@Hot Rod 2005 Mclaren and Renault fighting for the title with no Ferrari on sight and 2006 Ferrari making a failed comeback to reclaim dominance and the end of the Schumacher era...and 2011 had some epic races like Canadá (best race of the decade according to fans) and Jenson Button heroics even if Vettel won comfortably. You iust can't pick and choose some years from a period. Save for 2011 give me those 7 seasons over any of the hybrid era save for 2016 or maybe 2020 since we had some epic podiums
@@MikkelMane He had two retirements that were mechanical fails out of his control. That's just bad luck. Lewis had 1 retirement from beaching the car on the gravel, that's driver error not bad luck.
@@TheMambaFAN23 Terrible strategy from the team but it's still driver error. The car didn't fail, Lewis just didn't adjust properly for the lower grip on the less grip-y pit entrance. If he came in slower he would have been fine.
Amazing debut from Hamilton. I still think that his performance at Fuji is the best race he has ever driven. However, I am sort of happy that he didn't win, as first of Kimi won - but also it gave Lewis something to aim for.
I think SIlverstone 2008 is not only Lewis' greatest ever drive, but probably one of the all time greatest in F1 history. He won by 30 seconds, lapped everyone except the podium, and at stages was 5 secs a lap faster than anybody else on track. And all that in a car that wasn't the best on the grid.
My opinion is that Alonso was contracted as No1 driver and they didn't expect Lewis to closely challenge him. McLaren internal disputes lost the championship to Kimi.
Of course it did, Ron Dennis was even dumb enough to report Alonso, his own driver, to the stewards in Hungary Bet he wished he didn’t when Alonso was just 1 point off at the end…
@@0megalul309 Ron Dennis’ running of McLaren that season was nothing short of a complete and utter embarrassment He deserved nothing more than to lose to arch rivals Ferrari
As a fan, 2007 was my favourite season. 4 drivers in contention for the title, almost every race was exciting and close racing. Lewis Hamilton was so exciting to watch.
Things are never that simple when it comes to F1. That's like saying Alonso won fair and square at Singapore *2008* while ignoring all the shenanigans that led up to him crossing the finish line in first place.
Chinese gp Ron Dennis: We weren't racing Kimi, we were basically racing Fernando (wikipedia) Raikkonen wins by one point to mclaren drivers´ equal points Alonso: Karma
@Ponfi Nobody cares. 80% of the planet rank Hamilton ahead of Alonso anyway. Alonso never challenged for a title in midfield cars, it was Massa that was garbage, even Bottas destroyed Massa. Hamilton vs Alonso 1-0 in the same car, that will never change. Edit: Alonso literally said in 2013 that Hamilton is the only guy on the grid capable of leading bad cars to victories so jokes on you.
Glad Räikkönnen got his title that year finally. His McLaren in the previous years should've already given him at least two titles but the car was so unreliable he kept missing out despite even beating MSC in terms of speed and racecraft by that point. Maybe Hamilton did get cheated out of a title that season, but Rai got cheated out of it twice before already so in the end it worked out well for them all since Hamilton did end up taking 7 world championship titles by now and is probably gonna take his 8th this year. That 2007 championship is just the bare minimum of what Kimi deserved for his raw pace during the early 2000s and is an important reminder for sure!
I was going to write a similar comment but you beat me too it. Everyone that bitches how lucky Kimi was that year and the McLaren reliability issues, forgets about Kimi being cheated 2 seasons by the same problems. Im glad Kimi won, he deserved it and Massa deserved the 2008
@@twinturbo3470 Sorry, Massa didn't deserve the title at all. Engine failure in Hungary is just a cherry on the top of the cake of his own mistakes throughout the season.
Kimi was also not comfortable eith the f2007, and escpecially not the f2008. It took him half a season in the f2007 to get an ok setup. The new bridgestone control tyres were the biggest issue he faced, but the f2007 was also more understeery overall than his previous McLarens.
Didn’t he disobey team orders in Hungary, holding up Alonso, who then sat in front of Hamilton in the pits to return the favor? Seems like this was the turning point in the season
If you would convert a 17 point race to todays world with 2 races to go that would basically mean someone would have almost a 50 point lead with 2 races to go. Thats how miraculously it was that Kimi won the title
Not directly relevant to the issue of the lost title, but it was interesting to read a couple of years ago, that Alonso who had been signed first for 2007, when told that Hamilton would be his team-mate, ranted that he didn't want a rookie as his team-mate but an experienced driver who would push him hard on the track. We now all know how that turned out......
Among the many theories out there, one of them is that McLaren were very quietly told by the FIA to lose the Drivers' Title. The theory goes that the FIA didn't want a team of convicted cheaters to win the WDC, so they ordered McLaren to throw away the WDC as well. However, if they'd done the obvious thing of outright DQ'ing the lot of them publicly, it would've ruined the title fight and brought F1 into disrepute for years on end. So, goes the theory, the FIA came up with this "solution" to avoid the worst of the fallout. Another related theory about the penalty (and its harshness) is that Ron Dennis (McLaren Team boss) was responsible for the BDSMosley exposé, where a Tabloid rag called the "News of the World" (which was shut down a few years ago for hacking the voicemail of a murdered schoolgirl, all in the name of a scoop) printed out a headline which claimed that Mosley was involved in a Nazi-themed BDSM orgy with 5 prostitutes. Mosley actually sued for libel, saying that while the BDSM-orgy claim was correct, there was nothing "Nazi" about it. *Mosley won that lawsuit* and claimed a hefty chunk of money in damages from the publishers, but the damage was done, and Mosley had to step down from going for re-election as FIA president. By the way, if you're wondering why Max Mosley was so mad about the "Nazi" implications, the reason is that his father was a certain Sir Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists. Max Mosley had done a lot to try and distance himself from his father's toxic, fascist legacy; and the NotW printed total lies smearing him. So, what does this have to do with Spygate and Ron? Well, it's believed by some that Dennis had been the one responsible for the exposé, and the subsequently insanely harsh penalty was due to Max Mosley wanting to get back at Ron Dennis; remember the famous quote, "$5 million for the offense, and $95 million for Ron Dennis being a twat".
I’m imaging it’s possible that (at the time) pit wall could have some two communication with the car that could slow it down (box full of neutrals?). This level of politics doesn’t surprise me!
Ham would probably do that, he was Ron Dennis's little pet back then, but do you really believe that Fernando Alonso would obbey to throw away a title?
In retrospect I'm totally fine with the way things turned out because Hamilton is sitting pretty on 7 titles now and Kimi definitely deserved at least one title considering how close he was on two other occasions in the mid 00s, but Hamilton really should've won this title - and how magical it would have been to see a rookie world champion. Even despite the China setback, that inexplicable power issue he experienced in Brazil is still to this day one of the most bizarre and atrociously unlucky things I've seen in my 17 years of watching F1. Without that issue, he could've effortlessly cruised home in 4th behind Alonso and the two Ferraris to handily win the title.
It's been 14 years, and he has won almost everything there remains to win in F1, beating or matching every record, but thinking back to '07 still hurts as a fan. Even with China, I can never forget the desperation I felt as he frantically tried to work his car back to life at the Brazil race. He could've easily won that WDC man.
It wasn’t Hamilton who got screwed, it was Alonso. If McLaren hadn’t allowed Lewis to ignore team orders in qualifying in Hungary and if Ron Dennis hadn’t reacted to Alonso getting Hamilton back in the pits, then Alonso easily wins the title.
@@charleshocqii4301 You really should watch Mark Priestley's video. Hamilton's crew was responsible for China. Mark says it himself that because Lewis' engineers were so hell-bent on beating Alonso, that they left him out of the pits too late. Their fault.
One could just imagine a rookie driver who has been on the podium 9× in his first nine races and go on to win 7 WDC'S and still being described as mediocre by people who can't reverse pack a mini cooper 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
@@zmalik8593 no one can argue there, there is not a single driver on the grid close to LH (u could argue Verstappen but he’s not on the same level imo) and the GOAT is such a complex answer with so many factors that any answer from fangio to Clark or Prost can be argued with effectiveness as long as they are established with speed, brains and at least a title they are a fair shout I think
@@michaelp4122 He was winning races in an era where Red Bull were unbeatable. LH won in every season he's been in F1, no matter what car he drove. If that's not impressive enough, I don't know what is.
He's a freemason and are damn well showing it in almost every picture of him. Drivers don't become champions because of their own hard work, they are choosen to be the champions. Hamilton was - just like Schumacher was of his generation - picked to be this generations greatests Formula 1 driver. Hamilton has known it for a long time, question is, what did he have to give up to get that role. Once he wants out of that contract he will meet the same fate as Schumacher. That's why you dont sign contracts with the devil, but both Schumacher and Hamilton did. The next "great" I presume will be Verstappen. He even drives the 33 car, a very freemasonic number if there ever was one. But he still dont got an "all-seeing-eye" tattoo like Hamilton, at least not that we know of. Formula 1 is show and business. It's not real.
Yep, and made him so good with his tyres that he can get fastest laps just before pitting. That incident in China made him so good that I'm sure he can go all the way with a new set of hard tyres in a fast track with less corners.
I'm throwing a hot-take out here but it was probably the case that McLaren lost all constructors points and received a fine for spygate. The drivers were probably going to lose their points too but Ecclestone knew if that was the case then the season was a writeoff and it was already finished. Ecclestone makes a deal that both McLaren drivers "keep" their points (to keep the championship interesting) but neither McLaren driver was allowed to win. Hamilton flew to close to the sun so McLaren had to mess him about in order to not renege on whatever deal had been made.
i'd like kimi to win a championship, but i like felipe more, and lewis would be a rookie champion, imagine massa winning the title in brazil with his home crowd
@@filipposstavro1233 if we could rewrite history. Hamilton winning in 2007 2008 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021. Give 2009 to JB as he really deserves that one,
When Mclaren botched the season, everyone: there must be a scheme going on When Ferrari botched the season, everyone: Nah, typical Ferrari strategy :/ Here's my theory: since Mclaren copied the car, they copied the botched strategy which would later happened to Ferrari as well :/
Then again, Lewis didnt suffer any technical failures during the season and even when he made a mistake at nurbugring he was toed back to the track. Meanwhile Räikkönen had a technical failure at spain and nurburgring and had to use the spare car at italy.
