Lewis Hamilton

[Craig.]

No this is not a Craig bashing Mclaren thread. But more a look at/ thought on Lewis Hamilton's progress and ability to handle F1 at the very top.
Couple of thoughts. Firstly, since his victory in Japan Last year he's only scored 16 points, 10 of those came from his win in australia.

By comparison:
Kimi Raikkonen has scored 39
Felipe Massa 24
Fernando Alonso 20
Heidfeld 19
Kubica 18
Kovalienen 14

Now when we look at the car avaliable it's hard to compair Heikki and Alonso's record as freds had that pile of crap renault of the 3 races this year and Kovi had it the 2 races in the comparison I am using for this, last year. The only comparable ones are the two ferrari's, Now even including the disastor that was auz and Massa's pathetic showing in Malaysia, the Ferrari drivers have both scored much better and even the BMW's are out pointing him.

I find myself asking whats happend. Then You look at the reasons why. I china he made the mistake in the plane entrance, in brazil he made the mistake and hit something on the steering wheel. In Malaysia he blocked the racing line which while debatable to the end was a mistake on his part, this cost him places on the grid, then spent the race fighting in traffic, not quite the overtaking master some had him pegged as last season, but in all fairness you just cant pass on circuits like that without some sort of luck. And you look at Bahrain, a mistake on the grid caused his poor start andthen a mistake running into fernando finished his race basically. Then you look back further. The British gp 2007. grabs pole, however the presure is then on for the first time. He basically has a stinker of a race, makes several mistakes including in the pits IIRC. And again fails to deliver.
My question would be, has Mclaren rushed Lewis into the number 1 seat to quickly. And have they made the mistake of partnering him with a fellow young driver. Last year Fernando basically took all the heat on his shoulders. Both from within Mclaren and the press, and with that he carried on setting the car up and basically leaving Lewis free to do his thing. It wasn't untill Fred stopped sharing the setup information with Lewis that Lewis' results started to go downhill and the presure mounted on him. Yet in the end fernando overcame the points deficit he had to Lewis to finish level on points despite all that heat he had on him. Yet all we heard all year was how cool and uneffected by it all Lewis was. I'm afraid I have to disagree. Had he scored points at Fuji then Alonso would almost certainly been champion last year. That mistake was caused by aquaplaning which given his place on the track was unsavable. Kimi came into Ferrari replacing perhaps the greatest driver ever, certainly the most sucessful, and he was doing it, coming into a team that doesn't accept failure from its number 1, and a country who wont accept it and crucify you even worse than the brit press. He has a bad start an goes into the remaining races facing a points deficit that not even the man he replaced could overcome the year before (reliability played its part but thats not important here) That in itself is presure personified. Yet he stuck his head down and quietly got the job done, earning pretty much every ferrari fans respect including mine.
Through all this Lewis only needed to score 4 points from two races. And under that presure he cracked. He's also shown in traffic and when it comes to racing the top drivers he makes mistakes, look at how he ran wide at brazil last year trying to make up for a mistake in the first corner, despite the fact he was in a points position that made him champion and being on a strategy that would have jumped him up the points further. After that he panicked even more and had his gear box issue. Now look at Bahrain, again he makes a mistake at the start and is in traffic, instead of calmly making his way back through he starts trying to force his way up the field and it ends up in him running up the back of Alonso, which Mclaren now say was partly due to a broken wing caused by first lap contact.

Personally I struggle to see why he's been hyped up as much as he has. I would honestly say he is right now, no better than Massa in terms of real ability. Like Massa, if he's given a clear track out front, then he's supremely quick, but the second something happens to put him in traffic, he'll make mistakes.
I'm honestly thinking Mclaren have made a mistake in making him number one this quickly. As it could harm his development not help it by putting him under the stress that has several times now, cost him races.
I wont deny the fact that he has all the tools and ability to one day be the outright best driver in F1, and maybe even one day rival the Senna's, Prost's and Schumachers. But I also think that if Mclaren are not careful and put to much on him too soon, he'll never be more than the Massa's, Barrichello and Buttons of F1, on any day quick enough to win a race given the right car, but likely to inconsistent to actually win a championship.
Personally I think instead of him being put on the level of Raikkonen and Alonso in terms of hype and the constant comparisons, he should be dropped down a level. because when it comes down to the nitty gritty of it all. He's not shown he's yet even close to their ability.

*** I must now go try and wash the stench of actually praising and defending Fernando Alonso off.

[eno]

You're trying to compare experienced drivers to one who is only in his second season of F1 and only at the beginning of that season F.G.S!!..... it's hardly a fair comparison.

You only have to compare his rookie season to that of others and you can see that there is more talent than most, all that is lacking is experience. He may have gained from Alonsso's experience at the beginning of last season but that still doesn't detract from the talent .... it only shows a lack of experience.  He may turn out to be a slow burner like Damon Hill... he may go on to blow everyone's wheels off this season.

Lets just wait and see.

Now go and wash Alonsso off your keyboard  ;D

[Craig.]

ah but Eno, my point is. For almost the whole of last season he was be compaired and even at many times, being put above the greats.
I cant remember how many times Stirling moss or Jackie stewart would compair him To Senna. There were countless times the general public and ITV guys were making him out as better than Michael Schumacher. So I think if they and everyone else wants to compair him to the greats, it cant suddenly be stopped now he's not doing so well.
I know he's a rookie and thats kind of the point of my post. It's trying to bring people back down to earth with Lewis. Yes he's a great talent. But he is inexperienced.

