Why hamilton is so good at overtaking

[raymondu999]

Just saying Hamilton driving off the track won't make Alonso better at overtaking. Even Luca Badoer could have pulled off that one.

Nevertheless, such a move should have been charted as well in the table

[rayden]

So did Schumacher last year and yet.....

Schumi's package wasn't exactly low on drag though

Completely agree - just wanted to point out the silliness of the original comment that Hamilton is only good at overtaking as he's got the best engine on the grid...

ok fine, best top speed/slippery in a straight line vehicle.
best engine thing was prob wrong.
but hes always had the best kers, the best f-duct, best engine.
all overtaking tools

it still takes balls, which he has a lot of, mind you.

[andrew]

What about the tens of millions he invested in Alonso's career?

Hamilton was worth it in the end; not only for Mclaren but for Formula 1.

Hamilton was picked up as a kid, Alonso wasn't.

You make it sound like like 13 year old Hamilton was driving a formula 1 car while Alonso was sitting down with his arms folded.

No I don't. It is a fact that Hamilton was picked up by Ron Dennis at age 10. At least Alonso has had to work his way to the top without any help by a major F1 team from the early stages of his career.

[vall]

At least Alonso has had to work his way to the top without any help by a major F1 team from the early stages of his career.

I can only add, like any other great F1 driver!

[andrew]

Sadly, due to the teams having young driver programs, we are going to see more drivers who are hand picked at an early age and less of ones who have to endure some pretty tough times and really work hard to be noticed.

[bjpower]

You make it sound like like 13 year old Hamilton was driving a formula 1 car while Alonso was sitting down with his arms folded.

No I don't. It is a fact that Hamilton was picked up by Ron Dennis at age 10. At least Alonso has had to work his way to the top without any help by a major F1 team from the early stages of his career.

no one gets into F1 these days without help. even EJ admits he ran shumacker for that race for money.

Look at glock, He had one race in a dog of a jordan, brought home some points and wasnt seen for years after. ( i may be wrong just how i remember it )

sato - one of the most "intresting" drivers to race in F1 - honda pritty much set up super aguri just for him after the button contract messup.

hes gone, was racing years in F1
but now kobiashi is around sato doesnt have a market anymore.

name one driver in F1 for driving ability alone

[andrew]

It's not really a question of skill alone, it's a question of being picked up by the right teams young driver program.

[Just_a_fan]

Being in a young driver programme does not mean success. The guys still have to perform over several seasons in order to make it to F1.

Being in a good car is not enough. If it were, more guys would have been fighting for the title each year.

Let's not forget that Hamilton actually approached Ron when he (Hamilton) was a child and suggested that he would drive for McLaren in the future. He started being a confident/arrogant little sod early in his life...

[vall]

being in a good car is not enough but it helps. We will probably never what Kobayashi for example would do if he was installed in that McLaren in 2007, or Alonso got a drive in a Ferrari in 2001 instead of Minardi?

[ringo]

It doesn't help beating someone in the same car though.

It helps in overtaking for sure. Though there was battle between Hamilton and his best racing buddy Webber in 2009. Lewis was holding his own against the Rb5.

jump to 4:08
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6W9HS6PEHg[/youtube]
There is natural skill there, it's not about being hand picked or having a good car.

[Just_a_fan]

Exactly. Any number of boy (and girl) racers charging around on a Saturday afternoon would probably win the title if given a decent car. But not everyone gets equal access to the breaks. That's life. Some do get the breaks - the good ones are those who use their inherent skills to turn the breaks in to titles. Some good guys have spent their careers in good cars but never quite making the grade. That's not the fault of the guys who do make the grade however.

[PlatinumZealot]

No I don't. It is a fact that Hamilton was picked up by Ron Dennis at age 10. At least Alonso has had to work his way to the top without any help by a major F1 team from the early stages of his career.

Good for him and may God bless his kind soul.

Still doesn't make him a better overtaker than Hamilton though.

[vall]

what one should count how many overtakes of about equal cars or title rivals, etc. the driver has made, right? Early last year, LH was overtaking so much because he often found himself in a lower-than-should-be position and was also heavily assisted by the F-duct. It is true that in the same car Button did not overtake, so, yes, it is also down to talent and skills, but the car matters as well.

In the not so distant past, we have had great battles of drivers in equal cars that actually overtook each others, Shu, Mika, Alosno, JPM, Kimmi....

[Shrieker]

As you get closer to the car in front you start losing performance because of a number of factors. It takes more concentration just to keep up with the car in front even though you've been a lot faster than him while catching up. Hamilton seems to be less efected by those factors, and can keep it together when it matters.

He is able to keep his concentration better while following, thus giving him the opportunity to place his car for an overtake. This also allows him to make better use of stuff like f-duct and KERS. I hope it'll transfer to the new movable rw too.


The figure andrew posted in pg.14 speaks volumes. Take out the rookie teams -which are no better than sitting ducks as paipa mentioned earlier- and LH's closest competitor is F.A. with 16 overtakes. LH has 25. It's a healthy margin. If we could look at the figures from 2007, 2008 and 2009 I think we would get similar results.


Some people say it's KERS, F-duct, better engine etc. etc. etc. What good are they if you can't make any use of them ?

And when it comes to GP2, Hamilton suddenly has the best car. Please explain how. This is a technical discussion after all.

[Giblet]

He had none of these toys in 2008 and had more passes than everyone by race 5.