[Driver] The GOAT - Round Three - Hamilton vs Mansell

[crmalcolm]

The second match-up in Round Three sees Hamilton vs Mansell.

Hamilton was victorious 14-1 in the second round, whilst Mansell took a 9-6 victory.

So who do you vote for as the greater driver?

Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton is among the best in every meaningful area of driver assessment. He is among the best of his era in wheel-to-wheel combat, he is an exceptional qualifier, a consistent and intelligent race driver, and to top it off, one of the all-time best wet-weather drivers.

Hamilton’s performances have been incredibly strong and consistent across his career. Even in his weakest seasons (2008 and 2011), he is statistically a top 4 driver. This is notably different from contemporary Sebastian Vettel, who took several seasons to approach his peak level, and has been rated outside the top 5 three times since 2010. At their respective peaks, the statistics see Hamilton and Vettel as comparable, but Hamilton has been a far more relentless performer over time.

In an absolute sense, Hamilton’s brilliant 2018 season (aged 33) is currently rated his best to date. But if we adjust each season performance for age and experience (i.e., determining the predicted equivalent performance if the driver had been at both peak age and experience), Hamilton’s 2007 debut season rates as his most impressive, narrowly ahead of his 2018 performance. Beating a reigning world champion as a rookie remains an absolutely extraordinary feat. The second highest rated rookie season is James Hunt’s exceptional 1973 season, where he finished 8th in the championship despite starting only half of the races.

In wet weather, it has become almost a given that Hamilton in recent times will win the race. While his percentage win rate in wet starts of 43% is lower than Alberto Ascari’s 67% (from 6 races), Ayrton Senna’s 64% (from 22 races), and Juan Manuel Fangio’s 50% (from 8 races), his winning streak in wet races from 2014-2019 was by far the longest in F1 history.

Hamilton’s team switch from McLaren to Mercedes must be considered one of the best-timed and most shrewd moves in F1 history, enabling him to spend all of his F1 career in one of the top 3 cars on the grid, and several seasons in a dominant car. This combination of car and driver has propelled Hamilton to the top of the sporting record books. Records that seemed virtually untouchable at the time they were laid down are now falling consistently.

Nigel Mansell
When Nigel Mansell intended to leave the sport in 1990, following his retirement announcement, he had scored just 16 wins, having narrowly failed to win titles with dominant cars in both 1986 and 1987. By signing with Williams for another two years, as contractual number one to teammate Riccardo Patrese, Mansell rapidly doubled his career win tally, reaping the benefits of the dominant FW14B to finally score his first title.

Mansell was a polarizing figure within the paddock, but widely admired by fans as a dogged and fearless performer who was always willing to take chances. A parallel to Juan Pablo Montoya can be easily drawn. Although Mansell is always very highly rated by fans, he is consistently lower rated by models.

In 1985, Mansell moved to Williams. In his first season there, he was closely matched with teammate Keke Rosberg, scoring 5-2 in counting races, 7-9 in qualifying, and 31-40 in points. From 1986-1987, Mansell raced with Nelson Piquet, scoring 11-8 in counting races, 17-13 in qualifying, and 124-145 in points. He faced an easier task beating Riccardo Patrese in 1988 and from 1991-1992, scoring 20-5 in counting races, 34-12 in qualifying, and 192-117 in points.

Mansell spent 1989-1990 at Ferrari. Against Gerhard Berger in 1989, he scored 2-1 in counting races, 7-7 in qualifying, and 38-15 in points. Against Alain Prost in 1990, fortunes were reversed, scoring 3-4 in counting races, 8-8 in qualifying, and 37-73 in points.

[FIRE]

Hamilton

[Racing Harz]

Originally Posted by FIRE

Hamilton

Yes, easy one.

[Aysedasi]

No contest there really.

[Adam43]

Hamilton easy. Nige had his moments though.

[morninggents]

They are all getting difficult at this stage. A great idea Mr Malcolm.


Nigel was fantastically quick and never minded who his teammate was - just another guy to race against for Nige. Should have been a double world champion (that burst tyre at the last round did for him) if not more.


Lewis is without doubt a class act and up there amongst the very, very best. But, he has had the fastest car for the last several years and only has his teammate to beat, which he failed to do with Nico Rosberg.


However much I loved our Nige it has to be Lewis Hamilton in this one.

[Aysedasi]

I see Nige has four votes, that's significantly more than I expected.....

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by morninggents

They are all getting difficult at this stage. A great idea Mr Malcolm.

Thanks - but chiilibowl deserves the credit for coming up with the idea - I just ran with it:

Originally Posted by chillibowl

perhaps a series of polls? tournament style.

use one of the autosport lists as the seeding for the brackets and then we vote our way through the matchups....march madness styles!

[Aysedasi]

So when our favourite doesn't win, we blame chilli?

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

So when our favourite doesn't win, we blame chilli?

reasonable!

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Thanks - but chiilibowl deserves the credit for coming up with the idea - I just ran with it:

no no the credit is yours my friend!

your effort to create something which has been a whole lot of fun for us is very much appreciated!

with the site going down the other day it just makes you realize how important this place is and all the hard work that goes into it from MagnetON and others on the technical side, to all the mods, to those who run these competitions, and to each and every poster who takes the times to read and respond to what each of us have to say is just plain brilliant.

i love this place!

anyways, Hamilton...he's pretty good no?