Lewis Hamilton (Vol. 2)

If memory serves, Lewis once did a test day, they deliberately set the car up so it was wonky and several pro drivers (I think even a couple of F1 drivers at the time, this being a few years before Lewis got into F1) came back and complained it was impossible to drive, let alone fast. Lewis then drove a few laps and put in the fastest lap. They asked if the car was set up ok and he said "No, but it was good enough" or similar....

He's tremendously good at controlling a car in oversteer. We saw that from the first moment he got in our car. We saw the data, and on every entry we could see there was a massive correction on the steering, and our normal drivers would have been bhing like hell that the car was undriveable, yet he didn't even pass comment. So with a driver like that, you're better equipped to push the boundaries to new levels. Speaking generically of that characteristic, a lot of the performance limit of a car is set by stability; if you can't hang on to it, you will have to introduce understeer in that zone. But if you have a driver better able to deal with oversteer in those zones that induce it, then you will have a less-understeery car elsewhere and therefore more total grip over the lap. The great drivers over the years - Senna, Schumacher, Mansell - have all had that ability. Like for like compared to other drivers, they want more front end.

If memory serves, Lewis once did a test day, they deliberately set the car up so it was wonky and several pro drivers (I think even a couple of F1 drivers at the time, this being a few years before Lewis got into F1) came back and complained it was impossible to drive, let alone fast. Lewis then drove a few laps and put in the fastest lap. They asked if the car was set up ok and he said "No, but it was good enough" or similar....

That's when my mind changed. We had two cars, we were testing there, [and] it was his first ever Formula 1 experience. He did a run, and he was nowhere, you know.

I remember looking at his data with Philip Prew, my race engineer back then. We were looking and Philip told me: 'The boy will need to improve a lot over the years...it's a long road for Lewis, but he will be good, but we just have to give him time, blah, blah'.

And I thought 'yeah, yeah, yeah'. I did a run, came back, looked at the times and I saw Lewis was fastest.

You know, on the second run! And I looked at the data and I said: 'What happened?' [They said:] 'Well we gave him new tires'.

"So I looked in the data, and he was so fast through Copse, Becketts, Maggots... that then I just realised the potential of Lewis Hamilton. Just looking at the data for a couple of seconds I realised we had a massive problem.

Just about everything really. His dad working several jobs to pay for his karting. The stuff that happened to him at school and at circuits with the shocking racism. The sheer magnitude of his talent and the legendary status he'd attained way before even reaching F1. Reports from long-term McLaren engineers who suggested after his first F1 test he might be the fastest driver they'd ever seen, and that includes Senna, Prost, and Hakkinen. The vanishing unlikelihood of his story ever completing its full ark as it has.

I also completely disagree that he lacks personality or charisma. I think he has plenty of both. He's transcended his sport and personally made F1 far more popular worldwide. In the USA he's hugely popular whilst most Americans could literally not name another contemporary F1 driver. He's been right at the very top of F1 since the first corner of his first race, where he drove around the outside of his twice world champion teammate. He's remained there for more than a decade and a half, and, overall, has been unusually clean and fair in the way in which he has conducted himself both on and off the track. He towers over the sport in the same sort of way Senna did, or Rossi did in MotoGP. When he's gone the loss will be colossal.

Oh, and also Lewis and his dad bought one of his first karts from a Pistonheader.

Seems Lewis didn't take part in the drivers secret santa this year based on the video at least

Can anyone tell if this is a photoshop?

TinEye reverse image search isn't finding anything. It certainly looks like one though.

Why, do you have a problem with it?

Nope, no problem. Just wanted to know if the attention seeking had started already.

Yours certainly has.

Who cares? Anyway, he bought them all dinner at the end of season goodbye to Seb. I guess he has got used to doing that over the last few years and forgot it is normally the WDC who pays.