Hamilton will be on his prime while his car is on its prime huhu. Same cars for everyone and we will see WHO is on his prime! F1 is a bit boring from decades ....better follow the GT3 action 
F1 | Is Hamilton Past His Prime?
- Thread starter Paul Jeffrey
- Start date
Probably. Max might get his title in 2020.
He's still the best driver in the field. Even with Ferrari having a better car the last two seasons, he's still came out on top. Let's not forget that had his car not broke in Malaysia in 2016, he would have beaten Nico as well and have 7 championships right now. Lewis wins not only because of his talent but he's incredibly consistent, even when he loses, he's in the mix at the top 3. He just has a way of turning it up and focusing when he needs to win.
Sasha Jednak
Sasa Jednak
One fix above.
Other one, when he loses let's not forget that he was always in top3 in 2010-2013.
He is one of greatest talents, but god he is not.
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If you honestly believe he wins because of the car that is scary. Vettel had a car for 2 years, didn't win. Vettel had a car for 4 years, did win. LeClerc had a car, didn't win. Bottas has the same car as Hamilton, did't win. Get it right, in any effort, I don't care what it is, to become a champion you have to execute properly over and over again. At that level they all have raw talent. If you don't execute you are just a talented loser. Hamilton wins because he is better than his competition, period.
The driver passed his prime is Verstappen. Been on the grid for 5 years with just a handful of wins.
I think questions like these are more of a "we wish he's past his primetime" type and subcontext lol but anyway it sparks a discussion. So no, I don't think he's past his prime time for a couple of more years. It will be when he stops caring enough about it. Plus, you can be talented as much as you want but you don't win a championship in a shitty car. And he has a top car with him so it's even easier. On his whining, I assume it's just his way to dampen the blow he strikes on his opposition, on the bored F1 fans again and his haters after every convincing top finish he delivers. The same goes for Mercedes. And it's boring, let's face it. I'm sure that over time they both got a number of requests from the F1 owners to tone it down a bit sometimes. Think of tickets and TV rights sales. And remember Schumi's domination, the only guys since J.M. Fangio... seven titles altogether, but five titles in a row 2000-2004. It takes a while for someone to show up and beat all that and I think Lewis is locked on to that target. For me this was similar with Dale Earnhardt>Jimmy Johnson thing in NASCAR a while ago. People were really pissed about Jimmy's consistency sometimes.
One fix above.
Other one, when he loses let's not forget that he was always in top3 in 2010-2013.
He is one of greatest talents, but god he is not.
Nope, the DNF in Malaysia cost him the championship in 2016. The loss of points in that race became too much to overcome at that point. That was completely outside of his control.
2016 Formula One World Championship - Wikipedia
Lewis went on to win 4 of the last 5 races and came up 5 points short to Nico. There's a good reason in my opinion that Nico retired after 2016, he knew Lewis was the better driver and he knew he got lucky winning that championship and it wasn't going to happen again. I think Nico chose to go out on top rather than try to defend the championship the following year.
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The CAR has a far bigger role in Lewis's dominance.
People say Schumachers/Ferrari dominance.....but only 2 of his 5 Ferrari championships were 1-2. On the other hand Lewis/Mercedes dominance has seen 3 1-2 finshes and when he lost to Nico that was also a 1-2 for the team so 3 out of his 5 WDCs for Merc were 1-2. but 4 overall. Merc's dominance is FAR more of a factor than Ferrari's.
Schumacher moved to a struggling Ferrari and with Brawn and Todt built them up to be champs. Lewis however benefitted from the engine rule change. If engine rules had stayed the same he wouldn't have had so many titles.
also Schmahcers titles were in an era of much less safety (schumacher broke a leg one year....what's the worst injury Hamilton's had? Has he even HAD an injury?), and much less car reliability.
People say Schumachers/Ferrari dominance.....but only 2 of his 5 Ferrari championships were 1-2. On the other hand Lewis/Mercedes dominance has seen 3 1-2 finshes and when he lost to Nico that was also a 1-2 for the team so 3 out of his 5 WDCs for Merc were 1-2. but 4 overall. Merc's dominance is FAR more of a factor than Ferrari's.
Schumacher moved to a struggling Ferrari and with Brawn and Todt built them up to be champs. Lewis however benefitted from the engine rule change. If engine rules had stayed the same he wouldn't have had so many titles.
also Schmahcers titles were in an era of much less safety (schumacher broke a leg one year....what's the worst injury Hamilton's had? Has he even HAD an injury?), and much less car reliability.
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For a second, I was with you on the Hamilton-part. Then you mention Verstappen is passed his prime, and lost everyone. The guy has never been better, which 2019 statistics backs up. He's had arguably only the 3rd best alround car on the grid for 3½ years, and after he started to mature during late 2017 season, the only thing keeping him from a title is an underperforming engine compared to Merc and Ferrari, albeit Honda surprised everyone in 2019. I'd say his prime has just begun.
