Formula 1 2021 - General Discussion Thread (Read 1st post rules)

Is Hamilton's head completely gone now that he has some competition? He put it in the wall at Imola, he threw away a victory that was handed to him on a silver platter in Baku, he ploughed into Verstappen at Silverstone, he wasn't confident enough to qualify in a shootout at Hungary despite having the fastest car so he decided to interfere with Max instead and ultimately his own lap was 2 seconds off his previous best because he made such a mess of his warm up while focussing on dirty tactics, and then today in a race that he was restarting from first with both Red Bulls, both McLarens, Bottas and Leclerc all out of play, he still managed to throw away the win and get beaten by an Alpine and Aston Martin thanks to making the most piss-poor decision making on the entire grid, when it was plain to see for even the likes of Mazepin that slicks were the tyre to be on. Then he couldn't even stand up on the podium because he was so winded by having to do some overtaking in the race.

It's amazing how he keeps falling upwards but surely it can't keep happening.

He made up 40 points because his rival got 1 after being shunted off the track twice. Should have been 1st but couldn't pass Schumacher, Gasly et Al and more importantly Alonso for three or four laps. I think he made 5 or 6 places due to others pitting when he jumped onto the hard tire early and then the mediums gave him another advantage when the rest were on old hards.

I think the fact that he doesn't have such an extreme advantage with that car anymore it shows he's not "the greatest of all time".

And the complaining on the radio, throwing his team under the bus, leaving the magic on twice (brakes and diff) and the OTT celebration in Silverstone shows he isn't all mental strength as he makes out.

You post well ordinarily, make good points and are knowledgeable, you are obviously not an idiot, I think all the recent anti-hamilton posts recently have pushed you into that post 😄

I dislike Hamilton and really wish he wasn't doing well and I wish Max was there to challengebhim to the finish in the last 2 races. But...

He came from behind in both races to finish very strongly in 1st and came from last to 3rd (2nd in terms of points) at a track which is known to be hard to overtake. The notion that he's lost his head is not borne out in the evidence on track. You need to stretch for things like suggesting he celebrated too much after winning his home GP to make that point. I'll probably just stick with the on-track evidence and on track he's doing fine.

Is he the greatest of all time? I don't know and I've never gone in for that kind of hyperbole.

Is his current form the best of his career? Probably not. I expect he's past his peak - he's 36 which is usually past a racing driver's peak.

Is he driving perfectly and making no mistakes? No. No driver does that in reality. That only happens in the retelling of the story for sensationalism's sake. All driver's make mistakes.

Has he lost his head? Absolutely no on-track evidence to suggest he has lost his head. He's plugging away and getting some excellent results.

Do you think he's lost his head.

Yeah, you're right. Isn't it always the way? If a driver is well liked, they'll say he's doing great. If he's disliked they'll say he's lost his head.

I haven't suggested he's particularly mentally solid, or outside the range of his normal mental solidity. I only said he's plugging away and getting and getting some excellent results.

He has had some good fortune in those races too. Being in the fastest car brings some "luck" and drivers make a lot of their own luck. These's nothing to suggest mental fragility or that he has "lost his head". Who will claim Ocon wasn't extremely lucky yesterday and who will begrudge Ocon his luck? Not me anyway.

Ah if plugging away is what you meant. Its just this...

[Quote]He made 40 odd points over his championship rival in the last 2 races. Scored a win and a second place, came from thr back of the field to 3rd in Hungary which is notoriously hard to overtake and Took control of the championship again.[/quote]

...made it seem like he was doing more than just plugging away.

Ocon was lucky to a certain extent but I think his driving and alonsos driving to help him stay out front out weighed the luck when you think of the cars and drivers he still had behind him.

I didn't say he lost his head.

What I'm saying is, while what you said is true you can't use them them to counter a claim that his mentality isn't impacted because there were bigger factors at play in those other than Hamiltons mind set.

If it was a case were Hamilton was driving to at a level that was putting other drivers under so much pressure they were making the mistakes he has made and he was capitalising on the back of those then fair enough but that's not the case.

That's how I see it anyway and that's what I would accept as a valid points to counter a suggestion that his mentality and concentration might not be all there, not completely gone, but there you go.

There's no way Hamilton has "lost his head" that's nonsense. Long covid could definitely slow him down though. Hopefully that doesn't happen and the crashing stops and we get a good battle. RB are potentially in a spot now with engines and the cost cap though. The engine in Perez's car has to be replaced now and do we know the condition of the engine in Max's car after Silverstone?

Bottas will land on the podium again.

Hamilton hasn’t lost anything IMO, but when he’s desperate to get by he can be overly aggressive and make mistakes (seen with Albon, Russell & Verstappen most recently).

While watching Alonsos awesome defence against him yesterday I thought there was a good probability of a crash, I could see Hamilton leaving a wheel in to nudge Alonso out of the way if it went on much longer.

Lando Norris with some serious shade towards Bottas there.

Race bans would be a bit over the top but starting from the pit lane might be more appropriate than 5 place penalties.

Funnily enough it was Max who was the closest to causing an accident overtaking when he was desperate to pass Schumacher.

9 times out of 10 he gets a puncture with that kind of contact, he was very lucky to get away with it but those are the margins these guys work off of. A split second here, a millimetre there and the race can be gone

Wasn't Grosjean banned for the consequences of his crash at Spa? Was it not deemed worse due to him taking out 2 championship contenders at the time?