zeroday wrote: ↑31 Jul 2024, 12:40
Quantum wrote: ↑31 Jul 2024, 09:29
PlatinumZealot wrote: ↑30 Jul 2024, 22:21
Well that killed their arguments! Good old facts!! Bravo.
You can see why Ferrari have spent 400m signing Hamilton.
He will lead car design, updates, race strategy and also drive the car.
Historically, Lewis does have a very impressive record of shaping up teams into champions: Impeccable instincts, knowledge, and experience. And right now, Ferrari desperately needs his mindset more than he needs them. Ferrari is a mess and its clear Leclerc is not "The One" (at least not yet).
I consider Lewis as one of the greatest driver talents F1 has seen. Anything more than that is stretch. He never had maturity or abilities to be a team leader. His tantrums at McLaren after Jenson joined are well documented. Leaking telemetry was one of them. He was pissed off that the whole team started revolving around Jenson despite Lewis being faster of the two. Jenson was good at influencing people and build that connection. Ultimately Lewis left McLaren.
In the "Brackley Boys" podcast a year or two back, James Vowels was talking about Lewis' and said, when he arrived at Mercedes, he was a "mercenary" out there to win for himself and remained a pariah for the team. Nico was doing what Jenson did.
Not until Nico left that Lewis was the defacto No.1 driver at Mercedes and then started integrating with the team. Until 2019, he hated doing testing for the team. It was only after major tyre struggles through 2017 and 2018 and watching Seb do loads of testing was when he realised he cannot add value for development if he doesn't test.
He loses heart when the car is not performing and has thrown the team under the bus in public. That doesn't really represent his team building skills. Now compare that to Schumacher who is the role model of building teams and he never said a word against his team in public or vented out any rants over radio (whatever limited is available to be heard).
Even in 2022 to mid part of this year, he had no heart to drive the cars and was resigned from giving his 100%. If Ferrari isn't competitive, we would again see this behaviour. Not sure if Tifosi and Italian media would be as forgiving as Mercedes are. I doubt he can transform that team if it continues its current struggles. But if the car is there to compete, he would be in full glory and we can witness some great drives.