Without rehashing the beaten dead horse Alonso-Hamilton at McLaren topic, this forum had several threads in which we looked at head to head comparisons in each race between drivers for qualifying positions obtained and which driver pitted first in the race. Back then , they didn't reveal fuel loads. The lap at which they pitted was an indirect - all be it imprecise but the best we could do - measure of fuel load for qualifying . The order in which the teammates pitted also served as an indicator of potential strategic preference indirectly by the team - again acknowledging that since we weren't privy to all info and that there were only a few scenarios when pitting first in sequence was advantageous.

The discussions back then suggested that early on (first 5 races) Alonso had preferences and the results were in Fred's favor (2 wins and finishing ahead of Lewis in 3 of 5) . The turning point of the season was at Canada when Lewis first got pole and then won. The season then turned around towards Lewis' favor and the rookie was challenging
Alonso.


The question raised back then was:

Did the car become more and more aligned in favor of Lewis' driving style from Spain onwards ?

It's more likely that a preferred driver with a car built around his preferences would be able to challenge a driver ranked ahead of him.

When the car is not aligned to your driving style, you are compensating for things that you shouldn't have to in order to get the same laptime.


So, it's all well and good to say that a driver hasn't shown that he has "it" because he hasn't challenged his teammate. However, if he's driving an inferiorly aligned car developmentwise that situation confounds the final result seen.


There's no evidence to suggest that Lewis ever relinquished his leader role in the team and that the car was developed with his cornering and braking methods more in mind especially when it came to using the rear tyres up.

If you were righthanded and I was lefthanded, even though we both received the same brand righthanded geared equipment, asking me to use that equipment as well as you in performance may be a bit of a false contest. To then criticise me for not showing you up is more than unfair.

^^^
All that may be true. But the differences in styles and set ups are not nearly so great to produce the large gap in performance between Hamilton and Heikki.

If in fact they were, then Heikki would never be able to qualify the car as well as he has at times.

And that is always the most damning evidence against Heikki. He mostly has been able to qualify relatively well, within reach of Hamilton. But once the race starts, you'd think they were driving 2 completely different cars, for 2 different teams.

don't be surprised to find hekki in F1 next year, either with Brawn, or Renault. I don't find any stock in the rumors of Schumi going to the new Brawn/Mercedes team, he's Ferrari first, German second. They all are that way, if not, they will force it on ya. LOL

I just don't know what to make of Heikki sometimes. You see those moments of brilliance where he is very quick, but they regularly come a cropper. Wherever he lands, I wish him well and hope he finally in where he has a car that suits his style and the preparation of that car brings him better luck.