A Message For The Hamilton Supporters

[LionKing]

It's very interesting though, Vettel had plenty of poles up until the summer break but won one race and got robbed at Valencia by the alternator. So he deserves the benefit of doubt for at least that one. But then again Webber was one better than Vettel in quali comparision come the summer break and Vettel had missed the q3 cut more than a couple of times. After the break everything changed, he came good when the car was really really fast and not before.

At the summer break Vettel was 6-5 in front in quali.
VETTEL: BAHRAIN, SPAIN, CANADA, VALENCIA, GERMANY, HUNGARY
WEBBER: AUSTRALIA, MALAYSIA, CHINA, MONACO, BRITAIN

Vettel was even better in race comparsion:
He finished 6 of those 11 pre-break races in front of Webber. He was in the lead in another in Valencia and he was in front of Webber in Malaysia before the cucumber incident....

[WhiteBlue]

Webber was one better than Vettel in quali comparision come the summer break and Vettel had missed the q3 cut more than a couple of times. After the break everything changed, he came good when the car was really really fast and not before.

Vettel did not like the RB8 when they were messing around with the different exhaust solutions. They never got into a stable situation where the downforce was reliable and the car felt consistent. Once Newey had the exhaust sorted out Vettel once again was more capable to extract the performance potential of the tyres compared to his team mate. And with the DDRS from Singapore he had the tool to match and beat McLaren's pace at least for a series of decisive races. He used his opportunity with flawless drives and thankfully was spared further unreliabilities.

I agree that Hamilton should have taken his championship to the wire at Interlagos. It was cruel luck that McLaren had a very bad operational record and bad reliability this season. Tough luck.

[Gerhard Berger]

It's very interesting though, Vettel had plenty of poles up until the summer break but won one race and got robbed at Valencia by the alternator. So he deserves the benefit of doubt for at least that one. But then again Webber was one better than Vettel in quali comparision come the summer break and Vettel had missed the q3 cut more than a couple of times. After the break everything changed, he came good when the car was really really fast and not before.

At the summer break Vettel was 6-5 in front in quali.
VETTEL: BAHRAIN, SPAIN, CANADA, VALENCIA, GERMANY, HUNGARY
WEBBER: AUSTRALIA, MALAYSIA, CHINA, MONACO, BRITAIN

Vettel was even better in race comparsion:
He finished 6 of those 11 pre-break races in front of Webber. He was in the lead in another in Valencia and he was in front of Webber in Malaysia before the cucumber incident....

at Sepang, Webber was actually in front before a botched pitstop let Vettel in front.

[Nando]

No problems for anyone and Hamilton would have wrapped this up a long time ago.

So impressed by everything he's done this year, some crazy tough times this year that would make a normal person break down completely.

The way he's been tossing around that Mclaren has been a sight to behold.
Super excited for next year!

[NathanOlder]

Yeah, cant wait to see Lewis in a Merc.

As for this season, Everyone has to agree the way Lewis dealt with the gearbox in singapore (walking away calm, hands behind his back) was exceptional. That moment pretty much meant the end for Lewis in the championship, that was the point Horner told Vettel he was back in the hunt. It could have been alot better for Lewis,most of the other drivers would have kicked lumps out of that car or atleast thrown his helmet on the floor. It was a real highlight of how mature he has become after a difficult year in 2011.

[CHT]

Mclaren reliability issue is really nothing new to F1. Post Mika, they have had Kimi, Alonso, Lewis and Button driving for them, but they only managed to win 1 WDC.

I think it will be refreshing to see Lewis not driving for a top team.

[PlatinumZealot]

Don't jinx it! I dream of Mercedes becoming a "super" team in 2013!

[horse]

This year, I have seen a real change on him, more mature.

Still, don't forget twitter-gate. That wasn't his finest hour.

I would agree with the general sentiment of the thread, that he has driven excellently this season and McLaren have somewhat let him (and themselves, in terms of the constructors) down this season.

[wesley123]

This year, I have seen a real change on him, more mature.

