Does Lewis Hamilton deserve to be leading the WDC standings?

[Thomas Mundy]

Well, a what I am kind of seeing here is people referring to the fact that Hamilton is only good at one position. When he is having good luck. I personally think to be a world champion, you have to be the best no matter what. If you have retirements? That doesn't matter. Look at the 90s and 80s. Cars retired so often, but one of them would bounce off to win the WDC.
This is what Hamilton should be good at. He never gives up. But with bad luck, that doesn't mean anything. But what you should do, is take it maturely so that you are prepared for the next race and always believe that you have to do the best you can to win. Otherwise there is no point in driving. If you don't have the best car? Tough luck. If you are a driver worthy enough of winning or at least leading the WDC you have to be able to cope with ALL SITUATIONS.
There is to things that make a driver the world champion. A car and a man. If the car is fast, you can win. Like Vettel has done in the past 4 years. But to be able to take advantage of a good car, you have to be a good driver. And I think both Hamilton and Rosberg are equal at this.
Now something that I don't understand is why people say that he should lead because of the fact that he has retired more often. Maybe this comes to his driving style? There is thousands of factors that can lead to a DNF. It can just be the car, but that is rarely the case, and I think Rosberg has managed the car better. But that's just what I think.

Erm I think if your car goes up in flames or breaks down its impossible to win unless I'm mistaken? Your right cars did retire a lot in the 90s and 80s but when that happened they ALL retired a lot, certainly similar within the same team, not just one car. So far the failures in either qualifying or the race have both been heavily weighted in Hamilton's direction. The idea that his driving style contributed to the failures is absolute nonsense. The brakes that failed in Germany had done virtually no mileage at all compared to what they should have done so even if you stood on them with a lead balloon they should not have failed. The engine failure in Hungary today, again given that Hamilton has consistently saved fuel better over the course of the year (check the race broadcasts if you don't believe me) that means that if anything he revs the engine less than Rosberg and therefore should be easier on the engine so again your argument doesn't stand up. Also you say Hamilton is only good when having good luck? What? Coming from last to 3rd in a race is pretty amazing if you ask me and Hamilton is known for the fact that he is very capable of tearing through the field if he needs to, he's done it all his career (GP2 Turkey 2006). My personal opinion is that Rosberg and Hamilton are both very good drivers and I think there's little between them but there is no denying Hamilton would have had more points with better reliability and when you're in the same car those failures should be similar. You can cope with 1 or 2 more failures because that's the way it goes sometimes but when you've had as many as Hamilton and at such crucial stages of weekends it is hard to take for a driver. There's no way Mercedes would sabotage their own cars though and anyone who thinks that is a total idiot, if the car failed in the wrong place because they set it up to do so, especially with a brake failure, they could kill someone, so to say that is ridiculous, plus your forgetting that a lot of the Mercedes team are English so its unlikely they would be biased towards Rosberg, they are professionals and they do their job. Hamilton though can rightly feel agrieved at the way things are going this season. For me he has impressed more this season because he's been mentally stronger. I know that sounds daft when you see how he has been in interviews, down-hearted, almost silent but he has always responded with a brilliant drive, whereas in the past he tended to let his head drop, say some pretty dumb things in the media, get into trouble etc. I think its gonna be a close championship but for sure Hamilton is owed some reliability.

 

[Olly Stevenson]

I'm just so disappointed that for the 3rd week in a row, we will not get a race between Lewis and Nico

 

[Joel]

