F1 Silly Season: Winter Edition (or, What if Hamilton Retires?)

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Re: F1 Silly Season: Winter Edition (or, What if Hamilton Retires?)

Post by SBEST »

LH, can retire. He sure has had his days. In the end the sun will rise in the east and set in the west. Life, will move on.

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Re: F1 Silly Season: Winter Edition (or, What if Hamilton Retires?)

Post by Alex_Kung »

I think he is saying that yes Lewis will retire (one day) but not next year.

I think these are just all rumours and Lewis and Toto will come back stronger next year.

Me... I hope that Ferrari, McLaren, Alpine etc are all at the top fighting for race wins with RB and Mercedes.

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Re: F1 Silly Season: Winter Edition (or, What if Hamilton Retires?)

Post by stubeck »

I could see him retiring,but not because of the events of the last weekend. Mercedes and Red Bull will likely be the leading teams (last big regulation change didn't cause a shakeup, but previous two did) but I don't think that with the budget cap taking full effect next year, they will have the same domination as they had previously. Knowing this, I could see his interest going away.

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Re: F1 Silly Season: Winter Edition (or, What if Hamilton Retires?)

Post by cbk57 »

JamesB wrote: Sun Dec 19, 2021 11:16 am
cbk57 wrote: Sun Dec 19, 2021 10:18 am I will guarantee two things Lewis is going to retire for one. Lewis is not retiring in 2022 for two. Seriously Lewis is on the back side of his career but that back side has a few more years left. Is it two or 5 who knows. I doubt it is 10.
Gotta be my English, yours, or both! :lol: :lol: but I did not grasp a thing of the reasoning, sorry :D :oops:
Not that hard, Lewis is going to retire and not in that far distant of the future, just not going to happen now. Lewis will race in 2022, but someday not so far down the road he will retire, his career is pushing 20 years now.
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Re: F1 Silly Season: Winter Edition (or, What if Hamilton Retires?)

Post by bossy122 »

Maybe Mercedes will force him out like Ferrari did with Schumacher......oh, darn.
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Re: F1 Silly Season: Winter Edition (or, What if Hamilton Retires?)

Post by tubegenius »

I don't know why Lewis would abandon the chance for the all-time record of 8 WDC. It's not as if he will hanging around in an uncompetitive car. This is still an attainable goal.
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Re: F1 Silly Season: Winter Edition (or, What if Hamilton Retires?)

Post by CK »

There are a lot of uncertainties in 2022. Completely new car rules can generate surprise results. There is no guarantee that Mercedes will still be the best, even it is likely.

Hamilton is close to the end of his time in F1. If he wants to end high, it is a good time to quit now. It will look worse for him if Max wins another title next year.

On the other hand, if he is confident that next year's car will be competitive, he can quit after another year of good results to prove that he is still at his best.

Hence, it is difficult to predict whether Hamilton is going to stay or retire.
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Re: F1 Silly Season: Winter Edition (or, What if Hamilton Retires?)

Post by high510 »

If I were Lewis I would be confident in MB next year. The three big engine players this year were MB, Honda and Ferrari. MB was clearly a great engine, Ferrari was improving and Honda was champ. As there is a new entity managing the strong Honda engine that is an unknown factor, I can't see that as a positive for Red Bull and they may struggle as the year goes on... So Lewis may see the main threat as Ferrari and may see the recent past telling him that he has them covered.

Or he is mad and will just go out and crush everybody. Then he walks off into the sunset as GOAT!
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Re: F1 Silly Season: Winter Edition (or, What if Hamilton Retires?)

Post by CK »

Assuming Mercedes can fix their combustion engine degradation, they should have an engine at least no worse than the others. Next year is more about chassis design. We can see Aston Martin and Williams are also using Mercedes engine but are miles away from Mercedes. Even McLaren is still not as quick as Mercedes most of the time. This is all about chassis design.

Assuming both Mercedes and RB keep their acts, then it will be a repeat of this year. If Ferrari or others find a niche like Brawn did in 2009, they will be running away at least early in the season. So, it is still difficult to predict what is the picture next year.
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Re: F1 Silly Season: Winter Edition (or, What if Hamilton Retires?)

Post by JamesB »

cbk57 wrote: Mon Dec 20, 2021 1:01 pm Not that hard, Lewis is going to retire and not in that far distant of the future, just not going to happen now. Lewis will race in 2022, but someday not so far down the road he will retire, his career is pushing 20 years now.
THanks, I get it now! :D
I am not sure he´s over the hill as they say. I think he´s in his prime. THough he could have cliff, rather than a progressive decline.

Anyway I think his plan was as follows...
late 2020, he talks to Toto and they assume: Lewis will wanna get his 8th title. He beats Schumi, becomes the GOAT, and Merc can boast they powered ALL the titles of the GOAT. So Merc does not pyss him hiring Russell, so he has a comfy team mate. Win-win. THen Merc hires Georgie for 2021, Lew keeps racing if he wants, and maybe gets his 9th title to happily retire at the same age as Schumi (the first time), with one or two more titles, because well if he does not get it, no problem.
Merc was happy to keep Lewis happy for 2021 and avoid the quite unlikely but possible scenario of Lewis trying to get his eighth in, say, Ferrari.
Buuuuut.... eight has not been achieved, and now Lewis faces racing next year with something other than a rear gunner as a team mate for the first time since... 2016? and with the possibility of ending 2022 defeated for a second time and with "just" seven (ahem!) titles and aged 37 almost 38, just like a certain guy from Kerpen. Not a very interesting prospect. And what if he retires and Merc picks Vettel, the guy (2 years younger than Ham) gets his 5th and feels plugged enough to go for 6th?
Not nice either.
All this does not eliminate the possibility of Lewis feeling bugged for "the world against me" , being more motivated than ever and crushing everyone next year!
Honestly, I'll give tribute to Kimi sayin... "I have no idea!
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