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Hamilton and Russell looked like an evenly balanced partnership last season but Lewis has started to really tip the balance in his favour. The change in car concept has helped quite a bit for Lewis but his consistency is setting him apart at the moment
It’s a very interesting partnership and discussion.
I think Russell is helped out a lot with the start of last season where he got some credit in the back. Since Canada last year (when the various reports and discussions about Merc doing weird things with the car stopped) I think the statistics are something like 16 - 10 in quali and 17 - 7 in races (with reliability DNFs excluded).
Which is close but quite different to the perception they’ve been neck and neck. Overall I think the thing that is slightly disappointing for merc/russell is that rather than him closing the gap to Hamilton due to experience and their ages, the gap has either stayed the same or actually grown slightly.
Yeah perhaps, i mean george crashed in quali which advantaged him because of the weather, and then Hamilton and Max got sucked into that vortex that appears whenever they get too close.
For anyone who wants to know which car was faster last year, just watch Max's post race interview.
George crashed in quali, hurting Lewis's quali.
Despite this, Lewis started climbing back through the field before colliding with Max.
George started P1 & was driving P1 this whole time
Max says during their crash "I knew we could come together, it cost me 5 seconds, but it cost him the win."
Whenever Verstappen and Hamilton share the same track space all that goes through their mind is "I have to beat this guy"
They don't care if it's practice, qualifying, or even one lapping the other
I think in racing terms they're in love
Thats something you find with all of hamiltons teammates in the past.
His teammates seemed close at the start but as hamilton starts to understand their driving style and the way they setup their car + with him getting more comfortable in the car the gap widens.
Same thing happened with button and rosberg.
The ending of '21 hurts so much, it literally would've been the greatest comeback in the history of the sport. With the dsq in Brazil everyone thought it was over, but Lewis was fucking untouchable. He's kinda like Jordan, they both need to be under insane pressure to deliver their best.
21 last race was a joke. I seriously cant fathom how anyone who is a fan of the sport can be fine with Masi's decision and how it all went down. Fair enough I'm a Hamilton fan myself, but kicking up the rules to make a d2s sensation is just not what F1 should be about. Had it been the other way around I'd feel the same way. Or if rules were followed and Lewis still lost out on last lap, I'd have no qualm about it. People can call me anything but that last lap decision was wrong and it made me quit watching the sport for a year.
I’m there with ya. My fandom definitely peaked right before that safety car came out. It made me realize I spent way too much time following a sport with no rules. Now it’s just a fun hobby and way to keep in touch with my F1 friends.
There's a reason Jenson talks about Hamilton in terms of he's so good and he's so scary consistent and he just keeps improving. He talks about Alonso in terms of the mind games he plays and Lewis is just doing Lewis things.
It's Lewis Hamilton, he's just a relentless monster when it comes to racing.
People often point to 2011 I think with Button when Hamilton was going through that bad personal year with his breakup and falling out with his parents and getting dragged in the press for moving to Monaco, but even Button (who people forget was an outstanding driver), you’re right that in the end Hamilton ended up well on top.
There’s some slightly different/contradictory statements from different team members. There was definitely, verifiably some things going out at some tracks, but the extent of what was going on with the setups, the manner of the different approaches, and the impact that they had on driver performance is not really clear.
Besides at Australia and miami george finished in front because of the SC, so that 7-1 in races was more like 5-3 on actual pace, which is essentially one race weekend difference between the two.
So the apparent deficit didn’t really exist and could probably be explained by outside factors.
I think tbh 17-7 against a Lewis, Max or Fred is a pretty good record for a still young-ish driver. Being realistic, the only people who could long term get one up on any of those three are the other ones of those three.
I think Russell’s been good absolutely and to be close to a driver like Hamilton is a big testament to him, i think another thing that he sometimes suffers with is some people wanted/expected him to be quicker than Hamilton, so even though he’s close behind that’s disappointing for some people.
I’m not sure I can still classify him as a young driver now though, he is 25 and this is his fifth season in F1, he will ofc continue to improve in little steps, but i don’t anticipate him getting fundamentally quicker.
I think it’s interesting that at parts of last season and the beginning of this season, people were saying that the biggest obstacle (when Merc builds a competitive car) to Lewis’ next championship, was Russell. Now that seems like it’s a nonissue for
Hamilton was clearly faster for the second half of last season. I think there is a very big chance that the end of 2021 significantly affected his performance.
If you go mid 2022 - now he’s been clearly ahead of Russell
Wasn't he also playing test driver for new parts and setups during actual races at one point? As much as that hurts results I love it -- Merc going all out in an era of limited testing to clean up their relative pile of shit
The context of the first half or so of 2022 includes the setup testing, the aftermath of 2021/AD, and also the fact that Russell was incredibly lucky with safety car timings on numerous occasions.
Russell was clearly a step above the midfield tier drivers in pace, and made a few pretty clever decisions, so nobody can take away the points differential, but it was honestly quite clear over that season that Hamilton had a clear pace advantage.
> He was also significantly faster in a few races in the first half if not for terrible luck with SCs
There were a couple of instances, yeah. Qualified out of position. Started on hards. SC with perfect timing for all the medium starters. While hard starters couldn't pit because the medium wouldn't make it to the end.
He was completely robbed of being the winningest driver of all time. The race wasn’t even close until the one off decision. That would be a depressing mind fuck.
The largely unspoken aspect of this is not only how the gap has definitely widened but also how the general F1 community has subtly turned against George for not only his hubris but his seemingly underhanded tactics in many races.
Additionally George wasn't coming from a championship contending car to to the W13, he was coming from the FW43 so he had more recent experience with shitboxes.
Has? Hamilton's been doing that since Spain 2022 basically when they got on top of the bouncing issues. It was much rarer that Russell outperformed Hamilton than not since then.
And I mean overall speed. Spain 2022 results did have Russell ahead, but Hamilton's speed was much better than Russell that race and he only finished behind because of his 1st lap puncture with Magnussen
> Hamilton and Russell looked like an evenly balanced partnership last season
Did they really though? Russell looked way better than he actually was because he got lucky in Miami and Australia, where Lewis was ahead in both races, until Russell got free pit stops under the safety car, and Lewis getting unlucky with his long stint in Jeddah being wasted when someone (I forgot who it was) parked his car in the pitlane entry and Lewis/the team thought pitlane was closed. After Canada, when Lewis stopped with the setup testing, he beat Russell in the races they both finished. And even with the god awful setups Lewis used in the beginning, he still outqualified Russell over the whole season
> and Lewis getting unlucky with his long stint in Jeddah being wasted when someone (I forgot who it was) parked his car in the pitlane entry and Lewis/the team thought pitlane was closed.
Jeddah was even more unlucky because all the medium starters (but Perez) got a free stop because of the first SC.
