Where are the cars?

[ioan]

They won't have to do anything as long as there is a gravel trap at pit entry in China!

Maybe the GPDA will ask for it to be removed. No, wait, he isn't part of the GPDA!

[Knock-on]

Where are the cars? Everywhere!

Anyway, rating a machinery depends on point of view and subjective rating too. Let's look at the German GP.

In qualifying Ferrari and McLaren were roughly equal. Considering that Massa pitted two laps later in the race, then losing pole by 1,5 tenths means that he roughly had the same pace as Lewis.

In the race, however, Hamilton was driving a lot faster than anyone else. Either you believe McLaren is a lot better over long stints than shorter stints or you believe Hamilton was a lot quicker than the other three drivers in top teams. If we look at Hamilton's team-mate Kovalainen, then he had roughly the same pace as the Ferraris. Also in qualifying despite mistakes Kovalainen's pace was closer to Hamilton than in the race, where he didn't make mistakes. So at least this comparison suggests that Hamilton did clearly the best job out of the four drivers in the race. But how much was the car quicker or - if we are looking at HK's pace - whether it was quicker at all, is a question to which it's hard to give a precise answer.

What is clear, is that McLaren has been doing a great job in car development. Nobody can blame Lewis any more that he doesn't know, how to setup a car.

What IMO seems evident, is that BMW has better race than qualifying pace. Kubica qualified 7th and was the lightest together with Hamilton. But in the race he seemed to have some pace as well as Heidfeld, whose quali woes are well-known.

Good points, especially the qualifying fuel weights for Lewis and Massa.

So, if the cars are practically equal, it must come down to the drivers IMHO.

[ArrowsFA1]

Interesting comments from Lewis about the McLaren:

"...we've really transformed this year's car over the past six weeks. It's now so well-balanced and responsive that it just feels fantastic to drive - you can always trust it and get something more out of it..."

[Storm]

It is down to the drivers obviously but to say that only due to Hamilton's brilliance, the McLaren was that fast on sunday is fanboyism I think.
The cars are close to each other but not exactly at the same level (atleast on every track/conditions)

They set it up well, it is a fast car anyways and of course he drove the wheels off it.

Not to say the other didn't but maybe they need to be more focussed on their driving and do the small things right to match McLaren + Hamilton at the moment.

[Marshall]

We need to remember that Kimi looked like challenging at Silverstone until his strategy went the wrong way, and Felipe's setup was nowhere.

Massa apparently had a brake problem at Hockenheim (from what I read earlier in the thread) so that left us unable to judge where he was in terms of race pace, and this time it was Kimi who had setup trouble.

The other thing we have to remember is that McLaren is solely focused on Lewis with Heikki basically being his right hand man, while the Ferrari guys are both still going for the championship. It reminds me of the Ferrari/Schumacher days where Ferrari's full weight was behind Michael. Kimi, Felipe and Lewis are all clearly world class drivers that deserve their seats, no matter how much you like any of them.

As a hardcore and lifelong Ferrari fan and someone who isn't Lewis's biggest fan it pains me to say that but I'm still optimistic - it was only a couple of races ago when we were saying that Lewis looked like he was trying everything he could to throw away the title.

The balance will continue to swing. We're only just over half way.

[wedge]

Interesting comments from Lewis about the McLaren:

Probably a bit premature but is this another indication that Lewis is on the stepping stones of becoming the best of the best?

Does it show he can develop a car? The evidence seems to say yes.

The car was unstable under braking and Lewis was struggling getting the maximum out of the car. But now he's adapted to the car - James Allen mentioned Lewis could hussle last years car and it would do all the right things for him, whereas this year's car is less forgiving; the development of the car is going in the right direction so surely Lewis' contribution to the team effort is paying off when they go testing.

[ArrowsFA1]

Probably a bit premature but is this another indication that Lewis is on the stepping stones of becoming the best of the best?

Mika Hakkinen certainly thinks he's ready for the title.