Vettel's pass on Bottas while both were lapping Vandoorne was proper lunatic stuff. Credit to Vandoorne for being aware enough that he didn't collect the pair. Also, every race should begin with Verstappen at the back of the grid.
Yep. Shame Dovi had problems with the track. He was immense in Japan. I always predicted that Andrea Dovizioso would one day become MotoGP World Champion after I first saw what he could really do back in 2009 at Laguna Seca. I'm still waiting, but I'm sure he'll do it one day. Pedrosa on the other hand I said would never become MotoGP World Champ. And he won't. Looking like another for Marc Marquez now.
Hamilton is going to go down as one of the great F1 drivers. There's no reason why he won't beat Scumacher's 7 World Titles.
Lewis is only 32. He's got plenty of time and he's in the best car and his teammate is nowhere near his class.
Might not be the best car for 3 more years though, I also don't think he'll go for on for years and years.
6 years absolutely tops and he’ll start to decline in four. F1 is cyclical so he may well not have the best car even next season, plus Merc will replace Bottas.
I'd be surprised if Hamilton won three more titles. He has been a little fortunate this year in one respect, in that his teammate simply hasn't been good enough given the car he's driving; that seems to be a product of Bottas chewing through tires at a far greater rate than Hamilton, leading to a lot of late-race fades. In the last six races, despite Riccardo failing to finish once, the two are tied in points, and it has to be a major red flag for Mercedes that he has tumbled off the podium at the same time that Hamilton has been reeling off wins. There's a good chance that, unless Mercedes improves, RBR will finish ahead of Bottas with some consistency next year, as Vettel does.
Other thing to consider - when Hakkinen retired there was nobody else on that grid in a decent car close to Schumacher’s level. We’re blessed at the moment with some very, very good drivers about. The competition for Lewis is a lot stiffer. That’s both a credit to him, and a reason he won’t beat Schumacher’s record imho.
Wish the engine changes were happening more imminently. The top three teams appear to be very close in a lot of respects (including driver quality, though Bottas and Kimi lag a bit there), with only the slight lack of straight-line speed and their reliability issues hindering RBR. And while Hamilton's recent performance has made the driver's championship a fait accompli, the gap is closing...in the era of Mercedes dominance, they have generally won the constructor's title by about 300 points. This year it's at less than 150 with three races remaining, despite their otherworldly reliability (1 DNF vs 6 for Ferrari and 11 for RBR). Edit: and none of that touches the possibility that the well-funded McLaren will jump into the chase pack with the Renault engine.
Formula 1 is so boring now. ooh ooh we've won the most reliable engine competition! let them change or update the engines every week and have the best drivers competing at the front!
