Was Hamilton underrated

[Justaredbadge]

Gaz. said:

Is it available to view on their website?

Just looked, doesn't appear to be.

New website though, much better.

[entropy]

Justaredbadge said:

seem to remember Alonso being out qualified
by whatever no-hope was in the other minardi
seat at the time

Alonso was only beaten once by Tarso Marques in quali and race - the latter due to retirement but was classified.

Diniz beat Hill a few times.

[aeropilot]

At least his taste is improving...... didn't realise he'd bought a genuine 427 Cobra (his dream car he says) - fair play to him - not so sure I'd be letting the missus drive it though........



Story here....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/27336212

Fair play to her though that she was able, as not only a 'stick' but an awkward one plus very heavy steering and clutch.

[TheHighlander]

aeropilot said:

At least his taste is improving...... didn't realise he'd bought a genuine 427 Cobra (his dream car he says) - fair play to him - not so sure I'd be letting the missus drive it though........



Story here....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/27336212

Fair play to her though that she was able, as not only a 'stick' but an awkward one plus very heavy steering and clutch.

I would let Nicole drive anything of mine haha.

He has certainly matured and imo he is the best on the grid but I'm a massive fan of course.

[simonpeter]

I thought Lewis`s dream car was the Mc`Laren F1 le mans he wanted to win from Ron Dennis. Promised when he won his third title for the team I believe. Oops!
Think that was Lewis`s big problem, reckon he was sure he would match Senna. Glad to hear that he has told Mercedes he doesn`t want anything to do with the sports shrink they have hired. All Lewis ever needed was a truly competitive car.

[aeropilot]

simonpeter said:

I thought Lewis`s dream car was the Mc`Laren F1 le mans he wanted to win from Ron Dennis. Promised when he won his third title for the team I believe. Oops!

He's clearly grown up and desired the cache of owning a proper mans car

It appears though, he owns not one, but two Cobra 427's......the greedy git!!!

Both bought a few years ago, CSX3244 and CSX3282, and this black one, seen in these recent photos's is CSX3244 which is just fresh out of a full refurb by reknowned Cobra expert Mike McClusky.

[RichB]

aeropilot said:

Both bought a few years ago, CSX3244 and CSX3282, and this black one, seen in these recent photos's is CSX3244 which is just fresh out of a full refurb by reknowned Cobra expert Mike McClusky.

Nice car, personally I prefer the original AC Cobra 289, non-steroid version but nice all the same.

[mattikake]

Well he totally Senna'd-up quali today. No doubt having to adjust to a car behaving differently to previous practice sessions.

[Mikey G]

I thought the radio exchange with his engineer was very enlightening, shows he was constantly thinking during the race to keep himself ahead. The adjustment you mention iirc he said something along the lines of "we never turn 3 clicks" indicating he felt the adjustment may have been too much and they don't normally make such large adjustments. I'm sure his response was "i'll go 2 and monitor it".

[RichB]

hora said:

Anyone hear the radio exchange with Lewis mid-race? He was complaining about the handling all weekend. Mid race he was told to turn the wing down 3turns. What/etc??! Pause 'Ok Lewis turn the wing down two turns'

I also heard the exchange but don't get the implication of the <laugh> smiley?

[slipstream 1985]

RichB said:

hora said:

Anyone hear the radio exchange with Lewis mid-race? He was complaining about the handling all weekend. Mid race he was told to turn the wing down 3turns. What/etc??! Pause 'Ok Lewis turn the wing down two turns'

I also heard the exchange but don't get the implication of the <laugh> smiley?

im guessing the olden days lewis would have done what he was told regardless of what he thought. but now he is questioning the decesions because he has the experience to make the calls now.

[RichB]

slipstream 1985 said:

RichB said:

hora said:

Anyone hear the radio exchange with Lewis mid-race? He was complaining about the handling all weekend. Mid race he was told to turn the wing down 3turns. What/etc??! Pause 'Ok Lewis turn the wing down two turns'

I also heard the exchange but don't get the implication of the <laugh> smiley?

im guessing the olden days lewis would have done what he was told regardless of what he thought. but now he is questioning the decesions because he has the experience to make the calls now.

That's my interpretation too.

[entropy]

Neither was he happy with the last pit stop. He reckoned he was brought in too early. He asked how his pace was in the previous stint: he was gapping Nico at 4s which was apparently good but Lewis comes back with "but you said 5.5s"

[Chipmunk1]

I smell a conspiracy coming on !

[ukmike2000]

DasChin said:

had Senna lived he would have dominated 94, 95 and then 96.

Not really on the main topic, but I have to disagree with the comment on "Senna domination if he'd lived". We will never know what might have happened in 95 and 96, but it was clear from the races he completed in the Williams that he wasn't comfortable racing with the car, spinning out in Brazil and tangling with Hakkinen and Larini in the 2nd race. As you can see in the Senna film, he looked very uneasy prior to the final race start and looked out of his comfort zone. He was far from dominant in the races that year before his fatal crash.

[Chipmunk1]

But Hill did rather well in THAT car

[heebeegeetee]

Chipmunk1 said:

But Hill did rather well in THAT car

He did, but strangely enough, only after becoming the lead driver in the team.

Williams had a good car throughout Hill's time as lead driver, but have not had a championship winning car or been in a championship winning position since Hill left.

[entropy]

ukmike2000 said:

Not really on the main topic, but I have to disagree with the comment on "Senna domination if he'd lived". We will never know what might have happened in 95 and 96, but it was clear from the races he completed in the Williams that he wasn't comfortable racing with the car, spinning out in Brazil and tangling with Hakkinen and Larini in the 2nd race. As you can see in the Senna film, he looked very uneasy prior to the final race start and looked out of his comfort zone. He was far from dominant in the races that year before his fatal crash.

The '94 car started off with an unstable rear end but they managed to sort it out.

Hill should have been WDC in '95. They signed up the then highly rated Frentzen before negotiating with Hill in '96. Some years ago Hill and Schumi interviewed each other in F1 Racing magazine. Hill reckoned his car was more driveable whereas following Schumi the Benetton was more twitchy and Schumi confirmed his Benetton was a twitchy car in general.

'96 Williams had the best car.

Senna was/would be in his mid-thirties so the thing to take into account would be powers diminishing slightly in the same way Rossi now in MotoGP?

[Alfanatic]

entropy said:

Senna was/would be in his mid-thirties so the thing to take into account would be powers diminishing slightly in the same way Rossi now in MotoGP?

This indeed. If Hill could take that car to within a race of winning the championship then Senna certainly could too. He might have had another championship in him, but Schumacher was the young up and coming hotshot. Would Senna have had the stomach to take that on? After spending much of his career taking the fight to the more experienced Prost, and with Prost now gone, would Senna really have been motivated to become the elder statesman being targeted by the young, ruthless Schumy showing no respect for the establishment and only getting faster and faster while Senna got slower and slower?

Senna was already making noises of discontent at the time, his talks with Prost saying he wasn't as motivated without Alain there to fight, his strong reaction to Roland's deat h and his concerns before then about safety. Senna would have increasingly needed to rely on experience rather than pace to take championships off Schumacher, like Lauda did with Prost and later Prost himself had to to beat Senna. But I just couldn't see Senna being the wiley old fox quietly picking up podiums and winning a championship through consistency, but perhaps I can't imagine it, simply because we never got to see it happen. Even so, the wiley old foxes seem to manage to battle on to just that one more championship and then the fight is gone and they hang up their helmet.

Senna may have had one more championship in him, I'm pretty sure he didn't have another three.