Can Hamilton win F1 drivers world championship?
Discussion
Hi all,
Following Hamilton's Hungary win, he goes onto to say that he could win 10 races this season which probably results him winning the championship? Can he win the world championship again or is this too much to ask?
Additionally could Mercedes also win the constructors title as well?
http://www.espn.co.uk/mercedes/motorsport/story/11...
Following Hamilton's Hungary win, he goes onto to say that he could win 10 races this season which probably results him winning the championship? Can he win the world championship again or is this too much to ask?
Additionally could Mercedes also win the constructors title as well?
http://www.espn.co.uk/mercedes/motorsport/story/11...
I don't think so, but I'd love to see it.
Possible of course, but I fear what will happen is, if this is a genuine improvement in Mercedes performance, is that Lewis and Nico will pinch points from Ferrari and Lotus and maybe even a few from Redbull, but it won't be enough to overhaul Seb's lead and will just serve to nullify his closest competitors.
It's what has helped Seb in the last few years, in some (a lot) of races he's done his usual hat trick of Pole, Fastest Lap, Win and controlled everything from the front, but when he hasn't got the win it's never consistently the same guy who wins it's a case of either Seb wins, or one of the others, I think the same thing will happen this year, Seb's going to win and 4-5 guys are fighting for second.
Next year though... I fancy Mercedes will be dominant, they've got a 6 month development head start on RedBull and McLaren and more money than Ferrari.
Possible of course, but I fear what will happen is, if this is a genuine improvement in Mercedes performance, is that Lewis and Nico will pinch points from Ferrari and Lotus and maybe even a few from Redbull, but it won't be enough to overhaul Seb's lead and will just serve to nullify his closest competitors.
It's what has helped Seb in the last few years, in some (a lot) of races he's done his usual hat trick of Pole, Fastest Lap, Win and controlled everything from the front, but when he hasn't got the win it's never consistently the same guy who wins it's a case of either Seb wins, or one of the others, I think the same thing will happen this year, Seb's going to win and 4-5 guys are fighting for second.
Next year though... I fancy Mercedes will be dominant, they've got a 6 month development head start on RedBull and McLaren and more money than Ferrari.
TheHeretic said:
What do you mean they have 6 months development head start? The engines, you mean?
Yes, an not just in terms of what the engines will provide in terms of power / torque but the size weight etc because as we all know engines are part of the structure as well as providing the power. The teams who use customer engines will be at a disadvantage - they'll no doubt be working on their 2014 cars now and have been for a while, but without the engines they'll be guestimating at best.
Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari will already have all this data and be ahead of them for a year when the cars will change a hell of all lot:
Renault as we've seen recently when they couldn't pay Kimi don't have an unlimited budget and a question over their star driver who they'll no doubt be trying to build a car around.
Ferrari have data correlation problems and are running tests with their 2011 car just to get their 2013 car to work properly and again are having problems with their Star driver.
Mercedes on the other hand have been given a HUGE budget to work with, have been recruiting very clever people to work of them - they have almost two full teams of 'brains'. Their 2013 car seems to be, on recent form anyway, very good and their driver line-up is strong and more importantly not going anywhere.
Jasandjules said:
IF Merc are getting on top of their tyre degradation then yes it is possible. Kimi may however sneak a win with consistent placings if Seb and Lewis/Nico fight over wins...
Well, Kimi has sneaked into second spot based on consistency. I think Kimi is more likely to challenge, I think.TheHeretic said:
As far as I k ow, the configuration of the engines, weight, centre of gravity and all that stuff, is in the regulations somewhere. I'm not sure it will be THAT much of an advantage?
It's not just the engine though - teams will be buying in the engine, transmission and ERS (not KERS next year) as a unit. The packaging of that will be fairly crucial, and the teams that make their own motors have a bit of a jump on the others in that respect.davepoth said:
It's not just the engine though - teams will be buying in the engine, transmission and ERS (not KERS next year) as a unit. The packaging of that will be fairly crucial, and the teams that make their own motors have a bit of a jump on the others in that respect.
They only need the CAD models to start. They don't have to wait for delivery of the engines.Mercedes has had (and still do have) the outright fastest car this season. Their only problem has been tyre wear, which seems to be pretty close to being sorted out. So once that's under control, Hamilton should be able to dominate in the same manner as Vettel in 2011. Even if they don't fully master the tyres, the car is still fast enough to attain pole position and finish on the podium at every race.
It's been an interesting season so far. The Red Bull has been the best all-rounder -- not the outright fastest, or the best at managing tyres, but it has no glaring weaknesses. The Mercedes is definitely the fastest, but suffers tyre issues. Lotus is the reverse of the Mercedes - great with tyres but only moderately fast. Ferrari looked equal to the Red Bull until Canada, but has lagged in development since then.
The next half should be edge-of-the-seat!
It's been an interesting season so far. The Red Bull has been the best all-rounder -- not the outright fastest, or the best at managing tyres, but it has no glaring weaknesses. The Mercedes is definitely the fastest, but suffers tyre issues. Lotus is the reverse of the Mercedes - great with tyres but only moderately fast. Ferrari looked equal to the Red Bull until Canada, but has lagged in development since then.
The next half should be edge-of-the-seat!
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