Those earlier posts regarding Felipe are very unnecessary and I am disappointed to think that we support the same team when credit cannot be given for a long and successful career for one of our own drivers. Admittedly the last few years were difficult and his 2009 accident certainly didn't help, but come on guys, let's hear it for a great driver and sincere human being.
He has not been the same after the incident. Some drivers should just gracefully bow out of F1 when at the end of their "performance" cycle; he should have stayed retired. Fully understand as to why he came back but Williams could have picked up Button instead of Massa...oh well.
The same went for Shumy, he should have stayed retired. He was just obsessed with Senna's pole wins, only to have Lewis reach 72 while still in action. Yes at the end of there " performance cycle"; Schumy also should have stayed retired. Massa for sure looked up to Schumy, maybe that's why he said yes to come back. Anyway he for sure did right by Stroll.
I'm not really blind to Seb, but I think he did a very good job at keeping the WDC race alive. I base my opinion on the fact that Hamilton has only really raced his team mate for the last 3 years and only this year has had to really battle for wins and really not that often. On tracks that he's struggled he's really struggled and hasn't really impressed. On the others he's had a pretty good margin of performance. I think Vettel had to do a lot more to stay competitive all year than Hamilton had to. I think Hamilton had the better car throughout the season at most tracks and I don't really think he would have been in the same spot as Vettel if he was in the Ferrari. I could be wrong, but I think if Vettel had the Merc the championship would have been over a lot sooner.
Like I said, I think Max would have driven the Ferrari as well as Vettel and maybe Alonso. They seem to be able to get a lot from their cars. I could be wrong, maybe you see that as being a blind Seb follower but can you tell me otherwise?
Was Hamilton much better than Vettel? Would he have done better than Vettel in the Ferrari?
I couldn't agree more! But I also believe Kimi in Lewis' Merc would have been at least as good as the others. Maybe just a little more to be desired with after victory interviews.
It's very hard to predict what Hamilton would've done in this year's Ferrari & Vettel with that Merc, all I know is a driver can be judged best when he deals with mediocre cars, anybody can come alive with fast cars but it's the character & driving around problems, that's where you define greatness. Michael Schumacher was the master of this, from current lot Alonso is the best at it followed by Hamilton (2009 season). Vettel had a mediocre car in 2014 & he was clearly struggling. Max is slowly moving towards that path. Coming back to the original point, Hamilton got better of Rosberg, yes he was his own teammate but personally for him beating Rosberg in an identical car would've been more difficult than beating Seb in Ferrari. It cannot be said with certainty that Vettel did best with this Ferrari, Vettel is a great driver but other talents are no less.
"If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari" - Gilles Villeneuve
"If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari" - Gilles Villeneuve
Behaved badly towards the team? He may not have made it easy for a Ferrari to pass him on occasions, but he was then driving for Williams, his loyalty to his current team is always unquestionable and he was fighting for his career. He must have felt slightly bitter about being replaced by Ferrari, but I don't believe he ever behaved badly towards the team in which he was much loved.
Well Felipe will be keen to do well in his last home race. Looks like they're forecasting rain for part of the week end.
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/events/grand-prix-brazil
OK I just caught my breath so I can type! The gentleman of Austria 2002! Parking his car on the track in front of Alonso. Trying to take out his former team mate pushing him into a wall! Thank God "He missed it." Schumy just wanted that pole record, he came back and did what he wanted and retired . No more Todt's radio , no more Ross, why stick around ?
He just wanted to race, he would miss it, so he came back is exactly why former Ferrari driver Massa came back. Who knows, maybe Clair will beg Felipe again , to come back? I would love to see him back a 3rd time. That would be a record!
Last edited by Brembo; 8th November 2017 at 05:59.
maybe Felipe will return for just one race, 'ā la Jenson'
Well that is purely subjective. Who can say for sure who got the most of any of the cars? All cars are different so we can't say 100% who did the best job. But going by how much of a performance advantage Merc had, did Hamilton drive that much better than Vettel? Or did Vettel get the max out of a Ferrari that wasn't quite on par with the MErc? I think Hamilton was sub par on tracks where the performance advantage of his car wasn't as much of a factor, and his team mate handily beat him.
I think Vettel proved what he's able to do with a mediocre car, he hasn't always had the best car. 2014 Ricciardo had a banner year but also had some better reliability. 2009 was probably the only real bad car Hamilton has driven and he was complaining about it constantly, until it got much better in the second half of the season. I think all of his other cars have been pretty competitive and I wonder how his patience would have held out if he had some of the reliability issues Ferrari had.
You just described Shumy to a tee. How dare he race against Ferrari in a Merc! Truly bad behavior, he should have at least always let Ferrari pass. F1 wise, he is way in the past, Ferrari fans should understand this. He is more a member of Merc than the team he left, Ferrari. The end.
No doubt Merc feels that way about their former retired driver ! I'm sure Ferrari fans also remember the Rubens era and his teamate and Todt with his absolute legendary " Let him pass!" And to think , now Merc has an absolute racing legend driver in the Great Brit, Lewis! It looks like this Merc driver will go out breaking every F1 record he gets his hands on, with no Todt or Ross in sight . Massa will retire as a great F1 driver, driving average , not the top car, and still doing a great job and still has us fans here talking about him and wishing him well. I believe for sure Stroll is one of Felipe's biggest fans. A true teamate!
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