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Really annoying of hamilton to harp on the same things again and again. Mclaren did produce a better car which means newey factor can be competed against. I believe he should focus more on the brilliant team that he is starting his new innings with.

He didn't say the Red Bull was the best car, just that it was amazing, which for the latter half of the year is kinda true. He didn't say it was better than Macca either. All Hamilton has pointed out is that it's going to be difficult to beat Seb, and that he expects next year's RB to be good as well. Probably how most of the world read next year too to be fair.

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"You are the universe expressing itself as a Human for a little while..."

Is this Lewis "harping on", or Sky Sports F1 trying to find anything to fill this weeks quota.

Its the off season, the only real News between now and next march will be new driver lineups, car launches, and (hopefully not) if anyone gets seriously ill or injured.

Maybe a bit of both but Hamilton does have a tendency to say the same thing in a slightly different way again and again. He does come across as someone short of analytical discussion or new ideas. This is just another "It is the car and not Vettel" message and I think it also reflects Hamilton's doubts about his own chances in 2013, now that the rules are coming out. Frankly, he is beginning to sound rather silly and pathetic.

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Vettel / Raikkonen / Button

envy is an ugly monster. More so in the hands of someone with a questionable personality...

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Aprilia RSV Mille.

Same old.
Lewis - as an FYI - your car was the fastest and Newey wasnt the designer , in case you didnt notice.

If you are taking a piss on your old team - then its ok otherwise its not even funny because 2012 was yours to lose and you lost it as usual

spot on.

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Aprilia RSV Mille.

In comes the haters

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"You are the universe expressing itself as a Human for a little while..."

I'm surprised LH isn't backing his big mate Alonso for the title, after all, he (Alonso) only missed out by a tiny 3 points this year, so all Fernando has to do is use his out-of-this-world Samurai skills to wrestle his 'dog of a car' around the track for 20 races - and not 'a mere 18 likes this year' - and the title is his, surely?

He is just stating the obvious.

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So Hamilton is responsible for the pit crew's failure for the first half of the year and the reliability issues for the second half of the year. Mclaren threw it away in 2012, not Lewis. (Lewis threw it away in 2011)

Getting very tired of Hamilton and Alonso always rubbing Vettel's nose in having Newey. I could easily argue the Macca was the fastest car over the largest part of the season. He acts like he drove a trash truck and Vettel had a rocket car.

If you get the same question asked of you again, and again you tend to give the same answer in a slightly different way over, and over. And the person asking the question is going to use selective portions, and paraphrase what you said in order to meet the word count for their editor, which could end up making your answer sound shallow and simplistic.

I'm not much of a fan of Lewis' but I think some of you guys are being awfully hard on him right now.

McLaren lost the titles not Hamilton. They have been showed off and enmbarrassed from RBR, who worked as a team should.
Even Ferrari was better as a team than McLaren. Mclaren was the fastest car sometimes but the worst team at the same time. So they threw it away

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"Everything you can imagine is real." Pablo Picasso

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"You are the universe expressing itself as a Human for a little while..."

Whoever is at fault , 2012 had McLaren as the fastest car and Lewis didnt end up a title holder. So he / they messed up. Thats not important.

What is important is he mentioning that competing with Newey is difficult which is utterly wrong as he himself drive a non-Newey car much faster than the RB8. So he is mis representing the truth.

OK - agreed on semantics that it was McLaren who messed up.
But that doesnt make - what Lewis is saying true because its patently obvious that McLaren had Newey beat on pace this year itself. But I guess even drivers have agendas.

Vettel and Red Bull won the titles fair and square. As long as McLaren and Ferrari can't get their act together and get on top of their blunders then Vettel and Red Bull will keep on winning. And guess what: they actually don't have to apologise for doing their job right...

Kinda is important considering your first comment...

This idea that the Mclaren was so much faster than the Red Bull in nonsense. On certain tracks, yes. But by the same logic you could easily contest that the RB was 'much faster' than the Mclaren on certain circuits.

Feel free to criticise Lewis for valid points, but this is just bashing.

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F1 fan since 97...
Kimi Raikkonen World Champion 2007
Gotta love this guy!!!!
....Just leave me Alone!!!!
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Think this needs to be quoted again, people need to stop reading into comments by a driver when he is answering questions used to produce headlines and interest the reader.

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Vodafone Mclaren Mercedes

Seems like a normal, logical, and typical statement to me. Always amazes me how some people absorb a simple statement so differently.

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I agree, he's just stating the obvious. No matter what team or driver, they are going to go up against a very formidable team in the form of Red Bull and a driver who has just won three WDC's in a row. Red Bull are the team to beat, and Vettel is the driver to beat, it's that simple.

