Lewis, quit using Twitter you fool!

[The Black Knight]

I like his driving style but I think he's physically not strong enough to ever win a championship again.

Mentally I think you mean. Physically there is nothing wrong with him. You'd be surprised. I am 31 and I can say my attitude towards life has changed an awful lot since I was Lewis age. We are all constantly evolving.

[steveaki13]

Hasn't delivered in 4 years!?!? In 2007 he was 1 point of the championship like many I think he was cheated out of that championship!
2011 there were some awful descisions made against him in Monaco he tried overtaking but when fellow drivers just cut the front of your nose off and give you knowhere to go, you can't do much! Don't forget he was taken out by his teammate in Canada! The Red Bull was unbeatable that year nobody stood a chance!

In what way was he cheated out of the 2007 title?

[The Black Knight]

In what way was he cheated out of the 2007 title?

Well he really should have been champion that year in China were it not for bad McLaren strategy.

[The Black Knight]

Hasn't delivered in 4 years!?!? In 2007 he was 1 point of the championship like many I think he was cheated out of that championship!
2008 he won the title in the car that was considerably slower then the Ferrari FACT
2009 the Mclaren was so far off the pace it was unbelievable!
2010 he outclasssed his teammate throughout the year and had some bad luck like singapore for an example taken clean out by Webber and mark was given no penalty if it was Lewis who took Mark out it would have been a certain penalty!
2011 there were some awful descisions made against him in Monaco he tried overtaking but when fellow drivers just cut the front of your nose off and give you knowhere to go, you can't do much! Don't forget he was taken out by his teammate in Canada! The Red Bull was unbeatable that year nobody stood a chance!
2012 he has yet again outclassed Jenson!

He has always been a quicker driver than Jenson but last year his magnetic attraction to Massa just put a hole in his championship challenge. I agree with you about Monaco as well. The Massa incident you can clearly see that Massa turns in off the racing line to block him. You're not supposed to do that to defend your position. Squeeze an opponent yes, block them no. If a driver is overtaking you, you can't simply give him no space and nowhere to go. The Maldonado incident, well I think that the point has been proved about Maldonado with the number of incidents he has had, and clearly that was Maldonado's fault as well. Some incidents were his fault, like with Kobayashi in Belgium, but in general I felt most of them were racing incidents and those just happen if you're unlucky.

It's embarrassing actually to see the gulf between him and Jenson in 2012. To think that Jenson is a WDC as well. Qualifying ratio of 12-3 in favor of Hamilton and the thing is even though he has had 4 DNF's which were not of his own doing and Jenson has only had one, as far as I remember, he is still 21 points ahead of Jenson in the table. It just shows that the table doesn't always show a true reflection of what is going on as based on performance this year he should be at least another 60-70 points clear. Even worst is that with the car Jenson has had over the last 3 years he has only managed one pole position. That's even more embarrassing from a WDC. He is nowhere near the class of Lewis. Not alone that but I firmly believe these Pirelli tires are flattering Jenson especially the ones last year. Lewis has found a way to drive around them pretty quickly at the start of this year whereas it took Jenson until Germany to finally modify his driving style to suit them better. Anyway, enough said, he is better than Jenson any day of the week and I think few can deny that.

I also feel that with Jenson and Perez on board next year that McLaren are going to suffer. Jenson probably won't win you a WDC without a car advantage such as he had at Brawn because it's simply not possible to have a perfect set up every weekend where you don't have to drive around an issue. Perez is too error prone so far though I'm hoping that will improve. Next year is going to be a tough one for the Mac's me thinks.

[Robinho]

Didn't you meet Lewis at a BTCC meet? Thought you were there one weekend with me when I spoke with him during the Renault days. He had just smoked the field and was awash with pure emotion and happiness. He lived for the racing and although a very driven young man, I never thought of him then or since as arrogant or as some on here choose to consider him. Focused, yes. I don't claim to know him in any way apart from a few brief meetings but he has always struck me as quite a nice guy as does Nic.

