stormybadger8 said:If he were truly superior, he would have actually won; everything else is just pure fantasy... It wasn't a blown tire or some mechanical failure that cost him, though one could argue he and his entire crew suffered a collective mental breakdown...
In essence, it’s like saying you have this incredible sprinter who absolutely dominates the first 75 meters of a 100-meter dash, leaving everyone else in the dust, only to trip over his own feet at the finish line—suddenly, the winner isn't necessarily the one who deserved it.😁
What kind of comparisons are we even making here?!!!!!😵😵 If I don't vent my frustrations a bit more 😵 😵
Does a sprinter have a pit wall and twenty specialists dedicated solely to managing their stride and pacing? That very same pit wall is tasked with analyzing data and deciding whether to call a driver in for service or stay out. They are the ones responsible for the strategic calls, and in this instance, those decisions proved to be disastrously wrong.
graniteharbor502 said:it's just like when Jenson Button absolutely dismantled Lewis Hamilton back in 2011. 🙏 He handed him his head. So what? One single loss doesn't make a season, much less a career. Honestly, the very fact that you feel compelled to throw around the word "cheating" in your opening sentence tells me everything I need to know about the sheer level of "hater energy" and the constant disparagement you claim to be so allergic to. 🙂
That stands as literally the only defeat in Lewis Hamilton's entire Formula 1 career where he doesn't hold a winning head-to-head record against his opponent, which is precisely why nobody brings it up—there's simply no logical reason to dwell on it.
"The Cheater" is just a nickname at this point, and there is nothing inherently wrong with it. ☕ Whenever I find myself daydreaming about what a direct showdown between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel might have looked like, my mind always drifts back to this specific moment.
There are still those clinging to the notion that a fraud remains a fraud—someone who was essentially branded as such last year before making what he clearly thought was the most brilliant tactical retreat in his career. He fled the scene only to land right in the arms of the most adored outfit on the planet, where people who previously harbored a deep-seated resentment for him now worship the ground he walks on simply because he’s piloting a red car. It’s quite a spectacle, really. A single victory here and a handful of podium finishes, all achieved without having to contend with an equal teammate in some supposedly "uncompetitive" machine, and suddenly everyone is hailing him as a generational talent. They act as if it’s an impossible feat for Sebastian Vettel to pull off something similar this year, which begs the question: how then should we view what Daniel Ricciardo accomplished back in 🙏
It appears to me that a rather dangerous faction of haters is coalescing here, all aimed at attacking Lewis Hamilton’s character and his legacy.🍿🍿 I simply cannot fathom why people refuse to acknowledge the sheer, raw velocity this man possesses; frankly, looking at the current grid, I struggle to see anyone who could truly go toe-to-toe with him on pure pace.
When you look back at the Monaco GP 2015, Hamilton absolutely dismantled Nico Rosberg in that single session—it’s a rare thing to see someone utterly crush a teammate using the exact same machinery on the streets of Las Vegas. In my estimation, Nico Rosberg's victory was nothing more than a series of incredibly fortunate coincidences, nothing more and nothing less.
Now, I can certainly empathize with a certain level of skepticism toward Lewis, but this overwhelming wave of dismissal and belittlement has crossed a line from healthy debate into blatant trolling. It reaches a point where it becomes impossible to take some of these assertions seriously, as they defy any sense of reality.
stormybadger8 said:There isn't even a remote chance, none whatsoever, 😉that A.) if that were actually the reason, the gap would have been applied to everyone equally, rather than leaving Lewis Hamilton sitting there roughly 12 seconds slower than the rest of the pack. B.) The actual Safety Car had already deployed well before Hamilton entered that specific lap where he eventually made his pit stop.
If you watch one particular replay, you can see Hamilton was actually trailing behind the Safety Car just before he peeled off into the pits, which I suspect provides the real explanation for that 12-second discrepancy.
