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?

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?

JV suggests Valtteri Bottas to Aston, Lance Stroll to Mercedes | PlanetF1

Gob on a stick, Jacque Villeneuve, is at it again. Is there anything he wouldn't say for a headline?

He's suggesting Stroll and Bottas switch places next year instead of bringing in Russell. Sounds good for Bottas to go to AM, but why on earth would Mercedes want Stroll over Bottas? Not much in it between them. Bottas would usually be much more consistent than Stroll but both are in shyte form this year.

Not sure Lawrence can afford to buy Mercedes

Form comes and goes. Bottas has been very consistent in general and his quali pace is still generally good. He's had some bad luck this year (running second in Monaco until the wheel nut failed, for example) but not so much bad luck to explain the dip in race pace. Id still take Bottas over Stroll, but there isn't loads between them.

It's just JV talking nonsense. The Stroll senior-Toto business connections make it slightly more plausible, but the fact that Stroll is average at best and below average with his poor form at the moment, means it's just guff.

Same could be said about boards recently.

I really think the whole notion of a brand wanting a driver from their home nation is overblown.

Teams, generally, hire on the basis of money & talent. Being from the same country as the brand is a happy accident. See: Haas, Aston Martin etc. Yuki wasn't brought in to AT because he's Japanese - he's a youngster who happens to have both Red Bull and Honda backing. Same again with Ocon - he wasn't hired by Renault because he's French - he's a talented driver.

Alpine have a Chinese driver on their books, and have done for sometime, and he's nowhere near that car. Several young US drivers have come on the scene, but they stay Stateside in Indycar since it's not worth their career to trundle at the back in a Haas when they can fight for wins in Indycar (see: Herta). Haas may be an anomaly in this discussion as while they are American, they're not in the sport to sell cars.

The only team I would entertain the thought of their having an English driver being important to them is Williams, given how strong English that team is and in its heritage. Heck, didn't Sir Frank used to have a portrait of Margaret Thatcher in his office!

I wasn't following the sport for SCH's return, but to characterise it as "useless" seems odd to me. Surely them having a 7 time world champ, statistically the GOAT at that time on their team immensely raised the profile of the marque's team in the sport. Just because he's German doesn't mean he's soley of interest in Germany - he is world famous.

I remember Mercedes being very strong on having a German driver in the car and Rosberg was not seen as German. Added into the fact that Schumacher wanted to get back, it was a no brainer. I remember Heidfeld being very strongly linked and may have even tested for them.

Yuki has been supported by Honda for a lot of his career.

Rosberg not german enough???