Will Lewis ever win #8?

[Teppic]

Getting the feeling that this will be Lewis’s last season in F1. I know he’s contracted until 2023, but I think he’ll walk at the end of the season.

[g4ry13]

Teppic said:

Getting the feeling that this will be Lewis’s last season in F1. I know he’s contracted until 2023, but I think he’ll walk at the end of the season.

Or maybe take a break for a season to see if Mercedes make progress with the option to come back in 2024.

[anonymous-user]

Looks like this is going to be the first year that Lewis won't win at least one grand prix in a season.

Be such a shame if he retires after a year of making up the numbers, I really hope they improve over the year and he decides to stay next year.

George making him look very ordinary though.

[Sandpit Steve]

Spain 2013, some 175ish races ago, was the last time Lewis finished a race and didn’t score points on merit.

(You might argue he finished last at Baku last year, when he went off on the last lap).

[Athlon]

No excuses but since he came back from Covid he just seems to have gone off the boil, very strange otherwise.

[paulguitar]

Athlon said:

No excuses but since he came back from Covid he just seems to have gone off the boil, very strange otherwise.

Mmm, he dominated the end of last season and won the title (removed by Masi) after covid.

Today he just got stuck and didn't have the speed at the end of the straight to pass Gasly.

Clearly, he won't be winning the title this year, but I think writing him off as a driver is very premature.

[HTP99]

Athlon said:

No excuses but since he came back from Covid he just seems to have gone off the boil, very strange otherwise.

Yeahh, last 4 races last year he was terrible!

[Athlon]

I'm not writing him off at all, far from it. I am saying he just seems to be a little more...careful? does not fire one up as much? I don't know, maybe the way George has adapted to the car has wobbled him as well?
Hopefully he comes back strong in the next few races as I would love to see a proper battle with the three of them, it would be epic.

[Hol]

Athlon said:

I'm not writing him off at all, far from it. I am saying he just seems to be a little more...careful? does not fire one up as much? I don't know, maybe the way George has adapted to the car has wobbled him as well?
Hopefully he comes back strong in the next few races as I would love to see a proper battle with the three of them, it would be epic.

I wonder if having a car, that porpoises like mad as soon as you start slipstreaming, has something to do with this presumed ‘carefulness’.

His head was nodding up and down more than jiraffe on a pogo stick.

[MG CHRIS]

Hol said:

Athlon said:

I'm not writing him off at all, far from it. I am saying he just seems to be a little more...careful? does not fire one up as much? I don't know, maybe the way George has adapted to the car has wobbled him as well?
Hopefully he comes back strong in the next few races as I would love to see a proper battle with the three of them, it would be epic.

I wonder if having a car, that porpoises like mad as soon as you start slipstreaming, has something to do with this presumed ‘carefulness’.

His head was nodding up and down more than jiraffe on a pogo stick.

You could see when he was trying to overtake gasly as soon as he attempted to move out of the slip the car was bouncing badly wonder if he just can't get on with the car or its effecting his confidence in it. Either that or he just lost the heart for racing after last year. George is used to driving a dog let's be honest so this is like a dream for him.

Maybe Hamilton is experience what vettel did when they went to the V6 maybe he was just suited to that type of car and having a bloody good power unit.

[CoolHands]

The bouncing is just ridiculous. I wouldn’t want to drive if it’s like that. Russell said it’s like a ‘severe’ cattlegrid; imagine that for an hour & half

[paulguitar]

CoolHands said:

The bouncing is just ridiculous. I wouldn’t want to drive if it’s like that. Russell said it’s like a ‘severe’ cattlegrid; imagine that for an hour & half

George apparently reporting back and chest pain. Sounds like a horrible car to drive.

[mk1coopers]

People have to remember that although the car isn’t good to drive we don’t know if George considers it an improvement over last year Williams, it might be a step forward for him, as much as it’s a step backward for Lewis

[rog007]

I can’t see an eighth or anymore beyond that. Things move on.

[Muzzer79]

I think, at this stage, it's unfair to compare him to George.

We know they're trying different things on each car in terms of setup and configuration to try and cure their issues - Lewis was running an extra sensor in Australia, for example.

I highly doubt he'll retire at the end of this year. He'll see out his contract, then finish at the end of '23, as planned.

[Pflanzgarten]

The comparisons to George simply mark out the posters of not having a clue about F1.

[Siao]

Pflanzgarten said:

The comparisons to George simply mark out the posters of not having a clue about F1.

Can you elaborate or just sticking to inflammatory posts?

[Muzzer79]

Siao said:

Pflanzgarten said:

The comparisons to George simply mark out the posters of not having a clue about F1.

Can you elaborate or just sticking to inflammatory posts?

In my opinion, it's naive at least to look at the performance of the two cars and conclude that George is 'beating' Lewis.

The team focus at present is on fixing the issues with the car. Performance is a by-product of that.

George may have had a more favourable set-up, Lewis may be trying new parts, George may be trying new parts.

It's highly simplistic to conclude that George is faster than Lewis due to the results of 4 races, combined with the performance status of Mercedes.

[paulguitar]

Muzzer79 said:

Siao said:

Pflanzgarten said:

The comparisons to George simply mark out the posters of not having a clue about F1.

Can you elaborate or just sticking to inflammatory posts?

In my opinion, it's naive at least to look at the performance of the two cars and conclude that George is 'beating' Lewis.

The team focus at present is on fixing the issues with the car. Performance is a by-product of that.

George may have had a more favourable set-up, Lewis may be trying new parts, George may be trying new parts.

It's highly simplistic to conclude that George is faster than Lewis due to the results of 4 races, combined with the performance status of Mercedes.

There are also some circumstantial issues that occurred over the weekend. Both Mercs failed to do their proper quali laps, due to the red flag, so their times were actually tyre warm-up laps. Then George had some good fortune in the race with Sainz and Riccardo colliding, and later on LeClerc's spin, whilst Hamilton was scuppered by a long pitstop and the unsafe release of Ocon.

[g4ry13]

Muzzer79 said:

Siao said:

Pflanzgarten said:

The comparisons to George simply mark out the posters of not having a clue about F1.

Can you elaborate or just sticking to inflammatory posts?

In my opinion, it's naive at least to look at the performance of the two cars and conclude that George is 'beating' Lewis.

The team focus at present is on fixing the issues with the car. Performance is a by-product of that.

George may have had a more favourable set-up, Lewis may be trying new parts, George may be trying new parts.

It's highly simplistic to conclude that George is faster than Lewis due to the results of 4 races, combined with the performance status of Mercedes.

So there's a chance Lewis wasn't faster than Valtteri for all those seasons because we don't know whether Lewis had the same parts and more favourable set-up?

As spectators we can only base our judgement by the results we see on track. Chances are that the other car on the grid which is most equal to your car is going to be your teammate. So it's not unreasonable to compare one with the other.