BBC Sports Personality 2017

[soul_survivor]

Why should Hamilton win a British award when he doesnt live here or bother paying taxes while he'd be nothing without the British fan base.

Anyway its a bs award. I do like the section with regards to public service which is nice to see.

[NahMean]

I can’t stand Lewis Hamilton. But there is no “FIX” required for AJ to win. He’s on TV ads everyday, you see posters of him in shopping centres everywhere and pretty much everyone in the UK knows of him.. He’s the biggest star by far so he would have won regardless.

[redmish]

He didn't even achieve the most in formula one.

Max Verstappen, Ricciardo and Alonso put in better and more memorable performances. I have Lewis as 4th best driver on the grid.

Most of the races Lewis was just cruising around in a superior car and his teammate Bottas (I call him Betas) is a slow 2nd driver who was given team orders.

Lewis was even losing the season to Vettel for a long time despite having a vastly superior car. It took Vettel going full ****** in Singapore for Hamilton to take the lead.

Max Verstappen is LEVELS above anyone on the grid right now. Best F1 driver since Schumacher.

Who cares? F1 is **** with very few overtakes. I would rather watch Lara fight than F1.

[sunny31]

He didn't even achieve the most in formula one.

Max Verstappen, Ricciardo and Alonso put in better and more memorable performances. I have Lewis as 4th best driver on the grid.

Most of the races Lewis was just cruising around in a superior car and his teammate Bottas (I call him Betas) is a slow 2nd driver who was given team orders.

Lewis was even losing the season to Vettel for a long time despite having a vastly superior car. It took Vettel going full ****** in Singapore for Hamilton to take the lead.

Max Verstappen is LEVELS above anyone on the grid right now. Best F1 driver since Schumacher.

(Rubbing hands together)

Lewis Hamilton's performances in qualifying this year were scarcely believable. Multiple times there was no one within half a second of him, but Monza took the cake, when the rain evened the playing field and he qualified over a second ahead of 2nd. Not to mention it gave him the all time pole record.

The Mercedes was not vastly superior, it was superior on power circuits, whilst the Ferrari was better on downforce circuits. The Mercedes was the better qualifying car on average, and the Ferrari was the better race car on average, because of its tyre degradation. On certain tracks that played into Mercedes hands, i.e. Spa where Hamilton was able to just about defend track position gained from qualifying, but again it was with superb driving against Vettel. I would say the majority of the points difference came down to reliability, and maybe a marginal better performance from the Merc.

You doubt Bottas as a driver yet he has showed class from his first year in F1. Not to mention he out qualified Massa (41-18 over 3 seasons) in a dominant and similar fashion to Alonso and Schumacher when they were his teammate, outscored Massa every season they had together, in a midfield car, which actually makes it a bit tougher. If anyone has clearly got a number 2 driver it is Vettel, who has an over the hill Raikonnen as a teammate. Speaking of Raikonnen - this was a guy who was constantly tripping over Bottas in a superior car between 2014-2016.

Verstappen is LEVELS above anyone on the grid right now? He has yet to beat Danny Ricciardo head to head now for two seasons. His qualifying performance was mighty this season and the kid has really impressed, the speed is there, but he still has a lot to learn in terms of race management and consistency before he is mentioned with the greats, and he actually needs to beat his teammate. Before you start talking about unreliability, Verstappen had 7 retirements, Ricciardo 6, and Ric had a few more bouts of unreliability in Quali, but Vertappen still finished 32 points behind him. There was also not a lot between Verstappen and Carlos Sainz either so I am not sure how you can say he is LEVELS above everyone else.

I think he is a serial world champion in the making, but he needs time to develop, he is improving and making progress, long may it continue.

Lewis is the best driver in F1, period. His results say it, his fellow drivers say it, most of the paddock says it, including Alonso. Everything about him says that he is one of the greatest drivers the sport has ever seen. You can go back through the junior categories and karting where often in similar or even worse equipment, the pedigree was always there. He became European Karting champion in dominant fashion. He had the most dominant F3 championship, probably of all time in 2005, only a few have come close including Ayrton Senna. He won GP2/F2 at the first time of asking, and at the time statistically the most dominant season (now broken by Vandoorne). His drive in Istanbul is generally regarded as one of the greatest in history in the junior categories.

