Mercedes drivers told to obey team orders in future

[jens]

I am a general Hamilton fan, but I would say, we seem to see lewis being on the end of these sort of controversies/bad team strategy's/falling outs an awful lot.

I remember his last couple of seasons at Mclaren, people saying Mclaren kept ruining his races, and then the Alonso thing in 2007 and now at Mercedes a feeling he is not happy with the team.

Either he is very unlucky or his attitude behind the scenes, or inter team relations are stopping his progress of challenging for titles.

Coupled with mistakes, he always seems to be on the wrong side of everything. I would think it can't just be bad luck.

You raise an interesting point. Regardless of how much greater the expectations on Hamilton are compared to his team-mates, I never expect him to dominate his team-mates. Be it Button or Rosberg. Whatever it is, it is always close in points and will most probably remain to be so. A Schumacher v Barrichello/Irvine or Alonso v Massa/Räikkönen situation never seems likely, so that already after half a year it is clear, who comes out on top.

Guess that's what Hamilton is. "Looks" supremely fast, "seems" unlucky, but that's the way he is as a driver - regardless of reasons close combats with team-mates.

I think this shows that there is more to being a "complete driver" than we can see based on just looking things. Hamilton looks fast, but look at Schumacher, who built an entire team and even era around himself. Again some people say that's lucky, but IMO there is more to it. It is an additional skill/talent/workaholism (some even say politics) off the track, that in addition to speed you build the other factors in favour of yourself as well - so that you truly dominate.

That's why some of the great drivers get bashed - people say that they were just favoured, lucky, teams revolving around them. But to me this is an additional effort, skills, traits in character in addition to on-track racing. Attention to detail that you make sure everything works in favour of you.

I believe Alesi was a bit of Hamilton - fast, entertaining, but never got the results his talent "deserved". It is very hard work to maximize the potential of your talent. Just being fast and an entertaining driver with lots of overtakes isn't enough. So Alesi-Berger was a bit like Hamilton-Button/Rosberg. Pretty close throughout the years.

To truly dominate you need everything to go in favour of you. And it doesn't come automatically, it needs huge effort. That's why Vettel's 4 WDCs are still in high regard for me, despite people now downplaying him. Whatever it was, he made sure everything worked for him.