HAMILTON VS. RUSSELL AS TEAMMATES 🟢QUALY H2H: 24 vs. 23 (51.06%) 🟰POLES: 1 vs. 1 (50.00%) 🟢RACE H2H: 20 vs. 17 (54.05%)* 🔴VICTORIES: 0 vs. 1 (0.00%) 🟢PODIUMS: 15 vs. 10 (60.00%) 🟢POINT FINISHES: 41 vs. 39 (51.25%) 🟢DNFs: 5 vs. 6 (45.45%) 🟢POINTS: 458.0 vs. 437.0 (51.17%) Hamilton on the left, Russel on the right. Sprints are excluded. *Only races in which both drivers finished REMINDER Most of the DNFs are driver errors. e.g Canada, Singapore, Zandvoort, Australia 24 for George
In my opinion I don’t think Lewis is washed. I think that for one, since the ground effect era the Mercedes cars he’s driving are probley some of the worst he’s ever had in his career. Two I think that he’s mentally checked out from Mercedes.
it wouldn't be the first time a major reg change neutered a driver's style.. Vettel was dominant and then overnight became 2nd fiddle to Ric, and even Danny Ric himself is a shadow of what he was pre-ground effect era. I would put it it at somewhere halfway between, he's definitely not washed yet, and he definitely isn't as passionate, but Russell shouldn't even be keeping pace with him, let alone beating him (when he doesn't ruin his own races) in this era, so there definitely is something to it about maybe an incompatible driving style. Only time will tell though
@@jaegerman66 i think Russell is good enough to give any driver of the grid a run for their money on his good days. he's not there to be a Bottas or a Perez, he's Toto's bet for the future, a former F2 Champion. Most of all, i think Hamilton and Russell approach things very differently at this point in their careers. This car isn't getting them nowhere, so no reason to try too hard with it. And he's leaving, whereas Russell is already the main man of the team trying to prove he can be a leader for the upcoming seasons.
@@jaegerman66i think you are underestimating George Russel waay too much here. You are speaking as if he was just a british f4 driver warming the seat up. Don't forget he beat nearly all of today's younger generation in equal machinery during their junior careers. Saying he shouldn't even be close to Lewis in the same car is simply not true.
On another note, We’re talking about one of the greatest drivers in F1 history who actually got 3rd in the championship last year with a bad car. You can’t lose ALL your skills in a matter of 2-3 months. The only issue with W15 is that it’s worse in terms of performance than its predecessors. Whereas other teams nailed it better than Merc this year. However, the season isn’t over yet. A lot can change.
Exactly 🤣 If he was under performing for a few years like other drivers, sure. But the only reason he couldn’t compete last year was the car. P3 with no wins lol
But he should be head and shoulders above George, which he is not. You can compare what's happening to Lewis to what happened to Micheal with his comeback.
The car, over the seaso, was 2nd best. Ferrari, AM and Mclaren all had at least 9 races where the car was shit, Merc only had Brazil. They didnt have the massive peaks of Ferrari or the big lump of clearly 2nd best of Mclaren, but 3rd is where Lewis should have finished. And if it were not for reliability and a couple of poorly times SCs Leclerc would have finished 3rd instead@@mapleleafkay9824
@@AndyFromBeaverton Respectfully I have to disagree. Because Lewis like 2022 is taking on an experimental role with the step ups which means the car will perform differently each time. Whereas George isn’t. This explains why in 2022 George was ahead and as soon as they discovered the right set ups for the w13 because of Lewis’s experimental approach they saw which set up is best fit and we saw Lewis performing better. Both drivers are currently not where they want to be. As I said, George or Lewis being better than each other doesn’t matter at all. History won’t remember that. What it will remember is which driver won with the W15. Currently we don’t even now if it will score podiums.
I hate the that people think he washed. Granted, as a champ, adaptability should always be in your bag, but hard to perform when the car does not respond
Indeed. People aren't asking this about Alonso are they? It's unlikely he is washed as he's doing a good job still, but with Stroll as his teammate, he doesn't exactly have the best benchmark. How do we know they Aston isn't faster than is shown and if Russell could qualify it higher. Very unlikely but the benchmark is important. Also, it isn't a good start to the season, granted, but looking at Lewis race pace and he still is decent and better than Russell in Jeddah race pace wise. I looked at the guys with the same strategy in Jeddah - Norris and Hamilton Vs their respective teammates and Lewis gained on Russell finishing 7.5 seconds behind factoring in time loss from the SC. Lando lost a little finishing 12.5 seconds behind Piastri. One would think Lewis and Lando's results would be the opposite, especially considering Lewis was holding up Lando's teammate for a large part of the race (costing both Lewis and Oscar time) Lewis had more dirty air overall and dirty air behind Lando in the final stint. We didn't see Lewis true pace in the final stint in clean air due to Lando's dirty air. Bahrain too, I have seen conflicting info who was faster but it was almost identical between Ham and Russell whichever is correct. I did see Lewis closed the gap and finishes under 4 seconds behind George, so I assumed he was faster overall (factoring in where they started) but both had issues with their cars. Where Lewis and Mercedes are isn't 💯 accurately represented in the results is my conclusion. Safety cars, miscalculated cooling, failures and crashes have had a bearing. It's almost better to do bad now tbh. I'd almost be thinking of sandbagging to get a lot of wind tunnel time when it resets in June, in their position, or thinking ahead to the next regs soon.