No-one "allowed Kimi Raikkonen" anything- he f/g won the title through bloody hard work and blistering speed. Kimi struggled with adapting to the bridgestones at Ferrari despite winning in Aust, So it wasn't till mid season he/ferrarri got the balance right in that car - then he was just like he always was, brilliant and consistently quick. It is poetic justice after all the mechanical failures he encountered between 2003-2006 at Mclaren where he was probably the fastest man ever in F1. Lets not forget Raikkonen was only 2pts off the 2003 title in a year old Mclaren chassis for goodness sakes. Why don't we see some articles about that ???. Simply because he does not carry on like all the prima donnas in F1, and his fans don't dream BS up like some others and is thoroughly deserving of every accolade that he ever got, and then some. As Kimi always says: the guy with the most points at the end of the season is winner, & is the one who deserves . Lets not insult the effort that went in to winning 2007 - clearly this is forgotten here.
@@ανδρεαςΓεωργιοπουλος-γ6ε The actual Mclaren of 2007 was absolutely perfect for Kimi & better suited to him than the Ferrari he won with (maybe from the prev 5 years at Mclaren)
Love this video. Glad the Race is still doing these kind of features into the past. The " I didn't know then, But I do now is fascinating" quote is fascinating. I really do hope he one day puts it all in a book, will be the most anticipated one in F1 history with all the drama like this/2016. I'm glad people are covering these things as they once were huge news & still largely unknown....I hope journos realise there is still huge demand to know more about the past from insiders who perhaps as the years go by feel free to talk about things & not just the era of repeat clickbait headlines.
No they wouldn't. After what he did to Ron, Alonso (the man) lost all my respect: Alonso (the racer) never did, and until his return to McLaren I still rated him as the best out there, even as a Lewis supporter.
@@clansome Yes i would you 🤡... I want to know why Mclaren sabotaged Fernando s season.. Not from you and not from Lewis fanboys... oh wait.. British environment, British driver , daddy Ron Dennis, British Media, "rookie who was the most prepared 1 off all time, 40k km pre testing since 2006, Alonso s telemtrie, ... Yes this sounds about right. Oh did i mention the time when a CRANE pulled him out the gravel to continue his race in Nurburgring where he choked out? It is Crystal clear what happend over there. Lewis between 2010/ 2013 nowhere to be found... Overrated driver he is.. Max proofed it Russel shows it. Rosberg managed it ;)
Lewis lost in 2007, he only needed a fifth place in China (he abandoned because they took too long to call for the pits) and a very suspicious electrical failure in Brazil. In 2016, in Malaysia, it was leading and the brand new engine broke. In 2021 it was a shame the brazen robbery. So he should be champion on 10 occasions..
The gearbox in Brazil with Hamilton was the only time I’ve watched F1 and thought sabotage was at play. Never happened the whole season until that moment for either McLaren and at that moment it hit him
many have speculated Ferrari and McLaren made a back door deal to make sure the championship was given to Ferrari as a token price for all that shenanigan. the constructors was already given to Ferrari as McLaren was banned from getting any constructors points after the spygate bs. lewis could have won the championship in china (one race earlier than the final race) if he had finished p4 or below and they had enough time to pit and achieve that but instead they kept him till his tyre thread was visible and in brazil he only had to finish 5th which he was in p6 and about to achieve that goal when the gearbox incident happened and sending him all the way back to p18. the whole thing looked a bit dodgy but we can only speculated at this point.
@@ventisette. wrong. if McLaren were not disqualified they would have been champions that year. both Lewis and Alonso finished the season with 109 pionts each so that would have been 218 constructor points for McLaren. Ferrari finished with 204 constructor points . so no Ferrari wouldn't have won the championship if it weren't for McLarens disqualification.
i remember after brazil mclaren accused sauber and williams of having run their cars with fuel at a lower temperature (-10 degrees if i remember correctly) don't know if that was accurate or not, at the end of the day i feel videos like this play down the season raikkonen had that year
@@Saturn185 I rescind my comment my point was Kimi deserved a championship with Mclaren I’m not in any way trying to take away from his performance in 07 his win in Silverstone was awesome
I had flashbacks of China 2007 when Hamilton went off to gravel in Imola 2021. I suspect he was too, and that's why he simply reversed and crawled back to the circuit instead of trying to make adjustments and push forward.
@@counterfit5 Except that it didn’t. He was in P7 and had a pit stop gap to P8 regardless if there was a red flag or not. He would have made it to the podium no matter what.
I suspect if Ham did win in his rookie season, he would've never win so many titles afterwards. It's never a good thing if you are at the top from the get go.
@@specialingu yes but Ham wouldnt have been as likely to leave Mclaren if he won 2-3 titles in his years there meaning he wouldnt have been in Merc to win an extra 6. He would have ended up like Vettel has only he is better ofc
Best thing that ever happened to him!!! Made him crazy bat shit mental!! He went more focused than any man has ever been before. Got his head down and told all ”EAT MY EXHAUST”
I thought there was a pact that Maca can't win both WCC and WDC with illegal car. If they did, they would be banned to race in 2008. So, they sabotaged Hamilton car.
2007 - Spygate; McLaren probably told to quietly lose the WDC, or face exclusion from 2008 (which is probably what Lewis can't talk about) 2016 - Bad luck with engine failures, and Rosberg put in some *serious* work in the offseason, powered by nothing but pure spite for his former friend turned bitter rival
@Hot Rod It does make sense, however; the FIA didn't want a team of convicted cheaters to win the WDC, but a simple DSQ would ruin an exciting title fight (remember, a certain Mr. Bernie "F1 should be more Dangerous" Ecclestone was in charge of F1 at the time; a man who cared more about the drama than anything), and it would also bring the sport into serious disrepute. It's entirely possible that McLaren were told, behind closed doors, to throw the 2007 WDC or face even harsher penalties. Remember, Max Mosley wanted McLaren to be banned for 2 years, so how Bernie managed to talk him down to "only" a $100mil fine and DSQ from WCC '07 is a bit of a mystery, only known to a certain few.
I’m glad he didn’t win in a car that took advantage of stolen information. It would’ve tarnished his rep. I also have a feeling losing in 2007 that close made him more competitive.
Both alonso and Hamilton deserved to be kicked out of the WDC and have a 2year ban. It's a known fact they had been using the leaked Ferrari data in the simulator and making inquiries with engineers on how to exploit it. This is most likely a cause for LH not wanting to talk about 2007 because he cheated along with Alonso and the team.
@@psk5746 Not illegal information. Plus, it wasn't just that type of information, they literally had Ferrari's box strategy and would know when Ferrarri would pit which driver, in every race. It was massively illegal, and an enormous advantage.
The need of making a hyped video differs in the way the things rolled, because there’s a lot that isn’t being told in this video. Hamilton also had a lot of suspicious things happening on his favour. And Fernando also had a lot of things happening against him that you’re not addressing. At the end of the day, you can’t be questioning every result. The championship was won and well deserved by Kimi. He capitalised on Mclaren’s mistakes.
@@jenerick9509 Hungary 2007, for example? Race in which the team had established that the extra lap in qualifying was each time for one of the two drivers (Magny cours for Alonso, Silverstone for Lewis, Hungary for Alonso ...) but Lewis decided to disobey team orders and leaving early to do Q3, when it was Alonso's turn ... And when Alonso, quite rightly angry, asked the team to tell Lewis to give him back the position and they didn't, decided to make Lewis wait in the pits to be able to make the lap that was genuinely his due, he was sanctioned by the FIA based on a non-existent regulation... and on the part of his team, who did not acknowledge Lewis's disobedience or punish her, as it should have happened... How about that? (among many other favoritisms towards Lewis that just irritated Alonso and in the end made McLaren lose the title)
@@joxerra come on man. Alonso could not handle a rookie hence he decided to blackmail McLaren to make lewis the second driver. Lewis was way ahead both in q1 and q2 anyways. i agree Lewis should have obeyed the team order but Alonso took it too far. one thing that made me laugh was when he asked his Ferrari engineers in abu dhabi 2010 if Hamilton could win the GP, because if that happens Alonso wins the championship. he tried to ask for a safety car when he struggled to overtake Vitaly even though there was not a crash, and when the race finished he started insulting Petrov for doing his job (keeping Alonso behind for much of the race). Petrov defended like a lion and costed Alonso the championship and that year history was made, Seb became the youngest F1 driver to win a championship. Alonso is a good driver but a shity person.
@@animalworld5296 I really don't understand the obsession of the Anglo-Saxon world to understand that an F1 team should not be a team ... Does it really seem logical to you to see two cars from the same team colliding? Do Weber's crashes with Vettel really seem logical to you? and Multi21? And Lewis with Rosberg? If I would be team manager, disobeing pilots would be inmediately fired... What you call "letting compete" is simply idiotic ... not only because of what an F1 car costs in economic terms (which too) but in sporting terms for a team ... Alonso has always understood that to win a world championship, the whole team was needed working together, and nowadays nobody, absolutely nobody questions it, otherwise it would be absurd ... and it is still funny to see how people who continue to reproach Alonso for something that was absolutely logical in 2007 justifies Lewis demanding a loyal teammate today ... because it just makes sense ... if you let two 20 or 25 year old make the decisions, what does a team manager then? The only thing that can happen in fraticidal fights is that you lose both the team and the drivers' championship, as demonstrated in 2007 ... Lewis is a very good driver, but it was his first year, he had never adjusted an F1 before, and at McLaren Alonso's telemetry was used to adjust the car ... was it really fair to let Lewis take advantage of this? If he believed so much in individuality, would he have adjusted the car himself ... Would he allow the team to make this happen today with Mercedes? Would you consider it fair that this happened with a new pilot? It is not the same to be a fast driver than a good complete one, and although Lewis was, without a doubt, he simply could not do it because it was his first year ... but the media ambition of getting an English driver winning in his first year made McLaren lost the championship ... The Ferrari papers is an assumption that you make for free and as for being a shitty person, Alonso at least has friends in the paddock ... I guess Lewis breaking a friendship of years with Rosberg because you cannot bear that he is better than you and you put your ego and your ambition before everything else in life, it makes him a wonderful person, in addition to not knowing what respect or patience is ... right now he is threatening to leave F1 because he has not won the championship and also his move to force the team to hire Valtery instead of Russell went wrong ... simply pathetic !! "Every year there is a champion, but not every year there is a great champion" (Ayrton Senna)
When the confidentiality agreement Alonso agreed on at the time of his release expires in 2029 then it may well shed a lot more light on that whole season. None of us are privileged to any of the backstage politics that occurred that season but we can guess. Given It was Alonso who was forced to sign the agreement and not Hamilton it makes it the whole situation even more fascinating.Roll on 2029
Personally think they tried to screw Alonso for a Rookie partner as they knew he was leaving at the end of the year. It's ashame they put those eggs in the wrong basket.
