De la Rosa: 'Hamilton is unbeatable on a few points'

Special driver

This is what former F1 driver Pedro de la Rosa says in the new F1 Nation podcast, in which he points out that Lewis Hamilton has been a special case from the very first moment. This in response to the question of whether the end is in sight for Hamilton. Something which is somewhat suggested by the contract extension which this time is valid for just one year, where the driver normally has longer contracts.

De la Rosa thinks Hamilton has a long way to go. For example, he indicates: "As long as you feel competitive, your team is competitive and you wake up every Sunday and being able to win a Grand Prix, you never give up. You will keep going until you suddenly realize you lost speed or the team is not capable and you need three more years to regain the competivity. So, I can see Lewis for a long time in the sport stil, because he is so, so fast, still."

Unbeatable

"He has some windows where he’s unbeatable," continued de la Rosa. "When the compounds are very hard, like in the wintertesting and they don’t switch on the temperature, he’s at is best. Because everyone of us always struggle to get the Michelins for example, to a consistent tyre operating window. And he was just mashing everyone. Everyone."

This, according to de la Rosa, is because in terms of his driving style, Hamilton is sliding with his car. "His strenght basicly is when the tyres degrade. When the tyres drop down, he caries a lot of speed into the corners. So he’s not so dependend on the rear tires to exit the corners with a lot of traction."

In short, the points at which Hamilton is unbeatable is at a specific state of the tyres and at the way he cuts corners. According to de la Rosa, Hamilton is also powerful not just over a lap, but over the entire race. Or in his words, "But actually his strenght is not over one lap, he’s strenght is on the race distance, where he kills Valtteri or any other teammates basicly on the entry speed."