Some of the comments are quite ill informed. Now let me preface by saying that I'm a Max fan through and through. Lewis is a multiple WDC winner. He clearly is a generational talent based on his achievements. You don't achieve that being "mediocre". You don't win championships without having three prerequisites. A good car, a good team and a good driver. Any one of those missing and you won't win any WDCs. Lewis is in no way washed. I've had Sainz fans saying Sainz>Lewis based on Australia 2024. Lol don't make me laugh. The only reason Carlos won was because Max was effectively driving with his handbrakes on and he still pulled a 0.917 second gap to Carlos at the end of lap 1. Lewis and Alonso are generational talents. They may not be at their prime but without them having a championship contending car we can make zero inferences to that. Give them a good car and they'll win races. Simple. In fact Lewis and Alonso are the only drivers on the grid on the same plane as Verstappen and can truly best him if given the right car. My only hope is to see a three way battle between these three legends before they drive off into the sunset. A repeat of 2021 if you will. Even Max was no where in championship contention until he got his machinery right. Lewis hasn't forgotten how to drive lol. Wait for 2025.
I'm a max fan and i agree about what you said. Mercedes car is bad, not the driver. He's not finished yet. i believe if lewis get a better car, he could have win races or maybe he can win WDC. The main problem is mercedes, they couldn't keep up on redbull innovations and also wrong fundamental concept of the car in the early 2022. Lewis is still one of the greatest of all time🤘
The fundamental issue is that the car simply isn't there. Mercedes still hasn't figured out how to generate consistent predictable downforce under these regulations, and especially under yaw conditions (aka while the car is turning). Lewis's performance this season has very little to do with his braking ability, every driver on the grid uses trail braking, and braking deep into the corner isn't always the best way to approach a corner. How late one brakes has more to do with the nature of the corner and what comes after that corner, than it does with a specific driving style. It's also not what makes Lewis Hamilton a great racecar driver, and only a single element of a driving style. Driving style is a the tiny differences in how drivers chose to approach different types of corners and their mental model for how each car handles. While some drivers do brake later than others and use slightly different cornering techniques; *The reality is that every car has an optimal way for it to be driven in order to extract the fastest lap time from it. What makes a world-class driver is their ability to rapidly understand the best way to drive the each car and then adapt their driving style to extract all the potential performance in each car* . Every car has a performance ceiling, at any time there is an absolute fastest possible time that it can get around any track. The best a driver can do is get as close as possible to that best possible time, no matter how good a driver is, they can't go any faster than the car will allow them to. The limiting factors on the Mercedes are just what happens when the drivers have to be constantly pushing and overdrive the car as they attempt to stay competitive. For the Mercedes the limiting factor that shows up first (the rear-end instability) is also something which Lewis is particularly sensitive to. Regardless of driving style, Mercedes haven't made a car which is fast enough to truly compete or beat Red Bull. Period. The fact that Lewis really likes a strong rear end is a compounding issue. He has to have confidence in the rear of the car to really push. And without consistent predictable downforce, Lewis cannot be sure what the rear of the car is going to do on corner entry and mid-corner. But, no matter what, the cars under these regs are going to have much less consistent and predictable rear-ends compared to the previous regulations. F1 banned the advanced suspensions that teams were using under the previous regulations, and also changed the tire size and reduced the size of the side walls (which makes the tires themselves less compliant under load). With how stiff the suspension has to be on the ground effect cars and how low to the ground they are, the cars have much more sensitive and twitchy rear-ends by nature. When it comes to driving style, Max Verstappen is the one who likes an extremely positive front-end and is fine with the rear sliding all over the place. He brakes relatively early, so that he can have the car set up exactly how he want's on corner entry and uses the super positive front-end and loose rear to get all his rotation done early, in order to have the car as straight as possible on corner exit. So it's more of a V shaped corner instead of a U shape. But as I said, every car has a specific way it must be driven to extract the fastest lap from it, so these driving styles are a relatively minor factor when it comes to the fastest drivers, except that the teams will sometimes try to build a car which fits the style of their driver if they can do so without compromising the absolute potential of the car significantly (it's more of a luxury than a priority). That rear-end instability on corner entry and mid-corner is also part of what contributed to George Russel's crash. He's willing to go 100% and push, even when he's at a very high risk of loosing the rear. That's why all it took was giving slightly too much braking force in response to Alonso slowing down when he wasn't expecting it, for the car to get unsettled and for him to loose the rear. Overall, I can only imagine how difficult it is to remain razor focused on F1 and extracting 100% from a car when you know it isn't competitive and your still capable of being a WDC if given a competitive car. He managed to keep up that motivation for years with a non-competitive Mercedes and knows he's going to a different team next year. Assuming Ferrari can make a competitive car for Lewis next season that allows him to actually compete with Red Bull, I expect Lewis to be just as good as he's always been. He didn't become a 7x WDC and win 100s of races in spec series prior to getting into F1 by being a bad driver. He's still one of the greatest racecar drivers to ever exist. But as I said, even the greatest driver in the world can only go as fast as the absolute limit of the car they are in.
