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Lewis Hamilton continues his triumphant march. Second win 92 and now leads that table alone. It was the eighth this season out of 12 possible.
But is he the best winner of all time?
Surprisingly, the answer is no. If you count as a percentage how many races a driver has won than he has run, the result will be completely different. Two completely different drivers from a completely different period top that list.
- Juan Manul Fangio, who won five titles, ran only 51 races but won 24 and that’s 48 percent.
- Only slightly worse is Alberto Ascari. The Italian’s win rate is 40 percent. 32 races and 13 times as one.
- Third in the table is Lewis with 92 wins in 262 races and that’s 35 percent.
- Michael Schumacher ran 306 races and won 91, equivalent to 30 percent.
With five races to run Lewis will certainly improve his quota. After this win, his win rate is 66 percent this year. And now he is the one who has won in the most fields. 28 worldwide.
When it comes to the number of World Cup titles, no one can prevent him from winning the seventh and thus becoming the top winner since 1950 when the World Drivers’ Championship was established. More questions?
How far can you go?
– The sky is the limit and it also depends on how much I want and how high we set the bar.
What did the second Valtteri Bottas say after the race?
– I have no idea what happened.
He had led the race a few laps before his stablemate caught up with him and time after time it was over. Without being shit against Valtteri, it was a class difference. You cannot write another word when it is more than 25 seconds apart. And it was only the first four that drove the 66 laps. The rest were interspersed.
But when Valtteri got run over, he looked a bit strange. Valtteri did not defend his lead but drove to the dirty right side of the track which is sucked up and stuck to the tires and it takes a few laps before they are clean again. Had they told you to drive aside? We will never get the answer.
– I certainly tried to attack but it was too fast. So I decided to take it easy and secure the score.
He asked which tires Lewis had switched to and, like two weeks ago, he said we would do something else later.
Would you have had a chance if you had gotten away with it and had the soft tires instead?
– The team decided otherwise and I got the hard stuff and it was the safest option.
As an outsider, Valtteri’s situation seems hopeless. Incorrect. You don’t give up so easily. What is your motivation?
– There is only one and it is to beat Lewis. And it’s the best there is.
Mercedes did not win the world title for designers this time. Max Verstappen finished third and made the stable wait at least one more race.
Back to Lewis. What makes it so good?
– He’s the greatest natural talent in Formula 1 and he drives by instinct, says Nico Rosberg. And he should know after all the seasons together at Mercedes.
There is another who knows both. Paddy Lowe, who was once Mercedes technical director.
– Nico has made Lewis the best driver and unbeatable, says the Englishman on the podcast “At the Controls”.
– When Nico won the title in 2016, it was also a turning point in Lewis’s career. He, like the rest of us, has weaknesses.
What he learned from the defeat is that he had to be more even and leave nothing to chance. Now he checks everything down to the smallest detail.
What distinguishes it from others?
Is it the driving style? Is it better to prepare the car? Is it better suited to track conditions faster? Smarter during races? Perhaps a combination of all this. Another thing he absolutely learned is not to ruin the tires as fast as he did a few years ago. Now they last longer than other drivers even if they drive the same way.
In the race you could quickly forget about the first three. The distance between them and between the trio and the rest was great. In midfield, it was even more dramatic and exciting. A lot of overtaking even though all the drivers before the race said it was almost impossible to overtake. All wrong. A small bus that passed from one to another when they tried to avoid being passed.
There was a veteran who really proved that even if you’re the oldest, you’re still up to date. Kimi raikkonen. He started 18th and 11th in goal.
Only after a few hundred meters was he behind Max Verstappen.
– I didn’t believe my eyes. Perhaps thanks to his experience as a rally driver.
What could upset Iceman is that he lost 10th place and the last point to his friend Sebastian Vettel. In overtaking, Iceman showed that he is a sportsman and drove to the side because he knew that the German was faster. It’s no wonder it’s extremely rare for any other driver to criticize you for driving improperly. But sometimes the opposite happens.
For part of the season, Mercedes had something called Party Mode. Something that gave Lewis and Valtteri a bit more engine power in qualifiers and races. It is now prohibited and now only has one setting on the engine. Has it made any difference? Yes, Red Bull has come close without catching up.
Max Verstappen suggests that he and Lewis switch cars to find out if there really has been a difference.
– If we change, we can make a comparison. But I don’t think the rule has changed that much.
How did Lewis react to the proposal?
– Why would we do that? And what would we compare?
-To see if the cars are really faster in the race than in the heats, the Dutchman replied.
– Maybe we can do a private test.
Both Lewis and Mercedes executives thought it was a fun proposition.
– Max. Call when you want to test drive a Mercedes.
The team was in a hurry after the race. The next competition is the Emilia-Romagna gp and it will be held next Sunday, November 1 in Imola. There is still a long way to go for the truck caravan so the FIA has decided that Friday’s training will be canceled.
