Hamilton doesn't relish an authentic challenge. But Schumacher did. Lost at least 3 x WDC's as a result but conquering the challenge was worth it.
No it would be ask FA that question. Fully knew Alpine was not going to be superbly competitive. Is here no matter. Vettel would appear to love racing. I do think he was counting on a more competitive Mercedes clone and realizes now he probably should have left lol.
You know, they have all at least one thing in common, which is that after a while, insult replaces argument.
If my post offends you, report it, by all means. Back to the subject, and in response to your "question": Right now, I don't think Hamilton has such a dominant car as he had before. The Merc and the Red Bull are very close. IMO, Hamilton's success this year is due to better team strategy and his uncanny ability to manage his tyres, better than Verstappen. Hamilton has already lost the technical advantage Mercedes enjoyed during the previous years. It has been eroded by several rule changes that don't favour "party mode", DAR steering, low rake design, etc ... also Honda has caught up in the power race. Still, Hamilton seems to accept the challenge and apparently wants to stay longer, even if his chances of success are diminishing. So the assumption that Hamilton is staying in F1 only because he has a dominant car is uncalled for. I think he just likes to race.
The Red Bull uses it's tyres harder than the Mercedes. Not quite sure how one can compare tyre management in two different teams anyways, but alas, you seem to make a go of it. Max compared to (all) his teammates tends to get more performance out of the tyres for longer. Mercedes is still the better race car. It's more reliable, better on the tyres, still enjoys some power advantage (it was gaining 2 tenths on the Barcelona straight despite RBR forced to run a smaller rear wing). Low Rake is definitely not a clear cut as to whether it's an advantage or disadvantage. Mclaren has moved to low rake, Ferrari has gone slightly lower rake, Mercedes stayed low rake. All 3 teams have improved. It depends wholly on the concept a team is running, but again, doesn't suit the narrative does it. Does Mercedes have closer competition? Undeniably, in the form of Max/RBR. Are they still the team to beat? Absolutely so. Look how close Bottas runs Max. Look how far Perez is away from Max. Lets not forget about the rest of the field how far away they are. However, it's looking very much like Red Bull doesn't quite have the car they looked to have in pre-season testing. Red Bull have a car that can certainly threaten Mercedes for pole at most tracks but their biggest concern is tyre usage and top speed. They are consistently closer which is a good start but they certainly don't have a better car.
To be fair, I have also been banned before, so I see no stigma attached to a ban. Exchanges become heated sometimes, mostly on a subject many feel passionate about. Any conversation around Hamilton will bring controversy, because his place in F1 isn't accepted by some. Hamilton is like the elephant in the room some want to ignore, but you simply cannot, so trying to knock him down is the next best thing.. The top athlete in any sport will attract detractors who would prefer someone else to shine instead. That's the bottom line as far as I can see it.
The barely concealed accusations of racism about the Hamilton topic are starting to get tiring. This intellectual terrorism will eventually kill any form of debate from the moment a "minority" is involved.
Like I said William, I'm not offended. But you do seem to resort to the ad hominem when your logic is challenged, claiming my words are driven by "spite" of all things. Can we not debate as adults? Regardless, your lengthy recent post goes in circles. I'll just follow-up by reposting your own (condensed) words again. I won't ask you to clarify again as that has proven troubling for you. Instead I'll say that I actually agree with you. This should please you, yes? Ham loves racing when given a dominant car. Even if he eclipses every F1 record imaginable with Merc, I can't imagine he'd ever do something like set foot in a Spec Car series like IndyCar just for the joy of racing.
Stop making excuses. All that does'nt matter when Max should have won 3 races this year. 1st was Bahrain, 2nd was Spain. Max is currently 4-0 against the other Merc. Hamilton is driving better than Max at the moment.
Let's just focus on the last race. Do you think ham would have risked the 2nd tyre change if Checo had been within 20" or so? Do you think ham would have overtaken max without the tyre change? Let's not underestimate the value of bottas to ham's accomplishments.
"Change of fortune " can mean different things. To narrow it down to just "a catastrophic loss of performance" is too restrictive. Most of the discussions last year centered on the future of the team, and were about the new MB CEO, Kalenius, who isn't a die-hard F1 fan. Toto Wolff himself hinted me may relinquish his postion soon, and the team have a different principal . There were even talks about MB selling the team, rumours about Mercedes-AMG morphing into Aston Martin, etc ... Finally the dust settled, the team has now 3 equal owners and Toto is still in charge. It's only when the situation became clear and Hamilton received some reassurance that he accepted to sign, having waited until Feb 2021 to do so. My belief is that if the environment came to change drastically at Mercedes F1, Hamilton would stop. I don't think Hamilton has to go down to race in a specs series to prove his worth. Maybe Grosjean needs to do that, but not a 7 times WDC.
Did Max pit unannounced causing a slow pitstop? If so that didn't help. Also RB made the decision to keep Max out because they thought he could hold off Lewis. Lewis was able to do it.
Don’t worry KTU,Mercedes and Lewis are not likely to lose both championships this year. Soon Max will experience first reliability problems during the race and Perez will start to spin because the Red Bull is difficult to drive when you really push. No need to stress.