i think he was more so highlighting just how devastating lewis is in the race. even with his qualifying success he always seems to gain in the races. definitely funny in a vacuum tho 😂 he’s always been rapid over one lap
A lot of people love doubting Lewis and that’s fine. To me there’s nothing wrong with his driving style right now and he hasn’t made any changes to it. The moment a driver his age has to change driving styles with a struggling tells me hes doubting his own ability and Lewis has never once said in these regs, "I’ve had to change my driving style" once. If you look at the onboards of his cars in post 22 vs pre 22 regs they are very much the same. The only difference is the stability and balance of the car. It doesn’t make sense for a driver like LH to finish in P3 for these regs in 23 and then out of nowhere in many peoples eyes look like a "shell of his former self" this is why I say don’t be surprised when he looks a lot better in the Ferrari. If anything these last couple of weeks where Ollie, Charles, and Carlos showed that this newly revised Ferrari is balanced for many different driving styles. It will suit LH as well. Anyone that says he’s "washed" are giving lazy opinions. I’m not judging Lewis at all this year even if he loses to George. I’m judging him next year when he faces a guy that’s even better than George. Lewis has always faced competitive teammates barring two drivers (Bottas and Kovo). We need those to keep their same energy when he starts performing in a Ferrari. Lewis doesn’t exist to be fighting for P10 - P5s. There’s no trophies in fighting for that and no one will remember a driver who’s done that. Wins and championships are all that matters for him. 1+1 never equals two in formula one.
Dude I’m right there with you! A lot of undeserved hate just because he’s Lewis. And they jump on him the moment he isn’t performing. Keep that same energy goldfish!
Here’s my opinion, feel free to debate or disagree that’s fine. First, I don’t think Lewis is washed. I feel that people forget only 2 whole seasons ago he was a strong title contender. Whether you feel 2021 finale was controversial or not it could have easily happened the other way and who knows how it would have ended with the safety car. Max drove great that season as well so hats off. Second, I feel like a lot of F1 fans who say Lewis is washed are also those fans also want to see Ricardo in a RB seat, I love Ricardo as much as anyone else but do not feel his performance shows he deserves that. Third and last point, Mercedes got the car wrong. They seem to dance around admitting it at first but the complete car change in 2024 shows that they know they got it wrong. I feel when Lewis was dominate everyone said it was just the car. Now RB has a good car and everyone thinks max could do the same thing in any car which is just not true.
@@ey1615 sorry to break it to you buddy but Lewis finished P3 in the WDC last year, in a car which was usually 3rd fastest on average. Essentially won the non-Red Bull WDC. definitely not washed.
Mercedes put all their hope in James Allison and fire Mike Elliot. Guess what? The car is even worse and RedBull has stolen Mike's idea and implemented it to perfection. I feel like since W13 didn't perform right from the get go, they didn't trust Elliot enough. Still Mike's car won a race, won a sprint, got dozens onf podiums. W15 is far from a podium. No hope for Mercedes.
@@F1Unchained too late for a change. This should be the year where they started right after RedBull yet they are 4th/5th. I think they have given up, salvage what is possible and hope for the best. Lewis said this car is the worse he's had since 2009. Worse than W13 and W14!! Mercedes went backwards this season. Don't even know how to solve their problems. Got bouncy again. Using GPs for testing while other teams will soon bring big performance upgrades. If Aston Martin brings a good package, Mercedes is dusted.
If you're suggesting that Red Bull has copied Mercedes 22/23 style "zeropods", you are greatly mistaken. What they've done is gone from an underbite setup to an overbite setup at the front of the sidepods. They still have a horizontal inlet, and they still have distinctly undercut sidepods, neither of which were on the Mercedes. It's an extreme evolution of last year's Red Bull aerodynamics rather than an implementation of Mercedes' idea.
@@spikyone79 I am suggesting RedBull took ideas from Mercedes design, especially the W14. W14 had a sort of overbite that RedBull and Mclaren now have. W14 also had big shoulders that RedBull decided to implement and use for extra cooling. Are you denying these?
The reason he's done so well is due to the imperceptible amount of steering input he puts on BEFORE he enters a corner. It doesnt change the trajectory, it asks the car for permission, he tells the car what's coming next. Cars brake better, cars turn better when you tell them what's coming next. He does that better than most
@@codyfrance2537 What are you talking about?? Rosberg isn't good? But you can praise Schumacher when his teammates wasn't even allowed to race him? Hamilton came in his first year in F1 and finished ahead of a 2X WDC teammate in same machinery but Hamilton doesn't have raw talent and he had neutered teammates? See how dumb you sound? Every driver is a product of their equipment, Their is not one driver that won the WDCs with the 5th fastest car on the grid so I don't see why you're trying to discredit Hamilton for winning with a competitive car but when other drivers do it you praise them. Look at max winning now with the fastest car and everyone praising him, he also has a subpar teammate who poses no challenge to him and everyone gives max his credits. But Lewis who had multiple WDC winning teammates was the one who had no challenge?? GTFOH man you're Pathetic
@@codyfrance2537”rosberg kinda sucked”, lmao you’re delusional. Rosberg would be a multiple WDC champion and considered the GOAT if lewis never existed
I don't know if it applies to real cars, but i noticed in ac that i can brake later and make the apex whenever i nudge the wheel the tiniest bit in the direction of the corner while full braking, i can gain up to 2 tenths per corner doing that instead of braking straight and turning.
