Fernando Alonso won his only two championships before Lewis Hamilton joined F1. Yet, as fortunes would have it, Hamilton now has 7 championships whereas Alonso still only has those 2 championships. However, the Former F1 Champion has now come out suggesting that Lewis Hamilton is missing the final piece and hailed Fernando Alonso as the complete package. Who is this champion and what did he say?
Mercedes and Aston Martin have been locked in a fight for what looks to be the 2nd best car on the grid. With both teams constantly bringing upgrades, the fight keeps on getting even tighter. As a result, their lead drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, are also locked in the fight for the best driver after the Red Bulls. With Checo struggling, it might as well become the fight for the 2nd best driver.
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On the F1 Nation podcast, Tom Clarkson asked Damon Hill about the awareness ability of the F1 drivers. Hill advised that awareness is all about the mental capacity of a driver to think beyond just the driving and focus on other aspects as well. The aspects could be the different strategies followed by the other drivers, talking about the track conditions, communicating weather updates, and so on. Nevertheless, Hill went on to compare Hamilton and Alonso with their awareness abilities and hailed the Spaniard as a complete package.
According to the F1 Nation Podcast, Damon Hill said while comparing the two, “I think Lewis, you can hear him on the radio and he seems to be in a state of urgency, which I’m often surprised by. But he focuses 100% on what he is doing and just going fast and getting the most out of the car. Whereas Fernando is able to think beyond just the sheer business of keeping the car on the track.”
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Lewis Hamilton purely focuses on driving, whereas Alonso has multiple plans and strategies going on in his mind. Despite both of them following a different way to approach a race, one cannot be deemed more successful than the other. Yet, Hamilton was dubbed to be missing the final piece i.e. awareness. However, Damon Hill takes his pick out of Alonso and Hamilton.
Damon Hill picks Lewis Hamilton despite Fernando Alonso’s awareness and racecraft ability.
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Fernando Alonso is a master of racecraft. We’ve seen it again this season when the Spaniard saves his tires, waits for the opponent to burn rubber, and then overtakes them when they start to struggle. Alonso is also able to suggest changes based on what he feels. Lewis Hamilton, however, works with the engineers to figure out what can be done. When asked about who he would pick between the two, Damon Hill suggested that he will choose Hamilton because of his ability to pull off whatever was asked of him.
According to the F1 Nation Podcast, Damon Hill said, “I take your point about Fernando and racecraft, but I’m just going to go back to Lewis again. I think the thing with Lewis is that in a race, he’s able to produce stunning laps when he needs to, I don’t know Fernando’s still got that ability to do that. So if you say to Lewis ‘we’ve got a target and this is it’, he manages to pull it out somehow.”
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Watch this Story: “They Know More About Our Car Than We Do”: Mercedes’ Spooky Radio Message to Lewis Hamilton Left Fernando Alonso & Co. Shell Shocked
Do you think Damon Hill was right in choosing Lewis Hamilton despite regarding Fernando Alonso as the complete package?