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Yes where was I?
About this season it is clear all out speed is not the deciding factor. It seems having the best car to hold a gap,the team strategy and good driver to team communication will win this championship. Tyre nursing is easy peasy, so it's not a factor.
Driver skill only comes into play in the first stint and when things go wrong, and the driver has to compensate. After that it's all radio, driving slow to have enough tyres in the case of an emegency attack, and holding a gap.
Hamilton does not have to go all out to win this championship. All that is needed is to go fast in the firs part of the race then cruise home holding a gap to p2, and keeping good communication with the pit wall.
Button was doing the second part of the race pretty well from the beginging of the season. I would even go as far as to say that he fits Mclaren more than Hamilton in that respect. He communicates well and has a handle of what is happening around him.
Hamilton has realized this and showed that he can do this as well as he did in Canada. This is not a difficult task, it only requires awareness. We can even say that he is now a complete driver, since he is clearly capable of any kind of driving.
Button should be the desperate one now. His weakness is the first part of the race, where speed and skill is most important. He has shown to be heiki like in his first laps. Being overtaken easily in the last 3 races in a row, at the beginning. His pace also fails him in this part of the race, and he has to take risks to get back to the front.
Heiki was just like this, only a little faster, however Heiki did not have the communication and foresight that Button has. If Button does not improve his first stint he will trail hamilton until the gap is too much for him to even speak about the WDC.
Button's team communication and Mclaren's ability to pick the best strategies on the fly is what's keeping him afloat. His chemistry with the team is superior to Hamilton's, and it what allows him to salvage his races.
Dont get me wrong, Jenson is not better in any part of the race in terms of speed. Neiter qualy or race pace. He is off about 3 tenths in qualy and .5 to 1s in true race pace.
However Jenson communicates very well with the team. I don't know why, but Hamilton seems less of a shoe in when it comes to the team helping him get a leg up on the rest of the field.
I agree the end of the race closeness is an illusion. The drivers only do enough to win,which is why i preferred refueling. Some may say, Button is close and keeping Hamilton honest, but i can't see that. Hamilton is just a little more careful now and is just doing enough to bring the car home. Had it been refueling, we could be seeing something similar to 2008 with Lewis and his teammate.
Now it seems the race only goes up to 3/4 of the race distance. Anything after that is gap management and tyre nursing.
it's sad, but it makes the season easier for Hamilton, knowing that Button will never out qualify him in a problem free weekend. Neither will Button challenge him on track on pace. It's just not happening.
Lewis just has to watch his engineers and mechanics, they are the deciding factors of his season.
And his pit stops have been horrible thru no fault of his own.
How accurate are the pit stop times? I want to do an analysis of which drivers are fastest in their pit in and pit out laps but I'm not sure it is worth it if the pit stop times are not accurate. I noticed the total time in pits is the same for every drive if you subtract the pit stop time... that cant be right.
Your blind devotion is admirable and like JET on this particular subject, I am giving up as your understanding that it is all about points at the end of the year is never going to occur by continual devotion to a particular driver.
Just wondering when Alonso had at the end of his two WDC years more points than Schumi does that make him better than Michael? Guess not...Points determine the result which is absolutely needed but i am with ISLAMATRON on this one,they dont determine the best driver.
Points signify which team, driver, car, luck combination was the best, I would say; not necessarily who was the out right best driver.
We can't ignore points though. They still have a relation to the best driver, especially within a team and at the end of the season.
They're not to be taken by them self, because that would mean drivers like Glock are no better than guys like Di Grassi, because both have zero points.
ringo wrote:
They're not to be taken by them self, because that would mean drivers like Glock are no better than guys like Di Grassi, because both have zero points.
Or Senna and Chandok for that matter...
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ringo wrote:Points signify which team, driver, car, luck combination was the best, I would say; not necessarily who was the out right best driver.
We can't ignore points though. They still have a relation to the best driver, especially within a team and at the end of the season.
They're not to be taken by them self, because that would mean drivers like Glock are no better than guys like Di Grassi, because both have zero points.
ISLAMATRON wrote:then he passed that beep just as easily as he passed Alonso in canada... but when have any of them passed him?
That reminds me of the defence on Vettel. Hamilton is similar to shumacher in that respect. They both have a robust defense.
Button's defense is questionable. Maybe his smoothness is counter intuitive to defending from a faster car. Partly the reason Hamilton retook him in turn1 in turkey. I could be wrong about his defense, but he was never really been put on the spot in the last 3 years when it comes to defending a position. Either his car was too quick or it was at the back with no one to defend against.
it was a bitch move on Button's part, that is of course if the team told them both to save fuel, if not then he had every right to try a pass and then LH had every right to make him look silly as he did