Outboard loaded wings don't work. Every team that's fast, has inboard loaded wings. When you make a left turn the airflow goes to the right. If you have an outboard loaded wing, when you corner, the airflow moves inboard away from the loading on the windward side(the side going into the corner), to where the wing is not loaded, and you lose downforce. With an inboard loaded wing, when you corner, the airflow moves towards the loaded part, and you get more downforce. This is important because the windward side of the car is the most sensitive to disturbances and flow separation, whereas the leeward side(the side away from the corner) has it's downforce enhanced because the wake is moving outboard on that side. On the windward side(side going into the corner) the wake is being pushed under the floor disrupting the downforce. An inboard loaded wing helps you outwash that wake on the windward side of the car, much better than an outboard loaded wing. This is why Mercedes has fallen behind. An outboard loaded front wing is making downforce on the leeward side of the car, the side that is not sensitive to separation, it's wasting flow energy in my opinion.
I've always thought that their rear wing is the weirdest looking one. Like, it's half Monaco and half Monza rear wing. Even their most loaded rear wing (Monaco,Hungary) looks weird.
Agree. The high central wings not only have down force but shape the air going underneath them making it more sustained and reliable in how it feeds floor and sidepods. Merc is fixated on top performance but misses that the crazy amount of air disturbance all over the car is making any progress useless.
I have heard on more than one occasion that the direction of FIA has been decided to "create" difficulties for certain drivers to help F1 in general. When a team or driver in particular has too much success then the FIA steps in to alter the playing field.
Well that’s why Mercedes is suffering. What isn’t talked too much about is Mercedes was the top dog in suspension. But now suspension has been “simplified and cheapened” dramatically for these new rules…which nerfed Mercedes suspension advances.
This comment right here, alot of persons don't know James Alison was brought in because of his expertise in suspension. The attacks on Merc by FIA started in 2014 when they took away the FRIC suspension.@philipbarton3456
New regs has changed the ground force effect on cars. Some drivers are having problems with that. Riccardo and Hamilton are finding it difficult to adjust
@@RANDOMZBOSSMAN1 i had a magazine from 2001 that Barrichello said he alone tested for 27000 km to improve their 2000 car. Schumacher tested at least as much, if not more.
@@bizarroeddie1 27000Km omg Lewis did I think 8000Km of testing in 2007 that pales in comparison, I know by the mid 2000s the days of testing were starting to be reduced somewhat before the overall ban in 2009
Just a thing. The tire management became very important when Pirelli came in. Even with his best cars he had to do tire management. Now the big difference between a good car and bad one is how treat the tires during a stint or a fast lap. Mercedes in the past used to destroy the tires (2012 and 2013, for example), they could qualify on the front row, but then would go backwards during the race. That's something Mercedes improved for 2014 onwards and here and there you could still see the problem reappearing. Now they have a similar problem. One thing that RB has and Ferrari seems to be improving is platform stability. With groundforce cars you want the front and rear always at a similar height from and rear when you are going through a corner or on a straight, so the airflow is very consistent and the downforce desn't shift from front to rear and vice-versa during corner entry and corner exit, that usually creates those snaps of over and under steer. And that leads me to the tires back again, that type of instability kills the tires on the long run. Even on a fast run, because you start sliding around and correcting the snaps that at the end of a fast lap or a stint, the tires are done and you lose time. All of this plays a role on the confidence you have on the car, as a driver if you don't know if the car is going to respond how you want, you start to be conservative on your approach and you lose time. You can attack the corners how you like because you might slide, you can't exit the corners with the proper speed you want or the car just snaps on you because you pushed the throttle too soon from what the car is capable of. So you end up driving just to reach the end and not to gain places.
I think it's simple actually… it's not a championship-winning car so Lewis has checked out already. George doesn’t have that luxury because he has an investment in the team and development of the car… Lewis is probably looking at the Ferraris and counting down the days when he could hopefully be competitive again.
Lewis is NOT washed, and the problem is not the car he is driving. First of all lets remember he brought the 4th fastest car (4th fastest behind Aston in the first half, and 4th fastest behind McLaren and ahead of Aston in the second half).. to 3rd in the drivers championship, and also carried Mercedes to second in the constructors!! Yes Ferrari did mess up a lot of races but so did Mercedes with race disqualifications and many dnfs from George, and one from Lewis, but he still managed to carry the team to 2nd, and there is no logical explanation if you think that he has fallen so much in just a few months to being slower than everyone. If you look his laps, he is the one who struggles to keep the car on the track the most - he corrects his car in every single corner, and it honestly reminds me of Alonso in the 2014 Ferrari.. Let me not mention that Lewis' opinion about the setup and the car keeps changing, for example in Australia FP1 and FP2 they tried a dramatic setup on Lewis so he was the slowest, in FP3 he was veey confident, but in qualifying he said that nothing was changed with the setup and for some reason he felt the engine tone being lowered, and the car not feel the same as it did in qualifying, and in the end calling it very challenging to drive. Is this normal? No. The team Mercedes must be sabotaging Lewis. This has never happened before with Lewis and Mercedes, and if you mention 2022 then you forget that he actually did use experimental setups back then, and that got them a win in Brazil because they actually understood the car and developed it based on Hamilton's feedback. Now in 2024 they use the same excuse "experimental setups" but i doubt that it is for the development of the car, and i will be proved right because i think Mercedes will not get a podium this year, and if they do it will be based on luck, for example the Red Bulls and the Ferraris face reliability issues or they crash. Mercedes is turning worse and worse each year, with the W13 being their best car in this era even though they finished 3rd in the constructors in 2022.
