I think that ship has sailed now. I used to think like that but I’m not so sure now. If social change can come from inspirational people, what’s the problem? It’s nothing new either, look at Jesse Owens, Ali, BJK & Navratilova, nowadays Colin Kaepernick, Anthony Joshua, the FA, LeBron James & so on. Don’t feel preached at, just enjoy their brilliance & if you agree with the cause, great, if not, man that was some dunk shot, some punch, helluva overtaking move etc. Just my thoughts, we’re all different.
Who’s suggesting muzzling, spout away Hamilton. As a wealthy high profile individual he has plenty of other opportunities to preach, just please please please leave it out on race day. I don’t get my shopping delivered and have to wait to unload it until I hear about XYZ. I don’t put a song on only to have to wait until someone proves a political point. IMHO F1 has already lost audience due to its lack of excitement, the last thing it needs is to lose more through it being a partially political broadcast
That ship certainly hasn’t sailed, I doubt that I’m alone. Like you, he has a right to speak his mind, I’ve no prob with that nor should anyone and I’m all for promoting change. It’s just that there is a time and place, and race day ain’t the place. You switch on the telly you get Brexit CV19 BLM They talk about mental health issues, well, how about letting us simple folk have a safe space away from that sh1t
Shouldn’t be getting your shopping delivered anyway, just been reading today that if you do that & especially if you also have a dog, you will definitely catch Covid
From someone who is fairly involved in motor sport and has been since birth really my opinion: f1 is the pinnacle of 4 wheeled motor sport. This means that development is relentless. Unfortunately development and technology has killed it as a sport and especially a spectator sport. It’s too focussed on the car now. It’s impossible really to tell who’s actually the best driver, you could argue that’s always been present to a degree and Ofcourse you’d be correct but never in such a degree as it is these days. Back in the day the fastest driver in a not great car would still be in with a fight here and there. These days it wouldn’t matter if you were Jim Clark and Senna’s love child, you’d still be last in a not so good car. I’d like to see it back with lesser aero, stick box and steel brakes but they can’t do it because it’s the ‘pinnacle’. Back in the 60’s and 70’s for example, the cars were seriously hard work to drive. You can see footage of drivers being dragged out of cars from exhaustion. The tyre and brake and suspension tech just wasn’t what it is today as the cars were full on! back then I dare say many looked at the drivers are super hero’s, attempting to tame the beast so to speak. It was an extremely dangerous sport back then. A sport of playboys and characterful chaps. Nowadays it’s a sport of over groomed politically correct teenagers. it’s just not f1 anymore. All the guys I know who’ve driven the modern era cars have stated to me that they’re the easiest cars they’ve ever driven. Very very sad. And you can really see it when you watch the onboards. It’s like they’re on a Sunday drive. Teenage kids shouldn’t be able to jump in them and drive them relatively green. They’d be upside down and on fire in an old school car. it’s a shame. Motor sport is in my blood but I’d genuinely rather watch paint dry.
Yep. Good point. ‘Twas ever thus. Ali got a jail sentence (subsequently overturned on appeal), changed his name and religion, lost his title and was effectively barred from fighting for several years at the peak of his career due to his activism. In the light of Trump’s reaction to the BLM protests it’s ironic that only a couple of years earlier he’d been trailing the idea of granting Ali a presidential pardon.
Isn’t it like that with all top echelon motorsport now though, especially since the advent of advanced electronics? I recall when it was seen as something incredible when Rossi won a race in his first season on the widow maker 500 strokers, yet Marquez won the title in his debut season on the big bikes, which suggests they were easier to ride than they’d been previously. I too miss the days when traction control was limited by the driver/riders’ right foot/hand and the size of their bollocks, but unfortunately progress leads towards perfection which can be admired from a tech perspective but does often lead to less exciting racing (though having said that MotoGP has been awesome this year).
To a degree in my opinion yes mate you’re right. However bike racing is still exciting! It’s still a sport that having participated I can say I have major respect for the really fast boys although modern bikes still aren’t easy to ride fast. Easier for sure. But they still bite and bite hard. you can still get hurt or worse and it’s a regular occurrence. The difference between a fast trackday driver and a fast car racer in the same vehicle is maybe a second or two over an average lap (depending what you’re in as most aren’t used to aero or carbon brakes etc). But let’s say stick two people in an m2 or something normalish. the difference between a fast trackday rider and a good racer is massive. 10 seconds or more usually.
