Is Hamilton in a form slump?

[demoa]

hamilton had a terrific start n looked invincible juzz like ferrari last year...but then ferrari lost track but still came out to win the championship....so anybody's guess !

[psykosis]

no, he hasn't fallen off. Although his spin earlier looked a little traumatizing. But he proved last year he has what it takes to be a top tier driver in F1. I think he'll be fine.

[mikhailv]

call me a bigheaded Alonso fan,

But i think the team are suffering from the lack of Alonso's imput. Lewis didnt learn much from Alonso last year (except how to not loose a 17 point lead), and i dont think hes knowledgable enough yet to be able to set up a world championship car.

I think the new car suits kovalainen more than lewis. Which not only hinders him in his performance with Hekki, but also psychologically affects him. Its early season, but i think that Mclaren are resided to number 2 or 3 in the constructors this year.

Not only that, but I think that theres going to be fireworks at McLaren. If heikki really starts to outperform lewis during races, will he be told to hold back? Will lewis do what Alonso did (but it'll be ok because he's british, but not the other way round)?

Times gonna tell.

But this is for sure: Kubica to win tomorrow. Massa 3rd. Kimi 2nd.

And Im not a ferrari fan, but Kimi will beat lewis on track, in the pits, or force him into an over-eager error.

Infact I think its possible the kovi will beat lewis tomorrow too. He's struggling. And he didnt look happy at all during the press conference.

Fact is, he aint just got ferrari, hes got BMW to fight, and unlike last year, hes number 1 in McLaren and if his number 2 is beating him, wouldnt that just kill him. Unless hes told to hold back. wouldnt surprise me.

But hey, im open.

[Suntrek]

Come on, it's nothing wrong with Hamilton!
The MP4-23 is not as good as the MP4-22 was though, I think that is rather clear by now, and no driver can win in a car that isn't good enough. On top of that it seems like Hamilton has had difficulties finding the right setups, his car often looks a bit unbalanced. Hamilton is a very good driver, but he's not the miracle man the media has painted him out to be and that's not Hamilton's fault. He can't do more than the car allows him to - just like all the rest of the drivers.

Whether Alonso leaving McLaren has got anything to do with the (slight) dip in both car's and Hamilton's driving performances I wont speculate in because frankly I don't care, I'm just glad Alonso is out of that horrible team.

[kimi and mika]

hamilton is doing worse, and yes he won in austrailia, but bad day for Ferarri, other races bad days for McLaren, wait for an even race and we'll find out!

[Majkel]

Hamilton was too optimistic at the start of the season because his last season was great, and he won 1st race at secound season... Now we can see who is better... But wait some time...

[phil1993]

I reckon Kimi will win the title by miles, with a close fight for 2nd between Heifeld, Kubica and Hamilton. Has anyone noticed that Heidfeld is 2nd, just 3 points behing kimi and kubica and kovalainen are level with hamilton? interesting...

[Lilellatho]

Oh boy, in F1 you're really as good as your last race, isn't it? :tired:
After Australia, everyone was like "Kimi is sh*t", then after Malaysia it's "Kimi is great, Massa is sh*t", now this.
They're only human, it's normal that they have some good races and some bad or average races, judge them over the course of a season...

Suntrek, you're right, a driver can only go as fast as his car allows him to, but one also has to be able to get the most out of whatever car he has and that's sth that goes for every driver. And I've seen this from the likes of Schumi, Kimi and Alonso, when they were outdriving c**p cars or facing engine change penalties, bad setups, starting from the back of the grid, mistakes in quali or whatever. Somehow, on race day, they pulled some majestic drives.

Hamilton just hasn't done that yet. Whenever he doesn't start on pole or have the best car on a certain circuit, he just fades away in the race and not even the most rabid fanboy can deny that. I thought that today was just another example of that. Messing up the start, ramming into Alonso (and don't even start on me that it was Alonso's fault, cause it was quite obvious from the vid that it wasn't), lock-ups all over that place etc. He could have done a better job at bringing that car in the points, considering Keikki's pace. But he still managed to have his fastest lap of the race, what, 2 secs off the Finn's pace

Still, some perspective is needed. The McLarens are still in the fight, there are 15 races to go and their strong races are still to come. So...

[Lelulelu]

Hamilton is just realizing what it's really like to race in F1. There are good times and bad times. I think he'll manage...

[Island F1]

think the racing gods are letting him have 'the rookie reason' this year.

[alper206]

what i suppose is this year, 'the leader of the team' role started to pressurize hamilton more than anything (even dealing with alonso in rookie year). As there are only 40 f1 races between the mclaren drivers (20 each), it is a really tough job for him. Considering also that you can learn certain things by only experience, i can understand this initial struggle.

this lack of experience can also negatively effect the car development of mclaren throughout the season. BMW is really a big threat for them and ferrari can easily walk away with the title this year.

[donald29]

i think kovalainen will pressurise hamilton into some mistakes

[phil1993]

with the kovalainen thing, it think ron will tell heikki to 'calm down a bit and let lewis win'. they do not want a repeat of 2007

[aussiepete]

with the kovalainen thing, it think ron will tell heikki to 'calm down a bit and let lewis win'. they do not want a repeat of 2007

you hit the nail on the head-make no mistake kovalienen will be put in his place (behind lewis that is) by By Big Ronny

[Sanredrose]

I think you are mistaken. Heikki has put up good shows to save some face for the team. Till now they haven't been racing each other. In australia he was fifth and hamilton was 1st. In malaysia, in the start Hamilton went past him but for the pit stops which spoiled his afternoon. In Bahrain hamilton dropped back and was never in contention with Heikki. So Ron doesn't have any job to do with Heikki.

I think these ups and downs are occuring due to tyre combination. Mclaren perform well in hard tyres and Ferrari on softer tyres. Look at Australia where they ran hard tyres for most part of the race and Mclaren dominated. Look at Bahrain, when heikki came out with hard tyres after 2nd pit stop and went on to set the fastest lap of the race. So i would rubbish the claims that the car isn't better than MP4-22.

Btw whoever is believing that Alonso input was missed by the team, let me ask you something .... What's Renault doing with Alonso's input ? Why can't they pull a 0.67 seconds up in car which Alonso claimed last year that he had brought to the team. The truth is that only when the car is quick you can try and bring about an improvement. Renault is now pile of junk which Alonso can't bring up and he has already gone lamenting publicly about the pace of his team. The so called improvement which he claims he brought about was not due to him. The introduced a new aero package and modifications at Spain made Mclaren realize that the rear tyres are taking a lot of bruising all through the race. Then they came up with the idea of running shorter stints on soft tyres and longer stints on hard ones. That's how they brought about the improvement. This is no driver input, its just basic reasoning. So in my opinion alonso never brought about a micro second improvement in Mclaren.

The problem is not with the Hamilton nor Mclaren. But both of them did some mistakes in the last two races, that doesn't mean Hamilton has slack in form or Alonso is being missed by the team. Some people are happy that alonso got out of a horrible team .. as a matter of fact wherever he is the team becomes horrible and acrimonious. May be its just a few more days after which Flavio would be livid abt alonso and piquet jr ...