@Gianniskos1335 He only finished 3rd in drivers championship, and second in the Constructors because Toto cheated at Las Vegas when he illegally voted against Ferrari in thr manhole incident. It wasn't done on merit......
Although there are limited testing days, this applies to all drivers so everyone is on even plane field. Drivers can always do unlimited hours on the simulators which they do (especially the younger generations including 3x world champ Max).
Can't really say that's not HIS problem. Alonso too belongs to the same era as him ( older if I may ) but he adapted to Ground effect cars faster even after taking a break
"best driver to ever exist in our beautiful sport" what an intro, the best and truest statement ive ever heard..its my 1st time watching this channel, NEVER BEFORE have i ever heard sme1 breakdown Lewis 100% precise and on point with true facts. Dude ur brilliant ur demo vids ur explanation even ur future view at Ferrari, knowing the balance of that SF24 you know ur stuff so well..... im getting my mates to subscribe to ur channel👌👌👍👍
Great video overall, but 7:16 Qualifying is 100% Lewis thing. He is one of if not the best qualifiers in F1. And it makes sense how he is doing horrible at qualifying now, since he can't trust the car to push all out.
The most exceptional drivers can always adapt to their car. All drivers have preferences but the best drivers can adapt their driverstyles. Clearly hamilton cannot do that.
Great analysis, but it addresses the W15 car more than SLH's driving style. Still, after the British 2024 GP, you might want to revisit this analysis and make some adjustments. SLH still got it, he just didn't have the right car to do it with. But we agree, the 2nd part of this season might be very exciting.
@@F1Unchainedhe’s already done that last year brother. Win or lose to George this year doesn’t mean anything. The end goal is a championship trophy for Lewis. An easy comparison to my statement is Charles and Carlos. Carlos has been the driver who’s won more recently than Charles but he’s been beaten by Charles in the last two years lol
HAMILTON VS. RUSSELL AS TEAMMATES 🟢QUALY H2H: 24 vs. 23 (51.06%) 🟰POLES: 1 vs. 1 (50.00%) 🟢RACE H2H: 20 vs. 17 (54.05%)* 🔴VICTORIES: 0 vs. 1 (0.00%) 🟢PODIUMS: 15 vs. 10 (60.00%) 🟢POINT FINISHES: 41 vs. 39 (51.25%) 🟢DNFs: 5 vs. 6 (45.45%) 🟢POINTS: 458.0 vs. 437.0 (51.17%) Hamilton on the left, Russel on the right. Sprints are excluded. *Only races in which both drivers finished REMINDER Most of the DNFs are driver errors. e.g Canada, Singapore, Zandvoort, Australia 24 for George
this is the way. i mainly add videos to my watch later instead of watching immediately, so i make sure to like the video first so it still gets the early engagement
Lewis's making us think that his decision to move to Ferrari is EXCELLENT(literally) week to week while Sainz is showing his true potential makes Ferrari to re-think their decision😆
Something slightly worrying is that the ferrari is sort of known for being extremely pointy in qualifying trim so there is a chance that hamilton has poor quali results and has to come back through the field with that ferrari
People talk as if George is doing much better. He isn't. Mercedes made a even worse car this year, they're falling backwards to 5th fastest team. Hamilton has issues but he's on leave, so why would the team try hard to solve his issues, or why would he try hard to solve issues he have in a bad car that he won't even be driving the next year? This announcement could've come later, by mid-season. Making it public so early left him in a really strange situation and i excpect this to be the worst season of his career for a variety of reasons.
Watching Lando walk away from Lewis during the high speed section in Jeddah was confirmation that the merc is a boat. I don't blame Lewis for experimenting with setups.
