Prost: Impossible to beat Hamilton in 2018
- Published on 02 Nov 2018 12:07
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- By: Fergal Walsh
Four-time world champion Alain Prost believes that Lewis Hamilton's consistency throughout the 2018 season made him impossible to beat. The Briton secured his fifth-word title last weekend in Mexico, crossing the line in fourth place.
The 33-year-old put the fight to bed with three races to go. Hamilton's nearest rival, Sebastian Vettel, got involved in a number of on-track mishaps in the second half of the year which has seen his title challenge falter. In his praise to Hamilton, Prost added that it's also difficult to compare rivals from different eras.
"You cannot compare the generations," Prost said. "[Ayrton] Senna and I were perhaps the best of ours. Now you can only say that Lewis is one of the best, if not the best of his generation. Sebastian also had a good season, but not good enough to beat the combination of Lewis and Mercedes.
“He made mistakes at the wrong time, as in Baku or Hockenheim, otherwise he would have been 30 points ahead at the time and with less pressure. Lewis was just psychologically very strong against Seb this year. He was very mature. Under the circumstances, it was impossible to beat him.”
Prost secured his four titles competing against some of best in the sport, including Senna and Mercedes' current non-executive chairman Niki Lauda. The Renault advisor thinks that the mentality of multiple world champions is different from other drivers.
“Multiple world champions are obviously doing something different from the others. The biggest difference I notice about Lewis is how he forces himself to become an even better driver. This was perhaps his best season and he can be even better.
"Even if his car is not that good, he takes second or third place, and if he has to do something special in qualifying he is able to, like in Singapore. His team supports Lewis in his special way of life, which gives him a lot of confidence and strength which is very important to him.”
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Replies (9)
Login to replyKyalamiKid
Posts: 146
Did I knock my head and miss a year? Or did Prost come back from the future and just spoiled the 2019 season?
Fergal Walsh
Posts: 46
God damn typos, what moron thought of putting the '8' button beside the '9' button...
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Oh no, you accidentally revealed Prost's nose's sbility to travel in time! What on earth are we to do now that we know of this?!
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
I agree, its impossible to beat Lewis for Mr.Prost, being retired and all. As for other drivers? its impossible to beat the Mercedes ( with all due respect to Lewis).
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
You really don't think Ferrari had a good enough car to beat Mercedes this year?
KyalamiKid
Posts: 146
i dont know if Lewis is the best driver, or at least, it is hard to proof he is.
The combination Ham-Merc is by far the best combi though.
I do think Ferrari had the car this year to beat Merc but Vet let them down..
Ham and Vet swapping seats would be awesome...
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
They did at first, but screwed the pooch.
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
Nope. I dont think, ferrari had the car through out the season, to beat merc.
blade
Posts: 341
Kylamikid - no man - HAM and VET in same car would be the way to go mate - only then will we learn something about the relative pecking order. For me, Hamilton is streets ahead - but I'm not ignorant enough to ignore others' views. I think at the end of the day, everyone has their favourites, but one thing's for sure - the best manufacturer doesn't stick with a second best driver - they want the best. Let's see what the archives look like in two years time.