I think that actually Fernando should have won that championship, the sabotage tyre pressure, even Ron Dennis said that he prefered kimi to win the championship instead of Alonso, just disgusting stuff from the McLaren team trying to make their beloved baby to win. (Sorry for the bad english)
2007 Shanghai will always be a pain for me. As a local Shanghai I support Lewis from the very first year. I still remember we're so worried about his tires and everyone didn't understand why McLaren never let him pit when still could. An almost perfect rookie season.
@@amalkallarackal9293 no the team easily could of pit him but they left him out for no reason and only made him pit after raikonnen caught him. If they pitted him earlier there would of been no issue and he would've won the race and championship to cap of the best rookie season of all time
Conspiracy: FIA asked McLaren to throw the drivers title away due to Spygate Overall happy that Kimi got that title, it might've been weird but he deserved it especially after bad luck in previous years. But as we know, nothing is normal in Kimi's F1 career
Yeah, makes you wonder doesn't it? Both McLaren drivers only a point down at the conclusion. There are whispers that the reason Ferrari were so bad in 2020 was due to their fuel antics in 2019, they had to forfeit the amount of fuel that they had used extra in 2019 is what some think.
answer: hamilton only got chances because at a point, ron dennis really hated alonso and decided to try to force the championship for hamilton harming alonso as much as possible. at a point it looked like hamilton really was going to win, but they just didnt expect kimi. A bad management ended up without any championship
Not to mention they kept using team orders against Hamilton in the first half of the season because they expected Alonso to walk all over Hamilton, that simply never happened. Without team orders that season, Hamilton would have been champion even with the China incident and the gearbox issue in Brazil
The pass for new tires at the China pit stop killed the championship for Hamilton. I remember that call and was dumbfounded. Even on a drying track, new intermediates would have been better because there's more tread to wear down. I'm sure this is what at least 75% of people are saying already.
He had a 20s lead over Alonso as well. Worst case scenario: Hamilton pits for dry tyres and comes out somewhere near Alonso but it keeps raining. That means both Hamilton and Alonso pit for more wet tyres within a lap or two of each other and finish 2nd and 3rd to Raikkonen This would have eliminated Raikkonen from the championship fight but the fact is that is did stop raining so pitting for dry tyres was the correct call for Hamilton anyway which means he'd have breezed home in 2nd place if they pit him as soon as his tyres went off, again, this would eliminate Raikkonen from the championship. You telling me the best strategists in the world couldn't figure that out?
They might have delayed his pitstop, but they didn't "pass" on it. Eventuall they did call him in for new tyres, but he just bottled it and went in too quickly to the pit entry. And don't say "oh but his tyres were worn out". His tyres were good enough to get him through a lap at 150mph. So they would have been good enough to get him through the last corner into the pit lane if he'd just slowed down enough!
@@footballnerd277 The pit lane had much more standing water on it than the drying racing line, so YES, "his tyres were worn out" and that is what caused the pit lane crash.
@@monster289 And you'd think a professional driver like Lewis Hamilton would know that? And therefore slow down substantially to avoid looking like bambi on ice..... All he had to do was make that corner. But he bottled it.
I perfectly remember the race in China. Although l always have been a Ferrari fan, l was asking myself what the heck McLaren was doing not calling Hamilton in. At last l was actually almost disappointed, and only half happy because that helped Raikkonen to win the championship... very, very unexplicable. It did look like McLaren kept Hamilton out in order to make him loose the championship.
@@randommemes2563 No, you are wrong. l strongly recommend you to find the race and look at what happened, and listen to what the commentators said. Hamilton was not called in even if everyone else on track had pitted long before to change to slik. It was a surreal situation and it was not because of Hamilton’s lack of experience.
@@giannapple i strongly recommend you take a look at that whole race...i rewatched it last week. All four of them were in same strategy no one changed tyres during first pitstops. Hamilton over used his tyres and paid the price. Rookie driver error
As much as a lot of us want to see Hamilton fail, remember it wasn't an easy job for him even today. He s a grt F1 driver. Senna, Prost, Lauda, Schumacher, Alonso, Raikkonen, Vettel and Hamilton.
One correction though: Raikkonen was NOT given the place by Massa. Raikkonen recorded two fastest laps of the race and overtook Massa because Massa pitted earlier.
Kimi doesn't get the credit he deserves for winning the 2007 title. I'm always hearing about how he lucked into it, because of how far back he was in points going into those final two races and what then happened during those races. But if you apply the "he got lucky" logic to the end of the season, you have to also apply it to how Hamilton got that points lead in the first place. Kimi had two retirements during the season due to mechanical issues with the car. If I remember correctly he was running 3rd in both races. That's 12 points he lost, and would have had, going into China, reducing Hamilton's point lead over Kimi to only 5 points. So, if Kimi was lucky to win from so far back, then Lewis was lucky to have that points lead in the first place. Kimi won more races than the others. He won 6 to Lewis & Fernando's 4. Felipe won 3. Even if you gave Kimi's Brazil win to Felipe, he still won more races. From the French GP to the end of the season, the only race Kimi didn't finish on the podium in was the European GP, which he retired from due to fuel issues. In fact, if you exclude his two retirements, during the entire season he only finished a race outside of the podium three times. He didn't luck into anything. He won the title and deserved it.
The simple insinuation that Hamilton was sabotaged is just hilarious. I haven't seen a driver who has had more support during an F1 season than Hamilton in 2007. The team fully choose him as the main driver giving him the best strategies since Hungary and took advantage of Alonso's data, while Alonso had to fight on his own. And what race direction did that season was criminal... A crane put Hamilton on the track so he could end the race after he got an accident in the European GP, ffs... Even in China, five guys were trying to get him out of the gravel trap, pushing the car as if Hamilton was their son. I think I've never seen something like that in any race, not just in F1.
Yes, he deserved to win the first rookie F1 GP WDC TITLE. Bernie Ecclestone ex-Formula 1 supremo and Max Moseley, Director of The FiA were never going to allow Hamilton to win it, especially as Ferrari, (the team that eventually won the 2007 title) had the infamous 'veto'.
The conspirasist in me thinks that there must have been an agreement between Ferrari, FIA and McLaren to: 1) stop the investigation; 2) keep the drivers championship going; and 3) for McLaren to do what is needed to not have one of their drivers winning the championship. The spy-gate had the potential to completely destroy the sport, and banning the McLaren drivers would seriously hurt the popularity of the sport too. Also Ferrari needed something to agree to all this, and that something was both titles.
When people discuss the greatest drivers of all time, the fact that he almost won his rookie season is almost never mentioned. Like if he had, he'd still be the youngest champ of all time. He'd be out on his own in terms of titles, most victories of all time, most poles of all time, most podiums, most points. In the not too distant future, it won't even be a contest imom
The real story is unnecessary infighting, with a Team Principal essentially at odds with his more accomplished driver, ALO... 2007 should really have yielded a _WCC_ + _WDC_ double for _McLaren._
For some reason in my head Lewis should of won the 2007 and Massa should of won the 2008 season. It was heart breaking seeing Massa win his home grand prix, the last grand prix of the season, doing exactly what needed to do to win, only to lose out by 1 point... ... But having said that I'm also glad that Kimi won a title at some point, since he deserved one as well. Jeez 2006 through 2010 was such a good era of F1 to watch. 5 different world champions and 4 different constructors winning the titles.
@@DanielCornflake you are clueles massa won more races than hamilton in 2008 had 3 retirements while leading and if the points system was how it is in todays F1 Massa would of been champion comfortably.
@@KrypticTMG Let's ignore the dodgy penalties awarded to Hamilton, especially Belgium that year. He also pulled off one of the greatest drives ever at Silverstone while Massa span out several times. Yeah clueless mate.....
The story goes that after McLaren were given a $100 million fine (Spygate scandal) and excluded from the 2007 Constructor's title, but not banned outright from the sport, Mosley apparently said something to Ron Dennis to the effect of, "...but you'd better not win this year's title". Apparently Mosley was determined to not have a 'tainted' championship by having either McLaren driver take the title in the Spygate year, and let it be known quietly that McLaren's continued participation in F1 depended on them NOT winning that 2007 title. Based on this, and the nature of Hamilton's strange mechanical glitch that slowed him just long enough to ensure he couldn't win the title that day, then mysteriously cleared itself, I believe this to be the sinister truth. This is also supported by Lewis' comment this year about that 2007 Brazil race, where when asked if he knew what happened, said "I didn't know at the time, but I do now. I can't talk about it." I think McLaren were forced to 'throw' the title at that last race, to ensure their continued participation in the sport. Needless to say, this story would never be allowed to leak out, as it would taint Kimi's one world title, and Lewis, if this is all true, is too classy to speak about it. We may never know for sure, but this theory checks all the boxes of making sense, based on what we witnessed.
there is no mystery. mclaren lost the title. bridgestone told them to make a precautionary pit stop they said no. if he does he finishes third gets the points and easily wins the title
Why is it a mystery?! Simple, McLaren didn’t use team orders. Two drivers who were supremely talented in different ways and they took points off each other allowing Kimi through at the finish line of the season. Bad mgt.
Neither Fernando nor Lewis deserved the 2007 title. Lewis especially after the favoritism shown by Dennis. You can see it when Fernando would get pole instead of Hamilton, Ron Dennis would be visibly upset. He wanted to create the first rookie world champ, and wanted that champ to be a driver he managed from a young age. With that and the spy scandal, they didn’t deserve the title. If they were excluded from winning the constructors’ then they should have been excluded from the drivers’.
I have always been of the opinion that Hamilton should have won the 2007 championship and Massa the 2008 championship. Both of those seasons ended the wrong way. And 2021 obviously too, but that is another story.
Having lost the 07 WDC by a single point must have driven Hamilton to critique that pit lane beaching of the car in the gravel trap in China a million times over. The two pivotal questions he must have asked himself were: 1 What could he possibly have done to prevent it 2 What could have been done to extricate his car from the gracel trap once it occurred. Turkey 2020 gave insight to the first question when Hamilton made his decision not to do a pit stop from the discussion with his pit crew The second question was answered at Imola 2021. Attempting to go forward only pushed the car in a relatively straight line damaging the front wing. His selection of reverse gear and the limited torque force at the rear wheel against the wet gravel prevented any digging in and beaching of the car, a solution thought about but could only be put into practice 14 years after that nightmare of an event
Well said..agreed 100% ..This just underscores the fact that mistakes, once acknowledged and viewed as gateways to development, are often a precursor to even greater things.