HAMILTON VS. RUSSELL AS TEAMMATES 🟢QUALY H2H: 24 vs. 23 (51.06%) 🟰POLES: 1 vs. 1 (50.00%) 🟢RACE H2H: 20 vs. 17 (54.05%)* 🔴VICTORIES: 0 vs. 1 (0.00%) 🟢PODIUMS: 15 vs. 10 (60.00%) 🟢POINT FINISHES: 41 vs. 39 (51.25%) 🟢DNFs: 5 vs. 6 (45.45%) 🟢POINTS: 458.0 vs. 437.0 (51.17%) Hamilton on the left, Russel on the right. Sprints are excluded. *Only races in which both drivers finished REMINDER Most of the DNFs are driver errors. e.g Canada, Singapore, Zandvoort, Australia 24 for George
Great video! And my humble thought for those that say lewis is washed and George is doing so much better... that thought would be valid if George was winning races and fighting for championships (like what is happening at redbull). Think about this... in nearly 50 races, MERCEDES have had 1 pole (Hungary) and 1 win (Brazil) that should tell you that its not lewis thats struggling. Its MERCEDES that's far behind. Lewis finished 3rd in the championship last season ahead of everyone else but red bull. Also some drivers seem to thrive on beating teammates (ocon, russel , tsunoda etc) - what use is it in 5th or 6th. Lewis exists to win races and championships. Thats why he's moving to Ferrari. To a more competitive team. But i could ve wrong 😅
Great analysis Bro thanks for sharing your thoughts 👊🏾on that note 🗒️ Lewis Was able to make Mercedes look like a real contender in 22 &23 all while driving a Hummer for 3rd place in the Drivers Championship his style hasn’t changed much since the McLaren days but Mercedes has and seeing him tumbling down the grid into the midfield has been a Huge confidence breaker for him and he’s now finally getting a chance to win a Grand Prix with the Ferrari squad he’s far from washed up and still capable of winning with a Car that can attest consistently contend for a win
George had MUCH more bad luck in 2023 and didn't finish that far behind, especially considering the context. George beat Lewis in 2022. George, so far, has looked much more consistent overall.
@iiSh4d0wsxD Lmao. In that case, Lewis has also had the same bad luck in 2022 and ended up 20 points behind. Russel was some 60 points back, and would have been 80 if not for the USA dsq, so yeah your excuses really go out the window.
every driver has his driving style. each style has its own disadvantages. However, what makes a good f1 team is the ability to tune the car to what matches the driver's style so he can push the car to the limit. Once a driver loses confidence in the car, he becomes unsure of the car's behaviour under certain conditions.
@@trashgamer3318 he had a point coz Russell had droven a shit box like 3 years where Hamilton on an average he driven top 3 fastest cars in his entire career. This make sense imo.
I think this rear end stability is becoming a core issue like how drivers describe every mclaren since 2019 the knife edge handling might feel un natural to some
The Lewis hate is strong. He's a 7 time WDC with a drive for next year lined up - you honestly belive he's motivated for 7th place finishes? George however thinks he's the next lewis but Toto wants him as 2nd driver to a guy twice his age or one half his age. George need to impress, he just happens to be terrible under pressure.😂
George seems ok with qualifying pressure. Are you not aware that this crash was blamed on Alonso? Or do you not want to admit that George is the better Mercedes driver at the moment?
keep up the great work on breaking the sport down like you are, very interesting to see how Lewis is having problems and the way you explain it in an easy to understand way. much love and have a wonderful day
What is happening to Lewis happen to many drivers who are over their "peak". They start to slow down, are not as sharp anymore and they become a very skilled mid fielder. Age is something that doesnt wait for nobody.... exept for Alonso..
You don't just stop being able to drive over a couple years. Its all down to the Car not being what it should be and not inspiring confidence in the drivers.
@@MiniOne82 Russel drives the same car and apart from kissing the wall drives better then Hamilton. We need to accept that Hamilton is in his twilight years.
@martijndraijer8414 That Singapore incident was pretty unfortunate, too. He didn't break something, but the front lifted, and he couldn't bail out of the situation. That, and his multiple retirements due to reasons outside of his control last year, really hindered his championship points standings. Assuming he didnt have 3-4 of his races ruined due to things out of his control, he definitely would have beaten ham again.
@@MiniOne82 age, complacency, reaction time, etc. You definitely aren't as sharp 20 years in as you were at the start of your career. His prime has passed.
It's simple. Hamilton relies more on the car than a lot of people expected. He likes late and heavy braking, which means the weight of the car transfers a lot when entering the corners. That requires a stable rear end and a little bit of understeer. And in recent years Mercedes suck at areo efficiency so they will have to sacrafice some downforce at some high speed tracks like Saudi. And you can see once the car lack read end downforce and become oversteery, hamilton's pace will decrease a lot. That's why he was beaten by russel in Saudi three years in a row in both qualifying and race. And once Mercedes comes to some high downforce tracks, he will be competetive again.
I agree with the assessment of his driving style, not with the statement that he requires a stable rear end. Sure, he likes it, but in his McLaren years he was setting up the car with amounts of rear downforce that other drivers found undrivable. Pretty sure, Hamilton has no problems with any setup, it's just that the car isn't capable of winning a WDC and he has already stopped trying too hard because of that. He spends most of his time, trying to find some kind of narrow window in the setup so he could compete for race wins, but with such a car that setup doesn't really exist.
