When in reality all that statistic shows is he was handed the top equipment right off the bat without any paying his dues in a slower car first. Every year he has been handed a car capable of winning, even when they have been bad he's lucked into a win.
Meanwhile the actual greats of the sport started in a shithouse car and dragged it to near impossible results before breaking into a top car. No one expected a torro roso to win at monza, no one expected that Jordan to qualify that highly at Spa. Renault pulling off a pole and a win at Hungary was a surprise. Toleman getting multiple podiums was a near impossible task.
The supposed GOAT however always gets his asshole blown out by teammates if the car is anything less than perfect.
Alonso's latest hot take is right on the money too, those people need to get the fuck out.
View attachment 3516569
Precisely. The only reason Hamilton has that statistic is because he had a race winning car from the get-go, and not only that, but he had a car capable of race wins every single season he competed. Other than Villeneuve, you have to go back all the way to Jackie Stewart in 1965 before you find another driver who won a race in their first season. That's how uncommon it is. Because even if you get snapped up by a top team, you're still usually put in a junior seat to test you out first. Alonso got Minardi, and if he'd stayed with Ferrari instead of getting snatched up by Flavio, he'd have probably ended up in Raikkonen's 2001 seat or Massa's 2002 seat for Sauber. Leclerc also went to Sauber first. Max started at Toro Rosso, as did Vettel. Ricciardo suffered at HRT whilst Perez pushed his Sauber to the max.
In fact, I'd be willing to say Lewis Hamilton has had a car that was at least within the Top 3 best cars of every single season.
2007: Easily best, or second best, since it was essentially a silver Ferrari.
2008: Best or second best again, only the Ferraris had similar pace.
2009: Slow to start, but by the end of the season they were clearly 3rd best behind Brawn and Red Bull.
2010: 3rd best, behind Red Bull and Ferrari.
2011: 2nd best, behind Red Bull and ahead of Ferrari, except he couldn't keep his nose out of Massa's rear end or sidepod.
2012: 2nd best, behind Red Bull and ahead of Ferrari.
2013: 3rd best, behind Red Bull and Ferrari.
2014 - 2016: Best car by a country mile.
2017: 2nd best car behind Ferrari and ahead of Red Bull.
2018: 2nd best car behind Ferrari until the upgrades came around, then it was clearly the fastest.
2019 - 2020: Best car by a country mile.
2021: 2nd best car behind Red Bull until the upgrades came around, then it was the fastest by a country mile.
2022: Still 3rd best car, albeit a distant 3rd, behind Ferrari and Red Bull.
The only time in his career where Hamilton had a bad car was 2009 and there Mclaren managed to get back into racing trim. Imho 2022 is the first time he has a really bad car (well comparatively speaking) and if it weren't for the issues RedBull and Ferrari have he would have never gotten a podium as the speed simply isn't there. I mean how many times has Perez overtaken Hasmilton on track this season?
And let's compare with others
Senna started at Toleman
Schumacher started with Jordan / Benetton
Vettel startetd with BMW / Toro Rosso
Rosberg started with Williams
Häkkinen started with Lotus
Verstappen startet with Toro Rosso
Hamilton is the only one who started at a top team (well Villneuve did it too) And just like Villeneuve Hamilton struggles with a subpar car (though honestly Hamilton does put more effort into it)
Looking back, Villeneuve actually did really well pulling the 1999 BAR up through the field, getting as high as the podium positions once or twice:
https://www.statsf1.com/en/1999/espagne/tour-par-tour.aspx (navigate left and right to see how he did each race)
Unfortunately, it was less reliable than a car from the '50s, and so blew up every time he did well with it. 2001 he scored a couple podiums, and 2002 was also a really good season for him, he overtook more cars than any other driver by a considerable margin. But I will admit, in addition to being the smuggest prick the grid may have ever known (besides his own former team-mate Damon Hill), Jackie V is one of the most overrated F1 drivers in modern history in a Williams that was leagues above the rest of the field.
I'm reminded, since yesterday marked 20 years since he claimed his fifth driver's title at just the 11th round of the season, that Michael Schumacher was already regarded as one of the most dominant drivers in F1 long before his winning streak. He won races despite being miles off the best car (the '96 Benetton for instance, with Alesi and Berger, was probably quicker than his WDC-winning '95 car, but they just couldn't use it as well as he would've), and dominated once he finally had the hardware to match. The fact he only won 7 WDCs is purely down to bad luck, his passion for Ferrari, and ultimately getting out-politicked in the end at both Ferrari and Mercedes. There are timelines where he probably had double-digit WDCs.
