Lewis Hamilton's technical Level?

[andrew]

Actually Andrew, it might be a good thing nobody at school noticed your dyslexia - they noted my brothers at 5 years old, clamped onto him as 'client population' - warehoused him in Special Education - then punted him to the curb at 16 with a grade 6 education. You might have been one of the lucky one's that slipped by the sociologist jobsworhts.

True. Pretty shocking that. Being dyslexic does not mean someone is thick or unintelligent. All it means to me is that a person is a bit slower in some areas or find it harder to understand something(s) (for me it was maths and spelling, though the spelling is miles better than the maths!), but certainly not in most cases in need of Special Education.

On a lighter note, I see that the spokesman for the Dyslexia Foundation is Henry Winkler. Ayyyyyy!

[PlatinumZealot]

Get Firefox browser then, it has a real-time spell checker.

[Pandamasque]

What is he talking about?
Since when is downforce measured in points
Can anybody explain what this means in Newton’s?

Not sure about Newton's but in Ecclestone's 3pts is not a lot, especially since 2010. I all fairness I'd rather have 6 tenths.

[speedsense]

The fundamental difference between a drivers skill of feedback has changed over the last 15 years. That change has happened because of the "rise" of data logging, which has been highly developed over the last 20 years and gone from highly expensive to affordable in all classes of motor sport. DA is common even in gokarts, nowadays.
DA replaces the need for the driver to have recall of a session and provides a tracking of all of the drivers movements (and the cars) at a level of tracking that is impossible for a driver to remember and at a sampling rate that is faster than a human brain to comprehend.
When Schumi first entered F1, it was his first experience of working with DA. Previous to that he relied on his recall and feedback skills to inform his engineer on what the car was doing. With a DA system, properly analyzed, the feedback and recall is improved from a driver's recall by a 100 times. To the point that most of what a driver with great recall cannot match the DA's ability to track everything.
Drivers that began their driving careers 10 or 15 years ago, like Hamilton, Nico, etc. have been using data through out their entire driving careers. They do not need to "learn" the skills of either recall or providing feedback. The DA system does the job so much better.
A new skill has replaced feedback/recall by these younger drivers, that is the ability to analyze their own data. The days of a driver needing to have great recall or even great feedback are gone forever, as DA has replaced it.
I would even go as far as saying that DA improves the technical level of a driver, as they know exactly what makes the car faster and what doesn't because it's measured exactly. The driver's sense of reality rather than his own conceptions based in his brain's memory are improved with DA. IMHO

[ringo]

What about feel and confidence?
Surely the driver has to relate that to the engineers. The data is useful, but it can't interpret itself. The engineer has to sit down with the driver and ask him what happened here or there, was it the car doing this, or was it the driver.
Even though the car is faster, is it drivable etc.
I remember bahrain 2009, when Truli set up the car for qualifying and put it on pole. Data wise, the car was set up perfectly, because it was as fast as it was going to get. However Truli said he was not comfortable with it, and didn't know how long he maintain driving at the level he was at in q3.
So i agree the data takes away the need for the drivers being overly technical, but i still think the driver's input is most important, as it relates to qualitative analysis of the data.

[speedsense]

What about feel and confidence?
Surely the driver has to relate that to the engineers. The data is useful, but it can't interpret itself. The engineer has to sit down with the driver and ask him what happened here or there, was it the car doing this, or was it the driver.
Even though the car is faster, is it drivable etc.
I remember bahrain 2009, when Truli set up the car for qualifying and put it on pole. Data wise, the car was set up perfectly, because it was as fast as it was going to get. However Truli said he was not comfortable with it, and didn't know how long he maintain driving at the level he was at in q3.
So i agree the data takes away the need for the drivers being overly technical, but i still think the driver's input is most important, as it relates to qualitative analysis of the data.

Proper and professional DA analysis, will get a car that is confident and with great feel 9 times out of 10 over the 4 or 5 times that an excellent recall driver without using DA will.

The engineer has to sit down with the driver and ask him what happened here or there, was it the car doing this, or was it the driver.
Even though the car is faster, is it drivable etc.

I disagree, a good analyzer can separate whether it's the driver or the car and can tell when the driver is driving around a problem, creating a problem or if the car is the culprit.
Yes, input is still taken from the driver but that input and the driver's view of the car is always confirmed with the data NOT THE other way around. The data confirms the drivers reality, the drivers reality DOES NOT confirm the data.
And infact, the drivers recall is heighten because of the data, reminding him of things that have occurred during a session. Drivers have become more aware and the clarity of a driver for improvement in the next session, whether in driving or car changes is 100 times improved what it is without the analysis.
Before the car comes into a pit stop, the analysis of how the car is handling whether the driver is driving around a problem or not, is already known to the data guys and related to the engineers. The driver, with input, is only confirming his own personal reality with exact reality of the data. A lot of drivers will actually not say a word, until they look through the data, for chances that the data does not agree with what they say......
Yes, data has changed recall and driver induced engineering in a major way, almost to the point that the skill of recall and development is something the driver doesn't need anymore. DA analysis has become that good....