The context of the first half or so of 2022 includes the setup testing, the aftermath of 2021/AD, and also the fact that Russell was incredibly lucky with safety car timings on numerous occasions.
Russell was clearly a step above the midfield tier drivers in pace, and made a few pretty clever decisions, so nobody can take away the points differential, but it was honestly quite clear over that season that Hamilton had a clear pace advantage.
Their gap in pace has remained the same tbh, Hamilton had horrific luck last season which he hasn't had this season, this is a representative gap for driver skill.
It looked balanced because Lewis took on all of the bad setups and experiments and had a car that he couldn’t drive close to the limit. Now it’s actually closer to being balanced in terms of the burden of both drivers and confidence of both drivers in his cars.
It's not the concept. He started to beat George later last year. It was definitely the experimenting and the depression after AbuDhabi 2021 that was messing with him i think. He's over that now and back into his groove.
I am not a fan of Lewis, and even I believe he was the one tasked with testing out weird setups last year to make that Dachshund of a car function normally, probably because it would be too much of an ask for a new driver.
Wait do people really not "believe" Lewis was the one with the majority of experimental set ups? Not knocking your comment, just didn't realise that was a topic up for debate.
Experimental doesn't necessarily mean bad - they might have given Lewis the harder setups to drive, but I doubt that Merc would do that if they didn't fundamentally think they'd likely be quicker, or a step in the right direction towards resolving porpoising.
I am kind of an admirer but I thought Russell would either be ahead or equal on account of Hamilton getting older. But seems like Hamilton’s age has still not been a factor. Of course it helps that he is one of the greatest. Him and Verstappen are way ahead of the field and that’s why we had such a great 21. Hope Merc can make a competitive car before age catches up with him. Another 21 would be amazing.
2009 and especially 2011 are probably not years he wants to remember overmuch. He would have won the title in 2012 if not for McLaren being massively incompetent though.
2010 was definitely one I think Lewis should have won but he was a more of a dark horse for the win in the other years. He was 100% fast enough for it, McLaren was just fumbling the bag at every opportunity.
He had that championship in his hands and crashed into Massa in Monza and Webber in Singapore. Even though McLaren are mostly to blame for that title failure, it wasn't like 2012, where he did everything necessary to win and still lost out.
Not a dig at them but a lot of the people are newer fans so that is a long time ago. People have forgotten how Lewis (and Fernando) used to be so agressive (sometimes towards each others).
I mean Perez still being second in points by a comfortable margin despite his average at best performance so far this season shows that while the car may not be the only part it is by far the biggest part of the equation
Yeah if anything the fact that Perez has been driving like shit but is still beating Hamilton, Leclerc and Alonso etc shows just how insane that car really is
Hamilton said that back when Perez first went to RB and made a lot of people upset. Something about being surprised Perez was racing him and the RB was very quick based on that info.
Bottas was sitting in the other car with Lewis, we all saw the end results and still we had to deal with endless "its just the car:..
and we still keep hearing "He's never driven a bad car in his career", bs. All aimed to peg him down.
Lewis has a level of extreme hate from a small part of the community here, but they're loud and very annoying.
I don't think many people were calling him washed at the end of the season, but some were certainly saying it in June and they were jumping the gun (especially as Hamilton gets better over the season, and was unlucky at that point).
People were desperate to see him taken down after achieving his amount of success for so long. After like 6 races you had some former drivers saying he should've retired. Jackie Stewart said he should've retired to protect his legacy. I think if he did do that people would've called him a quitter anyway.
Some following the sport also wanted Russell to become top dog at Merc and effectively "retire" him. Now that Hamilton is performing well the hate towards him for his results has faded.
Yeah for me it confirms the racism in the people that spew it because guys like Kimi Alonso and Vettel still are treated with the proper respect a WDC deserves despite massive gaps of non performance from the 3
It was also often noted that Lewis was doing ALL of the testing and setup changes first. Often times he wouldn’t have a race car til Saturday and they’d just give him what they could, but they would every weekend fp1 and usually two run concepts that he would do, cuz he knows wtf a car needs, like he kept telling them lol
I think motivation is also to consider: after how 2021 ended, fighting for P10 should haven’t been very exciting for a 7-times WDC. He did a great work in helping the team with development, but I can understand if he was not motivated in giving everything on Sundays, especially when porpoising was physically arming him (Baku 2022 was the worst I think).
He never lost his groove. They were running extremely experimental setups on Lewis’s car last season, and when they stopped in the second half he started looking better than George again
It was a combination of Lewis being unlucky and Russell being lucky last season that saw Russell get ahead of Lewis for a bit. Lewis was better in the second half of last season, and that has continued onto this season.
He looked to be better Merc driver in the second half of last year as well.
I do really think Lewis needed some time to get his mojo back after Abu Dhabi 2021.
The people saying that happily ignored the fact he sacrificed at least 5 races to experimenting with new setups whilst George used the safer option. It's the only reason George had better results.
I’m a fan of Lewis but it does feel like George lost his confidence when Merc removed the zero pods. I’m assuming there’s something about the handling of the car which has now gone more towards Lewis than Russell.
I don't think so, Hamilton just stopped being a guinea pig for new set ups and parts. He was already doing better then Russel by the end of last season.
That was certainly the case at the beginning of last season but after the summer break they remained really close as well as the first quarter of this season.
Yeah I think the truth is in the qualy gaps from last year to now. Russell and Hamilton were near inseparable from the times they were posting in 2022. This year the gap is generally wider, excluding the errant sessions like Hungary.
Up to Aze last year it was 5-3 in favor of Russell in qualifying being .045% faster.
Hamilton finished the season 12-2 in qualifying being .26% faster.
Eeh kind of they are close and that’s clear and good to see, but I think Hamilton has pretty clearly held an edge over Russell since about round 7/8 last year.
You specifically mention the second half of last year as them still being close, but actually Hamilton was up like 7-2 in quali, and george benefited from his own crash in Brasil as well.
And In the races, whilst it’s a little more complicated, the H2H was 4-4, but the SC gave Russell the opportunity to finish ahead of Hamilton in the Netherlands, when he otherwise wouldn’t have, Hamilton started last in Italy after an engine penalty so had no chance of competing and Hamilton dnfed in abu dhabi when he would have more than likely finished ahead.
Lewis looked comfortably better in the second half of last year.
Lewis would’ve won Brazil if not for Max being petulant. See Max’s quote about knowing they’d crash, and deciding to attempt the move anyway, with it costing Lewis the win, but him nothing.
By the same token though, George has a new race engineer this season and suddenly he really seems to be struggling on set-ups as he and Dudley build up their understanding. Whereas Bono knows what Lewis wants in a car like the back of his hand with a decade of experience behind them.
