Have Your Say: Hamilton, Talent or Car Responsible for Success?

[Paul Jeffrey]

Controversy! In this edition of 'Have Your Say' we want to know if you think Lewis Hamilton won in 2014 and '15 due to sheer talent, or was it more the superiority of his Mercedes car...

I have been around racing for a long time.. more years than I would car to admit in fact, and often I hear statements like "driver X on;y won because he was in the best car", none more so that Jenson Button's 2009 championship winning season, when people very often refer to the advantage enjoyed by his Brawn team for the opening half dozen events of the year.

In the case of Button and Brawn, the Mercedes powered BGP 001 held all the cards over the opening six or seven events, then due to the nature of the team and rate of development from squads such as Red Bull and Ferrari the car slipped away from the very edge of optimum performance as the year wore on. Regardless of this many still believe Button won his World Championship thanks to a superior car, and not his driving talent behind the wheel.

Since then, Hamilton has found himself blessed with a Mercedes car that from 2014 has been far and away the class of the Grand Prix grid, securing 51 race victories from a possible 59 (not including 2017 to date).

With these incredible statistics taken into account, one has to wonder how much of Hamilton's success in recent years is down to the driver behind the wheel, and how much is due to the hard work of the team back at base and trackside at the circuits of the world.

So the question for today is -

Are Hamilton's Mercedes Drivers World Championship's down to driver skill, or car superiority?

Now I'm well aware that this topic will get some "excited" debate going (because sometimes it's fun to be controversial, right?), but please, I implore you all, keep a healthy respect for each other in the comments and debate sensibly. Let's have some fun with the article and throw around some ideas and opinions, but keep within a level of decorum worthy of adults please!!!

Get some popcorn people, this could be interesting....

 

[samcar304]

There is no doubt Hamilton has talent. After all he is the one who has to extract the pace out of the car... Same with Vettel. During 2010-2013 he was extracting the most out of that car and that's why he won the championships. F1 has always been the best car wins... But the best drivers find themselves in the best car. Either way you look at it a driver is an integral part of the equation. Without the car the driver is nothing. Without the driver the car is nothing. Its a symbiotic relationship. but the best ones get the best out of their car and that's why they win.

For me its 50/50.



P.S Love the #Blessed reference @Paul Jeffrey

Hamilton has found himself blessed

 

[Steve Worrell]

The guy is one of the best I have ever seen.

 

[Nico]

If he wasn't good he wouldn't have been picked by Mercedes from his very youth to end up debuting in a top team, and getting the championship on his second season. He has talent, lots of it, and when all conditions are favorable to him he's pretty much unbeatable. I just wish he wasn't so egocenctric and pedantic. Some of his sayings are very unfortunate, like when he spoke about Indycar when Alonso was about to take part of the Indy 500.

 

[sjb266]

Hasn't he won at least one race every season he's been in f1? that alone speaks to his ability to extract the most from his car.. whether it's the best car or not..
Not always a fan of his out of the car.. but always a fan while he's in the car!

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

P.S Love the #Blessed reference @Paul Jeffrey

Awesome spot fella! Would've bet money on no one noticing that

 

[Tobiman]

Multiple karting champion. Formula Renault champion. F3 champion. GP2 champion. What else is there to say? Hamilton beat out popular names currently competing in various other forms of motorsport to win a seat at Mclaren Mercedes.

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

Hamilton is talented, very talented, but at the same time the cars he had the last 3 championships could win the title with more than half the drivers in the grid.

So in a way he found himself in that position because he is one of the best(maybe "the best") in the business, but winning those championships didn't take the full use of his considerable talents... I guess that's 50/50, right?

 

[protonv5]

No doubt he has talent/ability. But if he were in a crappy car....

 

[Terry Rock]

Multiple karting champion. Formula Renault champion. F3 champion. GP2 champion. What else is there to say? Hamilton beat out popular names currently competing in various other forms of motorsport to win a seat at Mclaren Mercedes.

The folks who hate LH for any number of reasons, won't reference those facts.
It doesn't matter that in 2007 he came into the sport and ran against arguably one of the best drivers ever to drive an F1 car... and was competitive from the word 'go'.
None of that matters.
They always want to put it down to the car...funny how that works.

 

[CMGARAGE]

Multiple karting champion. Formula Renault champion. F3 champion. GP2 champion. What else is there to say? Hamilton beat out popular names currently competing in various other forms of motorsport to win a seat at Mclaren Mercedes.

Let's also not forget in his F1 debut season he matched defending champ Alonso on points in the same car. The bloke has genuine talent.

Whilst some could argue Alonso's current predicament and percieved under achievement is proof that the car plays more of a role than any driver's talent I'd hope no-one would argue that Alonso's previous success was solely down to the car/team.

