Race 7 - 2025 Emilia Romagna GP -Imola

[Nitrodaze]

As a Hamilton fan I was happy for his decent result, but admittedly good luck helped quite a bit. I wish it was all him but it wasn't. Every race weekend I hope to see Lewis find some lost mojo or whatever but it never quite happens. Sure, it doesn't help that the Ferrari isn't as strong as it could be, but it would at least be great if he wasn't regularly outperformed by his own teammate.

@FluffyYeti, it was expected that LeClerc would be ahead for the period that Hamilton learns the Ferrari SF25. This is what normally happens when a driver moves from one team to another. You will see the same pattern with Sainz and Ocon, who are both outperformed by their teammates. This period is very painful for the drivers and their fans, but it will pass.

Of all the drivers that have changed teams, Hamilton is performing better than the others. He has won a sprint race and has consistently finished in the top ten. Imola is the second time that he has beaten LeClerc without the aid of team orders, l might add, who has seven years of experience with the Ferrari machinery relative to him. The fact that he is only 8 points behind LeClerc is evidence of how strongly he is making progress with the Ferrari.

What a driver achieves at the end of the race depends on a combination of things, ranging from good in-race strategic thinking to capitalise on the situations of the race, to excellent performance, to being at the right place at the right time to maximise points haul by the end of the race.

At Imola, Hamilton demonstrated all of these things at the highest level. He capitalised on the first VSC to ensure he moved into the top 10. When the safety car came, he ensured he was on the right tyres at the right time to have a good tyre life delta to the car in front of him. It was both of these smart thinking that put him in fourth place and nearly in a podium position.

It is not always about driving faster than everyone else that determines excellence. It is also about out-thinking your opponents and getting ahead of them. At Imola, while LeClerc was having a meltdown in the car, Hamilton was cool and thinking smart. Their in-race approaches is why they ended up where they did at the end of the race. LeClerc finished 6th as his approach was full of frustration. Hamilton finished 4th as his approach was cool, calculated and methodical.

Those with very poor understanding of racing or overtly dislike Hamilton for his colour would say things like it was luck or the VSC and safety car is what made it possible for him. Yes, that is true, but these are normal and natural factors of racing. The brilliant racers are the ones who understand these situations and are able to exploit them to their advantage. That is why Verstappen was able to put a ten-second gap between himself and the nearest McLaren to ensure they were unable to catch up easily and challenge him for the race win. That is why Hamilton was able to move up from 12th place to fourth when other better-positioned cars like both Mercedes faded away and ended up behind him. Champions are those who manufacture their own luck with the ingredients of the race situations. And the multiple champions on track at Imola demonstrated this fact with perfection.

You, as a Hamilton fan, should see the positives and not the negatives. Leave the negatives to anti-Hamilton people. He is doing just fine and would improve greatly as the season progresses. The same can be said for Sainz and Ocon, who are both fantastic racers