Lewis Hamilton

In truth F1 is a totally different world these days. Far removed from the more exciting,car sliding,counter steering days.

Like so many sports the $ is king and for many ,failure is not an option. To meet the greater demands a certain "clone" like driver was bound to appear and Lewis looks like it.

We should not look to shoot him down before he has truly savoured a string of successes or be so critical as, after all competitors on a truly world standing, the UK has so few of.(Be it due to lack of financing or other factors)

Lewis may well prove to be an all time great. His star though might dwindle before you know it. Let's just wait and see.

Some interesting points here. Just a few more observations though:

• Hamiltons' natural talent has been nurtured by McLaren for many years
• He knows the team and how to communicate to the staff
• He's won the junior classes
• Racing is all the lad knows
• He's driving in arguablely the 'top' team
• Possibly not reached his full potential yet.

Alonso:

• 2 back to back world championships behind him beating a certain Mr Shumacher on the track
• Arguabely not getting the preferential treatment he may have been expecting from the team as current champion
• Driving in the best team at the moment

Button

• A very fast driver
• Currently in a slow car
• Regularly beat former champion Jaques Villeneuve as BAR team mate

Nigel Mansell

• Financed his start to his racing career himself ncluding re-mortgaging his house at one point.
• Would drive the the wheels off whatever car he was in (even knowing he was out of a job at the end of a season)
• Took plenty of chances (not too often seen these days)
• Probably lacked the personality and charisma of other drivers of that era.
• Managed to beat the Ayrton Senna (arguabely the best F1 driver of them all) in a slower car

So I guess Hamilton has had an envious start to his racing career but without that natural talent would not be winnng races and ending up on the podium regularly.

Alonso is the ideal team mate to Hamilton forcing him to race at his best. If Alonso had a season in the bag already at the same team things 'might' have been just a little different.

I just can't help thinking what Alsonso, Button and Mansell or even Schumacher could have achieved given the same lead into F1 though.

Anyway, for me F1 is still as dull as listening to paint dry (even more dull than watching it)

Moto GP or the NW200/TT now thats entertainment.

I am very surprised that this weekend's shenanagins in Hungary have not been commented on? Shows how low F1 has fallen if the in fighting within a particular team is all that makes news value following a Grnd Prix?

Alonso is adored in Spain for his driving ability and achievements but I must say many Spaniards do not like his attitude at times.

So who was more wrong of the two drivers? When only 1 of them was sanctioned? Alonso for a "cynical" delay in the pit lane during the last seconds of qualifying?

Or Lewis who had earlier completely disobeyed team orders and refused to let Fernando past during the qulaifying session and so denying his team mate and defending World Champ of putting in another fast lap?

I am curious as to the thoughts of the SV-F! fans.

Alonso needs to get off his high horse and get on with the job in hand.

He is a miserable sod and deserved to be demoted down the grid on Sat/Sun.

He's just pi$$ed off that his team mate is faster, more consistent, more talented and more charismatic.

**Jester gets off his soapbox and hands it to the next orator!**

Devil's Advocate here....

Yes it cannot be denied that Fernando has an attitude problem. Put yourself in his shoes and see how you would be feeling. I doubt whether he was fully aware that such a second string driver was to be his teammate when he was considering the McClaren contract? He would have been mad to do so, Fernando is NOT mad.

To suggest that after just half a season, Lewis could be generally thought to be better in all of the departments you mention than Fernando must surely be tempered a little? Thus far,Lewis has won races during the first half of his first season. Nothing more than that.(That comment does not in anyway seek to detract from the obvious talent he is.) In addition from a points deficit of 14 points just a short time ago, Fernando has clawed himself back to 7 points even with the points loss caused by this weekends sanction.

Are you suggesting that Fernando does not have the skills to finish ahead of Lewis on at least a couple of occasions during the remainder of the season? You have much faith in the new protege. It will be interesting to see how things pan out.

[fizzwheel]

He should do his talking on the track and they both should stop playing stupid mind games with each other.

Playing mind games like this, is just diverting his energy from his driving IMHO.

I think though it was harsh to demote alonso back down the grid for that, it wasnt dangerous, not like Schumacher parking in the middle of the Rasscasse last year or like Senna's antics with Prost at Suzuka.

IMHO there was no guarantee that Hamilton was going to beat Alonso's time and retake pole.

Originally Posted by Beenz

Anyway, for me F1 is still as dull as listening to paint dry (even more dull than watching it)

Moto GP or the NW200/TT now thats entertainment.

i'm glad i'm not on my own here, was that boring or what? LH is a great driver no doubt in that but i just cant stop awake for all 70 some odd laps?
he led into the first corner and held the lead to the end? i wish i'd paid to go and watch that,






























NOT

WR = (w**nker rating 0-10)

Alonso (WR 4) has had lots of lucky breaks when all around him have had runs of bad luck. Raikkonen (WR 1) has had terrible reliability problems, in the same way Coulthard (WR 5) has always been plagued with poor reliability.
Button (WR 7) had all the hype but has never delivered.
Schuey (WR 0) was the best ever driver which he proved over and over again, anyone who thinks he wasn't is just envious! I didn't particularly like the man and always wanted other drivers to beat him but I have to admit that he is quality merchandise! I just wish we hadn't had the cheating, he didn't need to do it!
The Hamilton guy (WR 1.486 (no-ones teeth should be that white)) is showing huge promise, (there's a pun there if you look hard enough (oops there goes another))!
I'm putting money on him to beat the orange-picker!

Thing is the sport is so corrupt that everytime someone blows up you have this horrible feeling that it was meant to be! No its not conspiracy time and I'm not paranoid, its happening in football, snooker and cricket just the same. Takes the P out of sport don't you think?

The olympics is just as bad, international willy waving, nation against nation, its what we do when there's no wars to be fought!

That Massa dude (WR 9 reduced to 3) has shown huge potential too considering his entry into F1 was a little frought with mishaps! Someone didn't want him to succeed!!

So, then. Rhythm Junkie- I assume from the paragraphs that the lower the WR number, the bigger the WR is?

Why the WR for Hamilton? Yes, he's had a lucky upbringing, but has the talent and would not have that if he hadn't worked hard to earn his position. I'm sure if he'd had a dodgy attitude/taken all he's been given for granted, that Ron Dennis would not have been grooming him for the last decade (pun there? hmmm).

I think Massa has a WR of 1. He only wins races when he's placed at the front o nthe grid. Doesn't seem to handle traffic so well or corners sometimes (ie just driving straight off of them).

Alonso has vented his frustrations in a very disappointing way. Despite Ron Dennis's comments about honouring contracts, I think there may be a divorce coming there...

Clearly Button is a very talented driver but has been very unfortunate- Honda's engineering disaster this year must be eating his soul out. After his win last season (whether you think it was deserved or not), he started really to believe in himself. That's all been destroyed this year where Super Aguri have been more like Honda's A team. Even Sato's been finishing races...!

Will someone please explain Hamilton's part in this to me? From what I saw, Hamilton left the pitlane first in the boring fuel burning phase where they never drive their fastest times anyway, and then at some point, either in the pits or on the road, Alonso went in front of Hamilton. Regardless of what happened in the earlier part, Alonso ended up in front on the road at the business end of the 15 minutes.

I just don't see what could possibly have happened to impede Alonso in all of that.

When I first read about it, I thought it was just McLaren trying to get Alonso off the hook, and that McLaren were penalised for doing just that.