Let's look at 2008.

Ferrari had Massa & Raikkonen as drivers and McLaren had Hamilton & Kovalainen

Ferrari won th constructors' championship by 21 points and that was under the less generous old scoring system.

The Ferrari was the better car.

Hamilton won the championship by 1 point.

 

It's a rare achievement in the modern era to win the drivers title in a non-championship winning team.

Hamilton 2008
Häkkinen 1999 (Schumi broke his leg)
Schumacher 1994
Prost 1986

Only 4 in the last 25 years.

 

Looking at the results (isn't Wikipedia great?), it's pretty obvious the weak link was Kovalainen. He finished 7th in the championship, compared to Massa and Raikonnen coming 2nd and 3rd. Winning the drivers championship and not the constructors probably says more about your #2 driver than it does about the superiority of the car. (I think the Ferrari probably was the better car that year, but it wasn't like all those years of Schumacher and Barichello being 1 second faster than everyone else).

 

It's a rare achievement in the modern era to win the drivers title in a non-championship winning team.

Hamilton 2008
Häkkinen 1999 (Schumi broke his leg)
Schumacher 1994
Prost 1986

Only 4 in the last 25 years.
[/quote]
2008 - Ferrari pit crew cocked it up and there was the Alonso situation
1999 - Yeah, Schumi broke his leg, but the McLaren was still as quick
1994 - Senna died and everyone is pretty sure Benetton were cheating so in essence had the best car Schuey also drove into Damon, thus cheating his way to victory
1986 - A sniper shot Mansell's tyre....

 

DRS makes overtaking pointless. Only useful in total overtakes per season stats.
I've lost count of the number of overtakes which are immediately undone by DRS straights, Button and Webber being just one example.

And has DRS meant that Red Bull can afford to run a lower top speed as the DRS gets them out of any sticky situations?

 

Fantastic race today, great to see McLaren and Hamilton back on top. Alonso's drive was sublime, Hamilton had a great race and Button did an excellent job fending off Webber and Massa despite the technical problems with KERS and his forever changing brake bias! Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic!

Go McLaren!

Graham

PS Nut, I don't hate Hamilton at all, I am a avid fan of McLaren and support both drivers. My point was that THIS season, he has been off his usual excellent form and Button has out paced him. However, as clearly shown today, when Hamilton is on form, then he is one of the best drivers out there. Just that Button has been so much more consistent THIS season. Sorry if my point was not clear enough.

 

No apologies required gbduo. It was good to see Hamilton prove me right today, I have never lost faith in his ability, and talent always rises to the top, he was quicker than everyone all weekend and drove a perfect race and deserves the plaudits ... I didn't even see him shred his tyres, perhaps he reads this thread and took the advice he was given Also, must mention that once again Teflonso was phenomenal.

Race was dull however, these new circuits are pretty crap, but while you have people paying millions into ecclestones account they are here for the foreseeable.

 

BBC coverage seems to have gone from Last of the Summer Wine to Dawson's Creek. Let's hope the win will cheer Hamilton up.

I noticed a lot of the kerbs had a noticeable rain gulley, and I wonder if that's what caused the puncture. All a bit strange. Great win from Hamilton, and I'm sure I was one of millions of people worldwide who cheered as Vettel went off, but it has to be said that most likely Vettel would have won again.

The DRS was a bit silly in this race.

 

Button coming 3rd with only having KERS for part of the race was pretty impressive.

Good to see Hamilton finish, although must have been very dull with nobody to race. Interesting that his mum was there for the first time that I can remember... I think that might be significant.

Cocked up tactics from Senna's team having him pit on Lap 1!

And not sure about Di Resta's strategy, but his consistency shows once again.

Looking to next season, there are seems to be an excess of drivers further down the ranks! Plus Kubica coming back...

 

I didn't see the point of the double drs zone as most people merely retook their lost position, surely it would have more sense to shadow the leading car and overtake in the second zone then have at least a chance of getting away and keeping the advantage? Not the worst race but not absorbing, the best battles remain further down the field where the racing is closer.