Posted 05 November 2012 - 13:45
My 2c for what it's worth.
LH has driven superbly this year, he's fundamentally been let down by unreliability... which is frankly highly unlikely to be his responsibility (unless someone can state categorically that McLaren has a weakness for being driven over kerbs to the detriment of it's fuel pump or other items - I hear Gary Anderson spoke about "kerb-hopping" yesterday-).
To say LH is the unluckiest driver this season isn't a stretch either imo, the only one I'd possibly throw in there with him is Schumacher, but he's had a couple of crappy races all on his own!
This season actually reminds me of Kimi in 2005, extremely fast car, you never know when it's going to break down though. Now of course people say Kimi is hard on his car.... I think this season is proving something to the contrary seeing as he's completed every lap.
The list is "interesting", I think some of the "pitstop" claims can be removed though, at the start of the season a 4 sec stop was seen as good, now we're often seeing 2.5-3 secs, does that mean 4s is crap? Not in my book. Yes, there was some sticky wheels, or other operational errors, but every single team gets that, it's part & parcel of it. Seems no-one wants to give McLaren credit for the good things they've done, plenty of good stops, the updates have generally worked (ask MS/NR about theirs - won't take long!) and from the outset a very quick car.
As for Valencia, I think giving LH the "win" doesn't stack up at all under the slightest scrutiny and the problem with that is some doubters will need no excuse to rubbish the entire list because of it.
In real world, yes LH could/should be right up there with 2 races to go, but he isn't. It is unfortunate that his bad spell of issues coincides with Red Bull getting it sorted and SV nailing all the points.
It's my opinion that if you're a fan you have some choices, you could be positive, be delighted that LH has shown that 2011 appears to be "just one of those years" and there is no downward slope for him at this time, you'd also probably be happy that he's leaving a team that isn't giving him what he needs and finally you could see a "legacy" ahead for him - new team, clearly a disappointing return from their 3 years as a constructor and then LH arrives.... what happens next?