what. They will be better prepared for next year. It was fun, but not really a challenge. I would say fighting Nico felt harder than this.

[dans79]

Vettel's fans had their first taste of Lewis Hamilton in equal cars that's what. They will be better prepared for next year.

it will definitely be interesting to see. It seems that over the last decade or so, Ferrari always takes a half step back after they take a step forward. Mainly do to people being fired on a whim.

[NathanOlder]

There was always something in the back of my mind saying Lewis would win, all season long. I dont know why, it just was. And fighting Nico was much harder as it was a battle with one arm tied behind the back, they both couldn't use strategy to fight and had to be more careful with each other as they were team mates.

Maybe like you say, similar machinery ect ect.

Has to go down as a great season though, season long fight between 2 greats (Merc & Ferrari)
Hamilton excelling and proving how good he can be, Bottas coming in and doing a fair job, Kimi showing he's past it. I feel next year Red Bull will be Mercs rivals for the trophy. Roll on 2018.

[ringo]

P-5 wasnt so easy no was it?

[Fulcrum]

Vettel's fans had their first taste of Lewis Hamilton in equal cars that's what. They will be better prepared for next year.

it will definitely be interesting to see. It seems that over the last decade or so, Ferrari always takes a half step back after they take a step forward. Mainly do to people being fired on a whim.

I think next year has the potential to be the best of the new engine era.

I anticipate Ferrari will be close to Mercedes again, but Red Bull are my dark horse (pun intended) for next year. Possibly the best driver pairing, I'd be willing to place a small wager on Max being the primary challenger to Lewis next year, not Vettel.

Then there is the scope for McLaren to improve significantly with Renault power; podiums being possible. And Renault itself with their very strong driver lineup and improved power unit.

The losers next year are likely to be Force India, Williams, Haas, and possibly Toro Rosso.

Force India - under threat from McLaren and Renault.
Williams - McLaren and Renault.
Haas - I only see them beating Sauber, possibly Toro Rosso, and Sauber will have comparative engine power, so no guarantees there.
Toro Rosso - Honda will make or break their season - my money is on the latter for 2/3 of the season, with a good final 1/3.

Sauber get a current spec engine, so they should improve a bit.

[Phil]

Vettel's fans had their first taste of Lewis Hamilton in equal cars that's what. They will be better prepared for next year. It was fun, but not really a challenge. I would say fighting Nico felt harder than this.

I agree with this, but this made it so much more enjoyable seeing two/three teams unite behind their drivers and instead of battling themselves like Hamilton and Rosberg did the previous 3 years, battle each other.

I do have to say though, the last 3 years, it was always clear that it was either Hamilton or Rosbergs championship to win. What made it a thriller was because Mercedes offered a very limited scope for them to actually battle it on strategy, so the fight usually took place on Saturdays and on the first 400m of the GP into the first corner. Beyond that, it was always difficult for two identical cars to fight each other.

This year I feel Ferrari handed it to Hamilton/Mercedes on a silver platter. I do think at the end of it, Mercedes could have prevailed, but as a Hamilton fan, one does wonder how things might have turned out if Singapore had turned out differently and Vettel wasn't unlucky enough to experience a pretty much double technical DNF in Malaysia and Japan. Some people can speculate about how Hamilton might have still won in Singapore had the crash not occurred, but realistically, Hamilton had multiple christmases all happen at once when 1.) it started to rain and 2.) 3 of the 4 cars in front of him came together in a big crash taking them out before T1.

In Malaysia, Vettel was also extremely strong but limited in qualifying and to make things worse for Ferrari, the perhaps 2nd strongest car on the grid, Raikönnen, suffered a DNS moments before the start. The race showed Hamilton/Mercedes had their tire issues as even RedBull was quicker.

I am not complaining at all. As a LH supporter, I'm extremely happy with him taking his 4th title and I do think he was the strongest driver this season so far. My post is only to highlight that Ferrari had the car to beat on multiple occasions but was either let down by a very costly mistake of their driver Vettel in Singapore and the quality of two outside supplied parts in Malaysia and Japan. This caused such a huge swing that it was possible for Hamilton to get #4 in Mexico, when, had those misfortunes not took place, it most likely would have gone down to the wire instead.

[F1NAC]

Vettel's fans had their first taste of Lewis Hamilton in equal cars that's what. They will be better prepared for next year. It was fun, but not really a challenge. I would say fighting Nico felt harder than this.

eli5 please? I mean not that they were fighting on circuit for 1st place so? And on the circuit which on papers favored Ferrari/Merc they took those wins.. I mean Mercedes as a package(PU mainly + chasis) was still step ahead this year (Bottas only 15 points behind Vettel).

[ringo]

I remember that puncture in SIlverstone as well for Vettel.
So there were operational deficiencies with Ferrari. Anyhow championships are made of these things.
Very dominant display by Hamilton in terms of driving over the whole season. Very Peerless.

Next year he may be just as strong in terms of not making errors. I think he has what Jackie Stewart always complains that he doesn't have. I'm starting to see what Jackie is saying now. Hamilton is basically in Shumacher Enlightenment mindset at this point.

[Jolle]

After the first few GP’s, when it became apparent that the combination of HAM/Mercedes was stronger then VET/Ferrari, even being behind on points, both Vettel and Ferrari were under pressure and both cracked.

[foxmulder_ms]

There was always something in the back of my mind saying Lewis would win, all season long. I dont know why, it just was. And fighting Nico was much harder as it was a battle with one arm tied behind the back, they both couldn't use strategy to fight and had to be more careful with each other as they were team mates.

Maybe like you say, similar machinery ect ect.

Has to go down as a great season though, season long fight between 2 greats (Merc & Ferrari)
Hamilton excelling and proving how good he can be, Bottas coming in and doing a fair job, Kimi showing he's past it. I feel next year Red Bull will be Mercs rivals for the trophy. Roll on 2018.

I disagree about Kimi. He gifted 2 wins to Vettel. What else do you want? If anything, he had a good season especially when you thin Ferrari is a one-driver team. 2nd driver just a guinea pig for everything. When you looked at the history, I think he is the most talented driver. Zero interest in driving, still a champion. He looks like he is not even trying half of the time

[Moose]

I disagree about Kimi. He gifted 2 wins to Vettel. What else do you want? If anything, he had a good season especially when you thin Ferrari is a one-driver team. 2nd driver just a guinea pig for everything. When you looked at the history, I think he is the most talented driver. Zero interest in driving, still a champion. He looks like he is not even trying half of the time

His old engineer at McLaren even said exactly this. Apparently Kimi was the single most talented driver he claimed he'd ever seen, Hamilton and Alonso included. He just didn't have the motivation to do all the background tasks that an F1 driver needs to keep up doing to stay perfectly on top of his game at all times.