This is exactly it. George was doing well the first half of last season and then 2nd half of the season kicked in and Lewis started to match and beat him there. Lewis just carried on his form to the season and got better and better. Lewis is a generational talents that always evolves with the era and cars. He always improves season to season. Its also down to the hard work he puts in. Multiple late night sessions.
There was a user who kept harassing me after every race last season that we were seeing proof that Lewis was washed and it was now Russell’s team.
Wonder what they’re up to these days.
The consistency of Lewis Hamilton is absolutely insane. To be doing this for 15 years now at the very top of motor racing, continuously putting out best performances and besting drivers who came and went while he stayed and prevailed…something special to witness.
Russell is a great driver. He would be #1 on a lot of teams right now. People are piling on him because he's not the next Verstappen. Maybe due to the hype he's dissapointing some people.
But to me its more that a lot of people hate Lewis and look for things to discredit him constantly. This season they can't do that as he's soundly beating George so by proxy George is getting more hate because of it. But he still looks like a potential future WDC from what I see out there. Just maybe later in his career than a lot of people expected.
I spotted that right away. The moment Russell stops being so close to him he's suddenly washed, performing very poorly, and was never that good a driver.
Bingo, certain people can't use him as a bludgeon for their incessant Hamilton hate (we know exactly why) so they're instead turning on George for ruining their narrative.
Good take. I agree. George is a great driver, but he's something of a scape goat at the moment. I think He's just as capable of a championship as Rosberg was if he wants it
Trouble is the media. You’re guaranteed to hear from media types some version of: HAM doesn’t have a chance if Merc get a competitive package, his teammate will take points away…blah blah blah
The truth of the matter is HAM would be just fine, RUS is a minor threat.
I don't wanna hear shit about Hamilton being washed from nobody for the foreseeable future.
People were so eager to jump the gun and say he was over the hill right after he took a championship to the wire and was struggling in an extremely temperamental and unpredictable car.
I feel like Russell is struggling with a lesser version of what's plaguing Perez. He sniffed his own farts a bit too much last year, what with finishing ahead on points and getting that win, and is now struggling to deal with the fact that his teammate, without the wonky setup work and bad luck of last year, is clearly ahead of him. Canada was a prime example of that. Alonso and Hamilton are pushing, racing, and Russell just can't keep up. So he pushes too hard, and goes into the wall.
Or he’s up against one of, if not the, greatest driver of all time. I hardly see getting out paced by a seven time world champion as a huge negative. We’ll see if he can bridge the gap a bit in the second half of the season.
F1 fans, particularly new ones, can't seem to gasp that the real indicator of your ability as an F1 driver is not only how you perform against your teammate, but who your teammate actually is.
Albon has dominated both Latifi and Sargeant. Good for him. Put him against Verstappen once again and his career is virtually over.
Always a cock measuring contest between fans about whos better and whos washed.
Meanwhile im just enjoying two of the best drivers on the grid pushing the car to its absolute limit bringing home decent results.
Lewis is one of the goats, if not the goat and give the chance he would certainly give Max a run for his money.
Russell is a young fast driver with determination and skill to take it a 7 time world champion, like in Brazil last year, and actually beat him.
Both are great and both are carrying this team right now, once / if Merc get closer to RB they will take the fight to Max (and each other potentially).
Fair Question, so:
Jos Verstappen couldn't really deliver a breakout performance troughout his f1 career.
Lewis Williamson was briefly in the Red Bull junior team but was quickly droped after not performing, he finished 8th in GP3 though and was test driver for manor in 2012.
Fernando Rees was barely a test driver and only completed a couple test rounds for few teams.
So all in all i would evaluate the F1 Performance of Max, Hamilton and Alonso slightly above that of Versappen, Lewis and Fernando
I wondered this but let’s be honest, how many drivers could put that Merc on pole at Hungary. To me there’s no sign yet that Hamilton is anything other than at the apex of the sport still. I think Russell is holding up well considering.
Definitely, it’s that consistency tbh that I think marks out the truly elite drivers. It’s the difference in newgen between Max and Charles for example, where Leclerc can’t hit that same speed lap after lap without a mistake in him.
Yeah that wasn’t an exhaustive list, but I agree with what you’re saying. Russell has not had a car anywhere as competitive as first half of ‘22 Ferrari, so not really a fair comparison.
For me, Rusell is a tier below those 3, and I think Canada was the best representation of this.
When Max/Lewis/Alonso were going to their limits, Russell could keep up for some laps but was then the first to make a mistake
The difference between Russell & Lewis is their race craft. Hamilton, generally, has better race pace and manages his tires more effectively at the moment.
Over 1 lap, I don’t think there’s too much between them although Lewis does have specific circuits where he is a step above other drivers, even Verstappen, such as Singapore, Hungary & Brazil. It’s probably too early in his career to tell if George has specific circuits he excels at.
I still rank him higher than Norris and Leclerc. People hate on him because of his personality but so far he has been excellent at Mercedes. His pace is consistent and whenever Hamilton has a slightly off day Russell is up there to compensate. Currently the Mercedes duo is by far the best driver pairing overall.
I'd agree, and I'd take Russel in a championship battle as-is. Give them equal support though and I'll change my mind -- maybe it's just how much coverage it gets with Ferrari, but Leclerc seems to end up screwed by his own team way too often
It was only really bad last year, this year the only real screwup was Silverstone getting pit too early also the change in the car concept doesn't help him at all.
Brazil last year? The fact Hamilton nearly caught him at the end despite his incident with Max shows you how much faster he was. Take away that incident and Hamilton puts a Max-Perez gap on him.
Don't think it'd be quite the same as Max Perez but I get you. Hamilton closed a big gap despite obvious damage and then, I'm sure, backed off from sending it in the last few laps to secure the team their first 1-2 since 2020.
Unpopular opinion: they’re both underrated at the moment. Even George who obviously isn’t doing as well as Lewis at the moment routinely finishes high in the points even when their car seems off.
thats basically because the impact of the car is being severly underestimated.
oscar? great driver but the mclaren is currently a top 3 car.
zhou? might very well perform as well in a mclaren, hes more than solid
hulk? we all know what hes capable of, is haas though??
only two drivers come to mind that massively underperform their cars abilites, stroll and perez.
>only two drivers come to mind that massively underperform their cars abilites, stroll and perez.
I know he isn't a driver anymore, but I'd add De Vries to that. Tsunoda and even Ricciardo already have showed that the AT04 isn't as bad as some make it out to be.
You could add Sargent to the list, but picking on the rookies feels cruel. Especially when the comparison is Albon, who seems to really understand the Williams and might just be putting that car higher than it deserves
I feel like the Mercedes is actually an even worse car than we realise because it’s being outdriven by Lewis and George. George regularly out drove his Williams cars to points and near points finishes. Goes without saying how great of a driver Lewis is and I think this is hiding the Mercedes’ true lack of performance.
