Formula 1 2022 (Will Contain Spoilers)

[Stratman]

'Welcome to my world, Lewis!', says Alonso.

After an unprecedented eight years of success, Hamilton is suddenly in a very similar to position to Alonso this season - in the midfield, held back by an uncompetitive car.

"This is the nature of the sport," Alonso says. "Sometimes you have a better car, sometimes you have not such a good car and you still need to fight and make some progress.

"This year we see that the driver is very important in F1 but not crucial.

"Lewis is driving as good as he has been the last eight years. He was dominating the sport and breaking all the records and 100-and-something pole positions. And now he is doing a mega lap - as he said in Australia or somewhere like that - and he is one second behind. So, yeah - welcome."

 

[Deleted member 126251]

'Welcome to my world, Lewis!', says Alonso.

After an unprecedented eight years of success, Hamilton is suddenly in a very similar to position to Alonso this season - in the midfield, held back by an uncompetitive car.

"This is the nature of the sport," Alonso says. "Sometimes you have a better car, sometimes you have not such a good car and you still need to fight and make some progress.

"This year we see that the driver is very important in F1 but not crucial.

"Lewis is driving as good as he has been the last eight years. He was dominating the sport and breaking all the records and 100-and-something pole positions. And now he is doing a mega lap - as he said in Australia or somewhere like that - and he is one second behind. So, yeah - welcome."

Yep. Although the LH fanboys will still insist that it was all him and not the car.

 

[Mactech]

Yep. Although the LH fanboys will still insist that it was all him and not the car.

Well! I wasn't expecting that....much!

 

[Bellow]

Yep. Although the LH fanboys will still insist that it was all him and not the car.

Hamilton has beaten team mates to the championship on seven occasions and been beaten by a team mate once.

There are no 'fanboys' - only facts and haters.

 

[baxlin]

Well! I wasn't expecting that....much!

I was surprised it took so long...

 

[Deleted member 126251]

Well! I wasn't expecting that....much!

At least you understand that it is mainly the car that wins races.

I wonder how well MB F1 shirts are selling this year.

 

[190]

Hamilton has beaten team mates to the championship on seven occasions and been beaten by a team mate once.

There are no 'fanboys' - only facts and haters.

And the once he was beaten, his so called team mate had to cheat to do it.

 

[Mactech]

At least you understand that it is mainly the car that wins races.

No, I understand that it is the team, the car and the driver working together in harmony that is the most important thing.
I know nothing about T shirts.

 

[Stratman]

Sainz on porpoising

Interesting suggestion from Norris at the end. He is of course correct, but nobody would want to be the first to do it.

 

[Mactech]

Sainz on porpoising

Interesting suggestion from Norris at the end. He is of course correct, but nobody would want to be the first to do it.

Lando is quite correct. Lifting the ride height would cure the problem at a stroke.
The can of worms that would open would be regulating it.
Scroll back 40 years and all scrutineers were armed with hockey stick devices of 40mm height to measure the static ride and prevent the cars running too low. It took a matter of minutes to work out various devious means to circumnavigate that when the car was running on the circuit!

 

[GeeJayW]

Lando is quite correct. Lifting the ride height would cure the problem at a stroke.
The can of worms that would open would be regulating it.
Scroll back 40 years and all scrutineers were armed with hockey stick devices of 40mm height to measure the static ride and prevent the cars running too low. It took a matter of minutes to work out various devious means to circumnavigate that when the car was running on the circuit!

I saw a comment the other day that currently (for some cars I assume) the ride height is dropping by up to 70mm when out on track. Adding more ride height would make them look like 4x4s

 

[Deleted member 126251]

Hamilton has beaten team mates to the championship on seven occasions and been beaten by a team mate once.

There are no 'fanboys' - only facts and haters.

Yep - there sure has been a lot of hatred and vitriol toward MV and his team...........

I’ve never denied his (LH) skills as a driver.

Of course he beat his team mates, because he was a better driver than them. However, even if all the other drivers were as good as he is, they would not have been able to win against the dominant MBs.

Because he currently does not have the best car, we now are seeing LH struggling, and his team mate two places higher than him in the championship. Why is that when they both have the same car?

 

[Stratman]

Why is that when they both have the same car?

Possibly because Hamilton knows how good the car used to be, and doesn't think that pushing at eleven tenths will achieve anything worthwhile. Meanwhile Russell is having the time of his life in the best car (bar one race) he's ever driven.

 

[GeeJayW]

Yep - there sure has been a lot of hatred and vitriol toward MV and his team...........

I’ve never denied his (LH) skills as a driver.

Of course he beat his team mates, because he was a better driver than them. However, even if all the other drivers were as good as he is, they would not have been able to win against the dominant MBs.

Because he currently does not have the best car, we now are seeing LH struggling, and his team mate two places higher than him in the championship. Why is that when they both have the same car?

Though I suspect I’m on your ignore list, as you never respond to anything I post…

George Russell is a very talented driver. He is clearly very motivated right now, whilst Hamilton seems less prepared to really push a car that doesn’t (in his view) reward the effort. Time will tell who of the two is the better driver.

 

[Petrol Pete]

Technically 'time will tell who is the better driver...' but we are going to have to wait a while for GR to win 8 F1 world titles before he becomes "better" than Sir LH surely ?

 

[st13phil]

Sainz on porpoising

Interesting suggestion from Norris at the end. He is of course correct, but nobody would want to be the first to do it.

I made the point a few weeks back that continuing to subject currently fit drivers to the high-G loads that the porpoising causes will likely harm them in the medium to longer term. Interesting that Sainz has publicly stated so, with some evidence.

I also made the point that the lack of correlation between simulations that inform the design process and the real world is best remedied by carrying out real world testing with appropriate instrumentation, and that unless and until that happens the porpoising issue is unlikely to be resolved to a satisfactory level.

Doing harm to the drivers by continuing to enforce the in-season testing ban (plus the budget cap) is unconscionable, imo. Time for the FIA to take a long, hard, look at what they're presiding over.

 

[GeeJayW]

Technically 'time will tell who is the better driver...' but we are going to have to wait a while for GR to win 8 F1 world titles before he becomes "better" than Sir LH surely ?

If Mercedes can manage down the porpoising problems they currently have so that the car is more drivable, then we will see if George can still wring more out of it than Lewis. If they can’t fix the problem, then what we’re seeing could simply be George being more willing to push in a car that is a real pain to drive than Lewis is.

On the other hand, looking at how strong George was in Lewis’ car in ‘20, when it didn’t fit him and he had to wear racing boots that were too small just to get his feet into the pedal box… He completely outclassed VB that weekend, and is still developing as a driver.

So, George is clearly very handy and Lewis has put in some quite stellar drives in the past, needs to again.

It’s still a bit early for me to decide which of the two is better, but I wouldn’t be surprised either way and I think we’ll find out over the course of the season.

 

[Petrol Pete]

So who of the two is the better driver this season . That's cleared that up .

 

[GeeJayW]

So who of the two is the better driver this season . That's cleared that up .

Yep. If things continue the way they are….

 

[Stratman]

New floor for Mercedes at Barcelona. Note the stay to stop it flapping.