If the commisaries say you cant move the car then you cant. But Hamilton always thinks he is above good and evil. Like spa 2022. He made a mistake but he cant even full apologize...
Mclaren wanted to sabotage Alonso but the dude in charge got wrong the car.. Honestly bristh fans blaming Alonso for Hamilton losing the tittle is a joke.. He got sabotaged the whole season by his own team and had british media who owns the show against him.
You have to say fernando was at the cost aswell tho it aint just mclarens fault because they made mistakes with both drivers but nando fans only see it as them picking a side. I would pick a driver too if the reigning champ was jealous of a damn rookie.
@@barrybraynen8786 What the fuck are you talking about.. Mclaren should have treated both drivers equally.. The fact that the FIA had to make sure Mclaren was not sabotaging Alonso in the last race tells the story.. Im not even an Alonso fan
@@Sxokzin ???? I think he is pulling the current look very well. Also, 7 times world champion is quite the achievement! Don’t be so fragile mate, life is good!
McLaren should've supported Alonso (as reigning world champion) right from the start. Lewis (as a rookie) should've been given a supporting role to Alonso. Lewis' errors towards the end is purely down to lack of experience, at least what I think. But ultimately, I think it is purely down to Ron Dennis' fault for not thinking about the championship. Look how Schumacher won with Ferrari. I know it's not always pretty, but at the end winning the championship must be the ultimate goal.
It’s Ron Dennis’ fault for actively campaigning to get Alonso a 5-place penalty in Hungary, absolutely disgraceful team management when you need every point possible
Tyre pressures, misterious oil cap missing in Spa, FIA supervising both cars, a sanction that does not appear on the rule book, recovering the last car trapped on the gravel, several ilegal actions not penalized and so on. That season is one of the most controversial and the rarest seasson of many many time
British media obviously would have slanted everything for Lewis, but everyone seems to forget Alonso AND Lewis got immunity for testifying, and were allowed to continue racing for the championship.
In hungary qualifying they punished Alonso for paying back against Hamilton after Hamilton held him out on track, punishing one but not the other, they only tell one side of the story here.
@@User-nu6km it can be but it is strange that only happened to him. My favourite problems are the hungary sanction and the suposedly destroyed gearbox of Magny Course
but to me it feels wrong. Knowing hamilton should have easily won. I wonder who would have had which title if you'd factor in obvious stuff like that. Like ham vs ros 2016 where ros basically only won because he had less engine/car problems. Just to know driver skill, i know in the end it's a sometimes a lot of luck.
@@Marco-xz7rf Surely. Kimi retired twice due to reliability and both times from top 3. It cost him 12 points at least. Lewis stuck in gravel in China, his own mistake. Additionally he stuck in gravel in Nurburgring earlier, was pulled back on track but still failed to score. Alonso crashed in Japan. Also his race in Canada was compromised by entering a closed pit lane (was also overtaken by Sato so he was pretty shit this day).
Lewis has PTSD from that China tire thing , Bono hears it every single week
Lewis in mclaren - Ronnie my tires
it finally all makes sense
@@alexwhitehead5216 Always has been
Could it also be that that is why he is now such a wizard at tire management lol
Lewis is always complaining louder than his teammates whatever happens.
2007: The year Kimi got the drink.
He got a drink year before in Monaco actually. 😂
Yeah, so glad Kimi was crowned that year!
somebody told them to give it to him
@VERY EVIL PERSON FROM ILLUMINATI Well said! The way 2007 ended didn't feel right...
Crazy to think that the 2007 and 2008 titles were won by just one point
And people complain when some of us call those 2005-2012 years the good old days ^^
@Hot Rod 2005 Mclaren and Renault fighting for the title with no Ferrari on sight and 2006 Ferrari making a failed comeback to reclaim dominance and the end of the Schumacher era...and 2011 had some epic races like Canadá (best race of the decade according to fans) and Jenson Button heroics even if Vettel won comfortably. You iust can't pick and choose some years from a period. Save for 2011 give me those 7 seasons over any of the hybrid era save for 2016 or maybe 2020 since we had some epic podiums
and cars looked like spaceships and sounded good, we had everything, now f1 is shitt
Crazy indeed
People still say lewis should have lost both
My opinion on 2007? Kimi was unlucky to have 2 retirements due to mechanical failure and was a very deserving champion
Yeah you get retirements during the course of a season
@@MikkelMane He had two retirements that were mechanical fails out of his control. That's just bad luck.
Lewis had 1 retirement from beaching the car on the gravel, that's driver error not bad luck.
@@podgemcgrath True. It’s kinda how this year is playing out too. Max with two DNF’s which were not his fault and Leclerc making an error at Imola
@@podgemcgrath that wasn't drivers error that was on his team he had no grip to turn
@@TheMambaFAN23 Terrible strategy from the team but it's still driver error. The car didn't fail, Lewis just didn't adjust properly for the lower grip on the less grip-y pit entrance. If he came in slower he would have been fine.
Still stuns me how he was almost a rookie champion.
With a car half copied from the 2nd best car on the grid, and heavily favoured by the team against his reigning WDC team-mate (Ron Dennis was crazy).
@@R4M_Tommy It's amazing how everything u said doesn't justify your opinion.
@@R4M_Tommy -yawn-
@@R4M_Tommy Ah yes, the reason all the Alonso butthurt fanboys use to justify his failure lmao.
@@R4M_Tommy a fast car with a slow driver doesn't win championships
Amazing debut from Hamilton. I still think that his performance at Fuji is the best race he has ever driven. However, I am sort of happy that he didn't win, as first of Kimi won - but also it gave Lewis something to aim for.
Where he brake tested Webber and Vettel?
Every time he loses something he comes back better. After he lost 2016 he came back a completely different driver, same with 2007
I think SIlverstone 2008 is not only Lewis' greatest ever drive, but probably one of the all time greatest in F1 history. He won by 30 seconds, lapped everyone except the podium, and at stages was 5 secs a lap faster than anybody else on track. And all that in a car that wasn't the best on the grid.
@@GRSZiik yeah, that was his stand out drive imo
@@andrewsimmons323 🙄 get a grip.
My opinion is that Alonso was contracted as No1 driver and they didn't expect Lewis to closely challenge him.
McLaren internal disputes lost the championship to Kimi.
Yip I agree , I think it was a case of alonso spitting the dummy out because a rookie was beating him and he couldn’t have that
@@eldavieo considering how ron dennis was sharing all of alonso's telemetry to hamilton without his knowledge, he has every reason to be pissed.
@@eldavieo so what, he sabotaged hamilton? Come on, from Hungary to Brazil Hamilton had become the number 1 driver de facto
Of course it did, Ron Dennis was even dumb enough to report Alonso, his own driver, to the stewards in Hungary
Bet he wished he didn’t when Alonso was just 1 point off at the end…
@@0megalul309
Ron Dennis’ running of McLaren that season was nothing short of a complete and utter embarrassment
He deserved nothing more than to lose to arch rivals Ferrari
“I didn’t know at that time. But I do now.
It’s not something I can talk about.”
Ooh spicy
Hasn't Hammy also said "you'll have to read the book"?
I think mclaren struck a deal with FIA. Let their driver lose the championship so their 2018 car will be left off the hook.. just a theory..
@@mingc4698 very likely
@@mingc4698 wdym by let off the Hook?
@@YecrozGaming don’t be disqualified from the 2008 world championship.
As a fan, 2007 was my favourite season. 4 drivers in contention for the title, almost every race was exciting and close racing. Lewis Hamilton was so exciting to watch.
He still is!
@@elliotcrossan6290 watching mercedes playing 50cc mariokart for the past years wasnt much exitement, glad max came around.
@@elliotcrossan6290 mclaren hamilton was just built different
@@eltruenopai1828 McLaren Hamilton was one of the greats, but Mercedes Hamilton is the very greatest
@@elliotcrossan6290 mercedes hamilton is better but when he was less mature it was hella fun
Answer: Spygate
Ending up in the kitty litter in China
To win would incriminate them
@@titanent.6897 the infamous "Sanganchao" as we call it in Spanish
wasnt mclaren disqualified from the constructor's only not their drivers
Probably.
2:27 Ah yes, the ancient and respected art of the "focksmash".
Guenther would have been all over it!!!
What mystery? McLaren literally went into civil war and Kimi silently capitalized on that.
Things are never that simple when it comes to F1. That's like saying Alonso won fair and square at Singapore *2008* while ignoring all the shenanigans that led up to him crossing the finish line in first place.
@@Euclides287 Kimi had more reliability issues than Mclaren. He won fair and square
@@mabboyz4lyf Like what ?
@@Euclides287 Kimi won 6 races to Hamilton's 4.
@@titanmode3888 Hydraulics failure in both Spain and Nurburgring. Both times retiring from the podium spot robbing him of at least 12 points
Still waiting on Lewis' book. Hopefully he covers this in it, along with everything else.
The haters are gonna twist his words and raid the comments making up unsaid bs if that book comes out lmao
So is Walter Koster
@@ksask2675 maybe 8 years? to wait
@@SuperIceman44 they'll change when he retires, like michael.
That would take all credit away for Raikkonens WDC.
Still one of the most beautiful F1 cars of all time!
In your terrible opinion
If not THE most beautiful.
McLaren was so much better looking in the late 1990's and early 2000's
Montaya mclaren is my first love of F1 cars
That thing was so gorgeous, along with the mp4/20
Chinese gp
Ron Dennis: We weren't racing Kimi, we were basically racing Fernando (wikipedia)
Raikkonen wins by one point to mclaren drivers´ equal points
Alonso: Karma
Karma? Alonso since 2007: 0 WDC - Hamilton: 7 wdc. obvious who got hit by karma
@@maherushka car
@Ponfi Nobody cares. 80% of the planet rank Hamilton ahead of Alonso anyway.
Alonso never challenged for a title in midfield cars, it was Massa that was garbage, even Bottas destroyed Massa.
Hamilton vs Alonso 1-0 in the same car, that will never change.
Edit: Alonso literally said in 2013 that Hamilton is the only guy on the grid capable of leading bad cars to victories so jokes on you.
