FJuan wrote:Compared to Schumi & Alonso, Lewis is the weakest champ of recent times.
Feel free to make your own comparisons between the 3.
A real champ would have driven for the win. Lewis didn't
Lewis is champion not by his own good driving, he was 6th and not champion till the championship was gifted to him. Not the way to become WDC.
A real champ like the previous two were fighters and would have won on the back of there own skill not someone else's lack of it. Lewis didn't.
I don't think you can compare him to Schumi.
I think if you compare anyone to Schumacher and Alonso, you're comparing them to two of the smartest drivers in motorsport history, so while I'm not saying Hamilton won't go on to achieve his own place in motorsport folklore, I don't think just edging out a title in your second season is much to be ashamed of.
Talking about Lewis going for the win, you only have to go back to Japan to see why Lewis would have been reticent to do this. He'd already been burnt by this philosophy too many times. Also he was on his second race with the same engine, while both Ferraris were on fresh ones, at a track where Ferraris tend to run extremely well anyway. There's no shame in setting realistic targets.
Then there's the idea that somehow he drove a bad race in Brazil. Not true. He did exactly what was needed, and had driven an extremely mature race all the way through. It was only the rain at the end that threw a spanner in the works.
As for "how champions win titles", I could point to Schumacher's 2002 title as a classic example of how not to win it. Ferrari had such a good car they were nailed on to win it virtually from the first race, but still persisted with disgraceful team orders in Austria, and I recall the race where Schumacher made sure of the title - France - where Schumacher was quite happy to sit behind Raikkonen and settle for the 6 points up until Raikkonen slid off on oil. That might have been fine if those 6 points had given him the title in the penultimate or last round, but there were still six races left. Frankly, I found that pretty lame from the greatest driver of his generation.
And then you should look at people like Niki Lauda - undoubtedly a great champion. If you'd asked him on lap 65 what sort of a race Hamilton had had, he probably would have said it was a performance he would have been proud of. Lauda always made sure he did just enough, never went for the big risks if he could play safe and still get good points, and none other than Ayrton Senna heaped praise on the intelligent way Lauda went about things. So it's not true to say great champions always have to go for the big daring win.
As for all-time comparisons with other drivers, it's simply too early with Hamilton. However you can compare individual performances, and on that count Hamilton has produced some all-time classic performances this year (and some classic howlers...)
Jim Clark, Monza, one lap down...
- By hass25