Would Lewis Hamilton win F1 in a different car?

[Thankyou4calling]

To my mind he is the best driver in the best car but could he win a GP in the Ferrari or another car?

I know it’s only an opinion but I’d be interested to know?

[Greg the Fish]

No.

[crankedup]

I am of the opinion that any of the drivers on the F1 grid are capable of a World Championship
given the Championship winning car. Of course the Championship winning car has to be earned, imo.

[BUG4LIFE]

No. He'd be able to push any car to the limit but if the car isn't capable of winning, it's not going to win.

[SonicShadow]

The Ferrari car with Mercedes still runnning the strategy side? Maybe. Ferrari car with Ferrari still looking after everything? He'd be in the same position as Vettel.

[CooperS]

SonicShadow said:

The Ferrari car with Mercedes still runnning the strategy side? Maybe. Ferrari car with Ferrari still looking after everything? He'd be in the same position as Vettel.

That is the correct answer.

In any other car but the Ferrari's (this year)..... he'd be Alonso...

[Cold]

Stick him in this year's Williams and watch him put it on pole and win from the front.

Or perhaps not.

[37chevy]

Last years ferrari yes the championship. Driver threw it away last year with too many mistakes. This years ferrari wins, not the championship. Leclerc has proved in Bahrain, Vettel in Canada that the car is competitive on the right track..again, driver/ strategy errors are costing them.

[SonicShadow]

CooperS said:

SonicShadow said:

The Ferrari car with Mercedes still runnning the strategy side? Maybe. Ferrari car with Ferrari still looking after everything? He'd be in the same position as Vettel.

That is the correct answer.

In any other car but the Ferrari's (this year)..... he'd be Alonso...

Alonso 2012... Probably the best season of his career, as a driver he outperformed Vettel IMO, but still missed the championship by 3 points.

[Krikkit]

CooperS said:

SonicShadow said:

The Ferrari car with Mercedes still runnning the strategy side? Maybe. Ferrari car with Ferrari still looking after everything? He'd be in the same position as Vettel.

That is the correct answer.

In any other car but the Ferrari's (this year)..... he'd be Alonso...

Exactly - Alonso is a perfect example of a mega-talented driver who extracted everything from his car but still couldn't win.

[cholo]

I think his results between 2009 and 2013 show the answer.

[Vaud]

I think he would do better than Vettel in a Ferrari, but the driver seems to have little to do with the package at the moment. Hamilton seems to be flawlessly driving the Merc that he has, but flawlessly driving anything else on the grid would not mean a win.

[Nickp82]

He would certainly win races in a Ferrari and perhaps in a Red Bull. He of course has the best machinery by far currently but even so, to my mind there can be no doubt he is the best driver on the grid. Just to qualify that, I am not a Lewis ‘fan’.

[ukaskew]

In the Ferrari he'd be there or thereabouts in my opinion, might need some Merc strategists though.

The Red Bull would be interesting, I have a feeling he'd be ahead of at least one Ferrari each week and would probably grab a win during the season.

[ghost83]

No despite what ppl think it’s down to the car! Look at bottas for example he’s up there with Hamilton as Rosberg was it’s all about the car! Put any other driver in the car and it would be the same result!

Hulk won le man a while ago didn’t he yet never won F1 Alonso won lemans yet look at when he was at McLaren at the back half of the grid

[SonicShadow]

Le Mans is a different skillset to be fair.

[Kraken]

The car (and engineer) is far, far more important than the driver in F1 (and many other series to be fair). With the amount of data they collect now there is nowhere for an average driver to hide so there really aren't any at the sharp end of the grids of major series.

[thegreenhell]

Success in any form of motorsport is first and foremost about having the best car. A mediocre driver in the best car will beat the best driver in a mediocre car nine times out of ten. He might have won a couple of races in a Ferrari this year by making fewer mistakes than their current drivers, but only those races where the Ferrari is competitive anyway. Overall he wouldn't make a difference to the natural order of manufacturers.

[Monkeylegend]

More to the point, if you put them all in equal cars with no performance differential the best driver would win and at the moment I would say that is Hamilton.

[IforB]

Whilst I think Hamilton is easily the class of this field and one of the best we have ever seen, this question means that if he was say in a Ferrari, then someone else would be in his car.

He might win the odd race, but that Merc and that team as a whole is something else.