You’re so right though, get rid of the excessive Aeros, the auto box & the carbon brakes & F1 would be immensely better. As it though m, Hamilton is a class above everyone else in his era, that’s all you can say
Driver aids like traction control ABS and similar have been banned in F1 quite long ago. In fact the only things that can have electronic control are the engine and gearbox but not in active way. That means the electronic can only follow driver input. They do now allow a electronic brake bias valve for the rear brake but that was really just a safety concern when they introduced the hybrid system. There are no movable aerodynamic devices either and no two way telemetry.
True but the current car designs create so much downforce they don't need the other aids. Interesting last weekend when it was slippery though, sorted them out a little...
Actually they don't have more downforce either. I'd be surprised if they even had as much as they did 15 years ago. Every time they change rules they cut downforce by as much as 40 percent. Of course teams will try hard to claw it back as much as possible. I think the bigger problem is the lack of permitted engine development. When one manufacturer, in this case Mercedes, does a much better job than the rest and you then don't allow the others to catch up then you have this disparity for years. If course those restrictions came in to curb cost. Every manufacturer wants cost control up to the point where they don't do well, have the money to throw at the problem but aren't allowed. As far as Hamilton is concerned, his team mate Bottas was a absolute superstar in the lower formulas. I remember him at a Formula Renault race at Silverstone where 26 cars were lapping within 1 second of each other. Amongst them a few of the current crop of F1 drivers. Magnussen springs to mind. Anyway, Bottas was 1 second clear of second place in qualifying and then the rest of the field within another second. The fact that Hamilton beats him in the same car week in week out speaks volumes to me. If those cars are so easy to drive then why is a outstanding driver like Bottoms unable to drive it as fast as Hamilton? Fact is Hamilton is very very good and made good choices with his teams. Credit where it's due.
Why do remember all the main drivers three seasons (maybe four?) all bragging about how "they can now -following the car design change- drive almost flat out through bends" which was impossible before? The widths of the cars all changed at the same time... Still I agree with you on Lewis's current form, there is no one at his level. Though Verstappen and Leclerc are close and the difference is perhaps experience.
Because cars now don't rely on aero as much and have more mechanical grip. Aerodynamic cars can't follow close to another as the air is so "dirty" with turbulence. I remember in my active F1 days people said it was boring as Schumacher won everything. 4 in a row I think. On Thursday afternoon the officials would test the PA on the podium and they always played the German anthem, the most likely on they needed on the Sunday. Being German I always stood to attention the everyone's amusement. For me it was always about the cars. I love the innovation, the technology, the materials and the craftsmanship. They are true works of art. Nothing comes close in my opinion. It makes everything else on 4 or 2 wheels look like scrap metal.
He’s still a bit of a twat at times! And In My opinion nothing comes close to a full gp bike! It makes everything else on 4 or 2 wheels look like scrap metal! We’re all different though!
So is he the best driver ever or a very good driver in the best team ever? As with all the teams I guess there are a large number of guys in the back room monitoring every aspect of the car, problems fed to the guys at the track who will then advise (tell?) the driver what to do. So is the drivers performance dependent on the team? I was a bit more impressed at the last race when Hamilton ignored the instructions to change tyres. I would prefer to see less communication between the drivers and the pits an to let them make their own decisions. As for his fashion sense, really I would reckon a large number of members on this forum are middle aged white men so can we really comment?
Each driver has a race engineer, data engineer and a control engineer at the circuit. Then there is the chief engineer and a tyre engineer shared between the cars. Technical personnel is limited to 47 at the circuit. That's not enough so back at the factory is the war room which is stuffed full of computers, TVs and engineers. They monitor what every car does throughout the weekend. What time they do when on what tyres, how long they stay out, how quickly their tyres degrade etc. The strategy engineer will compile all the data and will recommend number of the numberof laps per race stint, how many stops, how much fuel to carry, etc. During the race those guys again look at what the competition does, when did they stop, what tyres are they on, what times are they doing. Someone might be behind you but going faster so after a round of stops they may well be in front. The driver can never be on top of all that, he also doesn't know his fuel consumption, tyre pressures, tyre temperature etc, so isn't best positioned to make the calls himself. A win is worth millions in revenue for the next season, a podium for a smaller team might save them from going under so team owners and principals aren't going to let drivers decide what's best based on how the car feels at any particular moment or who they see around them. It is very much a team effort.
