Carlos from Spain:
JoeRockhead:
Is Hamilton the new Bottas at Merc?
Russell has been solid with the same shi**y car, and it looks bad on Hamilton. Maybe his heart is no longer in it.
It's not a surprise to many that this would happen, Hamilton should of not come back after last season, at least this way he would of maintained the illusion to his fan boys that he was the best driver of the grid all these years and not the fact that that he was cruising with a car that was a category class above every other driver's and was given a mediocre teammate on purpose that didn't challenge him making him look better than he is, just like Vettel while at RB except he had tougher teammates.
I was actually surprised to see that they allowed a guy like Russell to drive the same car this season because this was going to happen.
Why not? Hamilton doesn't last forever, Mercedes needs to plan the succession, Russell is their future, and the future is now. Maybe it wasn't supposed to turn out like this, maybe this was going to be an apprentice year for Russell to race with Hamilton. But Russell really is a gem of a talent, maybe tops on the grid.
He came back just because he likes the challenge, he wanted to conquer the new regs also. This is the 4th sets of regulations he had raced under, and he had won during the previous 3 sets.
And no, he didn't quite have the rocket car for all his years. Maybe 2014-2016 years, where Mercedes with their split turbo setup was head and shoulder above everyone else.
Ferrari could have won with Vettel, they were actually leading the 2017 season and if not for some things that happened, Hamilton would not have won. 2018 was another season where Ferrari had a late season collapse with Vettel before handing the championship to Hamilton.
2019 The Ferraris were again quick, together with the improved Red Bulls, it was supposed to shaped up to be a 3 way battle. But as luck would have it, the Red Bulls aren't quite there yet and the Ferraris, well they did Ferrari things for the first half of the season. Mid season the Ferrari got some not quite legal improvements, and Horner smelled blood after a while and killed them off. Which sort of handed the championship to Mercedes.
2020 was really only a dominant year for Mercedes because of Ferrari's punishment for a not quite legal fuel system.
2021, Red Bull had the fastest car, not Mercedes.
2022, well, the Mercedes maybe ranked 6th? Maybe 5th tops? They are a solid mid field pace, definitely not top 2 or 3.
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