Any F1 fans

[dry run]

Don't always agree with his "politics", but can't deny this guys genius in a racing car. I am a big Schumacer fan, but I think even he would be applauding Lewis' achievements.

 

[sl500amgsport]

Don't always agree with his "politics", but can't deny this guys genius in a racing car. I am a big Schumacer fan, but I think even he would be applauding Lewis' achievements.

His son did, gave him one of his Dads helmets...

Mercedes SL500 R231

 

[brandwooddixon]

Whichever way you look at it, it was a great drive.

To those that say that Lewis's wins are all down to the car I would draw their attention to the fact that he finished 25 seconds ahead of his team mate. Driver ability counts for more than they are often willing to accept.

Out of the current crowd of drivers I think that Verstappen and Leclerc are the ones to watch and may beat Lewis's records in the future. Both are able to get more out of their car than expected and often finish far ahead of their team mates (I suspect that Albon may not remain in the Red Bull for much longer).

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Proved a difficult last hurdle to achieve the record, quite enjoyed the circuit a lot of true racing instead of the usual procession. I was quite nervous for Hamilton it was a demanding weekend for all the drivers but the cream always rises to the top - hats off to him he is the consummate professional and not diminished by the sport as the years go by - a true legend

 

[Ron240]

Out of the current crowd of drivers I think that Verstappen and Leclerc are the ones to watch and may beat Lewis's records in the future.

I would agree that these 2 are very capable and would seem the most likely to do it if it is going to happen, but there are many other factors that need to fall into place at the same time which is very rare. It happened with Schumacher and now it has happened with Hamilton.
Verstappen currently on 9 wins with Leclerc on 2 so it is a long way to go, and Hamilton is far from finished yet.
Alonso is currently on 32 wins but due to his age there is probably no way he will get anywhere near Hamiton's record.

 

[brandwooddixon]

True. Hamilton has been pretty lucky to select teams as they are about to embark on an upturn in performance and managing to leave before the downturn starts. Alonso on the other hand wasn't as lucky with his team selection.

How long Mercedes can keep ahead of the rest is difficult to determine, but other teams are catching up fast and the new cap on expenditure will see that gap start to close, although manufacturers will have a slight advantage as they will be able to hide some R&D costs in their road car development.

On another aside, I hope that Williams will be able to return to their form of old, we're seeing an improvement, but its a long time coming. I know that they're fiercely independent in their designs, keeping to the old ethos of a team actually producing everything other than the engine for their cars, but maybe under their new management, they'll start to look at other teams designs more closely. It's not done Racing Point any harm.

 

[Blobcat]

True. Hamilton has been pretty lucky to select teams as they are about to embark on an upturn in performance and managing to leave before the downturn starts. Alonso on the other hand wasn't as lucky with his team selection.

How long Mercedes can keep ahead of the rest is difficult to determine, but other teams are catching up fast and the new cap on expenditure will see that gap start to close, although manufacturers will have a slight advantage as they will be able to hide some R&D costs in their road car development.

On another aside, I hope that Williams will be able to return to their form of old, we're seeing an improvement, but its a long time coming. I know that they're fiercely independent in their designs, keeping to the old ethos of a team actually producing everything other than the engine for their cars, but maybe under their new management, they'll start to look at other teams designs more closely. It's not done Racing Point any harm.

I think it’s more the teams selecting the drivers than the other way around... Luck will have played some part but hard work, lots of training and good management will have played a much bigger part in his success

 

[BassMerc]

One reason that Lewis isn’t held in the high esteem by a lot of the GB population is that F1 ‘enjoys’ a low profile compared to times gone by. And the single reason is that we don’t get live F1, with the exception of the British GP free to air. Fair enough, F1 has sold out to Sky and that gets Lewis a lot more dosh but there just isn’t the blanket exposure of his talents. F1 has become niche again.

Lewis is lingering at the bottom of the honours table with a lowly MBE while Governmental and local Gov dullards get OBEs and CBEs. And then everyone goes mad after each Olympics and dishes out Knighthoods to all and sundry.

I have no doubt Lewis will get his K and I’m prepared to wait, as I hope is he. I have always felt that that Knighthoods should be awarded to exceptional people who have achieved a level of maturity. What I mean is a bit older.