And frankly, Hamilton absolutely dismantled Nico Rosberg during both the race and qualifying; if I were in Rosberg's shoes, I wouldn't have dared to celebrate nearly as much—it felt more like celebrating out of pure spite. He himself clearly knew just how badly Lewis had neutralized him on track.
If Louie had actually suggested a pit stop, I can only imagine they would have lectured him on how his rivals wouldn't bother pitting, leaving him to lose track positions he’d never recover—much like that time in Barcelona when they told him not to push because catching Rosberg was a mathematical impossibility. And honestly, let's not even get started on the tires; regardless of how much rubber he had left, there wasn't a prayer in the world that anyone could have overtaken him anyway.
Michael Diaz4 said:He isn't the best; he just happens to be sitting in the best car, though his grasp on strategy—and frankly, the strategy of his entire team today—is utterly lacking. If he were truly the greatest, he would have secured the win today, but the reality is that Rosberg and Vettel were clearly superior. End of story...
I honestly find myself in awe if you actually believe the nonsense you're spewing.😁 It strikes me as nothing more than the most bottom-tier kind of trolling.
It’s almost too poetic, isn't it? This unfolding drama right after the ink dried on that new contract—it feels less like coincidence and more like a pointed message sent directly to Hamilton. Honestly, had that agreement not been finalized, I suspect we would be looking at a total collapse, a definitive end to this chapter. But now that the deal is set, the plot thickens, and things are about to get quite interesting indeed.
Robert Cox46 said:The Williams actually shows some decent traction coming out of the corners, and once they hit the straights with that Mercedes-Benz power, their top speed is surprisingly high. That’s precisely why Sebastian Vettel was left staring at nothing but asphalt all afternoon.
Pure nonsense, quite frankly; the man managed to commit four absolutely catastrophic errors in a single race, and I simply cannot fathom how anyone could have entertained the delusion that he might actually overtake someone when the car possessed such meager pace to begin with.
Speculation is all well and good, I suppose, but so much of it tends to morph or shrink until the actual driving talent gets lost in the shuffle. There’s really no need to go around shouting from the rooftops that Mercedes-Benz is a full second faster than Ferrari; it’s far more accurate to say that Sebastian Vettel was essentially outclassed in every single wheel-to-wheel battle he faced. Similarly, one could argue that Kimi Räikkönen, as talented as he truly is, wouldn't have been able to pull off those feats if he hadn't been handed a car specifically engineered for such dominance.
Why on earth would Mercedes-Benz allow themselves to be vulnerable enough for Ferrari to pull off an undercut and completely wreck their entire tactical approach?
Anthony Baker84 said:I’m not entirely convinced that Valtteri Bottas possesses the same straight-line pace as Sebastian Vettel when the DRS is active; frankly, neither of them managed to make any real headway on the straights. At least in this scenario, there isn't any complex tactical philosophy involved—you just floor it and that's that.
Look, Sebastian Vettel did shave nine seconds off Valtteri Bottas's time quite rapidly, I'll give you that, but the man was absolutely abysmal in the actual wheel-to-wheel combat today, regardless of what anyone might say about the raw numbers.
There he goes, Sebastian Vettel, maintaining a gap of 2.7 seconds. I find myself staring at the telemetry in a state of genuine disbelief; it’s truly remarkable how he was just completely outmaneuvered during that duel.
stormybadger8 said:So? Did he actually pass him in the end or what?
The real issue arises when people start obsessing over the mechanics of an overtake—dwelling on how it might shave a second or two off a lap time—while completely glossing over the fundamental catalyst that made the whole situation possible in the first place; it is a glaring, almost textbook example of how subjectivity and sheer tunnel vision can blind even the most attentive observer.
Michael Diaz4 said:Honestly, this is just plain gross. He’s easily the best driver on the grid right now, and he’s my absolute favorite, but this whole behavior is just pathetic...
Are you actually kidding me right now?!😲 Daniel Ricciardo finds this absolutely loathsome.