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Thread: Hamilton confirmed in Mclaren

  1. #1
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    Hamilton confirmed in Mclaren

    Hamilton gets the McLaren!
    Lewis Hamilton has been confirmed as the second McLaren driver in 2007. The 21-year-old Briton, who won this year's GP2 champion, becomes has had his career nurtured by McLaren boss Ron Dennis since the age of 13.

    http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns17800.html for the rest of the story.

    Hope he's fast and consistant. Also hope blows Alonso into the weeds.
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    Quite surprising IMO. Although I haven't followed the whole F1 circus I wouldn't have expected that McLaren would chose for him. Nonetheless, he is a good driver for sure.
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    Quote Originally Posted by jorismo
    Quite surprising IMO. Although I haven't followed the whole F1 circus I wouldn't have expected that McLaren would chose for him. Nonetheless, he is a good driver for sure.
    McLaren had been paying his way since he was a kid, so the only question was whether he'd start this season or next. He's shown himself to be consistent and easy on equipment, and has developed serious racecraft over the past couple of seasons. F1 should be interesting to watch with all the new drivers coming up... with Piquet Jr. as his (continuing) nemesis Hamilton will also be dealing with old foes Rosberg and Kovelienen.
    Never own more cars than you can keep charged batteries in...

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    Well done to Ron Dennis for giving Hamilton the chance next year. Dennis isn't known for taking a chance on young guys or guys without F1 experience. The last time he did it was with Michael Andretti - and that didn't work.
    Hamilton will take some time to settle in and learn the F1 ropes. By the end of the season, I expect he'll be close to Alonso. What better guy for Hamilton to learn from/match himself against than the only current driver in F1 to have won a World Championship, the dual World Champion Alonso. Alonso is well on his way to being an all-time great. I think that with time Hamilton will match Alonso for speed, and with proper nurturing and experience Hamilton should be a potential world championship contender probably within three seasons - say 2009.
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    Quote Originally Posted by motorsportnerd
    Well done to Ron Dennis for giving Hamilton the chance next year. Dennis isn't known for taking a chance on young guys or guys without F1 experience. The last time he did it was with Michael Andretti - and that didn't work.
    I think you are overlooking Mr. Kimi, who had only one season of F1 experience and before that only very little racing experience at all...and certainly much less than Andretti..
    "I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams

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    So, his first season in F1 - one of the top teams, no F1 race experience, and the consecutive two time World champion in the other car...

    No pressure then, or much room for error.
    Thanks for all the fish

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    i'm delighted that Lewis has been given the race seat, i think it would have been better than giving Pedro a race drive. He's done brilliantly in GP2 and i really do hope he can do the same for McLaren

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    Can't wait to see Renault next year
    And BMW Sauber <3

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    I want to see how good this Hamilton man is as I have heard a lot about him and never seen him drive. I think the question is however, will McLaren sport a car capable of competing with what I would already consider the favourite, the Ferrari? As for giving him a shot in F1, I guess they figure they have Alonso as primary and he ain't too bad (), so maybe they think he is the real stuff, or maybe Ron is actually taking a gamble based on the knowledge that Alonso is his first driver. Unfortunately, with that measely Mercedes engine, it may be tough for the rest of the car to rise to the challenge.

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    It took them long enough.

    Ive heard rumours the decision was being dragged out as there were concerns over Hamiltons ability to relay data to setup the car, based on his first test. Maybe if Ron had put Hamilton in the car 6 months ago that would never have been a problem....
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    Quote Originally Posted by henk4
    I think you are overlooking Mr. Kimi, who had only one season of F1 experience and before that only very little racing experience at all...and certainly much less than Andretti..
    True, though at least Kimi had a full season of F1 behind him whereas Hamilton has none. Still, Dennis did take a major risk with Kimi and it did pay off.
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    Quote Originally Posted by motorsportnerd
    True, though at least Kimi had a full season of F1 behind him whereas Hamilton has none. Still, Dennis did take a major risk with Kimi and it did pay off.
    and probably Kimi had less of an ego to deal with than Andretti...
    "I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams

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    It will work out like this: the risk that Ronnie takes will be seen as genius if Hamilton is good, and moronic if Hamilton is bad. However, that does not actually mean that the risk was genius or not - sometimes even idiots can make bad picks and then have them turn good, and clever folk can make good picks and have them turn bad. Personally, I am not privvy to the information that Dennis has (and I am not in his situation), and I am also - surprisingly - not Ron Dennis. This being said, of what I have heard about Hamilton, and with my relative (to F1 insiders) lack of knowledge of the sport and its prospects, I think I would still take a chance on the young kid and try to develop a relationship with him so that if he is good, he has a continuing semblance of loyalty to my flag - and if he's not, then I can just let him wither on the vine. Besides, all reports have been positive of this kid, and he kust could be the real deal after some practice.

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    de la Rosa deserved the seat more than Hamilton did...
    Oh well if Hamilton does bad, there is both Gary Paffett and Pedro available...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kitdy
    I think I would still take a chance on the young kid and try to develop a relationship with him
    Well, Ron and Lewis have had nine years so far, so one would be fairly certain they have a good relationship together.

    It is good to have a British driver racing with the team again though.

    Quote Originally Posted by Zytek_Fan
    de la Rosa deserved the seat more than Hamilton did...
    Yes, but if Hamilton can produce results in F1 like he did in GP2, he will get much better results than PdlR.

    McLaren isn't afraid to admit that it is only after one thing - results.
    Last edited by Coventrysucks; 11-26-2006 at 01:52 AM.
    Thanks for all the fish

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