Hey ATH,

hope you liked this season...

OT:
Well, i don't think many people here are suggesting what you provided as an option number two, but many are indeed wishing (including me) that Lewis and Alonso would refrain from suggesting what they do... Here we have Lewis again rambling about how Vettel had the good car, and will have another. I think this is what most people have issue with.

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My Top 5 drivers of all times:
1) Prost/ Schumacher
3) Fangio
4) Lauda
5) Brabham

if you don't like it, too bad! There's a reason why it says "My Top 5"

Everyone here says he's had a good car, most of the paddock says he had a good car, he himself says he had a good car, and the fact is he had a good car. So what? Its not like Lewis (or Fernando) is running around telling everyone Sebastian can't drive. Nothing wrong with acknowledging the fact that you need a competitive car to win a championship. Car, team, driver. Can't get the job done without all three. At times in Lewis' career he has lacked one of the key parts of the holy trinity, and for me, all he's saying in the quote above is that he's going to do his best to hold up his part and work with the team to get them there too. "Sebastian is going to be tough to beat because he's likely to have the same level of equipment he's always had at RBR, but I battle from any place and I'm eagerly looking forward to taking the fight to him" <- his whole statement summed up in one sentence. What can you fault in that?

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Well in the wake of Alonso saying that he and Lewis were at the top and Vettel beneath them somewhere (as a driver) and all the business about competing with Newey, it is easy enough for his words to be interpreted as continuing on in that vein. To be fair, Hamilton has praised Seb's driving in the past, so I don't have a problem interpreting Hamilton to be speaking in driver + car combinations.

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Indeed. I recall reading an article which suggested Lewis believes he would rip Vettel in the same car, and I think he once said that if he ever joined Red Bull Seb would have to get used to losing.

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We want heroes, but there are few, mainly it's cars - Pedro De La Rosa

I'd hope Lewis or anyone would say the same thing to be honest. I'd hope Seb would say "put me in that Ferrari with Alonso/Merc with Leiws and I'll destroy them". I want the drivers to claim they'd beat anyone else in the same car. Woo-yeah! I do sometimes wish we had any combination of Ham/Alonso/Vettel/Kimi in the Ferrari/Red Bull/Macca again, for a couple of seasons at least. That would be epic.

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"You are the universe expressing itself as a Human for a little while..."

You're supposed to say you'll beat your teammate. Who hires a top dog that DOESN'T think that way? Believing you can do something is the first step in accomplishing it.

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Hamilton is taking all the pressure off himself for 2013 when it comes to title chances, which is good, since thats when he seems to drive his best.

True, given the pace Merc had at the start of last season, I think Lewis will be scoring some decent points throughout next season.

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A man exists for only a lifetime, a name lasts until the end of time.

lol

I don't think raw pace was ever a problem for the Merc but handling and tyre wear were issues. Sometimes it appeared that Schumacher and Rosberg struggled to keep the car in the racing line and in several races they seemed to use up their tyres rather quickly by comparison to other teams.

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Vettel / Raikkonen / Button

Raw space was a problem in the 2nd half of the season, they could barely make it into Q3.

They fell behind on the development, and lost some pace compared to others as the season went on. True the car was hard on tyres, but many teams didn't know how to work the tyres and switch them on. If they can make the right decisions on development and can keep up with the others around them, then I think they will be better next year than most people are expecting.

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A man exists for only a lifetime, a name lasts until the end of time.

Dunno why this is making the Hamilton bashers comment - as I read it, Hamiltons statement is relatively straighforward and correct!
It is interesting that Hamilton wont even get to drive the Merc car until February - though I presume he will have some simulator time? - On the simple basis that the Merc engine is good and they did show 'some' pace last year - I genuinely think he has a chance of some regular points, but until he actually gets in the car, anything about next year is pure speculation, whether from him and/or anyone else!
I will watch with interest as the season unfolds to see if he can help Merc improve - I wonder what the Hamilton haters will say then? If not, will it be him or the car? After all, schuey and rosberg didn't exactly make any inroads into moving the car forward did they? I suppose if there is significant improvement, the HH's will simply say the car is better!

I agree with this. Personally, I would reckon LH is indeed worth a couple of tenths above and beyond a cars general pace, perhaps more in quali - so hopefully he can drag the car up the start grid from the word go and give the team the 'boost' it desperately needs! we will see.......I note Brawn has said he doesn't expect tyre probs next year, which sounds a bit too confident to me given Mercs probs with tyres!