I'm not sure I ever met him, or at least not for long, I think we may have crossed paths at Donington in his F Renault days, and that year he was a class apart. You are right, then his demeanour was different, a young man (kid) enjoying racing, knowing that if he turned up and did his best he'd probably win. I think the realities of F1 ahve soured that pureness of racing for him in the last couple of years and I maintain that his off track decisions have added to that. He can no longer turn up and know he can win, he needs the car to be capable, he needs to get the whole weekend right and he needs to outrace a couple of equally capable drivers. When he gets it right you see that same kid, when its not perfect his head drops very quickly. Thats not to say he's trying any less hard or racing worse, but we can see his pain. Maybe thats a good thing, people like to see what is going on, but I think it adds to the pressure on him and can take him to a place like last year where his mental state affects his performances. I want to see that 2007 or even better th e F renault Lewis back, racing just beacuse

[Robinho]

He has always been a quicker driver than Jenson but last year his magnetic attraction to Massa just put a hole in his championship challenge. I agree with you about Monaco as well. The Massa incident you can clearly see that Massa turns in off the racing line to block him. You're not supposed to do that to defend your position. Squeeze an opponent yes, block them no. If a driver is overtaking you, you can't simply give him no space and nowhere to go. The Maldonado incident, well I think that the point has been proved about Maldonado with the number of incidents he has had, and clearly that was Maldonado's fault as well. Some incidents were his fault, like with Kobayashi in Belgium, but in general I felt most of them were racing incidents and those just happen if you're unlucky.

It's embarrassing actually to see the gulf between him and Jenson in 2012. To think that Jenson is a WDC as well. Qualifying ratio of 12-3 in favor of Hamilton and the thing is even though he has had 4 DNF's which were not of his own doing and Jenson has only had one, as far as I remember, he is still 21 points ahead of Jenson in the table. It just shows that the table doesn't always show a true reflection of what is going on as based on performance this year he should be at least another 60-70 points clear. Even worst is that with the car Jenson has had over the last 3 years he has only managed one pole position. That's even more embarrassing from a WDC. He is nowhere near the class of Lewis. Not alone that but I firmly believe these Pirelli tires are flattering Jenson especially the ones last year. Lewis has found a way to drive around them pretty quickly at the start of this year whereas it took Jenson until Germany to finally modify his driving style to suit them better. Anyway, enough said, he is better than Jenson any day of the week and I think few can deny that.

I also feel that with Jenson and Perez on board next year that McLaren are going to suffer. Jenson probably won't win you a WDC without a car advantage such as he had at Brawn because it's simply not possible to have a perfect set up every weekend where you don't have to drive around an issue. Perez is too error prone so far though I'm hoping that will improve. Next year is going to be a tough one for the Mac's me thinks.

I don't buy the massive gulf to Jenson thing. Jenson is definatley not as fast in qually 9 times out of 10, if the car is right they are very close, Lewis is undeniabley better at extracting the max from the car in less than perfect trim. But in races, save for a few in the mid season where Jenson and his engineers went down a setup blind alley, Jenson has been every bit the match of Lewis. It was nothing to do with him modifying his driving style in Germany, it was McLaren setting the car up more like earlier in the year. One thing that does flatter Jenson slightly at the moment is that it is possible to have successful races without outright pole winning qually speed, but to state he is nowhere near the class of Lewis is just false. 2010, 11 and 12 have shown them to be very evenly matched teammates. I do think Lewis is the better allrounder, but I don't think his is that far ahead, and on many occasions Jenson has equalled or bettered Lewis.

