And Lewis Hamilton wins his 8th Championship!

I am genuinely curious to see how long Lewis' contract will be?

Whether a 1-2 year or longer, or Lewis' long term ambitions is to win one more - and quit whilst ahead and pursue say, politics?
 
I guess the contract length is why they're taking their time. If it's a 1 year contract then people will be falling over themselves to get his seat in 2022 along with all the media nonsense and speculation to go with it. It's essentially a retirement announcement however if he doesn't claim the title next year he might not want to. Maybe it'll be multi-year with an option to exit early if he wants to.

Personally think the sport needs rid of him and the likes of Vettel and Alonso now.
 
Doesn’t look like there’s any competition.

Red bull are still miles off.

Bottas can’t start and has no race pace.

The 8th should be pretty easy. I mean, Hamilton even had a race off and could have afforded many more. Says it all really.
 
The Tifosi would never warm to Lewis.. He still gets booed at Monza :o

At best they would tolerate him winning but let's not forget that they were hardly welcoming Schuey with open arms at the best of times (because he wasn't italian). I don't expect this to change.

In terms of retirement.. I think it's great that he's still around, I'd rather get rid of the drivers that aren't just there to make up the numbers. I hate to say it, but Kimi should have gone after he left Lotus/Renault/Caterham
 
Do we think it will be another jumbled up calendar or delayed season? I cant see the cars lining up at Melbourne being a street circuit in March?

Would be glad to see the Oz race moved to later in the year - Much preferred when Australia was the season closing! Sundays season ending race was dreadful and these desert tracks - even with the token small crowds, it makes no difference - awful.
 
EVH said:
The Tifosi would never warm to Lewis.. He still gets booed at Monza :o

At best they would tolerate him winning but let's not forget that they were hardly welcoming Schuey with open arms at the best of times (because he wasn't italian). I don't expect this to change.
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The Tifosi are famously fickle, supporting everyone who drives for them while booing anyone who threatens them. That's been the case for decades, certainly since the Villeneuve days. They probably didn't warm to Schumacher when he started, thinking he was a bit of an emotionless robot compared to Alesi and Berger (and few would compare to Alesi and Berger in that regard). While he's hardly as emotive as most or any of Ferrari's heroes, Hamilton's not quite as rigid as Schumacher appeared when he joined, but I just can't see him moving at this stage in his career. If he was going to do it he would have done so a few years ago when they looked half decent.



EVH said:
In terms of retirement.. I think it's great that he's still around, I'd rather get rid of the drivers that aren't just there to make up the numbers. I hate to say it, but Kimi should have gone after he left Lotus/Renault/Caterham
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While I too don't think Kimi is quite as good as he was when he returned, and certainly not since he left, I think his Portimao start (dare I say it better than Senna at Donington) and his late season form (he was high up all weekend in Abu Dhabi) shows Raikkonen is still deserving of a place on the grid after a rather average season. If Ferrari still rate Giovonazzi highly enough to continue funding his Alfa place (over the likes of Ilott) then clearly they still rate him and by proxy Raikkonen too, and with their simulators and data they're obviously in a better position to judge than we are.

I thought there was a chance Raikkonen was placed at Alfa as an insurance policy if Leclerc and Vettel went south and he could be drafted in at short notice if needed. Clearly it did go sour and Vettel's motivation and form went out of the window, but the fact that Raikkonen was never even rumoured suggests that was never the case.
 
It seems highly unlikely that the Merc won't enjoy a significant advantage over the rest in 2021 and equally unlikely that Bottas will elevate himself to previously unknown levels of performance. Hamitlon is in an incredibly strong position.

However, I think there's a good chance 2021 will be his last year. He'll have *all* the records and if there's any question the 2022 Merc won't be dominant he'll retire.
 
clv101 said:
It seems highly unlikely that the Merc won't enjoy a significant advantage over the rest in 2021 and equally unlikely that Bottas will elevate himself to previously unknown levels of performance. Hamitlon is in an incredibly strong position.

However, I think there's a good chance 2021 will be his last year. He'll have *all* the records and if there's any question the 2022 Merc won't be dominant he'll retire.
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Oh come on! You know Bottas 8.0, or is it Bottas 9.0 now?, will finally show all the people that doubted him.

I disagree about 2022 though, the teams will know the strengths and weaknesses of their car but how can they know where they stack up against the rest until testing and the first race at which point he'd be racing 2022. So maybe if the car is bad he wouldn't continue for 2023. Though even that I'm not sure on, by several accounts Hamilton has been important in the development of the car to keep it at the front. So if they don't have a dominant car, I'd expect they would want to keep Hamilton on for that alone.
 
We saw what happened when Russell got in the Mercedes - let’s put Hamilton in the Williams for a season and see what happens. That might actually make it entertaining...
 
CaptainRAVE said:
Why would that make it more entertaining?
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Because seeing his driving skill on show is more entertaining. He’s an excellent driver, no question - he also has an excellent car, as shown by George. Racing wise, that’s dull to watch in my opinion. Stick him in the (statistically) worst car in the field and I’d enjoy watching him use that skill to carve through them and win.
 
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