Erm I think if your car goes up in flames or breaks down its impossible to win unless I'm mistaken? Your right cars did retire a lot in the 90s and 80s but when that happened they ALL retired a lot, certainly similar within the same team, not just one car. So far the failures in either qualifying or the race have both been heavily weighted in Hamilton's direction. The idea that his driving style contributed to the failures is absolute nonsense. The brakes that failed in Germany had done virtually no mileage at all compared to what they should have done so even if you stood on them with a lead balloon they should not have failed. The engine failure in Hungary today, again given that Hamilton has consistently saved fuel better over the course of the year (check the race broadcasts if you don't believe me) that means that if anything he revs the engine less than Rosberg and therefore should be easier on the engine so again your argument doesn't stand up. Also you say Hamilton is only good when having good luck? What? Coming from last to 3rd in a race is pretty amazing if you ask me and Hamilton is known for the fact that he is very capable of tearing through the field if he needs to, he's done it all his career (GP2 Turkey 2006). My personal opinion is that Rosberg and Hamilton are both very good drivers and I think there's little between them but there is no denying Hamilton would have had more points with better reliability and when you're in the same car those failures should be similar. You can cope with 1 or 2 more failures because that's the way it goes sometimes but when you've had as many as Hamilton and at such crucial stages of weekends it is hard to take for a driver. There's no way Mercedes would sabotage their own cars though and anyone who thinks that is a total idiot, if the car failed in the wrong place because they set it up to do so, especially with a brake failure, they could kill someone, so to say that is ridiculous, plus your forgetting that a lot of the Mercedes team are English so its unlikely they would be biased towards Rosberg, they are professionals and they do their job. Hamilton though can rightly feel agrieved at the way things are going this season. For me he has impressed more this season because he's been mentally stronger. I know that sounds daft when you see how he has been in interviews, down-hearted, almost silent but he has always responded with a brilliant drive, whereas in the past he tended to let his head drop, say some pretty dumb things in the media, get into trouble etc. I think its gonna be a close championship but for sure Hamilton is owed some reliability.

Well, you may not know this, but what you just said is 100% what is going through my mind. I would never say they would sabotage someone's car. That is just absolute bullsh*t. The amount of money that is in play here does not allow that. Though some people have been having even more problems than Lewis. Look at Maldonado. Yes, he isn't even near the speed or consistency (other thing I like about Hamilton) of Hamilton. But look at him. Sometimes he changes a part that failed the race before, and already in the next one it's destroyed.
To win, you need a good car. This is something that people struggle of. Look at Bianchi, he could be a title-contender, but he doesn't have the car so we won't know. Kobayashi could be the title-contender, but his car has terrible reliability and is cr@p in every way possible. Hamilton could be leading the championship, but his car has poor reliability. And due to the fact that it is 100% sure that there is no sabotage going on here, it just means that he got unlucky and Rosberg has gotten lucky. F1 is not all about skill, these days it's mostly about the car and how lucky you got with the car. Look at Hamilton's debut, he got lucky, that combined with skill and the speed of the car, he was nearly the first ever driver to win the WDC in his first year! That says something.

 

[Olly Stevenson]

Yeah Lewis has been unlucky, but don't forget that he won Silverstone because Nico's car crapped out

It's going to be great fun watching Lewis barge his way through the pack on this track today! If he makes it to the end with a front wing I'll be amazed

 

[RakeWorm]

Despite the title 'driver's championship,' it is not all about the driver. They rely on the car, pit crew, and the rest of the team. Has Hamilton been far more unlucky than Rosberg? Absolutely. Does that mean he somehow 'deserves' to be leading? No, because it is not just about him - it is also about the car, crew, team, and luck. Who is winning is who should be winning.

That would be like saying Bottas deserved a top five finish this weekend because the timing of the safety car screwed him over. Disappointing? Sure. But there is no entitlement here.

 

[Pär Öqvist]

I doubt it´s just a case of luck. It may just be that Webbers and Hamiltons driving style is harder then Vettels and Rosbergs.

I have had plenty of bad luck in simracing. But you know every single time it was just me pushing the car to hard

Hamilton like to brake late. Put more pressure on the brakes?
Feels natural he has more brake failures then Rosberg for example.

As for luck that tend to even out over a season if it´s just a factor of luck.

 

[RakeWorm]

I am not sure exploding brake pads and KERS systems starting on fire can be attributed to driving style.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

yes he does

 

[LazyBug]

Some say Nico was luckier than Hamilton. I don't think that way

4 reliability issue so far for Lewis Hamilton which cause him DNF & bad result in qualifying but so far Nico only got 1 which has serious impact to his championship point & Nico pit time usually done less than 3s but Hamilton can be longer than 3s and sometime even over 4s for just change the tire.

So yeah i dont know if Nico is luckier but Lewis Hamilton definitely very very bad luck (Why always me ??), i say only Nico fans or Hamilton hater will think differently about this.