[MWISimmer]

I'll reserve judgement until he's had at least 3 full seasons in the sport,  but he's undoubtably a talent.

[expat]

I'll reserve judgement until he's had at least 3 full seasons in the sport,  but he's undoubtably a talent.

I think that is about right way to look at it Rob. The other thing it that until Hamilton came along, lets face it F1 was getting to be a bit boring. For a year he injected some life back into the sport and through that you then get the comparison game being played. We now have to wait and see what he can do over the next couple of seasons. He is a rookie, and by definition, he will make mistakes, that is a given. The question is how fast he learns and matures as an F1 driver. He did after all come second last year and up until the last race was leading the world championship. Is he Jim Clark?, only time will tell.

Matt

[eno]

Craig you seem to be suffering from the usual British trait of knocking the successful when the slightest thing goes wrong, it's happened to David Beckham and others when their abilities have let them down.

I for one don't remember the beginning of Senna's career but I'm fairly sure that he would have gone through the same problems as Lewis is having now. Those that are doing the comparing are and were there for the careers of those they are comparing Lewis to.
All I see, from Lewis, is a well grounded man who knows his limitations and who I have never seen talk up his abilities. He was as surprised as everyone else about his first season success.
You can't blame Lewis for others talking him up.

I am hoping that he doesn't turn into another Damon Hill or Jenson Button.

[Craig.]

Firstly Eno, I've been saying the same thing from the very start You should know that. Yes it was a nice surprise to see him win a few races.
I'm not saying Lewis is over hyping himself. I think you missed the point i'm making there. But you've said it yourself in the last post.
My complaint is with people like ITV who have turned the show into the Lewis Hamilton show. Which in a year that attracted a lot of new viewers because of his sucess has now bred a whole generation of people who go around talking about him as though he's better than the rest. I know he can't do anything about it. What i'm saying is, people like ITV and the mainstream media need to take a step back. Perhaps lay off the comparisons and just let him get on with it. I think THEY are the ones who've perhaps built lewis up too much.
I dont see why people get so upset when perhaps its questioned how good he is. Like I said, people want to compair him to the greats in his first season then he needs to also remain in that comparison when things go wrong.
It's not a case of, oh he wins 4 races and suddenly he's the next Senna, ITV in particular James Allen made that comparison last year, but then suddenly when things go wrong, to protect him, suddenly "oh but dont forget he's a rookie" When in reality they never should have made a comparison. Perhaps they should have said "has the potential to one day be like" instead.

My other point is, and i think its been largely ignored, is the fact that he's been put as the team leader and number one driver too soon, considering how he has several times cracked under presure.

[eno]

Maybe he has been put in as team leader too soon....... but what better way of learning his trade and more power to his elbow if he turns round the bad luck and blows everyone away for the rest of the season.
I'm fairly sure that McLaren didn't have much choice in making him No1 for the season, so once again it isn't Lewis' fault.

As for the ITV guys ...... yes they can be accused of making it the Lewis show but they are not in the business of selling F1 to anyone other than a British audience and in that they have been successful. They were just as bad when it was Schumi.

Hopefully we'll go back to something more impartial next year when the BBC get F1 back.

Lewis hasn't just ignited the British audience ..... he's sparked interest all over the world ..... along with the rest of the new generation of drivers. I'm looking forward to some spectacular racing over the next few years.

[C]

Wait a minute! How many races have there been since Japan last year? 5 by my count. Of those, Lewis has won 1 of them, had his race ruined by technical problems in 2 of them, mad a collective boo-boo along with the team in China, and made a simple "switch-pigz" this weekend.

Not exactly the end of the world eh...

[Craig.]

technical problems caused by his own doing. Which he's admitted in interviews. I dont know why people are so happy to make a deal out of him, yet get so defensive if someone questions things that he's done wrong. It's supposed to be good to analyise where are driver is developing well and where they're not. Nothing wrong with accepting the bad points.
Just seems a lot of people like to hide behind the rookie tag which to be fair is tough as he's no ordinary rookie.

[C]

technical problems caused by his own doing.

Brazil - car stopped going forward for about 20 seconds

Malaysia - Wheel nut.

Not exactly his fault... Admittedly the others were. Justb seems to be a lot of people jumping on the bash LH bandwagon... At least he isn't a wanabee 2 year old like a certain Spaniard who believes that everything is his divine right... If that Spaniard had made the same mistakes this weekend (driving a McL), would we have seen the same frankness?

[Craig.]

The Brazil incident was caused because he hit a button that he shouldn't have. Which in turn happend because he was panicking after he ran wide into turn 3 loosing several places. Yes in Malaysia the wheel gun incident didn't help, but he was stuck behind Webber for a good portion of the race which halted any chance he had, because he made the mistake in quali of running at 40mph on the racing line while other drivers were still running.
I'm not trying to bash Lewis, I'll say it again, at his very base he is a quick driver. And maybe one day he'll be champion. But right now as he's shown several times, he's prone to mistakes under real presure. Thats all.
As for Alonso, no one outside of Spain likes him. But you cant argue with the results. Last year he finished level with Lewis overcoming a points deficit despite being under greater presure. As hard as it might be to accept, as dispicable and quite frankley annoying as he is. Lewis could have used keeping him as a team mate for a year or two more, if for nothing else but to take off some of the presure from him.

[The Ruptured Duck]

Where on earth do you find the time to analyze this?

I'll have to read it later, I've got school and work now