Lewis is NOT washed, and the problem is not the car he is driving. First of all lets remember he brought the 4th fastest car (4th fastest behind Aston in the first half, and 4th fastest behind McLaren and ahead of Aston in the second half).. to 3rd in the drivers championship, and also carried Mercedes to second in the constructors!! Yes Ferrari did mess up a lot of races but so did Mercedes with race disqualifications and many dnfs from George, and one from Lewis, but he still managed to carry the team to 2nd, and there is no logical explanation if you think that he has fallen so much in just a few months to being slower than everyone. If you look his laps, he is the one who struggles to keep the car on the track the most - he corrects his car in every single corner, and it honestly reminds me of Alonso in the 2014 Ferrari.. Let me not mention that Lewis' opinion about the setup and the car keeps changing, for example in Australia FP1 and FP2 they tried a dramatic setup on Lewis so he was the slowest, in FP3 he was veey confident, but in qualifying he said that nothing was changed with the setup and for some reason he felt the engine tone being lowered, and the car not feel the same as it did in qualifying, and in the end calling it very challenging to drive. Is this normal? No. The team Mercedes must be sabotaging Lewis. This has never happened before with Lewis and Mercedes, and if you mention 2022 then you forget that he actually did use experimental setups back then, and that got them a win in Brazil because they actually understood the car and developed it based on Hamilton's feedback. Now in 2024 they use the same excuse "experimental setups" but i doubt that it is for the development of the car, and i will be proved right because i think Mercedes will not get a podium this year, and if they do it will be based on luck, for example the Red Bulls and the Ferraris face reliability issues or they crash. Mercedes is turning worse and worse each year, with the W13 being their best car in this era even though they finished 3rd in the constructors in 2022.
Great video. In recent years I agree he’s been quite a slow starter but pre-2022 that more often than not wasn’t the case. I think the worrying thing for Lewis will be that at 39 years old it’s gonna be very hard to radically adapt his driving style given the old saying that it’s harder to teach an old dog new tricks. This is where big regulation changes can often catch out the older drivers who are less malleable than they once were
Guys, the car is simply terrible. It doesn’t matter whether Lewis or Russel beat each other with points. If you don’t have a winning car it doesn’t matter how skilled you are, you can’t win championships. This has been proven in the sport for decades now. If Max, Alonso or even Leclerc were in this car they would suffer as well. Lewis with all his decorations in championships + wins can’t win another championship if his team doesn’t deliver him and George a competitive car. That’s how simple it is.
So it is proved that Alonso is the most adaptable driver not only in f1 but in 4 wheel sport in general and is closely followed up by Carlos.....Alonso never had any off season ....he is on it since day 1 in that Minardi quali session......what an animal.....
Not at all true if you don't have a decent car you can't produce results. It's a 60% car and 40% driver ratio that provides better results. Also was missing for years until he moved to Aston when Aston Martin was almost the second fastest car at the beginning of new regulations
No it doesn't the AM is one of the most stable cars out there if not the most just not very fast. Alonso can't handle oversteer as well as Lewis, the 2007 season showed us that
Wolfman have been Sabotaging Lewis car from 2021. The reason he didn't sabotage Lewis car earlier he wasn't in complete control he had Ross Brawn, Niki Lauder Paddy Lowe who wouldn't endorse his sabotaging. Also James Alison want to leave the reason in my opinion 220 men left Mercedes they never studied for 4 years in engineering to go to work and sabotage Lewis car.
Yeah. I was just wondering (at the beginning of this year) what would happen if Sainz suddenly started driving fast and reliably and win races. How would Ferrari say goodbye to him and welcome Hamilton - essentially an unknown quantity in a Ferrari! Awkward! Everybody gets slower as they age. To an older person, the speeds just seem higher and higher than before - I'm speaking from experience here. Time is not on Hamilton's side - it is only going to get worse.
Another quality video that's fair and educational. Great work! I never doubt Lewis, looking forward to him improving this year and of course in red next year.
After so many F1 seasons I still think that tires should have less influence on racing dynamics. The Pirelli era with the tire window, the graining, the differently colored but otherwise identical compounds, all of that produced races with a lot of management and less “push to hell”. Tires always have been critical but currently it’s toxically so. At least I would like to collect drivers opinions on that. Of course I’d like also less penalties, more driving skills, less PG12 contents, but that’s another story
I approached this video with skepticism, because who are we to criticize Lewis' driving style. This is all interesting to watch and talk about but I'm sure most of us (including the person who made this video) don't have the knowledge and experience to criticize him. In the end like you said it's pretty obvious it's not his driving style but the car that is lacking.
We can always make a good guess on what’s not working in the car and why he’s struggling but inevitably he is a champ and knows how to get the best out of it
Dude almost took p2 in the championship last year. He's definitely not washed... he's just struggling with a car that doesn't make consistent downforce and he is someone who benefits from a very strong rear end. I hope he does well next year in the Ferrari since that car seems a lot more consistent with its downforce
I am just going to pass on the video and just say, his driving stile OBVIOUSLY works, he just doesnt have the car. He convincingly beat Russel and both Ferraris last season.
From the first few minutes, all I could hear was "if he put in time on the sim with the engineers, he could overcome that:. - That's what max does... I can't remember which GP it was but Max was straight on the sim and Lewis was talking about his main job now being resting. He's not competing in the same sport as the youngsters. They know that they need 5-10,000 hours of practicing what they're weak at to level up - so they do it. He's just waiting for brilliance. The more you practice, the luckier you get.
Great video. Lewis is looking forlorn after every interview lately - definitely he will be reinvigorated once we see him wearing SF colours. Nobody really will know until next year how this will work out, but expect him to be competitive if the car is as good as the SF-24.