 

[Dux]

Yesterday Nico showed he is not a Champion material. Although he plays all of this good but yesterday, wanting Hamilton to get away so he could pass and he was nowhere near i mean, he needed to show some decisive thing, like Hamilton did when he past Vergne on the outside. From the race yesterday my opinion is not that much NO for Hamilton as it could be YES.

 

[Dux]

You might not agree with, but yelling from second and a half behind "tell him to let me through let me through" well thats not how you show the world you are a champion. If he wanted something more or something out of that team-order at first he should have showed that he was that quicker. But nope, he didn't. Nico might be good all over the season but yesterday he disappointed me.

 

[morsify]

Just to clear something up, there is a lot of talk about Nico 'demanding that Lewis be told to let him by', but the only thing he said on the radio was 'Why is he not letting me past?'. It was the TEAM who decided to tell him to pass and it was the TEAM who decided to tell Lewis not to hold Nico up. I have not seen or heard anything to confirm that Nico asked or demanded it.

IMO, he was too far back, and in any case the team were wrong to give that order, it did nothing for their image and at the same time did not make Rosberg look good either.

 

[Chris]

Does Lewis Hamilton deserve to be leading the WDC standings?
I shall put my fanaticism of Lewis aside on this and (try to) answer without bias.

Well, there's a couple of ways you can answer that:

• Realistically, and
• Theoretically.

Realistically:
No.
Simply because he isn't leading the championship. He may have suffered more reliability problems than his team mate, but, that's part-and-parcel of motorsport. These things happen.
It's too easy to say "coulda, shoulda, woulda". The fact of the matter is that Lewis is not leading the WDC and there's nothing more to it.
And Nico Rosberg hasn't exactly made many mistakes, and has capitalized each time Lewis has had reliability problems, and even when he had those string of four consecutive wins, Nico was right there in 2nd place each time.


Theoretically: (This is pure speculation)
How many points would Lewis currently have, had he not suffered mechanical failures? (Decision making errors do not count as they are within the drivers' control).
Well, the Mercedes pace advantage is so substantial that barring extreme circumstances (as we have seen in Hungary), they're almost always going to go home with a 1-2.


Australia: (18-25pts)

• Lewis qualified on Pole, and it stands to reason that he'd have, at a minimum, come home in second place.

Monte Carlo: (18pts)

• Nico's mistake in qualifying prevented Lewis from completing his final Q3 lap for Pole position. Would he have gotten it? No one can know because it didn't happen.
• Lewis got dirt in his eye during the closing stages, but I don't think he'd have had the pace to overtake Rosberg regardless.
• Race result stays the same.

Canada: (25pts)

• Lewis had the race pace to beat Nico here, and even overtook him during the first round of pit stops.
• Both cars suffer Rear brake problems, and ended Hamilton's race, but, Nico drove around the problem.
• Commentators and pundits said that Nico deserved to finish higher because he was able to drive around the problem, however, I don't believe this to be the case as Lewis's problem was far more sudden and severe. He came out of the pits ahead of Nico, and then his rear brakes failed completely. He had no time to drive around the problem.
• I believe that had both Nico and Lewis not had rear-brake issues, Lewis would have won this race.

Austria: (18pts)

• Lewis makes a mistake at the penultimate corner on his best lap in Q3, and has his time erased. Would've had pole by 3 tenths, but it was a driver error, so doesn't apply here.
• Lewis then spun at Turn 2 through no fault of his own. Yet the team say there was no apparent failure on the car. Neither driver nor car were at fault.
• In clear air during the race, the Mercedes were brutally quick. If it weren't for the Williams holding them up, Nico would've breezed to victory much earlier.
• However, Hamilton's pace wasn't enough to catch Nico in the closing stages.
• Second place.

Great Britain: (25pts)

• Lewis get's into second place in the first few laps after starting 6th (4th on the restart), and steadily catches Nico towards the end of his first stint.
• Lewis opts for the alternate strategy as Nico and takes the Prime tyre for his second stint. This tyre proves to be the better race tyre and Lewis starts to catch Nico at .6-.8 tenths per lap.
• Had Nico's gearbox not given up on him, I still believe Lewis had the pace to overtake him, since his pace advantage was so great. And he would've been on the faster tyre at the end of the race as well.