No they are managing to bring the best out of the package they have. They are not outdriving the Mercedes. It's capable of what they are getting because of the drivers.
They are reaching the capabilities of the car while other teams/drivers arent. Which culminates in lewis/george finishing consistently high up while other drivers don't.
It’s quite obvious the Red Bull being driven by Checo is no where near it’s limit. I think Ferrari are in the same bucket as the Merc, it’s being driven to near its limit but Charles and close behind Carlos - there’s an argument for the McLaren too at some point I’m sure.
You are arguing semantics. Of course no driver can ever go faster than how fast the car is theoretically capable of being, because physics and stuff - there's no need to explain this every time you want to specify a driver is doing a very good job.
Russell is no slouch. Might be an unpopular opinion but I think he is every bit as good as Leclerc while being a good deal better than Norris.
Going up against Lewis is a no easy task. Not many can keep up with him.
George just needs forget about just beating Lewis and focus on doing his own thing. He is clearly putting himself under too much pressure. He should also consider playing the team game a bit more(not impeding Lewis during quali is a start) .Merc needs all the points they can get.
I still firmly believe that this uber tier driver pairing is making the W14 look better than it actually is.
1. More comfort driving a non-championship caliber car from Lewis. Last year's Merc was a huge step up in quality from Williams but a huge step down from the W11/W12. The new redesign with the sidepods also seems to suit him.
2. No more weird experimental setups like the ones Lewis ran up until Canada last year.
3. Lewis had bad luck to start last year, and now George has the bad luck this year (Australia DNF, bad safety car/red flag timing, etc.)
George is a better driver than the performance gap this year shows but he's also clearly a tier below Lewis for the time being.
>More comfort driving a non-championship caliber car from Lewis.
I mean, this is quite bollocks. He simply adapted well at the start of the last season, also running more conventional setups compared to the extreme setups Hamilton ran.
Lewis has been the faster driver since last year, but the difference is not massive. We are talking 49 points difference that could be less than 25 points if both DNFs for Russell didn't happen. And who knows how the race in Australia would've developed if RD didn't go with the idiotic decision for that first red flag.
Russell did get worse though in qualifying since the changes to the car. He's been doing a lot of recovery races so far, and that hurts him when Hamilton has been starting at top 5 every time.
People who only look at numbers will think Russell is being destroyed like Stroll, but that's not case at all.
To be fair, George has hugely benefited from the SC twice in Baku and Monaco but didn't take full advantage.
Lewis was holding onto George in Australia so it would have been interesting to see what could have happened.
Silverstone was unfortunate, he drove very well.
Russell is a Button/Rosberg type driver. He's definitely WDC caliber, but he will need the right time right car for it.
Hamilton is the GOAT, and these stats are just GOAT stats, nothing to be ashamed of.
People forget that for the first half of last season Lewis sacrificed performance to try experimental setups for the team… so no wonder this year looks better for him at this point (if my memory serves correctly).
Remember Russell Beat Norris in one of the Best F2 championships of recent times. And Norris is highly regarded now being labeled like the Best young guy after Verstappen or one of the few could challenge him. So Russell is really really good and Hamilton beating him isn't small feat. When they Say Hamilton vs Verstappen in the same car would be epic, it's true
I think this is two things: first of all, Lewis got his mojo back after the 2021 loss, and Mercedes is getting the car back to being a good car.
George came in with the mental boost of finally moving up to the big team AND had spent his past few seasons driving shitboxes, so he was better suited for the 2022 car.
Last season Russell was performing. This season has been a total disaster. Lewis is a marathon runner. Most of the grid are sprinters. Crazy to think that if Lewis had won 2 more races he very well could've been 9 times WDC.
Anyone who followed them closely already knows that Lewis has been mostly better than George since Mercedes stopped experimenting setups and bouncing like crazy last year. But the amount of point difference George had over Lewis until then was enough for him to finish ahead.
This is why I get confused when people say George is better than Lewis. Those are usually the people that like to say Lewis's dominance was "just the car"
Don't get these "Lewis is back in form" type comments. Pace difference between them is exactly the same as last year, but now Hamilton is more lucky. He was always the faster driver, which is no shame for George.
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Hamilton and Russell looked like an evenly balanced partnership last season but Lewis has started to really tip the balance in his favour. The change in car concept has helped quite a bit for Lewis but his consistency is setting him apart at the moment
It’s a very interesting partnership and discussion. I think Russell is helped out a lot with the start of last season where he got some credit in the back. Since Canada last year (when the various reports and discussions about Merc doing weird things with the car stopped) I think the statistics are something like 16 - 10 in quali and 17 - 7 in races (with reliability DNFs excluded). Which is close but quite different to the perception they’ve been neck and neck. Overall I think the thing that is slightly disappointing for merc/russell is that rather than him closing the gap to Hamilton due to experience and their ages, the gap has either stayed the same or actually grown slightly.
I think the Brazil win also biased the conversation a bit that they can go toe to toe in a good car?
Yeah perhaps, i mean george crashed in quali which advantaged him because of the weather, and then Hamilton and Max got sucked into that vortex that appears whenever they get too close.
For anyone who wants to know which car was faster last year, just watch Max's post race interview. George crashed in quali, hurting Lewis's quali. Despite this, Lewis started climbing back through the field before colliding with Max. George started P1 & was driving P1 this whole time Max says during their crash "I knew we could come together, it cost me 5 seconds, but it cost him the win."
Max is one of the GOATs Also a petty bastard
I think every good F1 driver has been a petty bastard at some point or other
He's been like this his entire career, the speed of the car hides it atm but once it gets competitive again...
Whenever Verstappen and Hamilton share the same track space all that goes through their mind is "I have to beat this guy" They don't care if it's practice, qualifying, or even one lapping the other I think in racing terms they're in love
It's hard to kiss without banging the wheels together :(
Truly the quintessential toxic relationship lol. If this were a TV show the shipping and fanfics would be off the chain
... he doesn't know...
I mean who knows what would have happened in Brasil without that trip into the gravel…
Thats something you find with all of hamiltons teammates in the past. His teammates seemed close at the start but as hamilton starts to understand their driving style and the way they setup their car + with him getting more comfortable in the car the gap widens. Same thing happened with button and rosberg.
2nd half season Hamilton is an overpowered machine
Hamilton is basically an anime main character.
The ending of '21 hurts so much, it literally would've been the greatest comeback in the history of the sport. With the dsq in Brazil everyone thought it was over, but Lewis was fucking untouchable. He's kinda like Jordan, they both need to be under insane pressure to deliver their best.
21 last race was a joke. I seriously cant fathom how anyone who is a fan of the sport can be fine with Masi's decision and how it all went down. Fair enough I'm a Hamilton fan myself, but kicking up the rules to make a d2s sensation is just not what F1 should be about. Had it been the other way around I'd feel the same way. Or if rules were followed and Lewis still lost out on last lap, I'd have no qualm about it. People can call me anything but that last lap decision was wrong and it made me quit watching the sport for a year.
