Lewis Hamilton has found his sweet spot in the McLaren. The key word in the relationship between driver and car is balance. Finding it, in what is essentially a prototype machine, is not easy.
Cars have their individual faults, drivers have their unique styles and marrying the two is not straightforward. When you hit the spot in a car capable of winning races, when you gain a full understanding of the handling and power, the consequences for your rivals can be devastating.
That is where Hamilton is at this point in the season. He will take some stopping from here.
McLaren have done a terrific job with the car. They have introduced serious upgrades since the start of the season and brought it to a point where it is yielding more performance in Hamilton’s hands than the Ferrari cars.
Three-time Formula One world champion Niki Lauda believes Lewis Hamilton can be unbeatable if he keeps driving the way he did to win the German Grand Prix.
“It was (Ayrton) Senna-type driving,” said Lauda after Hamilton’s fourth win of the season which followed a dominant victory in the rain at the British GP.
“From Silverstone in that difficult race and here in this difficult race for him, he did an outstanding performance. If he continues like this, he will be unbeatable.”
“I think this will calm him down, and he will use his ability of driving quick in a way that he will drive races like this and continue,” Lauda said. “So, if he and the team work together in this direction, Ferrari will not beat them.”
The British driver is already thinking of achieving his first hat-trick of victories by winning in Budapest on Sunday week. Having survived friendly fire, in the form of a poor decision by his McLaren team at Hockenheim, when they failed to bring him in earlier for a change of tyres, Hamilton is already preparing to repeat his triumph in Hungary last year and add to his wins in Britain and Germany.
“I’ve had only 20-something races so I haven’t had much chance to do the hat-trick,” said Hamilton. “We’ve obviously got a good car. It would be good to go there with a free mind, with great momentum coming from a win this weekend, and hopefully we can emulate the great experience we had there last year.”
Suddenly the problems he experienced in Bahrain, Canada and France seem a distant memory. “I think I knew it would come good at some stage,” added the 23-year-old. “It’s a case of going step by step and working at it. Nothing drastic needed to be changed. Now we have to keep working in the same way. I’m at the top of my game and I feel that we, as a team, are at the top of ours.”
Meanwhile, the world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who was let down by his Ferrari team two weeks ago, continues to be the cause of some concern. He appeared unfocused throughout the Hockenheim weekend, where he was once again out-qualified by his Ferrari running partner Felipe Massa, who also finished three places ahead of him in the race. His refusal to confirm or deny that he is on the brink of retirement hardly clears the speculation and uncertainty that surrounds him.
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