Agreed. Russel appears to very very good at qualifying but so was Bottas And Rosberg. All talented drivers. What they found challenging is that they were used to setting the car to be best in qualifying and it being good enough to race their teammates on Sunday. When it came to LH those drivers found that that way of setting up for the weekend could not work. They had to dial back their qualifying performance and find some middle ground that would allow them to have consistent pace on Sunday. Basically the problem is that Hamilton's race compromised setup was just as quick if not quicker than their qualy biased setup on Saturday. I don't think Lewis has made any of them wiser to this. But eventually they realize what's happening.Phil wrote: ↑02 Sep 2021, 16:50Personally, I think Russel will have a rude awakening when he is finally measured against a known quantity. Battling team-mates like Latifi could have you believe you're top tier. Prior to that, Ricciardo has gone through that process (when beating Vettel, only to later encounter Verstappen and now Norris), Alonso (when encountering Lewis), Vettel (beating Webber & Kimi, then encountering Ricciardo and later Leclerc), Bottas, battling Massa and then encountering Lewis.
Not saying Lewis is the best, but I'm confident that Russel will only realize what he is up against when getting into that car next to the multiple world champion. My guess is that Russel is very good, but I am yet to be convinced he will be better than Bottas or Rosberg is/was. Both Bottas and Rosberg have beaten Lewis, but rarely and never consistently and convincingly over a season.
I'm nervous for this year, as I think it's going to be extremely close between Max and Lewis, but once this year is over, I'd say bring on the new challenge in new cars that hopefully will put even more focus on the drivers ability.
Russel may find himself in that completely new situation. His mr saturday setups just wont be good enough to mount a challenge.
As for this season.. Something tells me that Max will drop the ball. He will have a good run of wins.. but the ball will drop. Maybe Lewis may have some luck as i really dont think the W12 is up to the task to give Hamilton any kind of gap in points to control the lead.
The redbull is too strong and Max is very consistent each weekend.