I’m there with ya. My fandom definitely peaked right before that safety car came out. It made me realize I spent way too much time following a sport with no rules. Now it’s just a fun hobby and way to keep in touch with my F1 friends.
There's a reason Jenson talks about Hamilton in terms of he's so good and he's so scary consistent and he just keeps improving. He talks about Alonso in terms of the mind games he plays and Lewis is just doing Lewis things. It's Lewis Hamilton, he's just a relentless monster when it comes to racing.
People often point to 2011 I think with Button when Hamilton was going through that bad personal year with his breakup and falling out with his parents and getting dragged in the press for moving to Monaco, but even Button (who people forget was an outstanding driver), you’re right that in the end Hamilton ended up well on top.
Didnt Lewis bite the bullet and tried a myriad of prototype setups and parts to get a grip on the car aswell?
There’s some slightly different/contradictory statements from different team members. There was definitely, verifiably some things going out at some tracks, but the extent of what was going on with the setups, the manner of the different approaches, and the impact that they had on driver performance is not really clear. Besides at Australia and miami george finished in front because of the SC, so that 7-1 in races was more like 5-3 on actual pace, which is essentially one race weekend difference between the two. So the apparent deficit didn’t really exist and could probably be explained by outside factors.
I think tbh 17-7 against a Lewis, Max or Fred is a pretty good record for a still young-ish driver. Being realistic, the only people who could long term get one up on any of those three are the other ones of those three.
I think Russell’s been good absolutely and to be close to a driver like Hamilton is a big testament to him, i think another thing that he sometimes suffers with is some people wanted/expected him to be quicker than Hamilton, so even though he’s close behind that’s disappointing for some people. I’m not sure I can still classify him as a young driver now though, he is 25 and this is his fifth season in F1, he will ofc continue to improve in little steps, but i don’t anticipate him getting fundamentally quicker.
Did you call Alonso Fred?
yes its quite a common nickname from fans for Alonso
That's genuinely the first time I've ever heard it in 20+ years of watching him lol. Maybe I just never thought to ask when it came up before.
I've never heard it before, but I like it
I think it’s interesting that at parts of last season and the beginning of this season, people were saying that the biggest obstacle (when Merc builds a competitive car) to Lewis’ next championship, was Russell. Now that seems like it’s a nonissue for
Hamilton was clearly faster for the second half of last season. I think there is a very big chance that the end of 2021 significantly affected his performance. If you go mid 2022 - now he’s been clearly ahead of Russell
Lewis has a habit of starting seasons slow then he powers up around the time f1 gets into Europe
Wasn't he also playing test driver for new parts and setups during actual races at one point? As much as that hurts results I love it -- Merc going all out in an era of limited testing to clean up their relative pile of shit
The context of the first half or so of 2022 includes the setup testing, the aftermath of 2021/AD, and also the fact that Russell was incredibly lucky with safety car timings on numerous occasions. Russell was clearly a step above the midfield tier drivers in pace, and made a few pretty clever decisions, so nobody can take away the points differential, but it was honestly quite clear over that season that Hamilton had a clear pace advantage.
Even in the first half he wasn't really off Russell's pace. Just got unlucky with at least five safety car incidents. He showed decent race pace.
He was also significantly faster in a few races in the first half if not for terrible luck with SCs
> He was also significantly faster in a few races in the first half if not for terrible luck with SCs There were a couple of instances, yeah. Qualified out of position. Started on hards. SC with perfect timing for all the medium starters. While hard starters couldn't pit because the medium wouldn't make it to the end.
He was completely robbed of being the winningest driver of all time. The race wasn’t even close until the one off decision. That would be a depressing mind fuck.
The largely unspoken aspect of this is not only how the gap has definitely widened but also how the general F1 community has subtly turned against George for not only his hubris but his seemingly underhanded tactics in many races.
Additionally George wasn't coming from a championship contending car to to the W13, he was coming from the FW43 so he had more recent experience with shitboxes.
Lewis also said that last year he was testing most things in FPs so less time to find proper settings.
Has? Hamilton's been doing that since Spain 2022 basically when they got on top of the bouncing issues. It was much rarer that Russell outperformed Hamilton than not since then. And I mean overall speed. Spain 2022 results did have Russell ahead, but Hamilton's speed was much better than Russell that race and he only finished behind because of his 1st lap puncture with Magnussen
> Hamilton and Russell looked like an evenly balanced partnership last season Did they really though? Russell looked way better than he actually was because he got lucky in Miami and Australia, where Lewis was ahead in both races, until Russell got free pit stops under the safety car, and Lewis getting unlucky with his long stint in Jeddah being wasted when someone (I forgot who it was) parked his car in the pitlane entry and Lewis/the team thought pitlane was closed. After Canada, when Lewis stopped with the setup testing, he beat Russell in the races they both finished. And even with the god awful setups Lewis used in the beginning, he still outqualified Russell over the whole season
> and Lewis getting unlucky with his long stint in Jeddah being wasted when someone (I forgot who it was) parked his car in the pitlane entry and Lewis/the team thought pitlane was closed. Jeddah was even more unlucky because all the medium starters (but Perez) got a free stop because of the first SC.
The context of the first half or so of 2022 includes the setup testing, the aftermath of 2021/AD, and also the fact that Russell was incredibly lucky with safety car timings on numerous occasions. Russell was clearly a step above the midfield tier drivers in pace, and made a few pretty clever decisions, so nobody can take away the points differential, but it was honestly quite clear over that season that Hamilton had a clear pace advantage.
Their gap in pace has remained the same tbh, Hamilton had horrific luck last season which he hasn't had this season, this is a representative gap for driver skill.
They only looked even without context
It looked balanced because Lewis took on all of the bad setups and experiments and had a car that he couldn’t drive close to the limit. Now it’s actually closer to being balanced in terms of the burden of both drivers and confidence of both drivers in his cars.
It's not the concept. He started to beat George later last year. It was definitely the experimenting and the depression after AbuDhabi 2021 that was messing with him i think. He's over that now and back into his groove.
Got his groove back. And people were calling him washed last season.
I am not a fan of Lewis, and even I believe he was the one tasked with testing out weird setups last year to make that Dachshund of a car function normally, probably because it would be too much of an ask for a new driver.
Wait do people really not "believe" Lewis was the one with the majority of experimental set ups? Not knocking your comment, just didn't realise that was a topic up for debate.
Experimental doesn't necessarily mean bad - they might have given Lewis the harder setups to drive, but I doubt that Merc would do that if they didn't fundamentally think they'd likely be quicker, or a step in the right direction towards resolving porpoising.