The jury is definatley out on Perez, he has had some good results and he definatley has some speed, but if he can translate that into results in a top car we will have to wait and see, in the emantime Jenson will provide a more than decent team leader, and whislt the line up may not be as strong as it has been for the last 3 years I don't think they will suffer hugely. Not as much as Lewis may do if Merc are concentrating on 2014 rather than 2013

[The Black Knight]

I don't buy the massive gulf to Jenson thing. Jenson is definatley not as fast in qually 9 times out of 10, if the car is right they are very close, Lewis is undeniabley better at extracting the max from the car in less than perfect trim. But in races, save for a few in the mid season where Jenson and his engineers went down a setup blind alley, Jenson has been every bit the match of Lewis. It was nothing to do with him modifying his driving style in Germany, it was McLaren setting the car up more like earlier in the year. One thing that does flatter Jenson slightly at the moment is that it is possible to have successful races without outright pole winning qually speed, but to state he is nowhere near the class of Lewis is just false. 2010, 11 and 12 have shown them to be very evenly matched teammates. I do think Lewis is the better allrounder, but I don't think his is that far ahead, and on many occasions Jenson has equalled or bettered Lewis.

The jury is definatley out on Perez, he has had some good results and he definatley has some speed, but if he can translate that into results in a top car we will have to wait and see, in the emantime Jenson will provide a more than decent team leader, and whislt the line up may not be as strong as it has been for the last 3 years I don't think they will suffer hugely. Not as much as Lewis may do if Merc are concentrating on 2014 rather than 2013

I disagree with that. I think the Gulf between Jenson and Lewis has been much more than the points table shows. You look at 2010 and on there was an average 4-5 tenths a lap difference between the two of them. It was only 2011 when the Pirelli tyres that really suit a driving style like Jenson came in that during the race he began to get closer. In 2012 Lewis is fully on top. I also believe that the Singapore GP would have finally shown how much ahead Lewis really is but unfortunately Lewis had his gearbox problem. I think Lewis could have increased his pace whenever was required of him as he was clearly only managing that gap to Vettel. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see it there.

Any way, we probably won't agree, but I still regard Jenson as an excellent driver but I would never view him as being cream of the crop like Lewis, Alonso or Vettel and I definitely regard him as the weakest World Champion of all those on the grid.

I don't think Lewis went to Merc with the intention of winning the title next year. He knows next year will be a tough one and I think everyone does but I do think he is playing the long game and that he is doing the right thing by making this move.

[Robinho]

I'm happy to agree that Lewis is the faster over one lap, and often quicker when the car is not so good, but I think Jenson's race pace is very close the Hamilton's in a high percentage of races. I'd fancy Lewis to win me a championship, but I think Button makes a damn good backup plan, and I'm happy to admit I prefer to support him over Hamilton

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[Knock-on]

I agree with Rob on this one. Jenson has not benefitted from the tyres this year; quite the opposite in fact. He has struggled getting the fronts and rears matched and McLaren admitted that the setup changes they put in place to fix this was making the problem worse.

[AndyL]

I disagree with that. I think the Gulf between Jenson and Lewis has been much more than the points table shows. You look at 2010 and on there was an average 4-5 tenths a lap difference between the two of them

That's simply not true. An average difference of half a second per lap equates to 25-35 seconds per race. Considering races where they both finished in 2010, Hamilton's actual advantage averaged at 6 seconds per race. Out of 13 races where they both finished, in 6 of them they finished within around 3 seconds of each other.

If you're referring only to qualifying pace, which is where the difference between the two drivers appears to be greatest, it's not true there either. Could your memory be a little selective perhaps? You seem to be recalling only the 5 Saturdays where Hamilton was 0.4 or more faster than Button, and forgetting the 3 where Button was 0.4 or more faster than Hamilton (and the 11 where they were more closely matched). In fact the average advantage was 0.16 in Hamilton's favour. If you disregard the chaotic wet qualifying at Sepang (which I would not - it did happen, and as soon as you start trying to strike out "special cases" you're bringing pre-coloured subjective judgment into it again), Hamilton's advantage rises to 0.21.