Have Your Say: Hamilton, Talent or Car Responsible for Success?

[MarkR]

Hamilton is all about Mastery, not talent. He was groomed from an early age and has thousands of hours of experience, we just see the end result and call it talent when in reality it is the result of thousands of hour of arduous hard work, mistakes and willingness to continue to unlearn and relearn and that is mastery. This accounts for maybe 40% of his success.

The team, car, engineering is the other 40%, F1 is as much an engineering sport as anything else.

The other 20%, probably more, in reality, is pure blind luck. Right place, right time, right age, motivated dad, McLaren believing in growing talent etc etc etc.

 

[Jan Larsen]

100% what he said^

 

[John Addison]

Like Vettel back at RB Lewis enjoys the fruits of a great car. Any driver in the top half of the grid could do the same results in that car over these past years. Never a fan of his but he is a dam good driver. But so are most all in F1.......most. What I cant handle is when they compare him to Senna, are you freaking kidding me.

 

[arniesan]

The 3 years Button was Hamiltons' team mate showed Hamilton is nothing special when he is not in the best car, ( at that time Mac' was slipping back ), as Button equaled him over those years, except for pole's.
I lost all respect for him when he left Mac' ( the team that had backed him from the age of 11 years ), when they really needed his loyalty. J.B stayed loyal and today is respected by all in F1.
Like Alonso, Button had to earn his WDC the hard way; driving dogs for most of his career.
Now we are seeing what some of us have always known...Hamilton is a top driver, in the best car only.
Merc' still has the edge over Ferrari, but a true great driver ( Vettel ) is showing Hamilton how to drive.
Hamilton has had a charmed F1 career and can thank Rosberg and Schumie for doing all the hard work developing the Merc', in the main.
I'm a Brit' and would love to be cheering Hamilton, ( as I used to ), but he just dose not deserve all the praise he gets...he is just a very good driver, like many more on the grid, that have not had a charmed career.

 

[Heinz Müller]

@Itcars I absolutely agree with you, same story like me. He was sympathetic but nowadays I hate him. He got withdrawn when he changed to Mercedes GP. It's always a 50/50. The car has to be good, otherwise you won't win: E.g. Fernando Alonso, he has so much talent, but the car is just crap = not winning races. Eventually, everyone who drives a great car deserves that somehow through performances in earlier stages. It's fine to me and what would be the counter for that? Unique engines? Please don't.

 

[Allan Ramsbottom]

Hamilton is all about Mastery, not talent. He was groomed from an early age and has thousands of hours of experience

..Hav,nt they all???,your not telling me Rosbergs dad or any of the others dads just sat on there couch watching TV while there sons were ripping round a cart/race track..His TALENT was seen at a very young age as some of the others were,but then there is talent and then there is talent.. you then learn about Mastery, perfecting your craft so on...

 

[MarkR]

..Hav,nt they all???,your not telling me Rosbergs dad or any of the others dads just sat on there couch watching TV while there sons were ripping round a cart/race track..His TALENT was seen at a very young age as some of the others were,but then there is talent and then there is talent.. you then learn about Mastery, perfecting your craft so on...

Nope, that's the talent myth, the idea there is a natural aptitude for some. A subject well investigated by science, especially K.Anders Ericsson useful little article here https://hbr.org/2007/07/the-making-of-an-expert. People still like the idea of innate talent though so I know well that people will disagree.

I agree with you that the dads nurturing played a huge part. How many of the current grid have motorsport connected dad? Rosberg had the advantage of a dad with F1 pedigree and money. Sometimes a better start in life leads to less drive, maybe that is part of the reason for Hamilton's greater overall success - just a theory though.

Haven't they all had thousands of hour of high-quality practice, no. Some have repeated the laps many times with little or no learning repeating the same mistakes. Plenty of drivers (especially pay) on the grid over the years have some skill but nowhere near the dedicated hours of others, they have money to overcome that though. Anyway, this was about Hamilton and for me, Hamilton is the product of an intensive lifelong development programme which is the essence of mastery. I'd also suggest it is that mastery that allowed him to overcome the racial and cultural barriers to a career in F1 - and sell millions of previously fuddy duddy Mercs to yoofs.

Just an opinion as part of the discussion of course because things are so easily seen as more than that on the interweb.

 

[aphidgod]

the car you drive , the team you drive for is all good but mental toughness is the key and last year he got beat ! he beat himself ! he showed weakness .

If you want to get pedantic, Lewis suffered engine troubles in Malaysia and took a DNF. He lost the title to Rosberg by 5 points. His car let him down, period.

Of course Rosberg's title is proof enough that the car is the major factor.

 

[Lum]

Hamilton, as a driver, is not my cup of tea. Not to mention as a public personality (I know that that's not what we're debating here). But he's a very talented driver. Who denies that is denying reality. However, a lot of his successes were achieved in a top car. So the 50/50 option. His talent clashes with his work ethic, were other drivers like Rosberg did well and Vettel or Alonso shine.

