Have Your Say: Hamilton, Talent or Car Responsible for Success?

[paracletus]

You can't win a championship with a slow car. It's never been any different.
IMO, neither LH or SV are quite on the "all-time greats" just yet.
But, as the ferrari & merc are very equal 2017 (some tracks merc is quicker, some ferrari is defintely better), whichever of those two wins DC this year should without any doubt be granted a place among the all time greats of F1.

 

[Terry Rock]

Funny!....
Had McLaren had the presence of mind to pit him and change tires while he was out there 'pounding' around at a rain-drenched China... (in his first ever year in an F1 car), he'd have been the first and only guy ever to win the WDC in his first year.
You can talk until you are blue in the face...there is no denying this man's talent.
Here's a small test for you....
Go drive a fast lap (while managing the Hybrid systems) in any of the currently modeled simulated cars you race here. Compare your result against one of the known 'alien' drivers... then come back and tell me how easy it is to be fast.
Your a** isn't on the line if you hit a wall.
What do you have to lose?
Do it...or stop talking nonsense about everybody could win in that car..

 

[Kakusso]

On his first year in F1 Hamilton has completely shaken the venerable Fernando Alonso at Mclaren to the point that Alonso ended up denouncing Mclaren on spying Ferrari. So it is not just the car. Hamilton pushes the team forward too. When he left Mclaren the car plummeted. When he joined Mercedes the car raised form years on inconsistent results with Rosberg and (the greatest) Shumacher. When he left Mclaren the lead engineer thought Button would be able to push the car forward, he was totally wrong and that cost him his job in the end.

 

[WOKOWEN1]

Hamilton has loosed against Rosberg...who is not a legend and by far.
so even if he has the best car ....
Schumacher or Senna in their time would have never lost against a driver like Rosberg in a whole season.
Prost wouldn't have also
and everyone can noticed that.
So...im not very sure that Hamilton is a legend like some of you said.
Talented, yes he is,there is no doubt, but a legend surely not. (on facebook and instagram he's a legend, that's for sure)

i may be wrong but that's my two cents
never be a fan of him, never will.

Hamilton lost to Roseberg??? LOLLL he didn't even try to win a race last year because he was still bored from previous season when he let Roseberg win the last races just to feel a little bit of challenge.

 

[Jim Layee]

50/50 of course , there is no other answer when discussing an F1 WDC

 

[Kasti]

Always a little bit shaken when talk comes to Hamilton. on one hand he is a fast driver(lucky to sit in the fastest car on and on) on the other hand lots of his his actions makes it salty... He is like a janusface... or Jekyll and Mr. Hide.ok, Vettel and guys like Senna or Schumacher never were always driving like angels... perhaps it is just it happens so often and I don`t like race drivers that are trying to slow down others, i.o. to become WDC. A driver that is polarizing -like him or not. But we had complained about drivers are to well behaved and boring in their statements, better a Jekyll and Hide LH, an angry Vettel or a sometimes a little to ambitious Verstappen than what we have before.

 

[aka2k]

Unless you're a Senna and have some sort of spiritual nirvana while driving at the edge, it's always a 50/50 combo.

 

[samcar304]

Unless you're a Senna and have some sort of spiritual nirvana while driving at the edge, it's always a 50/50 combo.

You forgot about Luca Badoer.... He was so connected with a higher power he forgot where he was and what he was doing that he crashed into the back of a car in Parc Ferme

 

[Joakim Stensnæs]

Honestly, it does not make sense to have an option called "50/50" if the goal is to figure if people think that Hamiltons own talent had a part to play or not.

I don't think anyone will disagree that you're only going to win a championship with a fast and reliable car. That's a given.

 

[stbreaker]

It's a bit ridiculous that there is a question about whether Hamilton is talented or not. Let's remember that he's already
- 2nd in all time wins
- 2nd in pole positions (and only 1 from being tied for 1st)
- Is a triple world champion
- Has had a win in every season he's competed (and not all of them were in the best car)

Obviously there are more accolades that could be tacked on there. And for all those that want to use the "well there are more races now" argument, you will see that his percentages are also quite impressive. Mind you he's only 32, so he still potentially has at least a few more years in his prime.

Now, about his "attitude" which people like to complain about. Yes, he is a confident guy and it shows. Part of his skill comes from his confidence in himself and his abilities (for the opposite effect, please see Kvyat). At times he is upset about missing an opportunity to win. This is a quality that makes other champions "great" but is somehow is unacceptable for Lewis. Fans complain that current F1 drivers are too sterile/boring, but criticize Hamilton for having personality. He can be emotional and has both highs and lows. (Was there anyone more moody/brooding than Senna?) He also has a bit of a mean streak when it comes to strategic calls. He knows the rules and will take them to the edge if needed to win (like just about every other F1 winner ever). Now step back and think about all the things your untouchable idols were involved in during their careers. (Crashing into people on purpose? Driving a car with illegal suspension and/or launch systems? Using (or ignoring) team orders to stage a victory?)

In terms of his personal life, he likes to hang out with supermodels and have fun sometimes. (No one really complained when that was David Coulthard. James Hunt is revered for way worse behavior). It hasn't affected his performance on track, given the amount of success he's had in the past 4 years in particular - best car or otherwise. He also seems pretty serious to me. He's paying physiotherapist Angela Cullen to follow him around everywhere as part of his preparation.