[PlatinumZealot]

I was very impressed after reading this.. I think he is right up there technically. He gave this technical description off the mp4-27 which was of a quality you could post on any tech website. Here it is:

Hamilton went on to give details about the car.

“Yes, obviously we’ve changed the sidepods, we had the L-shaped sidepods last year. The front of the car is generally the same. Obviously the nose dips down a little bit different to last year; we’ve changed our wing mirrors a little bit, so hopefully we’ll be able to see a lot better, which is something that I was
pushing hard for. Felipe [Massa] will be very happy with that. Then particularly the back of the car is a lot neater than it was last year. It’s much, much tighter. So they’ve focused very much on making it as snug as possible at the back to improve aerodynamics, and, yes, it’s just fully – it’s just completely refined. Obviously the wing is a little bit better in terms of dropping drag, and we’ve tried our best to improve the rear floor, especially with no blown diffuser this year it’s going to be very tricky for us. We’ll lose a lot of
down force without the blown diffuser. When we were on power last year, and when we were off power, we had an incredible amount of downforce just coming from the back floor with the exhaust blowing just by the spat and we don’t have that this year, so that’s really the biggest loss for us, and we are trying to regain it in all other ways. But I think the guys have done a fantastic job, and it’s a lot trickier to drive the way it is right now, but as we get into the season I think we’ll slowly begin to improve and find out where that down force can come
from.”

[ParanoiD]

No, the team just brief him before the event so he know what to say about the car.

I was very impressed after reading this.. I think he is right up there technically. He gave this technical description off the mp4-27 which was of a quality you could post on any tech website. Here it is:

Hamilton went on to give details about the car.

“Yes, obviously we’ve changed the sidepods, we had the L-shaped sidepods last year. The front of the car is generally the same. Obviously the nose dips down a little bit different to last year; we’ve changed our wing mirrors a little bit, so hopefully we’ll be able to see a lot better, which is something that I was
pushing hard for. Felipe [Massa] will be very happy with that. Then particularly the back of the car is a lot neater than it was last year. It’s much, much tighter. So they’ve focused very much on making it as snug as possible at the back to improve aerodynamics, and, yes, it’s just fully – it’s just completely refined. Obviously the wing is a little bit better in terms of dropping drag, and we’ve tried our best to improve the rear floor, especially with no blown diffuser this year it’s going to be very tricky for us. We’ll lose a lot of
down force without the blown diffuser. When we were on power last year, and when we were off power, we had an incredible amount of downforce just coming from the back floor with the exhaust blowing just by the spat and we don’t have that this year, so that’s really the biggest loss for us, and we are trying to regain it in all other ways. But I think the guys have done a fantastic job, and it’s a lot trickier to drive the way it is right now, but as we get into the season I think we’ll slowly begin to improve and find out where that down force can come
from.”

[bhall]

There's no way this resurrected thread gets ugly. It's impossible.

[raymondu999]

I agree with paranoid. There's nothing in this particular quote that shows he has tech know how.The first few lines talk about "d'oh" changes. Only an idiot (not saying anyone here, or Lewis, is) wouldn't spot the change from L-sidepods to conventional ones, etc.

Then the rest is basically "They've improved the car."
Rear is neater, and more refined aerodynamics - better packaging
The wing drops more drag in DRS mode - better DRS
rear floor is improved

The no blown diffuser comment could be him just making the connection to what the car felt like off throttle at the British Grand Prix.

I'm not saying Hamilton doesn't have technical know how, I'm saying this comment shows none of it.

[Pierce89]

Where's the proof Ray? I been watching Lewis closely and I havent seen it... I have seen him roast thru some front tires though.

I joke about all the drivers, nobody is spared, but some bring it upon themselves more than others.

At the end of the day, whether Lewis is as techical as Alonso or not, would you want the driver who is in the car thinking about going fast or actually doing it? Lewis just seems to have that little bit of extra speed that the others dont, a la Senna, always putting his car further up the starting grid than what it would be in the hands of even a great teammate.

Cant wait till low fuel Q3... no more of this fuel corrected crap just an outright duel to see who gots the balls to take it around the fastest.

Funny to read the old Hami-hero worship, now that Button put him in his place. Jenson is the best Brit on the grid.

[Giblet]

I am going to lock this thread now. Its old, and it has already turned into ying yang. Maybe discussing a current thread, and not one from two years ago would be more prudent instead of 'told you so' to an inactive user.