He matched Alonso as a rookie in F1. Who himself is an all time great. He won the championship the following season in the second best car. He has had a pole position and a race win in every season he has been in F1, even in seasons where his teammates were not able. He will probably break most of Michael Schumacher's records if he stays in the sport for another 3 or 4 years. You can get lucky for a day or two, maybe even a season. You don't get lucky for 20 years. This guy has been there or thereabouts for the majority of his motorsport career.

If you include everything he has achieved and combine it with the year he had, becoming the most successful British driver of all time, breaking the pole record, winning his 4th championship. The evidence is overwhelming for him to be SPOTY. But as I said Joshua will probably get it as its a popularity contest.

But do not start talking rubbish about F1 with someone who has been watching it since 1992 and knows the sport.

[sunny31]

Who cares? F1 is **** with very few overtakes. I would rather watch Lara fight than F1.

2016 had the most overtakes in the history of the sport. Its fine if your not a fan, but don't talk ****.

[Sir_Didymus]

He didn't even achieve the most in formula one.

Max Verstappen, Ricciardo and Alonso put in better and more memorable performances. I have Lewis as 4th best driver on the grid.

Most of the races Lewis was just cruising around in a superior car and his teammate Bottas (I call him Betas) is a slow 2nd driver who was given team orders.

Lewis was even losing the season to Vettel for a long time despite having a vastly superior car. It took Vettel going full ****** in Singapore for Hamilton to take the lead.

Max Verstappen is LEVELS above anyone on the grid right now. Best F1 driver since Schumacher.

Nah. If you're going to talk about superior cars in F1 then you'll dismiss a lot of the greatest racers ever including Schumacher who was dominating with Ferrari at the time and there were much much less restrictions back then too.

You can have a superior car anyway but superior cars need superior drivers to get the best out of them. After all it's not a simple drag race in a straight line so not as easy as putting your foot down.

This whole idea of superior cars is extremely marginal these days with all the restrictions that came in so Lewis' achievement is greater than the days of Schumacher in his clearly superior Ferrari.

Plus he came from way behind to overtake Vettel. Some great rivalry with Vettel too who is one aggressive bastard on the roads caused so much controversy and near misses. Was fun to watch this year.

[sunny31]

Why should Hamilton win a British award when he doesnt live here or bother paying taxes while he'd be nothing without the British fan base.

Anyway its a bs award. I do like the section with regards to public service which is nice to see.

That never stopped Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell, or Damon Hill winning it multiple times.

[redmish]

2016 had the most overtakes in the history of the sport. Its fine if your not a fan, but don't talk ****.

That's me told. Good comeback.

[sunny31]

Nah. If you're going to talk about superior cars in F1 then you'll dismiss a lot of the greatest racers ever including Schumacher who was dominating with Ferrari at the time and there were much much less restrictions back then too.

You can have a superior car anyway but superior cars need superior drivers to get the best out of them. After all it's not a simple drag race in a straight line so not as easy as putting your foot down.

This whole idea of superior cars is extremely marginal these days with all the restrictions that came in so Lewis' achievement is greater than the days of Schumacher in his clearly superior Ferrari.

Plus he came from way behind to overtake Vettel. Some great rivalry with Vettel too who is one aggressive bastard on the roads caused so much controversy and near misses. Was fun to watch this year.

This is a good post, also the grid is way more competitive these days, this is coming from pit crew and engineers I have spoken to at race weekends. Young driver programmes - as well as more money in the sport have allowed the best drivers to come through, you only get a handful of drivers who pay for their seats nowadays, compared to the 80's and 90's when 60% or more were paying for their seat. This means the majority of the drivers are there on merit, based on their performance, not the money they bring.

You have more F3 and GP2/F2 champions on the grid than at any time. I do wish cars performed closer, I think that is the direction the sport is headed though with the new owners.

[sunny31]

That's me told. Good comeback.

Lol - I expected some bitty comeback. Fair play, at least you can admit when your wrong. I will do the same if you ever catch me out!