 

[Terry Rock]

A trend seems to be forming...
He's not a good driver because he got into a great car right from the start.
He couldn't win if the car was not great.
I don't like or root for him since he left McLaren. He's ungrateful.
I don't like his lifestyle. He's a punk rapper wanna-be.
I don't like his partying.
I think he's cold and doesn't like his fan.
He gets paid way too much money.
Did I miss any?

 

[aphidgod]

Well, there's the fact that he's black, but at least people at RD have the good sense not to put that one in writing.

 

[Raikku]

Well, he wouldn't win with Sauber, so...

And he has awful taste of music

 

[Ghoults]

Nobody in F1 can win races without the best car. And even if you are in the best car you still need to beat your team mate if you are both given equal resources to compete. There are exceptions but those are in very special circumstances where people crashed out or a team took a massive gamble on rain setup that worked out. That being said lewis has never had a bad car in f1 nor has he ever driven for a small team. He has always been in a team that has massive budget even if the car may not have been good enough to win every race or championship. Had lewis not moved from mclaren to mercedes when he did the story would be very different.

F1 is all about the car. But if a driver finds himself in the fastest car then he must be able to win. Vettel did that, schumacher did that and hamilton did that. There is not more you can ask for. It is not a fault of the driver if he has lucked out to have a perfect career with the best teams.

 

[Jeffers58]

You need the talent to stay in top teams for as long as he has. Part of a driver's talent is moving to the right team at the right time, which is why Hamilton will always be more talented than Alonso.

I don't think that's a talent but more of an astuteness and understanding of what may be on the horizon.
Personally, love him or hate him his talent is undeniable, in terms of raw speed he's perhaps unrivalled. I am of the opinion that Alonso is the most complete driver on the F1 grid, but you cannot deny Hamilton's skill. Of course you can understandably hark back to 2007, but I felt his driving in 2012 was quite impressive. After a difficult '11 campaign he bounced back with some sterling performances and should have/would have been a factor in the title battle had he been served with a more reliable car by McLaren.

Yes, from 2014-16 he has been in the most dominant car in the grid, but haven't most F1 greats found themselves in a dominant car at some point in their career? Prost? Senna? Schumacher? Vettel? Granted, I do think that he was in somewhat of privileged position to find himself making his debut in a race/championship contending car, but it was up to him to demonstrate that he could extract every inch of performance from the car, which he duly did.

His attitude questionable at times? yes. His talent? Never in doubt for me

 

[WOKOWEN1]

Why questioning Hamilton????? Why not Vettel in first place? Vettel is the biggest flop of all the champions. Probably he was the main reason so many fans stoped watching F1. Can't forget is red bull car in Melbourne gaining 6 seconds on the first lap a few years ago. Can't forget being left for dead by a freshman Daniel Ricciardo. Can't forget struggling against Webber...cmon guys Hamilton??? ...Say Roseberg at least

 

[ltcars]

Why questioning Hamilton????? Why not Vettel in first place? Vettel is the biggest flop of all the champions. Probably he was the main reason so many fans stoped watching F1. Can't forget is red bull car in Melbourne gaining 6 seconds on the first lap a few years ago. Can't forget being left for dead by a freshman Daniel Ricciardo. Can't forget struggling against Webber...cmon guys Hamilton??? ...Say Roseberg at least

So I was a Vettel-fan at this time and I never thought the races were boring, because I was a Vettel-fan. The same can be said about Mercedes the last years, as it was for me as a Vettel-fan quit boring and desperating to watch the races. It is always the perspective of which you watch the things

 

[James Cook]

Both, of course. The cars don't drive themselves.

Hamilton had the raw talent to be chucked straight in a McLaren at a very young age and has earned his seat in the best car on the grid.

 

[Monstro]

Hamilton has loosed against Rosberg...who is not a legend and by far.
so even if he has the best car ....
Schumacher or Senna in their time would have never lost against a driver like Rosberg in a whole season.
Prost wouldn't have also
and everyone can noticed that.
So...im not very sure that Hamilton is a legend like some of you said.
Talented, yes he is,there is no doubt, but a legend surely not. (on facebook and instagram he's a legend, that's for sure)

i may be wrong but that's my two cents
never be a fan of him, never will.

 

[ltcars]

In all hate against him, I have to say I am every time astounded how good in numbers he is. I think he has the 2nd most Pole positions after Schuhmacher

 

[yusupov]

i don't like the question...with mercedes he was only racing against one driver, & he wasn't elite. so...i still wouldn't know the answer to that specific question; obviously the car was beyond tremendous, but he was more talented than rosberg.

he was absolutely deserving of his 2 championships there & would've deserved a third if he'd managed to pull it off. think i have to abstain from this one bc it either clashes with how i evaluate drivers or i don't understand it.