@@kj48tiger Hamilton vs Alonso 0-0 in the same car. 109=109 my friend
@Ponfi I think you're wrong
Glad Räikkönnen got his title that year finally. His McLaren in the previous years should've already given him at least two titles but the car was so unreliable he kept missing out despite even beating MSC in terms of speed and racecraft by that point. Maybe Hamilton did get cheated out of a title that season, but Rai got cheated out of it twice before already so in the end it worked out well for them all since Hamilton did end up taking 7 world championship titles by now and is probably gonna take his 8th this year. That 2007 championship is just the bare minimum of what Kimi deserved for his raw pace during the early 2000s and is an important reminder for sure!
I was going to write a similar comment but you beat me too it. Everyone that bitches how lucky Kimi was that year and the McLaren reliability issues, forgets about Kimi being cheated 2 seasons by the same problems.
Im glad Kimi won, he deserved it and Massa deserved the 2008
@frosty snow If Alonso didn't crash in Japan and was content with 2nd.....
@@twinturbo3470 Sorry, Massa didn't deserve the title at all. Engine failure in Hungary is just a cherry on the top of the cake of his own mistakes throughout the season.
@@nelsonphillips Alonso crashed and it's his own fault. It means that he didn't deserve the title
Kimi was also not comfortable eith the f2007, and escpecially not the f2008. It took him half a season in the f2007 to get an ok setup. The new bridgestone control tyres were the biggest issue he faced, but the f2007 was also more understeery overall than his previous McLarens.
Didn’t he disobey team orders in Hungary, holding up Alonso, who then sat in front of Hamilton in the pits to return the favor? Seems like this was the turning point in the season
If you would convert a 17 point race to todays world with 2 races to go that would basically mean someone would have almost a 50 point lead with 2 races to go. Thats how miraculously it was that Kimi won the title
It's a huge what some would call bottle.
Not directly relevant to the issue of the lost title, but it was interesting to read a couple of years ago, that Alonso who had been signed first for 2007, when told that Hamilton would be his team-mate, ranted that he didn't want a rookie as his team-mate but an experienced driver who would push him hard on the track. We now all know how that turned out......
Among the many theories out there, one of them is that McLaren were very quietly told by the FIA to lose the Drivers' Title.
The theory goes that the FIA didn't want a team of convicted cheaters to win the WDC, so they ordered McLaren to throw away the WDC as well. However, if they'd done the obvious thing of outright DQ'ing the lot of them publicly, it would've ruined the title fight and brought F1 into disrepute for years on end. So, goes the theory, the FIA came up with this "solution" to avoid the worst of the fallout.
Another related theory about the penalty (and its harshness) is that Ron Dennis (McLaren Team boss) was responsible for the BDSMosley exposé, where a Tabloid rag called the "News of the World" (which was shut down a few years ago for hacking the voicemail of a murdered schoolgirl, all in the name of a scoop) printed out a headline which claimed that Mosley was involved in a Nazi-themed BDSM orgy with 5 prostitutes. Mosley actually sued for libel, saying that while the BDSM-orgy claim was correct, there was nothing "Nazi" about it. *Mosley won that lawsuit* and claimed a hefty chunk of money in damages from the publishers, but the damage was done, and Mosley had to step down from going for re-election as FIA president. By the way, if you're wondering why Max Mosley was so mad about the "Nazi" implications, the reason is that his father was a certain Sir Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists. Max Mosley had done a lot to try and distance himself from his father's toxic, fascist legacy; and the NotW printed total lies smearing him.
So, what does this have to do with Spygate and Ron? Well, it's believed by some that Dennis had been the one responsible for the exposé, and the subsequently insanely harsh penalty was due to Max Mosley wanting to get back at Ron Dennis; remember the famous quote, "$5 million for the offense, and $95 million for Ron Dennis being a twat".
I’m imaging it’s possible that (at the time) pit wall could have some two communication with the car that could slow it down (box full of neutrals?). This level of politics doesn’t surprise me!
Ham would probably do that, he was Ron Dennis's little pet back then, but do you really believe that Fernando Alonso would obbey to throw away a title?
Makes sense
@@ohinek007 bruh the drivers was left in the dark. Why would the team tell them to throw it away…
But the News of the World story about Mosley came after the 100m fine was handed out.
the mistery= mclaren was racing against fernando alonso and they forgot about ferrari
"By my calculations, we win the championship by one point."
It's not a mystery. Its because Alonso stop sharing his telemetry, so Lewis is confused on how to drive the mp4 22 properly. As simple as that.
In retrospect I'm totally fine with the way things turned out because Hamilton is sitting pretty on 7 titles now and Kimi definitely deserved at least one title considering how close he was on two other occasions in the mid 00s, but Hamilton really should've won this title - and how magical it would have been to see a rookie world champion. Even despite the China setback, that inexplicable power issue he experienced in Brazil is still to this day one of the most bizarre and atrociously unlucky things I've seen in my 17 years of watching F1. Without that issue, he could've effortlessly cruised home in 4th behind Alonso and the two Ferraris to handily win the title.
It's been 14 years, and he has won almost everything there remains to win in F1, beating or matching every record, but thinking back to '07 still hurts as a fan.
Even with China, I can never forget the desperation I felt as he frantically tried to work his car back to life at the Brazil race. He could've easily won that WDC man.
Totally agreed
I was for Kimi, so when he went out in China it was: yes! 2007 and 2008 are the best seasons ever for me.
LH would have deserved to win the 2007 title.
It wasn’t Hamilton who got screwed, it was Alonso. If McLaren hadn’t allowed Lewis to ignore team orders in qualifying in Hungary and if Ron Dennis hadn’t reacted to Alonso getting Hamilton back in the pits, then Alonso easily wins the title.
Did you not see China? Lewis beaches his car in pit lane Lewis 17 points my gosh shut up about Alonso
Alonso was nothing
@@charleshocqii4301 You really should watch Mark Priestley's video. Hamilton's crew was responsible for China. Mark says it himself that because Lewis' engineers were so hell-bent on beating Alonso, that they left him out of the pits too late. Their fault.
@@charleshocqii4301 you see what you want to see
Ron Dennis with one of the most idiotic team decisions of all time, cost Alonso 3 points when he lost the title by just 1…
One could just imagine a rookie driver who has been on the podium 9× in his first nine races and go on to win 7 WDC'S and still being described as mediocre by people who can't reverse pack a mini cooper 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
Where was Hamilton 2010-2013?
If he wasn't on Benz now he'd be no different than Alonso.
@@michaelp4122 genuine question, who do you believe to be the best driver on the grid rn and then of all time?
@@senorwong5554 for me, on the grid it's Lewis Hamilton. All time it's Fangio
@@zmalik8593 no one can argue there, there is not a single driver on the grid close to LH (u could argue Verstappen but he’s not on the same level imo) and the GOAT is such a complex answer with so many factors that any answer from fangio to Clark or Prost can be argued with effectiveness as long as they are established with speed, brains and at least a title they are a fair shout I think
@@michaelp4122 He was winning races in an era where Red Bull were unbeatable. LH won in every season he's been in F1, no matter what car he drove. If that's not impressive enough, I don't know what is.
I've never seen (since 2000) a driver done dirty by his own team in the magnitude that McLaren did Alonso dirty in 2007
Honestly with how they treated him you wonder why they signed him
@vladaltreilea1431
If McLaren went with Alonso and De La Rosa for 2007 they’d have won the title
if hamilton win that 2007 driver championship we might not have seen what he archived now, that day motivated him to be what he is today.
I was thinking something similar. WIth 2 WDCs, he might never have left McLaren in 2013.
Because of that pitlane crash, he knew that he shouldn't pit in 2020 Turkish gp with that worn inters.
He's a freemason and are damn well showing it in almost every picture of him. Drivers don't become champions because of their own hard work, they are choosen to be the champions. Hamilton was - just like Schumacher was of his generation - picked to be this generations greatests Formula 1 driver. Hamilton has known it for a long time, question is, what did he have to give up to get that role. Once he wants out of that contract he will meet the same fate as Schumacher. That's why you dont sign contracts with the devil, but both Schumacher and Hamilton did.
The next "great" I presume will be Verstappen. He even drives the 33 car, a very freemasonic number if there ever was one. But he still dont got an "all-seeing-eye" tattoo like Hamilton, at least not that we know of. Formula 1 is show and business. It's not real.
@@vitman2409 where do you get such ideas?
Yep, and made him so good with his tyres that he can get fastest laps just before pitting. That incident in China made him so good that I'm sure he can go all the way with a new set of hard tyres in a fast track with less corners.
I'm throwing a hot-take out here but it was probably the case that McLaren lost all constructors points and received a fine for spygate. The drivers were probably going to lose their points too but Ecclestone knew if that was the case then the season was a writeoff and it was already finished. Ecclestone makes a deal that both McLaren drivers "keep" their points (to keep the championship interesting) but neither McLaren driver was allowed to win. Hamilton flew to close to the sun so McLaren had to mess him about in order to not renege on whatever deal had been made.
That sounds just about right!
I've seen the clip of Lewis going off and always thought it was weird. Now I know it was the tires! Thanks
It would have been great to have rookie winning championship, but it would have been sad if Kimi never won WDC. So I am happy how it ended.
i'd like kimi to win a championship, but i like felipe more, and lewis would be a rookie champion, imagine massa winning the title in brazil with his home crowd
If I could rewrite history, Kimi would have won in 2003 (or 2005), Lewis in 2007 and Felipe in 2008. Everyone would be happy.
@@ArthurSeijiNishikawa nah, Tifosi wont be happy
@@ArthurSeijiNishikawa If we all could rewrite history mate...Kimi wins 2003,Alonso 2007 and 2012,Webber 2010. Good stuff, shame it can't be done.
@@filipposstavro1233 if we could rewrite history. Hamilton winning in 2007 2008 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021. Give 2009 to JB as he really deserves that one,
Kimi dodged a bullet by moving to Ferrari in 2007 and won a world title in the process
When Mclaren botched the season, everyone: there must be a scheme going on
When Ferrari botched the season, everyone: Nah, typical Ferrari strategy :/
Here's my theory: since Mclaren copied the car, they copied the botched strategy which would later happened to Ferrari as well :/
Lol
Hahaha
Then again, Lewis didnt suffer any technical failures during the season and even when he made a mistake at nurbugring he was toed back to the track. Meanwhile Räikkönen had a technical failure at spain and nurburgring and had to use the spare car at italy.
4:52 except for this one which cost him the championship?
@@benflewers707 But that didnt end his race though. He was able to continue and collect points for the championship.
Alonso had car problem in q3 in France
@@User-nu6km Yes true I think he started 10th to that race. Hamilton had technical problem the same weekend but it was during friday practise.