"Losing to Rosberg..." Rosberg is not an untalented driver, though certainly not as talented as Hamilton. Let's not forget how much luck can be involved in racing. That being said, Rosberg had the best season of his career and was able to take advantage of the huge disparity created by Hamilton's engine unreliability. No one is blaming Alonso for being on like his 12th KERS component, so why was Hamilton being blamed?

Finally, the car... no one will argue that the champions are usually in the best car. "Best" is a combination of speed and reliability of course. Schumacher, Senna, Vettel, Prost, etc. all benefitted from being in the best car at the right time. Their talent isn't being questioned. So if you want to put a "50/50" for Hamilton I'm okay with it as long as you're consistent. For me this poll was a resounding "no," but more than anything I was taken aback that it even deserves a poll. I think a more tasteful approach would have been to mention Hamilton as a potential example, but then generally ask if people think the F1 greats were created by their car's performance

 

[Ken Hunter]

Denying Hamilton has racing talent, is foolish. Not being a fan of his at all i will only say this, he now has a team-mate In Bottas who is just as talented as he is in the same car, and it seems that cracks are starting to show in his makeup, judging from the way he whinges on track when things are not in his favour.
Unfortunately, as many successful and top celebrities, he has lost all perspective of who he is, and who helped him get there, and placed himself above everyone around him.
A pity though!

 

[Mr Pibb]

There's little doubt the guy's got some talent. He's no Jolyon Palmer. But is he "great"? I don't think that can ever be known simply because:

1. He has only ever driven a race winning capable car right from the start. I can't think of any other driver that has enjoyed that privilege.

2. To my mind, a "great" driver can drag a middling to low order car towards the front of the grid. Punch above his weight as it were. Hamilton's never been in a position to show that. In fact, he can't even drag a race winning car that's having an off day to the front of the grid. Monaco this year for example. And that's a track that's a "drivers" circuit and IF it was all down to talent, then that's when it would show.
But he's failed to do so on numerous occasions. It should also be noted that under the same conditions his team mate(s) have often fared better.

So, to my mind it's definitely not just raw talent. There's certainly an element of car in there. Somewhere between "car" and "50/50" simply has to be the answer - until he proves otherwise.

Certainly if he was anywhere near as good as some make out, there'd be nowhere near as much debate about it as there is. Where there's smoke there's fire etc. I believe the only thing "great" about him is the amount of media coverage he gets, and that's largely down to F1 being (more or less) a British based thing. If he weren't British, I wonder how the local media would see him then.

 

[ObySan]

I was at the Montreal Grand Prix this year and those Mercedes cars were on a different level performance wise. You could tell from the stands that engine was more powerful by the way it sounded and "felt" in your body when it passed by. Hamilton is a great driver no question but we are in an engine dominated era right now and he has the best engine and arguably the best chassis.

 

[ears]

Entertaining out of the car, for the wrong reasons.

Entertaining in the car for the right ones.

This was the weekend where I thought 'oh this guy is something special'.

Despite everything, I haven't changed my mind.

 

[Damage Inc]

Not a lewis fan but there's no denying he's talented as hell, so is Vettel, so is Alonso, so is Raikonnen....etc etc. The only answer is 50/50 as in ANY motorsport the champ is on/in the best vehicle most of the time (a few exceptions to the rule probably have occurred).

 

[Andy_J]

Denying Hamilton has racing talent, is foolish.

And childish in my opinion.
I am not a big fan, but by god he has got natural talent.

 

[hitm4k3r]

Multiple karting champion. Formula Renault champion. F3 champion. GP2 champion. What else is there to say? Hamilton beat out popular names currently competing in various other forms of motorsport to win a seat at Mclaren Mercedes.

One should mention though that he won his F3 and GP2 titles in the best teams with maximum support from Mercedes. To argue that Hamilton only won because of his car would be a lie and everyone who actually watched one of his Kart races will agree that he is undoubtly very talented. What is quite obvious to me though is, that he certainly is not the most complete driver. In that regard, I rate Alonso or Vettel much higher, not because of their speed but their will to take every opportunity to get the maximum out of their car, even if they drive the crappiest car on earth. In Hamiltons case I allways feel that he loses motivation quickly once it is not playing for him and his team order requests show that quite well.

 

[Danimal5981]

In my view you have two kinds of drivers (and various mixtures between the two) - you have racers and drivers:

Racers are the ones that are intrinsically fast but sometimes get blurred by emotions and the complexity of what it takes to have success for a longer period in F1.

Drivers may not look much at first, but they have overview, they can calculate, they have political and organizational instincts and can (literally) build a team and eventually a car around themselves.

In my view Hamilton goes more into the first category. He has had the luck that he (or Mercedes) moved him from the one dominant-Mercedes team (McLaren) to the other (Mercedes AMG) at the right time, which makes him the only driver in F1-history to have driven a potential race and championship-winning car all the time, every single of his (now) 199 GP starts.

Schumacher was a builder. He took a couple of years and could then dominate for a while. Hamilton lives in the moment. Dives in and see where he'll end. It's why in race-win percentage they are more or less equal, but Schumacher has more championships. Also, Hamilton is reaping the labour of that same Schumacher.

 

[tonio duran]

For parties also has the best party ...

 

[Patrik Marek]

I think it depends, when car suits him he can extract a lot of it and be very fast, but when the car doesn't' suit him, he is struggling more then some other people would - seen with his team mates

he has talent for sure, but car plays role too

as much as I am Schumacher fan, he wouldn't have won all those titles if he wasn't driving for Ferrari in those years

it's a shame they don't do - or maybe they do and I just have no idea - those races where they put all of them in the same car, like that did with Mercedes 190E, where Senna showed them all how to drive