F1 seasons starts

[alecstilleyedye]

I think Mansell was one of the greats (of about 20). Hamilton I hope will be one but will vastly eclipse Mansell. Saying Lewis has the most impressive debut since Senna is selling him short a bit, Senna was the 2nd greatest driver in history!

senna was the greatest imho, schumacher enjoyed his pomp in a time when there were few who could challenge him. senna saw off prost, piquet, mansell, rosberg - all in all 9 world titles between them.

as for comparing debut seasons, hamilton had the best car. no doubt he did an outstanding job in it. senna had a toleman that had never come close to winning a race, an only prost wimping out of the monaco downpour prevented him winning in his rookie season (the irony being that had prost come second to the charging senna and the race being complete, he would have won his first championship, not lost it by half a point.)

you also have to consider this: senna won in a lotus after two races, and made de angelis look ordinary. mansell always looked number 2 to de angelis and never won a race for them (he got the boot and they hired senna instead). when piquet replaced senna at lotus, it was notable how much closer satoru nakajima was, in terms of performance, to piquet than he had been to senna. senna also dominated prost at mclaren.

i'd place schumacher third after senna and prost.

 

[marinyork]

Not Schumacher no1, JM Fangio . Schumacher did have his pomp in the superstar era that emerged in the 90s with similar feats being achieved in other sports. He also had the dominance over others in an era where cars got boringly reliable and gerryactrics in their late 30s could be driving F1 cars. If it wasn't so competitive today some of the kids todays would equal Schumacher's stats for the same reasons.

What impressed me about Hamilton's debut has little to do with being in the best car or even the results. In the first 9 races where he got all podiums he just seemed to have an insane learning curve and stamina that only goes usually with maturity of years. Had a day where Alonso was faster? Not a problem, stay motivated getting prowled by ferraris and manipulating them into positions behind him with a bit of skill and luck like Malaysia. Hamilton improved on grid positions in the races too, when he got poles he almost seemed unstoppable (even if he didn't quite manage it in the end). The other thing that impressed me was how he put up with Alonso. Although Alonso had a cuddly image he managed to survive as Fisichella's team-mate and under Flabio Briatore both known bullies. I thought after the antics last year that perhaps people should have wondered a little bit more at the time how he managed this to become no1 at renault. For a rookie to survive people like Alonso in their first year is impressive.

I think the problem with Mansell's legacy was that it was degraded quite a lot by going to McLaren and then the comedy about being too fat to be in the car. Having to wait such a long time for Mansell winning the world championship also lead to a "loser" mentality where people tended to underestimate how good he was and thought well he had a world destroying car in 1992 and in other years drove well once a year in silverstone. Mansell's results upto '84 were not good, for sure (neither did de Angelis do well in 1983 and you could say his career stagnated until the Lotus improved - not by that much though), but I think it takes 4-5 years for most grand prix drivers to mature (they can still go on to be great although de Angelis had better results but may not have) which is what is so scary about Lewis. Mansell had an odd career, with better people around than him but managed to mature. Shame he wasn't a bit more motivated or lucky at times but hey.

 

[marinyork]

But look at their performance this year in qualifying, not far off the McLarens

Well yes to an extent, but Heidfeld was 3rd and Kubica 5th this time last year. They went onto get quite a lot of middling top ten qualis last year. Still very solid building on results this year if this continues after the non-european races.

 

[arranandy]

I'd rather watch paint dry

 

[alecstilleyedye]

I'd rather watch paint dry

ah, a coulthard fan then

 

[Abitrary]

F1 died the day Eddie Irvine was forced out.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

F1 died the day Eddie Irvine was forced out.

no, it died on 1st may 1994. it is only since lewis hamilton's exploits that i've found interest in f1 again.

 

[marinyork]

I so know what you mean. The late 90s weren't particularly interesting but it generally got worse and worse with 2002 and 2004 being the most boring years imaginable.

 

[stevenb]

Just watched the highlights.
Not much Lewis coverage during the race....but glad he won after all the stop start business.
I think the lack of traction control caught out a few drivers this race.