Lewis Hamilton will start the 2019 F1 season as favourite to win another championship, according to Fernando Alonso.
The Mercedes driver clinched his fifth world championship and his fourth in the last five seasons in the Mexican Grand Prix.Alonso said Hamilton deserves to be considered one of the sport’s greatest drivers.
“It’s difficult to rank in different times, different eras of Formula 1. Some of the championships you are fighting until the last race, some of the championships you are winning against your team mate. Arguably Lewis lost with Nico one of those championships.
“But he is one of the top so I think he should be happy with that. And it’s not finished yet. I think next year he starts as a favourite again so that is a good thing.
Alonso won back-to-back championships with Renault in 2005 and 2006 before joining McLaren where he was partnered with Hamilton, who was then a rookie. Alonso said Hamilton is capitalising on the benefit of having a consistently competitive car.
“I think we all could have a run in championships like Lewis had or Sebastian [Vettel] had – he won four championships and he had half a second or one second advantage to the next car. That was the right time and the right moment and the right car.
“You need to be on those places to win that amount of championships.”
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Jere (@jerejj)
29th October 2018, 10:42
Agreed.
Zim
29th October 2018, 12:03
I reckon he gets seven and bows out after 2020.
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
29th October 2018, 12:28
You don’t have to be a fan of Lewis to appreciate his achievements. Fernando is right, if the circumstances fall your way, a few drivers on the grid can capitalise and make the most it, which is exact what Lewis has done. So credit where it’s due, kudos to Lewis.
This was a championship that Ferrari and Vettel threw away. Lewis and Merc where there to pick up the pieces on a consistent basis.
I’d be interested to see how Lleclerc will fare in a Ferrari should they be competitive next year. Having said that, Ferrari have proven that having a competitive car alone does not win you races, their management and strategy has been shambolic at times this season, which ultimately cost them.
Chaitanya
29th October 2018, 12:46
More than Ferrari it was the driver who threw away the title. Next year if Leclerc and RBR Honda get on well it going to be harder to take title for any of this years title protaganists.
Aldoid
29th October 2018, 16:26
Yeah, they’ve gotten a hard time, but operationally Ferrari have been pretty solid this year. The mistakes Vettel made on his own (especially Germany) cost more than any made on the pit wall.
Aldoid
29th October 2018, 16:44
Side note (& not particularly important in the grand scheme of things, but I think relevant to the discussion): I wonder why it took so long for them to realize their upgrades weren’t working? I’ve been a little confused by that. Seems it took them a little while to back-to-back test the bits before finally reverting to a previous spec that obviously has been performing like earlier in the year. And what responsibility should the drivers bear, if any? I feel they should shoulder at least a little bit of the blame, & should have been more proactive in saying “these bits don’t seem to be any better, let’s see how they stack up against the old ones”. I know I watched an interview where Vettel said them going back to the older bits more quickly than they did would have been the more prudent action (with the benefit of hindsight) but it seemed more philosophical than accusatory. Collectively that’s probably been the biggest blunder, now that I think of it…
nik
29th October 2018, 12:45
For all the admiration I have for Alonso, him predicting the future is one thing he just cannot do. With his selection of teams, to dumping of engines, he has done all of it wrong. Hopefully may his prediction comes true.
But Hamilton maximized his opportunities, used his team( and team mate as well) and deservedly won the championship and hopefully Vettel and Verstappen runs Hamilton closer in 2019. He has surely established himself as on of the greats in F1.
anon
30th October 2018, 17:08
Hammy probably wasn’t dominant enough against Rosberg when Rosberg was his only competition for three years.
I think a Schumacher in his prime or Alonso in his prime beats Rosberg 3/3 years and wins something like 50/59 races in that span where the Mercedes was the most dominant car in the history of the sport. Instead, Hammy only wins 31/59 with the most dominant car ever.
Rosberg took 20/59 wins.
To me a legendary driver doesn’t have a mere 31-20 win record against Nico Rosberg in a three year span.
who?
31st October 2018, 10:49
Schumacher’s team mates were as good as Nico and were not permitted to race him, so that is a silly comparison. Nico doesn’t get the respect he deserves as a driver. He was at least as good as Vettel. Nico also beat Schumy as a team mate, he wasn’t the same Shumacher I will admit but its still no mean feat.
medman (@medman)
3rd November 2018, 22:39
Nico wiped the floor with Michael Schumacher at Mercedes. Absolutely pasted the guy. Now if you want to make excuses that Michael was past his prime, that’s fine. But don’t start making asinine, fantasy comparisons when the comparison actually happened on the track. Your mind is too busy making up fantasies for what you wish to be true, instead of what is in fact the reality. Typical.