Hamilton - Is revival possible or Is a new Champion in the making

[Nitrodaze]

Ordinarily, l would say Hamilton has what it takes to get himself out of the jam that he is in at the moment. With Rosberg driving as well as he is, there is some mounting doubt. That said, Rosberg has won three untroubled races. The Ferrari has not had the pace to capitalize on Hamilton having a bad few races. There simply has not been any real fight at the front of the grid. Which poses a few questions?

1. When Hamilton gets his act together, can Rosberg maintain his lead?
2. When Vettel gets his act together, would this punish Rosberg when Hamilton gets his act together? Would this punish Hamilton further if he does not get his act together?
3. Would the reliability of the Ferrari have an effect on the outcome of the driver's championship?

You have to say, if the Ferrari reliability issues continues, it would be great from Rosberg's perspective. All he needs to worry about is keeping his lead to Hammy to the end of the season and hope there is more bad luck in store for the triple world champion.

If Ferrari's reliability stops and Vettel finds his form again, this could be very bad news for Rosburg. The Ferrari's could steal points from him which may give Hamilton a chance to catch up; assuming Hammy has no further bad luck of any kind and improve on his starts.

Whichever way you look at it, it is about to get very much harder for Rosberg to accumulate points with Hamilton and Vettel looking to improve on their performances in the next few races. but this is the very test for Rosberg to show he can take the pressure and competition and maintain his lead. If he can do this consistently for the rest of the season, then we would have a new world champion. If he doesn't, the championship would be wide open with up to four, possibly five drivers in the fight to take the world championship.

So realistically who is in the fight at the moment, based on the leader board at this moment, you would have to say:-

1. Rosberg [Favourite at the mo]
2. Hamilton
3. Vettel
4. Raikonen[Dark Horse]
5. Ricciado [Dark horse]

The real question is can Rosberg hold it together when the pressure comes, especially from Canada onwards when Ferrari mount their upgraded engine. From Hamilton's perspective, he also needs to make some head road into Rosberg's lead before Canada, else he may find the fight may put his chances in jeopardy.

What if the unexpected happens, Ferrari bolts on their new engine and suddenly find they are quicker than the Mercedes. A Vettel storm to victory becomes the norm of the weekends leading to Abu Dhabi, aided by a squabbling pair of Mercedes drivers and a rejuvenated Raikonen.

With 18 races to go, it would seem anything is possible at this stage. What are your thoughts about this?

[steveaki13]

I think this is like the thread I opened earlier. I dont think Hamilton has in out and out speed been bad. Just poor starts and getting involved in incidents has let Rosberg have 3 unchallenged races.

Hopefully Lewis can win a couple of good head to heads and make the title exciting again.

If the Ferrari's got involved at the front and the two Mercs had some wheel to wheel battles then this season would be brill as the midfield racing is brilliant so far.

[Tazio]

Nico is on a roll and I don't think it is likely to end soon. I'm not saying The Boss is beat, only that he has to raise his game as Nico has obviously raised his. Very costly the undercarriage damage to LH's Merc other wise he could have salvaged more points in China. The Merc boyz don't really want to be mixing it up with midfielders it takes them out of their comfort zone. Their strategy also has to consider more contingencies. Hey wait a second that is like real racing!

[Nitrodaze]

18 races is like the beginning of new season. I would love to see some silver and red flashes at the front at Sochi.

[driveace]

Well Rosberg storms off in the first 3 races and after the first few laps gets very little coverage on TV .
Have Mercedes swopped the team members from Hamilton to Rosberg for this year ,as the team looking after Hamiltons car are no better than my local garage on this years showing !
IF its a runaway with Rosberg chasing off and NO competition then we will all be switching off our TVs

[Whyzars]

They're in the same dominant equipment and any gremlins will go hand in hand. The next 3 races could see DNF alongside Rosberg's name and everyone hailing the comeback of Hamilton.

What is obvious is that there is a mammoth gulf between Mercedes and the rest of the field. Rosberg and Hamilton are good but they're not that good.

The gap between 1st and 10th is something like 1.5 seconds and that sees 90+ seconds by the end of a race - every single race. F1 will tolerate a couple more seasons of Mercedes dominance but no more. The only way out of the mire is to bring back the V8's but the money is committed to these stupid hybrid's so the formula will continue like this for another couple of year at least.

Given time though, F1 will always penalise success...

[Bezza]

I've enjoyed the three races so far this season. Much better than the first three of 2015, even though the end result has been largely the same. The reason being, the gap is definitely slightly smaller but Ferrari have not capitalized. Red Bull are closer too, and the midfield battle is intense - incredibly close between about 7 teams. Even Manor are in the mix, having outraced Renault in the Chinese GP. It means if a Mercedes slips up they are not guaranteed a win any more. The rules on three compounds of tyres has helped - it provides more varying strategy.

I can see Ferrari or Red Bull winning in the tighter races like Monaco and Hungary, I don't think Mercedes chassis is quite as good as 2015, but the engine is still clearly better.

Hamilton though, if he doesn't sort himself out soon, could start to "give up". He'll blame everything but himself but I can see his motivation waning gradually.

[Nitrodaze]

Well Rosberg storms off in the first 3 races and after the first few laps gets very little coverage on TV .
Have Mercedes swopped the team members from Hamilton to Rosberg for this year ,as the team looking after Hamiltons car are no better than my local garage on this years showing !
IF its a runaway with Rosberg chasing off and NO competition then we will all be switching off our TVs

Yep, Mercedes gave Hamilton's engineers to Rosberg this season for some bizarre reason.

[Nitrodaze]

They're in the same dominant equipment and any gremlins will go hand in hand. The next 3 races could see DNF alongside Rosberg's name and everyone hailing the comeback of Hamilton.

What is obvious is that there is a mammoth gulf between Mercedes and the rest of the field. Rosberg and Hamilton are good but they're not that good.

The gap between 1st and 10th is something like 1.5 seconds and that sees 90+ seconds by the end of a race - every single race. F1 will tolerate a couple more seasons of Mercedes dominance but no more. The only way out of the mire is to bring back the V8's but the money is committed to these stupid hybrid's so the formula will continue like this for another couple of year at least.

Given time though, F1 will always penalise success...

I would not underrate Hamilton because he is having a few bad races.He is very much as good as it gets in this era of racing

[Bagwan]

Yep, Mercedes gave Hamilton's engineers to Rosberg this season for some bizarre reason.

Are you guys insinuating that Nico has an advantage because of those engineers ?
Because , if you are , then aren't you saying that Lewis had that advantage until now ?

It can't be that you're saying that it's the change itself because they both changed .