 

[bporion]

the car you drive , the team you drive for is all good but mental toughness is the key and last year he got beat ! he beat himself ! he showed weakness .

 

[darkelf1]

It's all about talent, talent to come into F1, and then talent to choose a good team, talent to drive their cars and talent to beat all...

 

[AnklaX]

Hamilton is a pretentious D-Bag. When Morinho came to Manchester, club I support, Utd, I pretty much stopped watching Football. If Hamilton ever comes to Ferrari, I'll go mad of anger and sadness
.
But, I think he's one of the best current drivers. If you think he won because of the car then don't forget that he beat Rosberg to become champion and they're as good as each other because they rose to the top together by beating each other throughout their life and Rosberg did show he can beat Hamilton in F1 too.

He's also strong in recovery races and under pressure, if he knows/believes he has the superior car. The only weakness that I think he has is working with his team throughout a week to dial-in his car perfectly for the race. That's where he struggled the most while his team mates did not have as many of such issues.

Is he winning because of his car? Not entirely. I think its 60-40 in LH's favor.

 

[Doug46]

It's all about talent, talent to come into F1, and then talent to choose a good team, talent to drive their cars and talent to beat all

Talent and Sponsorship and money to get to F1, speak to many Talented drivers out there who are just as good, that dont have the funds and sponsorship (there are lots of them) that don't get though add a little who you know to that list and you should get there , or in the line, i understand where you're coming from but look at all the drivers that buy their place in a seat and i cant totally agree it's all down to talent, Hamilton is a talented driver i agree, but i won't say any more than that, other than he's been extremely lucky on which teams and cars he has been offered.

 

[Jimlaad43]

You need the talent to stay in top teams for as long as he has. Part of a driver's talent is moving to the right team at the right time, which is why Hamilton will always be more talented than Alonso.

 

[pitkin]

How many champion drivers would have won if they weren't in the best car? Not many.
How many great drivers never won because they weren't in the best car? Loads.

I view Alonso as the best (not necessarily the quickest, but the most complete) driver of the current age, Hamilton was easily a match for him when they drove together, so yes, his talent is real. I think this season will be the real test of his overall worth as he faces a challenge from outside of his own team.

But then I thought Rosberg would never beat him to a championship, so what do I know.

 

[M-Bimmer]

Let's see where some of the world champions started to draw some conclusions....

- Hamilton started at Mclaren Mercedes and won his first championship in his second F1 season.
- Vettel was a reserve driver at BMW Sauber and started his first race when Kubica crashed in Canada and scored points in his debut. Then he moved to Torro Rosso and we know what happened after the wet Monza.
- Alonso started at Minardi then moved to Renault as test driver but then went and won two world championships back to back against the Ferrari Legend.

So Hamilton definitely had the easy route...

Still if any F1 driver would have the best car on the grid, he would smash the records and competition.
However, destroying the relationship with your team mates proves that you have no manners or respect for anyone? So back to the point, is LH talented? Yes. Did he have the best cars and teams since his F1 debut? Yes. Is his car responsible for his success and records? A definite yes.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Let's see where some of the world champions started to draw some conclusions....

- Hamilton started at Mclaren Mercedes and won his first championship in his second F1 season.
- Vettel was a reserve driver at BMW Sauber and started his first race when Kubica crashed in Canada and scored points in his debut. Then he moved to Torro Rosso and we know what happened after the wet Monza.
- Alonso started at Minardi then moved to Renault as test driver but then went and won two world championships back to back against the Ferrari Legend.

So Hamilton definitely had the easy route (because of his dad?) oh yeah

Still if any F1 driver would have the best car on the grid, he would smash the records and competition.
However, destroying the relationship with your team mates proves that you have no manners or respect for anyone? So back to the point, is LH talented? Yes. Did he have the best cars and teams since his F1 debut? Yes. Is his car responsible for his success and records? A definite yes.

Not his dad, his talent. Hamilton's family couldn't afford to get him into F1, it was his talent in the junior series' that got him McLaren backing and funding.

It takes talent to jump into a top team and perform instantly. For a rookie to be beating a double world champion in your debut year is incredible. Look how Stroll has taken a while to get into it - and he still hasn't actually beaten Massa when they both finish.

 

[ltcars]

I have to admit I was Hamilton-fan when he was at Mclaren until Vettel came along, but back there he was a nice guy. He seemed a bit shy but now. I don't think there is any driver on the grid that I find more unsympathetic. So I went with 50/50 because he has talent, but other drivers would have won too. As you can see right now, as Mercedes isn't anymore so much faster than other teams, he struggles at even taking front row grid positions