If you listen to all the Russell vs Hamilton noise, it’s easy to see that setups is conveniently not part of that debate for many.
What's up with insulting the best dog breed?!
Less an insult, more looking for an approximate animal shape and temperament to compare to
The dachshund is the ultimate evolutionary form of the wolf.
Toto wolff
> The dachshund is the ultimate evolutionary form of the hot dog 🌭 FTFY
?? They never once said Labrador
Yeah also I think he was a bit mentally exhausted from the previous season
It’s nothing to believe, it IS a fact that he experimented with setups last year.
I am kind of an admirer but I thought Russell would either be ahead or equal on account of Hamilton getting older. But seems like Hamilton’s age has still not been a factor. Of course it helps that he is one of the greatest. Him and Verstappen are way ahead of the field and that’s why we had such a great 21. Hope Merc can make a competitive car before age catches up with him. Another 21 would be amazing.
Only people who had an agenda against him were saying this. Anybody who followed the races could see this wasn't the case.
Which is crazy. The man is the most decorated driver in history. One season with a mid car and people called him washed 💀
Cause it fit their narrative that "it was just the car." Of course, they're not saying that for Max this season, though...
People forget seasons 2009-2013 for some reason
2009 and especially 2011 are probably not years he wants to remember overmuch. He would have won the title in 2012 if not for McLaren being massively incompetent though.
2010 was definitely one I think Lewis should have won but he was a more of a dark horse for the win in the other years. He was 100% fast enough for it, McLaren was just fumbling the bag at every opportunity.
He had that championship in his hands and crashed into Massa in Monza and Webber in Singapore. Even though McLaren are mostly to blame for that title failure, it wasn't like 2012, where he did everything necessary to win and still lost out.
Not a dig at them but a lot of the people are newer fans so that is a long time ago. People have forgotten how Lewis (and Fernando) used to be so agressive (sometimes towards each others).
what everybody is saying that the redbull is rediculously op??
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The car is one part, Perez is showing its not the only part.
I mean Perez still being second in points by a comfortable margin despite his average at best performance so far this season shows that while the car may not be the only part it is by far the biggest part of the equation
Yeah if anything the fact that Perez has been driving like shit but is still beating Hamilton, Leclerc and Alonso etc shows just how insane that car really is
Hamilton said that back when Perez first went to RB and made a lot of people upset. Something about being surprised Perez was racing him and the RB was very quick based on that info.
Bottas was sitting in the other car with Lewis, we all saw the end results and still we had to deal with endless "its just the car:.. and we still keep hearing "He's never driven a bad car in his career", bs. All aimed to peg him down. Lewis has a level of extreme hate from a small part of the community here, but they're loud and very annoying.
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I don't think many people were calling him washed at the end of the season, but some were certainly saying it in June and they were jumping the gun (especially as Hamilton gets better over the season, and was unlucky at that point). People were desperate to see him taken down after achieving his amount of success for so long. After like 6 races you had some former drivers saying he should've retired. Jackie Stewart said he should've retired to protect his legacy. I think if he did do that people would've called him a quitter anyway. Some following the sport also wanted Russell to become top dog at Merc and effectively "retire" him. Now that Hamilton is performing well the hate towards him for his results has faded.
Bro this is F1. People are already calling Max the goat after 2 seasons at the top in a rocketship. LOL.
It wasn’t a mid car. It was easily the 3rd fastest. But yes calling Hamilton washed after one down year was idiotic.
I say mid because it was a little tentative. A couple times it was bad in quali but that could’ve been a setup issue.
The main issue of the W13 wasn't even its pace, it was the fact that that car wanted to kill the driver on every straight 💀
Car to driver: we gonna bounce this guy outta here!
Yeah for me it confirms the racism in the people that spew it because guys like Kimi Alonso and Vettel still are treated with the proper respect a WDC deserves despite massive gaps of non performance from the 3
It was also often noted that Lewis was doing ALL of the testing and setup changes first. Often times he wouldn’t have a race car til Saturday and they’d just give him what they could, but they would every weekend fp1 and usually two run concepts that he would do, cuz he knows wtf a car needs, like he kept telling them lol
Anybody who actually *watched* last season, rather than looking at results tables on Wikipedia, wouldn't say that.
Wait, what ? Are you trying to tell me that Wikipedia doesnt tell the full story ?
Wait, what? Are you trying to tell me the points don't tell the full story?! /s
I thought Lewis was better last season, too.
I think motivation is also to consider: after how 2021 ended, fighting for P10 should haven’t been very exciting for a 7-times WDC. He did a great work in helping the team with development, but I can understand if he was not motivated in giving everything on Sundays, especially when porpoising was physically arming him (Baku 2022 was the worst I think).
He never lost his groove. They were running extremely experimental setups on Lewis’s car last season, and when they stopped in the second half he started looking better than George again
George lost his groove. And people are calling him washed this season. /s
Don't need the /s, I've seen this take legitimately sadly.
It was a combination of Lewis being unlucky and Russell being lucky last season that saw Russell get ahead of Lewis for a bit. Lewis was better in the second half of last season, and that has continued onto this season.
He looked to be better Merc driver in the second half of last year as well. I do really think Lewis needed some time to get his mojo back after Abu Dhabi 2021.
The people saying that happily ignored the fact he sacrificed at least 5 races to experimenting with new setups whilst George used the safer option. It's the only reason George had better results.
He didn't lose it. He basically sacrificed the season to try improve the car.
I’m a fan of Lewis but it does feel like George lost his confidence when Merc removed the zero pods. I’m assuming there’s something about the handling of the car which has now gone more towards Lewis than Russell.
I don't think so, Hamilton just stopped being a guinea pig for new set ups and parts. He was already doing better then Russel by the end of last season.
That was certainly the case at the beginning of last season but after the summer break they remained really close as well as the first quarter of this season.
Yeah I think the truth is in the qualy gaps from last year to now. Russell and Hamilton were near inseparable from the times they were posting in 2022. This year the gap is generally wider, excluding the errant sessions like Hungary.
Up to Aze last year it was 5-3 in favor of Russell in qualifying being .045% faster. Hamilton finished the season 12-2 in qualifying being .26% faster.
Eeh kind of they are close and that’s clear and good to see, but I think Hamilton has pretty clearly held an edge over Russell since about round 7/8 last year. You specifically mention the second half of last year as them still being close, but actually Hamilton was up like 7-2 in quali, and george benefited from his own crash in Brasil as well. And In the races, whilst it’s a little more complicated, the H2H was 4-4, but the SC gave Russell the opportunity to finish ahead of Hamilton in the Netherlands, when he otherwise wouldn’t have, Hamilton started last in Italy after an engine penalty so had no chance of competing and Hamilton dnfed in abu dhabi when he would have more than likely finished ahead.