Still, don't forget twitter-gate. That wasn't his finest hour.

I would agree with the general sentiment of the thread, that he has driven excellently this season and McLaren have somewhat let him (and themselves, in terms of the constructors) down this season.

That 'twitter-gate' incident, and after that the second 'twitter-gate' incident show the situation in McLaren pretty well. Hamilton would probably felt a lack of trust towards him, and otherwise would same be the case. Hamiltons and McLarens goal were definetely not the same, where Hamilton wanted himself to win the WDC, McLAren felt the need towards a more even biassed environment where both could go for the WDC, seems like they wanted to 'relive' the Senna/Prost friendship and rivalry within the team.

Also when Hamiltons move was announced Hamilton stated that; 'I have signed a contract for 3 years, so even if I'm not successful with Mercedes it is just 3 years of my career lost.'. You could read that like it stand there, but you could also read it as; 'I'd rather be in the midfield with Merc than drive another year for McLaren.', and personally I believe the latter was the case.

Either way this year he had been perfect, and would have won the WDC with ease if bad luck didnt haunt him, but I am confident he can show himself in the Merc, even if it is a crappy car, and make himself a legend he sure wants himself to be

[PlatinumZealot]

They say it is better to be the head of an ant than the tail of a lion!

[raymondu999]

They say it is better to be the head of an ant than the tail of a lion!

That would be true if he started playing in the anthill rather than in the savannah. Problem is, now instead of being a lion's tail in the savannah, he's the ant's head, STILL in the savannah.

[Phillyred]

I could definitely see a Hamilton return to McLaren one day. Hopefully he didn't burn any bridges with his foolish twitter-gate episode. As a dedicated Hamilton fan I'm not expecting too much at Mercedes next year and if the car proves to be podium finisher I wouldn't dare say it is down to Hamilton alone however good he is at "over-driving" or extracting the maximum potential and set-up with the car. I would have to think Mercedes has learned some valuable lessons in the past 3yrs and should keep progressing up the constructor's ladder as a solid team regardless of driver input. 2012 was just a great season for any fan of F1 and I hope 2013 proves to be just as great!

[Nando]

Hopefully he didn't burn any bridges with his foolish twitter-gate episode.

If Hamilton said kiss my feet and i´ll be back, Martin would do it.
I hear he´s walking around with knee pads in his pocket should the situation ever occur.

No but seriously, Martin tried to play hard to catch, "oh i think he regrets it" then he understood Hamilton did not regret it one bit and the next thing that came from Martin´s mouth was "i hope it´s just an off-year"

or gap year or something.

[motorloon1993]

Watching the build up for Brazil when everyone was tense and I remember seeing a shot of Lewis heading out in the uncertain conditions, just seeing that Yellow helmet peering out of the chrome and red McLaren my heart just sank thinking about this season it should have been HAM in his McLaren vs Alonso in his Ferrari vs Vettel in his Red bull it would have been epic beyond all proportion.

I've always been a Hamilton fan but by default like I got into F1 around the early 2000's and even though Button was around he never seemed to challenge for the title and I was kinda hoping I'd see a British great like the ones I read about Stewart, Clark, Mansell etc and also some change with the Schu about. How Hamilton entered the sport was just a dream come true a super aggressive super fast brit driving for my favourite team, his attitude started to annoy me every now and then but this year he has really grown up, and drove the ass of this car how he qualified is just sublime I really feel he deserved this title just as much as Vettel and Alonso did any of them could have one it and I wouldn't argue against it.

I know this seems silly after the mother of a season we had because it was a belter, but just imagine if Lewis wasn't woefully unlucky this season and it went down to the wire. oh well.

[Nando]

Probably the most impressive rookie year we will ever see in Formula 1.
He came in, people who did not know who he was thought Mclaren were idiots, people who knew, knew
First race, starts handing out cans of whoop ass to everyone.

It´s incomprehensible what he did in Turn 1 at Australia in his first ever F1 race.
the ones that came after, like Malaysia, he schooled Massa so hard that he went off the road.

(this will probably be moved to fanboy thread )