 

[NBurns]

One reason that Lewis isn’t held in the high esteem by a lot of the GB population is that F1 ‘enjoys’ a low profile compared to times gone by. And the single reason is that we don’t get live F1, with the exception of the British GP free to air. Fair enough, F1 has sold out to Sky and that gets Lewis a lot more dosh but there just isn’t the blanket exposure of his talents. F1 has become niche again.

Lewis is lingering at the bottom of the honours table with a lowly MBE while Governmental and local Gov dullards get OBEs and CBEs. And then everyone goes mad after each Olympics and dishes out Knighthoods to all and sundry.

I have no doubt Lewis will get his K and I’m prepared to wait, as I hope is he. I have always felt that that Knighthoods should be awarded to exceptional people who have achieved a level of maturity. What I mean is a bit older.

Totally totally agree with you there. I even emailed Sky and asked them why they could not offer something else for those who used to watch it free but could pay a small sum to simply watch the qualifiers and the race. Even the 24 hour pass isn't enough to watch both because of timings however it sounds like it is actually F1 that tells Sky what they want. So next email will be to F1 to ask them to implement something else for those of us who just want to see the two day's worth, and I refuse to pay for a sports package when I rarely watch anything else.

 

[BassMerc]

Totally totally agree with you there. I even emailed Sky and asked them why they could not offer something else for those who used to watch it free but could pay a small sum to simply watch the qualifiers and the race. Even the 24 hour pass isn't enough to watch both because of timings however it sounds like it is actually F1 that tells Sky what they want. So next email will be to F1 to ask them to implement something else for those of us who just want to see the two day's worth, and I refuse to pay for a sports package when I rarely watch anything else.

Hi Robbie

We’re certainly not Sky lovers, but we have a Now TV subscription at £20 per month which gives us most sports except the ‘premium’ stuff. That way we can take in the three days of practice/quali/race plus the F2 which I’m getting quite interested in. Plus last weekend we caught the 24hrs of Spa GT race. We went to bed with it still running and when we got up the next morning it was still on. Which I suppose is logical, given that it’s a 24 hr race!

 

[pgh13]

F1 has been free to air for many years on RTL in Germany (which is available on satellite), but that ends this year, so be interesting to see how many will go with Sky there.

 

[bob 6600]

I do have SkyF1 and they do have exceptional coverage. However, some of the content does annoy me. Last weekend, they cut off 'Ted's Notebook' because they had over run after doing a live interview with Hamilton's dad. How can they over run on a channel dedicated to the sport? Agreed they do show other categories but it's 'SkyF1' and it should take priority over any other scheduled programme. Also, on a race weekend I used to look forward to the press conferences but they cut the Team Principles conference completely now and instead there are re-runs of older programming.

I think it's all happened since they had a new Head of SkyF1. He originally hired Karun and ditched Ted completely. An uproar on Twitter soon made him do a U-Turn and re-instated him, although not for every race and the Qualy Notebook has disappeared.

Rant over

 

[brandwooddixon]

I'd agree with you there.
Considering that Sky is in control of the timings and content that it provides I do find it amateurish that they often can't even manage to include the podium celebrations into the "race" slot.

 

[bob 6600]

This weekend though, probably due to a 2 day weekend, the press conferences had the Team Principle (or a rep of the team) in with the drivers which made sense.

Congratulations to Mercedes on their record breaking 7th consecutive WCC!

 

[s5tuart]

Lewis' records will be hard to beat!

 

[JBell]

When Mercedes said there was Ferrari debris in Bottas car they weren't joking

 

[BassMerc]

The oblong hatch is to put the extra battery in.

 

[s5tuart]

When Mercedes said there was Ferrari debris in Bottas car they weren't joking

View attachment 63192

I wonder if they'll give it back?

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Not only can Hamilton drive but he’s got Toto Wolfe in his hand there is only one reason why Hamilton hasn’t signed a new contract yet.... now that Toto has committed to continue to run the team (with a little more delegation no doubt) I’m sure Hamilton will sign as soon as he clinches his 7th title

 

[Ron240]

I’m sure Hamilton will sign as soon as he clinches his 7th title

He could put it mathematically out of reach at the next race.
7 is absolutely in the bag...I want to see 8.

Have just ordered my Mercedes AMG Petronas 2020 Constructors Championship T-shirt.