He literally had a wheel rim failure at the European GP qualifying and a tire failure at turkey
No-one "allowed Kimi Raikkonen" anything- he f/g won the title through bloody hard work and blistering speed. Kimi struggled with adapting to the bridgestones at Ferrari despite winning in Aust, So it wasn't till mid season he/ferrarri got the balance right in that car - then he was just like he always was, brilliant and consistently quick. It is poetic justice after all the mechanical failures he encountered between 2003-2006 at Mclaren where he was probably the fastest man ever in F1. Lets not forget Raikkonen was only 2pts off the 2003 title in a year old Mclaren chassis for goodness sakes. Why don't we see some articles about that ???. Simply because he does not carry on like all the prima donnas in F1, and his fans don't dream BS up like some others and is thoroughly deserving of every accolade that he ever got, and then some. As Kimi always says: the guy with the most points at the end of the season is winner, & is the one who deserves . Lets not insult the effort that went in to winning 2007 - clearly this is forgotten here.
It wasn't a gift, McLaren's car was a copy,the difference would have been bigger and Raikkonen would easily have won the championship
McLaren cheated with their car in 2007 anyway, lucky they weren’t all DQd
@@ανδρεαςΓεωργιοπουλος-γ6ε The actual Mclaren of 2007 was absolutely perfect for Kimi & better suited to him than the Ferrari he won with (maybe from the prev 5 years at Mclaren)
Love this video. Glad the Race is still doing these kind of features into the past. The " I didn't know then, But I do now is fascinating" quote is fascinating. I really do hope he one day puts it all in a book, will be the most anticipated one in F1 history with all the drama like this/2016. I'm glad people are covering these things as they once were huge news & still largely unknown....I hope journos realise there is still huge demand to know more about the past from insiders who perhaps as the years go by feel free to talk about things & not just the era of repeat clickbait headlines.
Hey THE RACE, can you make the video from Alonso's point of view? I , and surely many more , would like to hear that side of the story.
No they wouldn't. After what he did to Ron, Alonso (the man) lost all my respect: Alonso (the racer) never did, and until his return to McLaren I still rated him as the best out there, even as a Lewis supporter.
Read “The Mechanic” for an insider’s view
@@awordon9631 so toxic he´s been hired by Mclaren twice, and by Renault on three occasions.. at odds with reality you are
Alonso only did this because McLaren was favoring the other driver, Lewis
@@clansome Yes i would you 🤡... I want to know why Mclaren sabotaged Fernando s season.. Not from you and not from Lewis fanboys... oh wait.. British environment, British driver , daddy Ron Dennis, British Media, "rookie who was the most prepared 1 off all time, 40k km pre testing since 2006, Alonso s telemtrie, ... Yes this sounds about right. Oh did i mention the time when a CRANE pulled him out the gravel to continue his race in Nurburgring where he choked out? It is Crystal clear what happend over there. Lewis between 2010/ 2013 nowhere to be found... Overrated driver he is.. Max proofed it Russel shows it. Rosberg managed it ;)
Iceman decided maybe another time
Kiki did deserve it, glad he had at least one
@@samp3180 08 Silverstone, Spa, and Nurburgring performances are all deserving of a title imo
Fun fact: China 2007 was the last race an uncensored tobacco sponsor was on a car (Marlboro on the Ferrari)
I mean, to what end? Phillip Morris and RJ Reynolds are still sponsoring F1 teams to this day.
Lewis lost in 2007, he only needed a fifth place in China (he abandoned because they took too long to call for the pits) and a very suspicious electrical failure in Brazil. In 2016, in Malaysia, it was leading and the brand new engine broke. In 2021 it was a shame the brazen robbery. So he should be champion on 10 occasions..
The gearbox in Brazil with Hamilton was the only time I’ve watched F1 and thought sabotage was at play. Never happened the whole season until that moment for either McLaren and at that moment it hit him
many have speculated Ferrari and McLaren made a back door deal to make sure the championship was given to Ferrari as a token price for all that shenanigan. the constructors was already given to Ferrari as McLaren was banned from getting any constructors points after the spygate bs. lewis could have won the championship in china (one race earlier than the final race) if he had finished p4 or below and they had enough time to pit and achieve that but instead they kept him till his tyre thread was visible and in brazil he only had to finish 5th which he was in p6 and about to achieve that goal when the gearbox incident happened and sending him all the way back to p18. the whole thing looked a bit dodgy but we can only speculated at this point.
@@animalworld5296 That's exactly what happened,
@@animalworld5296 Ferrari would have won the Constructors championship anyway
How do think about the Abu Dhabi GP this year?
@@ventisette. wrong. if McLaren were not disqualified they would have been champions that year. both Lewis and Alonso finished the season with 109 pionts each so that would have been 218 constructor points for McLaren. Ferrari finished with 204 constructor points . so no Ferrari wouldn't have won the championship if it weren't for McLarens disqualification.
i remember after brazil mclaren accused sauber and williams of having run their cars with fuel at a lower temperature (-10 degrees if i remember correctly) don't know if that was accurate or not, at the end of the day i feel videos like this play down the season raikkonen had that year
Raikkonen does not deserve to be world champion
@@prisonermonkeys8613 hahahahahaha,... wait you serious? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
@@Saturn185 maybe 03 or 05 definitely but not 07
@@hamcrazy96 why not?
@@Saturn185 I rescind my comment my point was Kimi deserved a championship with Mclaren I’m not in any way trying to take away from his performance in 07 his win in Silverstone was awesome
I had flashbacks of China 2007 when Hamilton went off to gravel in Imola 2021. I suspect he was too, and that's why he simply reversed and crawled back to the circuit instead of trying to make adjustments and push forward.
Same here. I'm glad he persevered and gave a fantastic recovery drive.
@@dianamaioru497 pretty easy when a red flag bails you out
@@counterfit5 Except that it didn’t. He was in P7 and had a pit stop gap to P8 regardless if there was a red flag or not. He would have made it to the podium no matter what.
A rookie doing more than 30.000 test km before starting first race with a top team... never gonna happen again.
@@coletrickIe uh...and rules?
@@coletrickIe F1 rules limits possible test km to something like max 3 days testing per driver.
Lewis got 30.000 test km? I thought he always had to struggle so hard because.......
Love how people always try to bring down his achievements 🙄
@@akselbierman6288 mmmm his skin is more on the darker side
I suspect if Ham did win in his rookie season, he would've never win so many titles afterwards. It's never a good thing if you are at the top from the get go.
didnt marc marquez win the motogp title on his first go?
You're right
He won in just his second season it wouldn’t of mattered
@@specialingu yes but Ham wouldnt have been as likely to leave Mclaren if he won 2-3 titles in his years there meaning he wouldnt have been in Merc to win an extra 6. He would have ended up like Vettel has only he is better ofc
Nadal and Federer would argue with you
Best thing that ever happened to him!!! Made him crazy bat shit mental!! He went more focused than any man has ever been before. Got his head down and told all ”EAT MY EXHAUST”
I cant wait for Hamilton's biography. It will shed light on 2007 and the year he lost out to Rosberg...
“I was oppressed!” The End.
He's already said he can't talk about it.
I doubt he'll be allowed to disclose what really happened.
I thought there was a pact that Maca can't win both WCC and WDC with illegal car. If they did, they would be banned to race in 2008. So, they sabotaged Hamilton car.
2007 - Spygate; McLaren probably told to quietly lose the WDC, or face exclusion from 2008 (which is probably what Lewis can't talk about)
2016 - Bad luck with engine failures, and Rosberg put in some *serious* work in the offseason, powered by nothing but pure spite for his former friend turned bitter rival
@Hot Rod It does make sense, however; the FIA didn't want a team of convicted cheaters to win the WDC, but a simple DSQ would ruin an exciting title fight (remember, a certain Mr. Bernie "F1 should be more Dangerous" Ecclestone was in charge of F1 at the time; a man who cared more about the drama than anything), and it would also bring the sport into serious disrepute. It's entirely possible that McLaren were told, behind closed doors, to throw the 2007 WDC or face even harsher penalties.
Remember, Max Mosley wanted McLaren to be banned for 2 years, so how Bernie managed to talk him down to "only" a $100mil fine and DSQ from WCC '07 is a bit of a mystery, only known to a certain few.
I’m glad he didn’t win in a car that took advantage of stolen information. It would’ve tarnished his rep. I also have a feeling losing in 2007 that close made him more competitive.
Both alonso and Hamilton deserved to be kicked out of the WDC and have a 2year ban. It's a known fact they had been using the leaked Ferrari data in the simulator and making inquiries with engineers on how to exploit it. This is most likely a cause for LH not wanting to talk about 2007 because he cheated along with Alonso and the team.
@@jamescrosby3431 cry
@@kamil6958 hold your breath for an hour and I'll consider it.
Every F1 car has a little bit of information obtained from another car
@@psk5746 Not illegal information. Plus, it wasn't just that type of information, they literally had Ferrari's box strategy and would know when Ferrarri would pit which driver, in every race.
It was massively illegal, and an enormous advantage.
Amazing rookie season from lewis, but Kimi absolutely deserved a WDC and should of had even more tbf
*should have
I think Mika's MP4-13 (1998) is the most beautiful car ever to race in F1.
The need of making a hyped video differs in the way the things rolled, because there’s a lot that isn’t being told in this video. Hamilton also had a lot of suspicious things happening on his favour. And Fernando also had a lot of things happening against him that you’re not addressing. At the end of the day, you can’t be questioning every result. The championship was won and well deserved by Kimi. He capitalised on Mclaren’s mistakes.
What were those things?
@@jenerick9509
Hungary 2007, for example?
Race in which the team had established that the extra lap in qualifying was each time for one of the two drivers (Magny cours for Alonso, Silverstone for Lewis, Hungary for Alonso ...) but Lewis decided to disobey team orders and leaving early to do Q3, when it was Alonso's turn ...
And when Alonso, quite rightly angry, asked the team to tell Lewis to give him back the position and they didn't, decided to make Lewis wait in the pits to be able to make the lap that was genuinely his due, he was sanctioned by the FIA based on a non-existent regulation... and on the part of his team, who did not acknowledge Lewis's disobedience or punish her, as it should have happened...