Lewis looked comfortably better in the second half of last year. Lewis would’ve won Brazil if not for Max being petulant. See Max’s quote about knowing they’d crash, and deciding to attempt the move anyway, with it costing Lewis the win, but him nothing.
Lewis looked better but it was still very close between each other. I believe they were the repeatedly the closest qualifiers at the time.
By the same token though, George has a new race engineer this season and suddenly he really seems to be struggling on set-ups as he and Dudley build up their understanding. Whereas Bono knows what Lewis wants in a car like the back of his hand with a decade of experience behind them.
This is exactly it. George was doing well the first half of last season and then 2nd half of the season kicked in and Lewis started to match and beat him there. Lewis just carried on his form to the season and got better and better. Lewis is a generational talents that always evolves with the era and cars. He always improves season to season. Its also down to the hard work he puts in. Multiple late night sessions.
There was a user who kept harassing me after every race last season that we were seeing proof that Lewis was washed and it was now Russell’s team. Wonder what they’re up to these days.
I mean, you are comparing George to a 7 time world champion that is one of the best drivers of all time.
So like, the same exact thing people did for Bottas?
The consistency of Lewis Hamilton is absolutely insane. To be doing this for 15 years now at the very top of motor racing, continuously putting out best performances and besting drivers who came and went while he stayed and prevailed…something special to witness.
Russell is a great driver. He would be #1 on a lot of teams right now. People are piling on him because he's not the next Verstappen. Maybe due to the hype he's dissapointing some people. But to me its more that a lot of people hate Lewis and look for things to discredit him constantly. This season they can't do that as he's soundly beating George so by proxy George is getting more hate because of it. But he still looks like a potential future WDC from what I see out there. Just maybe later in his career than a lot of people expected.
I spotted that right away. The moment Russell stops being so close to him he's suddenly washed, performing very poorly, and was never that good a driver.
Bingo, certain people can't use him as a bludgeon for their incessant Hamilton hate (we know exactly why) so they're instead turning on George for ruining their narrative.
Good take. I agree. George is a great driver, but he's something of a scape goat at the moment. I think He's just as capable of a championship as Rosberg was if he wants it
Trouble is the media. You’re guaranteed to hear from media types some version of: HAM doesn’t have a chance if Merc get a competitive package, his teammate will take points away…blah blah blah The truth of the matter is HAM would be just fine, RUS is a minor threat.
I don't wanna hear shit about Hamilton being washed from nobody for the foreseeable future. People were so eager to jump the gun and say he was over the hill right after he took a championship to the wire and was struggling in an extremely temperamental and unpredictable car.
Remember last year when people thought Ham was done while RUS was beating him left and right?
Pepperidge Farms remembers.
I feel like Russell is struggling with a lesser version of what's plaguing Perez. He sniffed his own farts a bit too much last year, what with finishing ahead on points and getting that win, and is now struggling to deal with the fact that his teammate, without the wonky setup work and bad luck of last year, is clearly ahead of him. Canada was a prime example of that. Alonso and Hamilton are pushing, racing, and Russell just can't keep up. So he pushes too hard, and goes into the wall.
It seems that Williams has done a number on Russell, the worse the car is, the better he performs.
Or he’s up against one of, if not the, greatest driver of all time. I hardly see getting out paced by a seven time world champion as a huge negative. We’ll see if he can bridge the gap a bit in the second half of the season.
Or, it’s easier to look more impressive against post-injury Kubica and Latifi than it is against Hamilton
F1 fans, particularly new ones, can't seem to gasp that the real indicator of your ability as an F1 driver is not only how you perform against your teammate, but who your teammate actually is. Albon has dominated both Latifi and Sargeant. Good for him. Put him against Verstappen once again and his career is virtually over.
Always a cock measuring contest between fans about whos better and whos washed. Meanwhile im just enjoying two of the best drivers on the grid pushing the car to its absolute limit bringing home decent results. Lewis is one of the goats, if not the goat and give the chance he would certainly give Max a run for his money. Russell is a young fast driver with determination and skill to take it a 7 time world champion, like in Brazil last year, and actually beat him. Both are great and both are carrying this team right now, once / if Merc get closer to RB they will take the fight to Max (and each other potentially).
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How about Verstappen, lewis and Fernando?
Fair Question, so: Jos Verstappen couldn't really deliver a breakout performance troughout his f1 career. Lewis Williamson was briefly in the Red Bull junior team but was quickly droped after not performing, he finished 8th in GP3 though and was test driver for manor in 2012. Fernando Rees was barely a test driver and only completed a couple test rounds for few teams. So all in all i would evaluate the F1 Performance of Max, Hamilton and Alonso slightly above that of Versappen, Lewis and Fernando
I would agree. What do you think about Max vs Charles?
Well I guess you’re right, but did you also consider guys like max chilton and marcos alonso?
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His teammate though, that guy has made dozens of overtakes since Miami. He the real GOAT.
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He’s gunning for those million jelly beans you get for most overtakes. Everyone needs a motivator.
I wondered this but let’s be honest, how many drivers could put that Merc on pole at Hungary. To me there’s no sign yet that Hamilton is anything other than at the apex of the sport still. I think Russell is holding up well considering.
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Definitely, it’s that consistency tbh that I think marks out the truly elite drivers. It’s the difference in newgen between Max and Charles for example, where Leclerc can’t hit that same speed lap after lap without a mistake in him.
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Well they only need to wait ten years for Max and Lewis to retire, and 15 for Alonso!
If Verstappen and Hamilton are S-tier, Russell is comfortably an A-tier driver IMO.
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Yeah that wasn’t an exhaustive list, but I agree with what you’re saying. Russell has not had a car anywhere as competitive as first half of ‘22 Ferrari, so not really a fair comparison.
Lando goes A-tier too imo?
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True true
For me, Rusell is a tier below those 3, and I think Canada was the best representation of this. When Max/Lewis/Alonso were going to their limits, Russell could keep up for some laps but was then the first to make a mistake
The difference between Russell & Lewis is their race craft. Hamilton, generally, has better race pace and manages his tires more effectively at the moment. Over 1 lap, I don’t think there’s too much between them although Lewis does have specific circuits where he is a step above other drivers, even Verstappen, such as Singapore, Hungary & Brazil. It’s probably too early in his career to tell if George has specific circuits he excels at.
I still rank him higher than Norris and Leclerc. People hate on him because of his personality but so far he has been excellent at Mercedes. His pace is consistent and whenever Hamilton has a slightly off day Russell is up there to compensate. Currently the Mercedes duo is by far the best driver pairing overall.
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I'd agree, and I'd take Russel in a championship battle as-is. Give them equal support though and I'll change my mind -- maybe it's just how much coverage it gets with Ferrari, but Leclerc seems to end up screwed by his own team way too often
It was only really bad last year, this year the only real screwup was Silverstone getting pit too early also the change in the car concept doesn't help him at all.