I was kidding
Hamilton should be the darling of the sport, and he would be if things that were out of his control were different.
I really have a hard time rooting for generational/rich kids. As someone getting back into F1 for the first time in a long while I think it's a pretty amazing coincidence that all of the best young drivers just happen to be from extremely rich families!
Young drivers from parents of drivers is also really prevalent in F1, when almost all other endeavors in life seems to skew away from this trend. In the NBA/Football/american football/golf/tennis/academics it's really rare for superstars to have siblings and children that are able to compete at the highest level consistently, but like being rich, having a wealthy daddy that has raced cars is really all you need.
Don't crucify me, though, a lot of this is a bit tongue in cheek, but in truth this is definitely how is plays to me as I wrap my head around F1 teams and the drivers going into the 2020 season. Having rewatched a few seasons now, including all of the qualys, races, and press conferences from last year on F1TV, I still find myself rooting for more competitive races, but never actively against hamilton, and I have neither seen nor heard much reason to. The vilification of him is pretty fascinating.
I really have a hard time rooting for generational/rich kids. As someone getting back into F1 for the first time in a long while I think it's a pretty amazing coincidence that all of the best young drivers just happen to be from extremely rich families!
Young drivers from parents of drivers is also really prevalent in F1, when almost all other endeavors in life seems to skew away from this trend. In the NBA/Football/american football/golf/tennis/academics it's really rare for superstars to have siblings and children that are able to compete at the highest level consistently, but like being rich, having a wealthy daddy that has raced cars is really all you need.
Don't crucify me, though, a lot of this is a bit tongue in cheek, but in truth this is definitely how is plays to me as I wrap my head around F1 teams and the drivers going into the 2020 season. Having rewatched a few seasons now, including all of the qualys, races, and press conferences from last year on F1TV, I still find myself rooting for more competitive races, but never actively against hamilton, and I have neither seen nor heard much reason to. The vilification of him is pretty fascinating.
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All great points....and very truthful.
If he is past his prime, then God help all the others in the paddock.
He seems more focused than ever.
Will he always be on top? ....No.
No champion stays on top forever.
Right now, he is still very capable of taking those youngsters to 'school' every now and then in one-on-one fights.
Is the Mercedes a good car?
Sure it is...but so was the Lotus 25, the MP4-4 and the Ferrari F 2001 and just about every other Ferrari Michael used to secure WDC.
The big difference I see all the time, is that Lewis' success is marginalized as being down to the car's dominance or lack of competition compared to other WDC.
That's a bunch of silliness by the way.
His competition is just as good...if not better than the other WDC of the past.
Today's Raikkonen, LeClerc, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Vettel, Perez are just as good...if not better, than drivers in the Prost/Senna era.
Its just a different time with different technology.
Go look up who was competing in those cars...at that time.
As to Lewis...heck!...to some, he still can't even get recognition as the best British driver.
You say best British driver and undoubtedly somebody still comes up talking about Mansell this and Mansell that.
Nigel was a great driver but Lewis already has the stats and WDCs to prove his dominance as the best overall British driver in history.
That cannot be denied regardless of reasoning to like or dislike the man.
His competition is just as stiff now as all the other past WDC.
It is just at a different time in history.
I don't know every background story for the current F1 grid, but to take 2:
Magnussen has a dad that happens to be a racedriver, but he's by no means uberrich. Senior as junior both did Karting like madmen, using all time and savings to do so. They worked hard to win races and get fundings. Eventually, sponsors came, because they were winning.
Lewis, I think everybody knows his story, being from a lower british class, having a dad that sacrificed his life for Lewis to be able to do Karting. Eventually, sponsors came, after much hard work and great talent, and it went from there.
Fact is, yes there's a lot of rich kids doing racing in general, because it takes a sh@tload of money, but there's also the working middleclass family, selling their house to support the dream. Both deserves a seat, if they get results, don't you think?
To be a "darling" of a sport you need to have a stong likeable personality. To use a similar sport in comparison (Moto GP)... Hamilton is no Rossi, he's a Marquez. I have nothing against Marquez, but just cannot warm to him the way I did with Rossi and it seems I'm not alone. Hamilton is the same. Although Hamilton does not act like a workng class Brit, he's gone full on "bling". Jenson Button on the other hand is far more likeable than Hamilton IMO. Then again Schumacher wasn't "likeable" neither was Senna.
Just an interesting snippet of 'News' announced today........Mercedes to quit F1 at the end of 2020, Stroll and Wolfe supposedly in talks re buying the MB Team and rebranding it 'Aston Martin'!
Hamilton out, Stroll Junior in??????
Probably just a rumor but it did sound plausible.
Just to stir the pot it looks as if Valentino will retire from MotoGP at the end of the year!
Hamilton out, Stroll Junior in??????
Probably just a rumor but it did sound plausible.
Just to stir the pot it looks as if Valentino will retire from MotoGP at the end of the year!
No, Aston Martin is now Racing Point and that's confirmed.