How about that? (among many other favoritisms towards Lewis that just irritated Alonso and in the end made McLaren lose the title)
@@joxerra come on man. Alonso could not handle a rookie hence he decided to blackmail McLaren to make lewis the second driver. Lewis was way ahead both in q1 and q2 anyways. i agree Lewis should have obeyed the team order but Alonso took it too far.
one thing that made me laugh was when he asked his Ferrari engineers in abu dhabi 2010 if Hamilton could win the GP, because if that happens Alonso wins the championship. he tried to ask for a safety car when he struggled to overtake Vitaly even though there was not a crash, and when the race finished he started insulting Petrov for doing his job (keeping Alonso behind for much of the race). Petrov defended like a lion and costed Alonso the championship and that year history was made, Seb became the youngest F1 driver to win a championship. Alonso is a good driver but a shity person.
@@animalworld5296 I really don't understand the obsession of the Anglo-Saxon world to understand that an F1 team should not be a team ... Does it really seem logical to you to see two cars from the same team colliding? Do Weber's crashes with Vettel really seem logical to you? and Multi21? And Lewis with Rosberg? If I would be team manager, disobeing pilots would be inmediately fired... What you call "letting compete" is simply idiotic ... not only because of what an F1 car costs in economic terms (which too) but in sporting terms for a team ...
Alonso has always understood that to win a world championship, the whole team was needed working together, and nowadays nobody, absolutely nobody questions it, otherwise it would be absurd ... and it is still funny to see how people who continue to reproach Alonso for something that was absolutely logical in 2007 justifies Lewis demanding a loyal teammate today ... because it just makes sense ... if you let two 20 or 25 year old make the decisions, what does a team manager then?
The only thing that can happen in fraticidal fights is that you lose both the team and the drivers' championship, as demonstrated in 2007 ... Lewis is a very good driver, but it was his first year, he had never adjusted an F1 before, and at McLaren Alonso's telemetry was used to adjust the car ... was it really fair to let Lewis take advantage of this? If he believed so much in individuality, would he have adjusted the car himself ...
Would he allow the team to make this happen today with Mercedes? Would you consider it fair that this happened with a new pilot? It is not the same to be a fast driver than a good complete one, and although Lewis was, without a doubt, he simply could not do it because it was his first year ... but the media ambition of getting an English driver winning in his first year made McLaren lost the championship ...
The Ferrari papers is an assumption that you make for free and as for being a shitty person, Alonso at least has friends in the paddock ...
I guess Lewis breaking a friendship of years with Rosberg because you cannot bear that he is better than you and you put your ego and your ambition before everything else in life, it makes him a wonderful person, in addition to not knowing what respect or patience is ... right now he is threatening to leave F1 because he has not won the championship and also his move to force the team to hire Valtery instead of Russell went wrong ... simply pathetic !!
"Every year there is a champion, but not every year there is a great champion" (Ayrton Senna)
@@joxerra you wrote a whole article and still said nothing. you do sound you are being hypnotized by hate.
When the confidentiality agreement Alonso agreed on at the time of his release expires in 2029 then it may well shed a lot more light on that whole season. None of us are privileged to any of the backstage politics that occurred that season but we can guess. Given It was Alonso who was forced to sign the agreement and not Hamilton it makes it the whole situation even more fascinating.Roll on 2029
The agreement lasted for 22 years?
Personally think they tried to screw Alonso for a Rookie partner as they knew he was leaving at the end of the year. It's ashame they put those eggs in the wrong basket.
I think that actually Fernando should have won that championship, the sabotage tyre pressure, even Ron Dennis said that he prefered kimi to win the championship instead of Alonso, just disgusting stuff from the McLaren team trying to make their beloved baby to win. (Sorry for the bad english)
not really though...i consider alonso as overall better driver but lewis straight up that year was better and kimi was just perfect.glad he won
2007 Shanghai will always be a pain for me. As a local Shanghai I support Lewis from the very first year. I still remember we're so worried about his tires and everyone didn't understand why McLaren never let him pit when still could. An almost perfect rookie season.
Because the experienced kimi and alonso took care of the tyres expecting another shower later on.
Lewis just went for it right from the start.
@@amalkallarackal9293 no the team easily could of pit him but they left him out for no reason and only made him pit after raikonnen caught him. If they pitted him earlier there would of been no issue and he would've won the race and championship to cap of the best rookie season of all time
"BWOAH. I guess I win championship this year and see what happens, I know what I'm doing... ."
This was also the Year that he DID get the Drink.
Conspiracy: FIA asked McLaren to throw the drivers title away due to Spygate
Overall happy that Kimi got that title, it might've been weird but he deserved it especially after bad luck in previous years. But as we know, nothing is normal in Kimi's F1 career
Yeah, makes you wonder doesn't it? Both McLaren drivers only a point down at the conclusion.
There are whispers that the reason Ferrari were so bad in 2020 was due to their fuel antics in 2019, they had to forfeit the amount of fuel that they had used extra in 2019 is what some think.
That's one of the more popular conspiracies I've come across on Reddit and UA-cam. This could be the reason for McLaren losing out in 2007.
I like the theory that Bernie said Hamilton and Alonso could keep their points, but they couldn't win the title.
✔
still happy kimi won that championship
Yes
You should be as he was never good enough
@@venukrithish007 he was good enough
Lucky championship.
@@davidkalsbeek2507 oh sry I meant he was never again good enough. Of course he deserved 2007 and even better deserved his McLaren years
answer: hamilton only got chances because at a point, ron dennis really hated alonso and decided to try to force the championship for hamilton harming alonso as much as possible.
at a point it looked like hamilton really was going to win, but they just didnt expect kimi.
A bad management ended up without any championship
Not to mention they kept using team orders against Hamilton in the first half of the season because they expected Alonso to walk all over Hamilton, that simply never happened. Without team orders that season, Hamilton would have been champion even with the China incident and the gearbox issue in Brazil
@@diegovillavicencio3172 Totally Agreed!
Hamilton wasnt going to overtake Alonso in Monaco at that track It so difficult McLaren didnt want to risk the 1-2
Ron Dennis even went to the FIA against his own driver in Hungary. That’s what loses you a championship
If Ron Dennis didn't gift Monaco to Alonso, Hamilton wins the title. That switch to a 2-stop cost them.
The pass for new tires at the China pit stop killed the championship for Hamilton. I remember that call and was dumbfounded. Even on a drying track, new intermediates would have been better because there's more tread to wear down. I'm sure this is what at least 75% of people are saying already.
He had a 20s lead over Alonso as well.
Worst case scenario: Hamilton pits for dry tyres and comes out somewhere near Alonso but it keeps raining. That means both Hamilton and Alonso pit for more wet tyres within a lap or two of each other and finish 2nd and 3rd to Raikkonen This would have eliminated Raikkonen from the championship fight but the fact is that is did stop raining so pitting for dry tyres was the correct call for Hamilton anyway which means he'd have breezed home in 2nd place if they pit him as soon as his tyres went off, again, this would eliminate Raikkonen from the championship.
You telling me the best strategists in the world couldn't figure that out?
They might have delayed his pitstop, but they didn't "pass" on it. Eventuall they did call him in for new tyres, but he just bottled it and went in too quickly to the pit entry.
And don't say "oh but his tyres were worn out". His tyres were good enough to get him through a lap at 150mph. So they would have been good enough to get him through the last corner into the pit lane if he'd just slowed down enough!
@@footballnerd277 The pit lane had much more standing water on it than the drying racing line, so YES, "his tyres were worn out" and that is what caused the pit lane crash.
@@monster289 And you'd think a professional driver like Lewis Hamilton would know that? And therefore slow down substantially to avoid looking like bambi on ice.....
All he had to do was make that corner. But he bottled it.
Hamilton bottled it, we’ve only seen one other driver EVER make that mistake, and that’s Maldonado lol
McLaren was probably trying to avoid being banned from the sport outright.
I perfectly remember the race in China. Although l always have been a Ferrari fan, l was asking myself what the heck McLaren was doing not calling Hamilton in. At last l was actually almost disappointed, and only half happy because that helped Raikkonen to win the championship... very, very unexplicable. It did look like McLaren kept Hamilton out in order to make him loose the championship.
They all were on the same strategy.... Hamilton destroyed his tyres since he was a rookie
@@randommemes2563 No, you are wrong. l strongly recommend you to find the race and look at what happened, and listen to what the commentators said. Hamilton was not called in even if everyone else on track had pitted long before to change to slik. It was a surreal situation and it was not because of Hamilton’s lack of experience.
@@randommemes2563 he was pole and 20 seconds ahead, mclaren blew it
@@randommemes2563 even if thats true, its no good having very worrying wear on the tyres on the car, while you have a fresh stack of them in the pits.
@@giannapple i strongly recommend you take a look at that whole race...i rewatched it last week. All four of them were in same strategy no one changed tyres during first pitstops. Hamilton over used his tyres and paid the price. Rookie driver error
As much as a lot of us want to see Hamilton fail, remember it wasn't an easy job for him even today. He s a grt F1 driver.
Senna, Prost, Lauda, Schumacher, Alonso, Raikkonen, Vettel and Hamilton.
The big 8!
Such a shame someone could win in the past 12 years of F1
...what?
One correction though: Raikkonen was NOT given the place by Massa. Raikkonen recorded two fastest laps of the race and overtook Massa because Massa pitted earlier.
Offical f1 always shows the 2008 gp as one of the best and never the 2007 while it was also one of the better races
Kimi doesn't get the credit he deserves for winning the 2007 title. I'm always hearing about how he lucked into it, because of how far back he was in points going into those final two races and what then happened during those races. But if you apply the "he got lucky" logic to the end of the season, you have to also apply it to how Hamilton got that points lead in the first place. Kimi had two retirements during the season due to mechanical issues with the car. If I remember correctly he was running 3rd in both races. That's 12 points he lost, and would have had, going into China, reducing Hamilton's point lead over Kimi to only 5 points. So, if Kimi was lucky to win from so far back, then Lewis was lucky to have that points lead in the first place.
Kimi won more races than the others. He won 6 to Lewis & Fernando's 4. Felipe won 3. Even if you gave Kimi's Brazil win to Felipe, he still won more races. From the French GP to the end of the season, the only race Kimi didn't finish on the podium in was the European GP, which he retired from due to fuel issues. In fact, if you exclude his two retirements, during the entire season he only finished a race outside of the podium three times. He didn't luck into anything. He won the title and deserved it.
The simple insinuation that Hamilton was sabotaged is just hilarious. I haven't seen a driver who has had more support during an F1 season than Hamilton in 2007. The team fully choose him as the main driver giving him the best strategies since Hungary and took advantage of Alonso's data, while Alonso had to fight on his own. And what race direction did that season was criminal... A crane put Hamilton on the track so he could end the race after he got an accident in the European GP, ffs... Even in China, five guys were trying to get him out of the gravel trap, pushing the car as if Hamilton was their son. I think I've never seen something like that in any race, not just in F1.