He will be beaten by Charles… Charles is embedded in the team for years, Charles knows all the characteristics of the car, he can communicate with the team, he is a fast qualifier and will get preferred strategy after qualifying higher than LH….. LH will have a very difficult time at Ferrari….
There is wisdom in sports that sometimes u have to relax to get faster n stronger. Every comparison of Russel n LH always shows Russell breaking earlier than LH n going faster.
Excellent analysis as always! How did you get so much F1 knowledge, being so young and from the States? Did you ever race? Also -- how do you feel about the RUS / ALO incident? Personally, it seems like a bad call from the Stewards to me (they didn't touch & RUS was napping).. But if he REALLY was driving dangerously, then the penalty would not be strong enough (IMO it was normal defending and RUS was just caught out).
Huh, it's almost like the team budget cap has impacted Merc in producing a strong car...Imagine that. Those previous dominate cars from Merc came at a time when Toto was hand delivered a perfect car due to throwing endless money at it. Now that Toto has rules, their car hasn't been competitive.
Really interesting watch, never thought about that deep. Even though I really dont want Carlos to lose his seat but Im also very excited to see Lewis (hopefully perform well) in the Ferrari next year!
Good video but one correction, Lewis has been great at managing tyres, I can think of many examples including his last WDC where he stayed out on intermediates far longer than anyone else, and a very long stint. Lewis just needs a reasonably predictable car, and he can make it work from there. At the minute, the car is behaving differently from corner to corner, certainly from his side of the garage.
He never used to be known for managing tyres in the early Pirelli days, as he'd be fast but cook them faster than a smoother driver like Button (Checo too) iirc, but yes it is something he's known for now. Imo tyre management is a lesser mentioned skill regarding Max too (even if he currently has the car with class of the field Deg). It's a key area he is still better than Russell. Case in point Singapore 2023. He was both faster in the last stint, closing a 5 second gap, and managed his tyres better whereas George pushed to catch, stalled behind Norris and Sainz, then crashed. Similar themes have shown elsewhere such as Russell in Bahrain 2023 mentioning Lewis being slow on the radio, then cooked his own tyres whereas Lewis paced himself better. As fast as the young guys are, managing tyres comes with experience. An example of this is Piastri who admits he still needed to work on managing tyres, but was as quick as Lando otherwise. An example of this would be Qatar and it's self imposed 18 lap (iirc) tyre limit that meant Piastri could push hard without worrying about tyre longevity. He did very well round there, winning the Sprint race and second in the race.
@@TorqueFormulaWon That's correct. It was something he completely turned around and has mastered that part of his game. Then again with this current era of car, the whole team is at a loss, and it has left them head scratching. For me they need to look into why their Sim data isn't correlating with their performance on track. They have been saying for the last 2 years that, what we see in the simulator is not what we see on track.
I don’t think it’s just a braking issue for Lewis even if it is his particular strength. We’ve seen him (&George) on transition from braking to throttle get the rear very unsettled. This gen of ground effect cars is extremely complex because it’s about balancing the significant DF generated by the underfloor with the regular downforce over the car..over many different variables such as bumps, wind, kerbs different surfaces and tyres which has made the cars extremely sensitive to set up and adjustment.Clearly Red Bull & now Ferrari appear to have a more solid understanding compared to others. I think Ferrari have done an excellent job in simplifying their concept and making minor variations to maintain consistency (Similarly McLaren too)which is evident already in 3 races and a rookie thrown in 1!. Unfortunately for Mercedes they made substantial changes mid last year and even more this year- so they are playing catch. I called it in pre season testing - Ferrari have a terrific package & if they keep developing it - don’t be surprised to see more wins - this obviously bodes well for Lewis in 2025 but don’t be surprised if Mercedes have caught up by then too!.
Hamilton has adapted to 3 different generations of cars . He came 3rd previous season and took pole and beat his younger teammate . I say he can adapt well. Riccardo is a completely different situation.
Never have been a Lewis fan. But as a driver he's one of the absolute best. As a Ferrari fan, seeing him in a Ferrari next year I'll be cheering him as a driver as much as I ever have. Even as a Schumi fan I got tired of Ferrari winning all the time 20 years ago. I got tired of Mercedes winning all the time last several years. I'm tired of Max always winning, and especially with such margins. It makes the races predictable and boring. A different champ every couple of years is OK but let's see it mixed up and not totally dominated by one marque for years. It would be extra fun to see him bashing up against Max in a Ferrari a few times in the next few years.
I wonder how Ferrari will design next year's car since Leclerc likes a strong front end and Lewis a strong back end, will be interesting to see whose preference they'll prioritize
Late braking isnt very good on ground effect cars. With ground effect you want to brake earlier but lighter carrying more speed and not disturb the air flow on the cars floor and platform.
A key point for a driver is having confidence in the car, if they can´t trust in the car, they can´t work with them, George is always overdriving the car and because this sometime faster but more prone to accident, but Lewis is trying to understand the car and working in the best possible window, so is going to take some time for him to addapt to the car but eventually I think is going to happen, same as the last couple of years
I think, Lewis was performing much better when Bargedoors were used, just a thing I think which affected his performance. After its removal, his performance declined. I might me wrong tho