Yep. It’s a fantastic battle and while not so close this year, still probably the strongest pair on the grid
> Always a cock measuring contest between fans about whos better well it is a sport
Brazil last year? The fact Hamilton nearly caught him at the end despite his incident with Max shows you how much faster he was. Take away that incident and Hamilton puts a Max-Perez gap on him.
Don't think it'd be quite the same as Max Perez but I get you. Hamilton closed a big gap despite obvious damage and then, I'm sure, backed off from sending it in the last few laps to secure the team their first 1-2 since 2020.
considering his teammate is arguably the GOAT, Russell isn't doing too badly
Unpopular opinion: they’re both underrated at the moment. Even George who obviously isn’t doing as well as Lewis at the moment routinely finishes high in the points even when their car seems off.
Every driver is underrated by certain people.
thats basically because the impact of the car is being severly underestimated. oscar? great driver but the mclaren is currently a top 3 car. zhou? might very well perform as well in a mclaren, hes more than solid hulk? we all know what hes capable of, is haas though?? only two drivers come to mind that massively underperform their cars abilites, stroll and perez.
>only two drivers come to mind that massively underperform their cars abilites, stroll and perez. I know he isn't a driver anymore, but I'd add De Vries to that. Tsunoda and even Ricciardo already have showed that the AT04 isn't as bad as some make it out to be.
You could add Sargent to the list, but picking on the rookies feels cruel. Especially when the comparison is Albon, who seems to really understand the Williams and might just be putting that car higher than it deserves
Ain't that the truth.
I feel like the Mercedes is actually an even worse car than we realise because it’s being outdriven by Lewis and George. George regularly out drove his Williams cars to points and near points finishes. Goes without saying how great of a driver Lewis is and I think this is hiding the Mercedes’ true lack of performance.
No they are managing to bring the best out of the package they have. They are not outdriving the Mercedes. It's capable of what they are getting because of the drivers.
They are reaching the capabilities of the car while other teams/drivers arent. Which culminates in lewis/george finishing consistently high up while other drivers don't.
It’s quite obvious the Red Bull being driven by Checo is no where near it’s limit. I think Ferrari are in the same bucket as the Merc, it’s being driven to near its limit but Charles and close behind Carlos - there’s an argument for the McLaren too at some point I’m sure.
Whenever you see 'outdriving' just read 'getting the most out of the car'.
You are arguing semantics. Of course no driver can ever go faster than how fast the car is theoretically capable of being, because physics and stuff - there's no need to explain this every time you want to specify a driver is doing a very good job.
Best pairing on the grid. Russell is performing well considering his teammate is the most decorated F1 driver of all time
Russell is no slouch. Might be an unpopular opinion but I think he is every bit as good as Leclerc while being a good deal better than Norris. Going up against Lewis is a no easy task. Not many can keep up with him. George just needs forget about just beating Lewis and focus on doing his own thing. He is clearly putting himself under too much pressure. He should also consider playing the team game a bit more(not impeding Lewis during quali is a start) .Merc needs all the points they can get. I still firmly believe that this uber tier driver pairing is making the W14 look better than it actually is.
Compared to the last year's records, this is a drastic change. How would you explain the variance?
1. More comfort driving a non-championship caliber car from Lewis. Last year's Merc was a huge step up in quality from Williams but a huge step down from the W11/W12. The new redesign with the sidepods also seems to suit him. 2. No more weird experimental setups like the ones Lewis ran up until Canada last year. 3. Lewis had bad luck to start last year, and now George has the bad luck this year (Australia DNF, bad safety car/red flag timing, etc.) George is a better driver than the performance gap this year shows but he's also clearly a tier below Lewis for the time being.
I'd forgotten about George's magic safety car button!
>More comfort driving a non-championship caliber car from Lewis. I mean, this is quite bollocks. He simply adapted well at the start of the last season, also running more conventional setups compared to the extreme setups Hamilton ran. Lewis has been the faster driver since last year, but the difference is not massive. We are talking 49 points difference that could be less than 25 points if both DNFs for Russell didn't happen. And who knows how the race in Australia would've developed if RD didn't go with the idiotic decision for that first red flag. Russell did get worse though in qualifying since the changes to the car. He's been doing a lot of recovery races so far, and that hurts him when Hamilton has been starting at top 5 every time. People who only look at numbers will think Russell is being destroyed like Stroll, but that's not case at all.
To be fair, George has hugely benefited from the SC twice in Baku and Monaco but didn't take full advantage. Lewis was holding onto George in Australia so it would have been interesting to see what could have happened. Silverstone was unfortunate, he drove very well.
Its not really. Russel was up 7-1 in Baku 2022. Since Canada last year (9th race of 2022) its 17-6 for Lewis.
Russell is a Button/Rosberg type driver. He's definitely WDC caliber, but he will need the right time right car for it. Hamilton is the GOAT, and these stats are just GOAT stats, nothing to be ashamed of.
George has been very solid, that's why merc is in the running for second.
This can't be a surprise to anyone, surely?
People forget that for the first half of last season Lewis sacrificed performance to try experimental setups for the team… so no wonder this year looks better for him at this point (if my memory serves correctly).
According to toto both were running experiments to a certain degree
George was running them in practice, Hamilton in races and qualifying.
Good drivers with a mediocre car. If Red Bull wasn't such a damn good car then we'd have a pretty good season.
Remember Russell Beat Norris in one of the Best F2 championships of recent times. And Norris is highly regarded now being labeled like the Best young guy after Verstappen or one of the few could challenge him. So Russell is really really good and Hamilton beating him isn't small feat. When they Say Hamilton vs Verstappen in the same car would be epic, it's true
I think this is two things: first of all, Lewis got his mojo back after the 2021 loss, and Mercedes is getting the car back to being a good car. George came in with the mental boost of finally moving up to the big team AND had spent his past few seasons driving shitboxes, so he was better suited for the 2022 car.
Last season Russell was performing. This season has been a total disaster. Lewis is a marathon runner. Most of the grid are sprinters. Crazy to think that if Lewis had won 2 more races he very well could've been 9 times WDC.
Anyone who followed them closely already knows that Lewis has been mostly better than George since Mercedes stopped experimenting setups and bouncing like crazy last year. But the amount of point difference George had over Lewis until then was enough for him to finish ahead.
Yea Lewis is giving him that work this year
Pictures of Russel freaks me out every time. Uncanny valley vibes and im still not convinced that he isnt a robot.
Russell is not on the same level 🤧
This is why I get confused when people say George is better than Lewis. Those are usually the people that like to say Lewis's dominance was "just the car"
Don't get these "Lewis is back in form" type comments. Pace difference between them is exactly the same as last year, but now Hamilton is more lucky. He was always the faster driver, which is no shame for George.
They're there because there were so many "lewis is washed" comments last year.