Yes, he deserved to win the first rookie F1 GP WDC TITLE.
Bernie Ecclestone ex-Formula 1 supremo and Max Moseley, Director of The FiA were never going to allow Hamilton to win it, especially as Ferrari, (the team that eventually won the 2007 title) had the infamous 'veto'.
The conspirasist in me thinks that there must have been an agreement between Ferrari, FIA and McLaren to: 1) stop the investigation; 2) keep the drivers championship going; and 3) for McLaren to do what is needed to not have one of their drivers winning the championship. The spy-gate had the potential to completely destroy the sport, and banning the McLaren drivers would seriously hurt the popularity of the sport too. Also Ferrari needed something to agree to all this, and that something was both titles.
Should be titled: Alonso's missing 2007 WDC
But we got a Kimi victory so all's well that ends well
Hamilton would’ve won if it was between the two. Hamilton had more 2nd place finishes
When people discuss the greatest drivers of all time, the fact that he almost won his rookie season is almost never mentioned.
Like if he had, he'd still be the youngest champ of all time. He'd be out on his own in terms of titles, most victories of all time, most poles of all time, most podiums, most points. In the not too distant future, it won't even be a contest imom
that's assuming the rest of his career would be exactly the same
@@Saturn185 yeah. It's a hypothetical.
i recently read your article on this topic and now you made it into video? Brilliant!
The real story is unnecessary infighting, with a Team Principal essentially at odds with his more accomplished driver, ALO... 2007 should really have yielded a _WCC_ + _WDC_ double for _McLaren._
Max Mosely's father was Oswald Mosely
like father like son
For some reason in my head Lewis should of won the 2007 and Massa should of won the 2008 season. It was heart breaking seeing Massa win his home grand prix, the last grand prix of the season, doing exactly what needed to do to win, only to lose out by 1 point...
... But having said that I'm also glad that Kimi won a title at some point, since he deserved one as well. Jeez 2006 through 2010 was such a good era of F1 to watch. 5 different world champions and 4 different constructors winning the titles.
And championship going to the last race in 4 of those seasons
massa didn't do what he needed to if he lost on points
@Ponfi Hamilton dominated in Silverstone 2008 while Massa kept spinning out. Situationally that means Massa didn't earn anything
@@DanielCornflake you are clueles massa won more races than hamilton in 2008 had 3 retirements while leading and if the points system was how it is in todays F1 Massa would of been champion comfortably.
@@KrypticTMG Let's ignore the dodgy penalties awarded to Hamilton, especially Belgium that year. He also pulled off one of the greatest drives ever at Silverstone while Massa span out several times. Yeah clueless mate.....
Max and Bernie made a deal, drivers points will not be affected by the penalty but no McLaren-Merceds driver will win the championship.
The story goes that after McLaren were given a $100 million fine (Spygate scandal) and excluded from the 2007 Constructor's title, but not banned outright from the sport, Mosley apparently said something to Ron Dennis to the effect of, "...but you'd better not win this year's title". Apparently Mosley was determined to not have a 'tainted' championship by having either McLaren driver take the title in the Spygate year, and let it be known quietly that McLaren's continued participation in F1 depended on them NOT winning that 2007 title. Based on this, and the nature of Hamilton's strange mechanical glitch that slowed him just long enough to ensure he couldn't win the title that day, then mysteriously cleared itself, I believe this to be the sinister truth. This is also supported by Lewis' comment this year about that 2007 Brazil race, where when asked if he knew what happened, said "I didn't know at the time, but I do now. I can't talk about it." I think McLaren were forced to 'throw' the title at that last race, to ensure their continued participation in the sport. Needless to say, this story would never be allowed to leak out, as it would taint Kimi's one world title, and Lewis, if this is all true, is too classy to speak about it. We may never know for sure, but this theory checks all the boxes of making sense, based on what we witnessed.
Very plausible
there is no mystery. mclaren lost the title. bridgestone told them to make a precautionary pit stop they said no. if he does he finishes third gets the points and easily wins the title
The MP4-22 is the most beautiful McLaren of all time and the F2007 is the most beautiful Ferrari of all time, in my opinion.
@Eddie one oddity imo is lewis nearly always has the best looking car of any given year. which is quite amazing whenn its a 1 in 10 chance every year
Why is it a mystery?! Simple, McLaren didn’t use team orders. Two drivers who were supremely talented in different ways and they took points off each other allowing Kimi through at the finish line of the season. Bad mgt.
I’ve never seen him saying “I can’t talk about it” before
Now I want to know what happened! This and 2016.
@@z-ro34 nothing. Hamilton just loves being the victim
@@alexholloway4972 What evidence do you have if this is the case? We haven't heard any details yet.
@@z-ro34
Spygate and race fixing.
Think it was just written in an article, not recorded.
Neither Fernando nor Lewis deserved the 2007 title. Lewis especially after the favoritism shown by Dennis. You can see it when Fernando would get pole instead of Hamilton, Ron Dennis would be visibly upset. He wanted to create the first rookie world champ, and wanted that champ to be a driver he managed from a young age. With that and the spy scandal, they didn’t deserve the title. If they were excluded from winning the constructors’ then they should have been excluded from the drivers’.
Kimi had a unreliable car but still got the WC because he was the best driver on the grid, mystery closed
I have always been of the opinion that Hamilton should have won the 2007 championship and Massa the 2008 championship. Both of those seasons ended the wrong way. And 2021 obviously too, but that is another story.
Having lost the 07 WDC by a single point must have driven Hamilton to critique that pit lane beaching of the car in the gravel trap in China a million times over.
The two pivotal questions he must have asked himself were:
1 What could he possibly have done to prevent it
2 What could have been done to extricate his car from the gracel trap once it occurred.
Turkey 2020 gave insight to the first question when Hamilton made his decision not to do a pit stop from the discussion with his pit crew
The second question was answered at Imola 2021. Attempting to go forward only pushed the car in a relatively straight line damaging the front wing. His selection of reverse gear and the limited torque force at the rear wheel against the wet gravel prevented any digging in and beaching of the car, a solution thought about but could only be put into practice 14 years after that nightmare of an event
the underbody of a f1 car would be much better in reverse to not dig in... but i thought he would 3 point turn in imola...
Well said..agreed 100% ..This just underscores the fact that mistakes, once acknowledged and viewed as gateways to development, are often a precursor to even greater things.
If the commisaries say you cant move the car then you cant. But Hamilton always thinks he is above good and evil. Like spa 2022. He made a mistake but he cant even full apologize...
Mclaren wanted to sabotage Alonso but the dude in charge got wrong the car..
Honestly bristh fans blaming Alonso for Hamilton losing the tittle is a joke.. He got sabotaged the whole season by his own team and had british media who owns the show against him.
You have to say fernando was at the cost aswell tho it aint just mclarens fault because they made mistakes with both drivers but nando fans only see it as them picking a side. I would pick a driver too if the reigning champ was jealous of a damn rookie.
@@barrybraynen8786 What the fuck are you talking about.. Mclaren should have treated both drivers equally.. The fact that the FIA had to make sure Mclaren was not sabotaging Alonso in the last race tells the story..
Im not even an Alonso fan
Absolutely amazing season, soured by the whole Spygate controversy. The way it ended never felt right...
Lewis was bald and now he looks like a romantic pirate 😅
Worried about another man's looks. Check yourself.
@@Sxokzin ???? I think he is pulling the current look very well. Also, 7 times world champion is quite the achievement! Don’t be so fragile mate, life is good!
wonder how much his hair cost
The greatest comeback in sports
@@tomwaddicor9140 😂
McLaren should've supported Alonso (as reigning world champion) right from the start. Lewis (as a rookie) should've been given a supporting role to Alonso. Lewis' errors towards the end is purely down to lack of experience, at least what I think.
But ultimately, I think it is purely down to Ron Dennis' fault for not thinking about the championship. Look how Schumacher won with Ferrari. I know it's not always pretty, but at the end winning the championship must be the ultimate goal.
moving alonso past lewis at the pitstops in melbourne cost lewis the title ;). goes both ways.
It’s Ron Dennis’ fault for actively campaigning to get Alonso a 5-place penalty in Hungary, absolutely disgraceful team management when you need every point possible
I think you forget that Farina was the first rookie world champion.
Tyre pressures...that would be an interesting topic.
All the media attacked Alonso, but he is not the only villain in the story.
Tyre pressures, misterious oil cap missing in Spa, FIA supervising both cars, a sanction that does not appear on the rule book, recovering the last car trapped on the gravel, several ilegal actions not penalized and so on. That season is one of the most controversial and the rarest seasson of many many time
British media obviously would have slanted everything for Lewis, but everyone seems to forget Alonso AND Lewis got immunity for testifying, and were allowed to continue racing for the championship.
In hungary qualifying they punished Alonso for paying back against Hamilton after Hamilton held him out on track, punishing one but not the other, they only tell one side of the story here.
McAllen claimed it was the moisture in the air that caused Alonso’s tire pressure problem
@@User-nu6km it can be but it is strange that only happened to him. My favourite problems are the hungary sanction and the suposedly destroyed gearbox of Magny Course
"the mystery of Hamiltons lost title"
Kimi: i scored more points
There's no mystery at all - Kimi Raikkonen was superb and fully deserved the championship.
He said over the radio his tyres were gone so McLaren was waiting for him to set fastest lap
I'm fine with not having a Rookie Champ to date , because Kimi became Champion
but to me it feels wrong. Knowing hamilton should have easily won. I wonder who would have had which title if you'd factor in obvious stuff like that. Like ham vs ros 2016 where ros basically only won because he had less engine/car problems. Just to know driver skill, i know in the end it's a sometimes a lot of luck.
@@Marco-xz7rf Both Fernando and Lewis lost the title in 2007 despite having no reliability issues at all compared to Kimi.
@@Glasshexagon oh really? then well deserved for kimi in terms of driving :D
@@Marco-xz7rf Surely. Kimi retired twice due to reliability and both times from top 3. It cost him 12 points at least. Lewis stuck in gravel in China, his own mistake. Additionally he stuck in gravel in Nurburgring earlier, was pulled back on track but still failed to score. Alonso crashed in Japan. Also his race in Canada was compromised by entering a closed pit lane (was also overtaken by Sato so he was pretty shit this day).
Ron dennis remember the name worst thing to happen to f1