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Hamilton not as determined as Rosberg - Tambay

Published on 18 Apr 2016 15:50
6
By: Rob Veenstra

A lack of focus could have put Lewis Hamilton's bid for a third consecutive world championship off the rails in 2016. That is the view of former F1 driver Patrick Tambay, speaking after a disastrous Chinese grand prix weekend for Briton Hamilton, filled with reliability problems and first-corner damage as he started from dead last.

The Mercedes driver is now 36 points behind his teammate Nico Rosberg, who in Shanghai won his sixth consecutive race. "Is it 50 points now?" Hamilton asked reporters after the race. "36. Oh, that's not as bad as I thought. I feel pretty good right now," he said.

Fans and insiders cannot help to have noticed that Hamilton is no longer outwardly affected by poor results and setbacks, unlike in previous years. "There's a long, long way to go," he said. "Lots can happen. It's just I don't have any more jokers available really."

Experts are wondering if Hamilton's apparently unflappable mood is in any way connected to his early troubles in 2016. "He is not focused on the primary objective," Patrick Tambay, a driver from the 70s and 80s, agreed to France's RMC. "He has already been world champion and perhaps he is not putting in the same effort, with the same determination, the same quality of work and application that Nico Rosberg does now," he added.

Indeed, Spain's El Mundo newspaper declared on Sunday that the ever-winning Rosberg is "the new Hamilton". Mercedes' Niki Lauda even told the German broadcaster Sky that Rosberg's drive in China was "world champion-class". "What can stop him?" wondered Tambay. "I don't feel he has a lot of competition now."

But German Rosberg says he doesn't see it like that, insisting the season is only "a handful of races" into its unprecedented 21-date 2016 calendar. "Yes, it is going well, but this is the longest season in F1 history with Lewis Hamilton as my teammate, a double (back to back) world champion, who has been hard to beat in the past three years," he said. (GMM)

Wolfgang

Posts: 313

To be honest he was the reason for the gearbox change because of his bad start in bahrain.

and he was the reason for his bad start in australia whereas Nico had the much better starts leading him to race victory.

I hope so much that this is going to be Nicos year. He, being the much better team... [Read more]

2
Apr 19 2016 - 09:03

F1 News Lewis Hamilton Nico Rosberg Mercedes

Replies (6)

mcbhargav

Posts: 1,332
The Judges are on Rampage! Watch out!
- + 0
- Apr 18 2016 - 16:48
calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
It sure was championclass driving, but in the other's defence: he was basically the only driver without difficulties during the race. I was surprised by how hard it was for Hamilton to overtake Massa. Either Hamilton or Mercedes might have to take a closer look at that.
- + 0
- Apr 18 2016 - 16:56
f1dave

Posts: 782
Drivers championship points mean nothing as long as equipment failures determine starting grid placement. Deduct points from constructors championship but don't penalize the drivers for something they have no control over.
- + 0
- Apr 18 2016 - 18:06
khasmir

Posts: 893
Too early to tell and you can look at this in many different ways.
Hamilton did have a lot more bad luck regarding reliability and incidents on track. Nothing he can do about the reliability but if you get on pole and have a good start you can avoid a lot of incidents on track.
Not a big Hamilton fan but I wouldn't rule him out after just 3 races. If Rosberg makes that mistake he can kiss his championship goodbye.
- + 0
- Apr 18 2016 - 19:47
mclarenfan1968

Posts: 1,027
Screw that, lets have both mercs retire race after race so F1 can have proper races without steroid soaked Frankenstein cars
- + 0
- Apr 19 2016 - 03:34
Wolfgang

Posts: 313
To be honest he was the reason for the gearbox change because of his bad start in bahrain.

and he was the reason for his bad start in australia whereas Nico had the much better starts leading him to race victory.

I hope so much that this is going to be Nicos year. He, being the much better teamplayer, deserves this so much..
- + 2
- Apr 19 2016 - 09:03