I can't say driving off into the distance and spending the second half of any race cruising to collect is my idea of fun racing. I think Hamilton is just saying he enjoys racing as much as winning. Sprinting to a win gets the results and the stats, but its not half as much fun as chasing someone down and dicing for the win IMO. I'm sure Hamilton is lying if he said he didn't wish he was in the Red Bull because it would certainly bump up his win rate. Results and stats are not everything though. The greatest don't always hold the most race wins or titles IMO. I guess I just like racing, competing against others and coming out on top. Racing from the front and setting fastest times must get boring after a good while.
But the point is that a driver generally does not jump into the lead and run off into the distance without having to do any wheel to wheel at all during the race. Technically, Vettel even had to do so at the beginning of the last race - but that apart, he has had a lot of opportunity to do wheel to wheel during the season, in races he has not won and those he has. One cannot suddenly forget all of the season's races and pretend yesterday is the example of how all of his races have gone - or how all of the races of any driver in this day and age will go.
And let's not forget that Alonso had no wheel to wheel at all after driving through traffic on the outside to attain 3rd at the start and then 2nd after the pits. But for some reason that does not bore anyone - it is somehow possible to sit in 2nd place with no track interaction and be entertaining? He wasn't as far ahead, no, but far enough not to have to be bothered by anything going on behind. Yet not one peep about that distinction from Hamilton or anyone else.
Hamilton had wheel to wheel, but he was not happy after the race, so clearly that is not alone enough to satisfy him. However, as I pointed out, when he wins he is happy, even if he has practically no wheel to wheel like in Oz 2008. So I think what he would like is both, but winning is more important and as you say, he'd take that if offered, even if it meant giving up wheel to wheel for the season.
I am presuming he has remembered that is unlikely to happen as he would still have to fight Vettel in the sister car, no matter how good it may or may not be.
Because then he would have a car to fight with them (Vettel). If you have a dominant car and beat a top rated driver teammate with equal machinery and treatment then you get lots of credit and win titles (can't ask for more than that).
That makes no sense. When Seb drives the wheels off of his dominant car without a challenger, the "driver's" input is meaningless. But if two drivers are driving the wheels off of their more or less equally dominant cars, one can actually give props to the "driver" that comes out on top? How does that work?
How do you know that one of the cars wasn't just a tad more dominant than the other and that it is the winning car that should still receive the props?
And how do you know in the case of Seb driving his dominant car, it is not his input that makes the difference between a win and a loss?
I don't think Hamilton thought that thru carefully if that is what he meant.
Edited by bourbon, 24 September 2013 - 09:41.