I respect the effort taken to write the article. I respect good work in general. Kudos. But i get a sense that the Author did not explore the dynamics at play here..... It felt more like a report (a slightly biased one) more than anything.
Here goes...
Article in quotes...
The 2018 championship battle has been characterised by mistakes from both the Mercedes and Ferrari teams
As a Mercedes bandwagonist I can hardly remember any Mercedes mistakes. The one i faintly remember was probably poor Virtual safety car pitstop call in the first race? It is wifely accepted that the season has been characterized by Ferrari amd Vettel mistakes more than anything.
Season summary
Sebastian Vettel has arguably been placed in positions of having to recover from a team mistake more often than Lewis Hamilton, and at more critical points of the season, which has led to some incidents which could be described as driver error.
Here Ferrari takes the heat as Vettel is kindly excused. No highlights on his cracked armour or psychological defeat Or how he lost in the faster car. On the flip side Hamilton's performance was lumped up into a simple "imperous" in the summary. Yeah he was peerless.. Could be emphasised more.
Spain
The Spanish GP was the first event in 2018 where Pirelli brought the thinner gauge tyres, requested by Mercedes after pre-season testing
Pretty sure it was agreed by all Teams!
british
After the race Hamilton again flirted with the controversy which has followed his career by insinuating the Ferrari's were deliberately causing accidents with the Mercedes' drivers, a claim firmly refuted by Ferrari.
What does mentioning this have to do with how the championship was won?! Lol (British GP) and not the use of "Again". Again from when?
Germany
Vettel then slipped off the road from the lead, crashing out of the race, his first and only DNF so far in 2018. Hamilton produced another of his sublime wet weather drives to win, but only after managing to escape punishment for cutting the final corner from the pit entry following some confusion between himself and his race-engineer as to whether or not to box.
Can't let the guy have his day huh... What corner cutting? Ha. This insinuates something worse (cheating) than what actually happened.
hungary
For the hungary race.. It doesn't even mention the sublime Qualifying Hamilton produced.. A lot of lines were spent on Bottas' wingman duties blocking Vettel.
belgium
Author said "7 points were lost" by Hamilton. That Ferrari was UNASSAILABLE in that race!
Italy
Raikkonen benefited from a tow from Vettel to take pole. This decision left Vettel vulnerable to Hamilton from the start, and the Brit duly passed the Ferrari into the second chicane.
No it did not! Vettel became vulnerable because he was too greedy setting up his car to pass Raikkonen after the chicane. Hamilton could have easily been blocked off but he saw the poor defending line vettel took and the rest was history!
Singapore
Hamilton was dominant in Singapore, the only driver remotely close on pace was Verstappen, while Vettel could only manage P3, nearly 40s behind the race winning Brit.
Again the brilliance of Hamilton is brushed aside. No mention of one of the greatest pole laps of all time!
Japan
Ferrari made yet another error, this time in qualifying, by sending both drivers out at the start of Q3 on intermediate tyres. For the first flying laps slicks prove to be the faster tyre and Vettel can only manage P9, after making a mistake on an increasingly greasy track having pitted for slicks
Not entirely true. Vettel had a lap to set his fastest time on similar conditions to the drivers in front. His urgency lead to a mistake on that lap was what cost him.
Mercedes then made a mistake, calling Hamilton to the pits during an early virtual safety car period, and the blistering on the Mercedes meant Hamilton had to stop again, losing ground to Verstappen who finished second behind Raikkonen - a popular race win for F1's elder-statesman.
Mercedes didn't make a mistake though. They really had to pit when u watch their strategy review.
Anyway in the conclusion.. All he mentioned was the "state of flux" of comptitiveness between Ferrari and Mercedes and the two tier formula 1. How dry. Does it address how Hamilton won the championship? Not all at all. No mention of Hamilton clearly reinforcing for a second year in a row that he is well and truly a class above his rival and how he has come to be a true great of the sport.
I need to call in Mark Hughes in this place. His technical articles have dubious credibility but he's wonderful at writing driver stories.