Hockenheim: (18-25pts)

• Brake failure in qualifying meant he was eliminated after Q2 as his time was still good enough.
• Would have started from the front row.
• Pace was good enough to beat Nico had he started from the front row. However, Nico was coasting for most of the race.
• Possibly could have won the race had he not had a brake failure in qualifying.
• Minimum 18pts.

Hungaroring: (15-18pts)

• Oil leak induced fire eliminated him from Q1.
• Was fastest through all three practice sessions, so it stands to reason he would've put it on pole.
• Would he have gotten the benefit of the safety car had he been streets ahead as Rosberg was? Probably not. Because it benefited those who we're further back (as he was in reality).
• Riccardo's strategy and track position for the safety was absolutely perfect. So long as that safety car came out, Ricciardo would have won the race regardless.
• Maximum for Hamilton: 18pts.

So, after all that theoretical-ness, the championship standing so far would look something like this:

Lewis Hamilton:
Maximum: 254pts
Minimum: 212pts.



Would that be enough to place him on top in the World Driver's Championship?
Yes.


But, it's completely hypothetical, so all in all, this has been a waste of time. lol,
Let's just hope he can regain the lead and run away with it so that Abu Double doesn't end up deciding the Championship

 

[Robert vd Heide]

Just to clear something up, there is a lot of talk about Nico 'demanding that Lewis be told to let him by', but the only thing he said on the radio was 'Why is he not letting me past?'. It was the TEAM who decided to tell him to pass and it was the TEAM who decided to tell Lewis not to hold Nico up. I have not seen or heard anything to confirm that Nico asked or demanded it.

IMO, he was too far back, and in any case the team were wrong to give that order, it did nothing for their image and at the same time did not make Rosberg look good either.

Actually it was the Team owners trying to let the mechanics do their dirty work,
david coulthart explained that this also occurred in his racing career,,and drivers usually ignore these commands from the pits,,if the owners want to implement teamorders,the racer wants to hear it straight from them
Nicos father was a famous racer and earned his place in German automotive industry
and is an icon for autosport in germany
therefore it isnt too hard to imagine the teamowners have a slight favour towards Nico(loyalty to his father)
i watch on BBC and german RTL,,and see both camps
on BBC Nikki Lauda pretents to be neutral
and couldnt blame Hamilton for executing the teamorder the way he did(not slow down,just move aside if Nico passes,,wich he DIDNT)
on BBC are old teamowner Jordan an D.Coulthart,to keep Lauda straight
but also german media tries to make a GERMANY vs BRITTAIN
so there are plenty of powers at work to play the Mercedes team against itself

Nikki lauda stated that when the team is sure of the constructors championship,,the 2 drivers are free to fight for their championship without holding back.

ps .DAVID COULTHARD warned that these actions destroy the thrust between mechanic and racedriver ,and will cost them

 

[Chris]

Yes, Mercedes are paying Lewis Hamilton $60million just so they can sabotage his championship against their countryman. /stronglogic

What complete and utter rubbish.
I'm sorry, but I just cannot stand people who buy into all of this "Mercedes favoring Nico conspiracy" crap.
I consider myself a rabid Lewis Hamilton supporter, so much so that I actually want to see Rosberg's car fail just so that it'll be easier for Hamilton to win. But even I know that the notion of them favoring one driver over the other is completely ridiculous.

Sure Lewis has been painfully unlucky this year. But that's just part of Motorsport. These things happen.

 

[morsify]

Yes, Mercedes are paying Lewis Hamilton $60million just so they can sabotage his championship against their countryman. /stronglogic

What complete and utter rubbish.

Fully agree with this. Opposite to you, I am a fan of Rosberg and would rather see all the luck fall his way lol.
But any talk of conspiracy is utter rubbish, the team do not mind who wins, they get big money from the constructors title which they will certainly win. But they paid Lewis big money and they will support both drivers.

In fact it is a long time since I saw ANY team allow their drivers to race so much, it has been a breath of fresh air to F1.

