Hamilton’s Fourth Title Too Easy Says Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso, two time formula 1 world champion, has had a lot to say this season. The Spaniard has given us great moments this season. Be it on the track, on the radio or in interviews. Hamilton’s fourth title being ‘too easy’ is interesting.

“It was very easy this year, no opponents,” Alonso said “Last year he had Nico until the last race, fighting every single race. This year was too easy. Mercedes four races to the end constructors’ champion, Hamilton three races before the end drivers’ champion. Hopefully McLaren-Renault will change this easy time for them.”

Referring to his battle in Mexico GP with the 2017 world champion, he said-

“At the end with Hamilton, as soon as you start battling, you lack a bit of straightline speed, We tried to brake a little bit later every time, tried to defend the position but it was not possible. I think he knows, he knows. He knows also how strong the McLaren car [is] in the corners, he saw also today.”

To even think about something like this, we have to look at factors that have changed from the previous seasons. Looking at 2014, 2015 and 2016, there were two factors radically different from 2017. Hamiltons team mate and the absolute dominance of Mercedes over other teams in terms of car development.

In 2014 and 2015, Hamilton found a challenger in his team mate, Nico Rosberg. In 2016, that challenger finally took the title from him. But in all of these seasons, Mercedes drivers clearly enjoyed a car better than their closest competitors. But can the same be argued about 2017?

True, Nico was not there to challenge Lewis this time around. But the second factor played in. Ferrari more or less caught up to Mercedes. Prior to summer break, everyone was confident that Ferrari is back. So one can argue, in the absence of Nico, Hamilton found a new challenger in Sebastian Vettel. So was this title ‘easier’ than the last two (or three for that matter)?

If you focus only on the season after summer break, yes. It does look to be an easier championship for Lewis than the ones before. If we only look at 2017 season before summer break, it is obvious it was a difficult one. So whether or not Lewis had to work harder for this one is anyone’s guess. I guess Lewis will have to answer for that one.