Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes

[Sharrowgirl]

A lot of talk yesterday about how poor the car is and Lewis ‘deserves better’.

But no one is talking about how well Russell is doing in comparison. He drove from 11th to 4th yesterday while Hamilton stayed stuck in 14th the whole race. He’s currently 21 points ahead of Hamilton, after 4 races. They’re driving the same car?

I’m wondering if Hamilton has just lost motivation after Abu Dhabi and his heart’s not in it anymore. Or is there another explanation?

I take this back. The police cars and football helmets win. What on earth has happened this weekend? And this is where F1 is heading, in general... it's a real shame.

Bad race, imo. The track looks like Changing Rooms made it over in the couple of days before the weekend - surely the fake marina is F1's version of mdf? The director chose the worst shots at the worst times and never showed where any of the action was. There was far too much focus on celebrities walking the grid without having any interest at all in the sport. The 'filler' shots before the race which normally feature a few seconds footage of the circuit and/or area they are in, instead just showed women in bikinis like this was the 80s again. The American football helment trophies just seemed to say ' this sport should aspire to be American football'. And worst of all: the racing was dull, dull, dull - up until Norris saved it with a spectacle of a crash that shook things up a little bit. Until then it had been like watching cars file onto a ferry.

It was awful and if this is where F1 is going, I'm not going with it - which makes me very sad to think as I've followed it for 20+ years. But maybe, I'm not the kind of fan it wants anymore...

Oh, and this was the least street-like street circuit I've ever seen. Not a proper circuit and yet not a street circuit either - just a road proceeding around a load of concrete? What was with that? Were they just so depserate for a Miami circuit that they were willing to plop the track anywhere, including through a carpark?

@NextYearIsOurYear has a discussion thread been started?

I thought it was a disappointing circuit, and the tv coverage missed a lot of the action- not that there was much!

I agree with pretty much all of this.

I commented to DH at the time that Norris had probably thought for goodness sake, someone has to do something to make this race interesting!

It's an awful circuit.

They were resurfacing the circuit nightly.
The techpro barriers should have been in place but at least they will know for next year what improvements are required. I was so bored watching the race (the grid walk was more entertaining than the race and that's saying something).

About 10 laps before the Norris incident, I was scanning the driver list working out who I wouldn't have minded causing a VSC or a SC and Norris wasn't making that list!!!

It was a boring race but I don’t think that’s anyone’s fault. Provided the track is designed with overtaking in mind, there’s not much else the organisers can do about the action on the track.

Seb was great on question time.

I wonder what he will do when he retires maybe politics. Lewis and Seb are going to leave a big hole in F1 when they both retire. Hopefully they both stick around for a couple of years yet!

I’m just catching up on QT from last week, agree @Sulusu Seb was great. 💜
Is it too obvious he’ll go into something sustainability-related?

I think he will @LadyJGrey or maybe even a move to Formula E. I don't think he is ready to give up racing complety yet, but a sideways move to Formula E would make sense IMO.

Merc and every team bringing upgrades this weekend. Merc seems to have quite a different floor on the car. I hope it helps stop the popoising, not sure Lewis and George's spines can handle much more bouncing!

Promising news from Mercedes. Will be interesting to see how this qualifying session goes….

Mercedes have clearly made a step forward. The Red Bull is clearly very quick but their reliability still seems very questionable.

Better quali result by Mercedes but still don’t feel they’re quite on a par with RB and Ferrari yet.

Lewis still consistently outperformed by GR though. Great work from GR but does still make me worry a bit there’s something going on with Lewis.

I love seeing Russell doing so well but am still hoping for an 8th championship for Hamilton. To me, he comes across as thoroughly disheartened this season. Probably compounded by the car issues. Seems like he's not giving it his all.

I'm also enjoying seeing Leclerc do so well. He had a fantastic rookie season but was stymied for a couple of years by a terrible car. He's getting the chance now to prove what an excellent driver he is.

I have just noticed a discussion thread has been created. Hope the link works:

F1 2022 Discussion Thread

Thanks for the link @BHX3000 im guessing from your user name you’re probably in my neck of the woods

Yes I am happy to see George doing well but I definitely want Lewis to do better! I really want him to win his 8th this year because it does look like he may well retire at the end of this year.

He hasn't seemed himself although he was a lot more cheerful yesterday. Hard to tell if it is the problems with the car, the disgusting outcome last year or even the lasting effects of covid (probably all three).

I also agree with you about Leclerc. I do like him and think he is a good driver although prone to making some mistakes. If Lewis or George can't win the championship this year I would be happy enough for Leclerc to win it. Just don't want Verstappen to win

I’m really enjoying watching George do so well in this race. He’s keeping a cool head and Verstappen is clearly getting agitated. Let’s see how Max reacts to being told to let his teammate through. That will be a new experience for him.