 

[Ho3n3r]

Hamilton is 14 points behind.
Let's say Hamilton won in Australia and came 2nd in Canada.
That's another 43 points gained with Rosberg losing 7, so Hamilton now leads by 36 points.

All very good points. By the way, if that were the case, Rosberg would have lost 10 points, as Hamilton would've finished a place in front of Rosberg had that been the case.

However, I think Rosberg would've won Montreal, had both Mercs remained 100% healthy,

 

[David O'Reilly]

First and foremost I love the photo of these two guys as young Karters.
Amazing really that Rosbergs Kart had an AMG logo front and side. That blows me away.

To the question.
In my mind this is shades of Prost and Senna at McLaren. Two great drivers# in the best car.

The case for Nico
yes its not a typo#.
I was one of probably many who wondered if Rosberg was the real deal. I somehow overlooked that when paired with 7 times WDC Shumacher he was totally unfazed and came out on top. In the uncompetitive M/Benz you just couldnt tell how fast he was (think Ricciardo in HRT for example). Rosberg very very rarely makes an error. Brundle once said in that period that Nico drives like AI. It did seem that way. But it now seems that Nico does not feel pressure much if at all. he just seems to continually search for more when needed to beat his team mate.

The races where Hamilton has come out on top in a straight fight have been incredibly close. (Bahrain). Nico kept his car safe and took 18 points when 25 points included too much risk. In Monaco Hamiltons script had him stealing pole in his last run but we must remember that at that point Nico had pole. No one gave him pole he was fastest in the first run. So my case for Nico is that he is consistent but he is also very fast. Fast enough to put a lot of pressure on Hamilton in a qualifying session. He is also polite, unflappable and diplomatic. His words to the crowd at Sepang were a marketers dream. "You should be proud Malaysia as your company Petronas helped us do this" this in the immediate aftermath of the dissappeared (Malaysian) airliner.

The case for Lewis
Lewis is very very fast. By consensus possibly the fastest at this moment.
He is however a little impetuous at times. He is emotional in a latin way, wanting great victories.
He denied himself the WDC in his rookie year 2007 when in China he wasnt happy to just play the numbers game and get points. he wanted to win and ended up in the gravel at the pit entry.
This season he has driven brilliantly on many occasions.
In Bahrain the battle with him on primes and Nico on options was one of the best ever. He tactical placement of his car was a vituoso drive. Helped a little by Bahrains lack of high speed corners.
His drive from the pits at Hungary also stunning.
In Monaco his script was not read by Nico and Hamiltons failure to take polewas in part due to him not setting a good time in run 1. He did the same a couple of years ago and gambled at Monaco on a stunning 2nd run and got traffic (Massa I think). These are poor tactical choices and reveal a self belief in pure speed being enough.
M/Benz were wrong to ask him to allow his WDC and race rival to pass and have said as much.
Lewis has had mechanical issues and so has Nico (Silverstone). Arguably Nico managed his better at Montreal and took good points.

Summing up and conclusions.
They are both very fortunate to be in the only car that can win the WCC and WDC.
The fight for the WDC is all the more intense as there are really only 2 protagonists.
They are both good enough to win it. In the maths of probability Nico will have one or two more bits of bad luck in the second half.
But the reason Nico is ahead is that there is only a cigarette paper between them over a race weekend.
There is a different mentality about the WDC from these two. IMO Lewis feels it is desrevdly his and anything that happens that might deny this is a great misfortune or injustice and consequently casues great anguish.
Nico on the other hand is using every tool, every opportunity and all his skill to win the WDC. He doesn't expect it but he is determined to win it.
Its a thrilling fight and either could win.
Neither deserves it more than the other and both would be deserving champions.

 

[Kartik Sri Harsha]

I don't like Lewis at all but he deserve to lead and Win the WDC.

 

[Chris Jenkins]

It'll be interesting to see how the Mercedes team behave once they've wrapped up the Constructors championship.
At the moment, they have to improve reliability on Lewis's car to grab maximum points.
Once that's no longer important for the team, do you think they'll stop bothering or worrying so much?

I predict them taking a "whatever happens happens" attitude once they win the WCC and stop developing the car.