Lewis Hamilton or Felipe Massa: Who Deserves the Title Most? Part One

The big question in the lead up to a title finale is who has been the best driver? And therefore who deserves to win the title most? All F1 fans have endless debates on who would deserve to win the crown most.

Both drivers are very different. In the silver corner we have Lewis Hamilton, who is F1’s new global superstar. Michael Schumacher used to be the most talked about driver in F1. He retired, and Lewis Hamilton has, straight away, come in and taken over Schumi's old tag.

He has broken nearly all of the records that a rookie can break, there is just one box left to tick, and that is to become the youngest driver to win the world championship. His speed and racing ability can’t be argued against.

Although, that said, there are groups of F1 fans who have a lot of negative opinions about him as well. Some people don’t like the fact that he went straight into a top seat. Some think he is arrogant and too confident and believes no one can touch him. Some say he cracks easily when pressure is put on him, on the track or by the media.

However, whichever way you look at it, he has come through all the gruelling challenges of his second season in F1. Many thought he couldn’t repeat his first season feats but he goes to Brazil with a seven point lead and a great chance of clinching a historic title.

Now, in the red corner we have Felipe Massa. He is a driver who fans are torn on. Every corner you look into in the F1 world you see two or three people debating whether Felipe Massa is a star driver or not.

He has the reputation of being very erratic. He needs a lot of help to get his head sorted out, he needs to be told how good he really is. However Ferrari have nurtured him into a really quick racing driver who, on his good days, is one of the fastest, if not the fastest driver out there.  This said, a few of the usual cracks, which have marred Felipe Massa’s career, still exist.

This season has seen him flatten team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, and still be in with a decent chance of winning the title. So, despite what his persistent critics will say, you don’t challenge for the title by accident. Massa has obviously been doing something right throughout the 2008 season.

He may have had more lucky breaks than other drivers (due to his manager’s Ferrari connections) in the past, but he has taken his opportunities with both hands and relished them. Life is all about making this most of the chances that are presented to you.

For whoever wins, it will be a bit of a ragged title victory, rather like Mika Hakkinen’s 1999 title. That was the title that nobody wanted to win. However, when Hamilton and Massa have driven their best this season they have, without a doubt, been head and shoulders above the rest.

So lets begin to answer the question: Who deserves the title most? Who has been the best driver? The best way to make the decision, is to compare how both drivers have done in the eight aspects of being a racing driver taking just the 2008 season into account.

The 8 aspects we will look at include: qualifying pace, race pace, race craft, wet weather driving, avoiding mistakes, handling pressure, comeback ability, and teamwork/setup.

Marks will be given to both drivers in each of the areas that they will be assessed in, with the big final result and conclusion at the end.

Pace: Qualifying

Overall, Hamilton has the advantage when it comes to a qualifying session, due to how his Mclaren behaves over a single lap. The Mclaren is very good at warming it’s tyres up whereas, this is an area Ferrari struggle in. The Mclaren is more aggressive on the tyres, which although is a disadvantage over a race distance, is an advantage when going for that single fast lap.

This season both Massa and Hamilton have mastered the qualifying art. However it is Lewis Hamilton who leads the way with seven pole positions to Felipe Massa’s five. When it comes to the number of front rows in 2008 it is nine-a-piece.

So Hamilton should be considered the better qualifier with those stats, but stats don’t tell the full story.

Massa is at a disadvantage with his Ferrari over a single lap. He has to work a lot harder to get the ultimate pace out of his Ferrari over a flying lap. This issue hasn’t stopped him producing a few corking laps. In Singapore he took pole position over Lewis Hamilton by over six tenths of a second.

This lap was probably the most stunning we have seen all season. The lap was very calm and un-dramatic with precision throughout. And this is coming from a driver who is meant to be poor on street tracks. His qualifying lap in Malaysia was also magnificent as he was half a second faster than his own team mate in second place.

Hamilton’s best pole position was at Montreal, where he ignored the pitfalls of the crumbling track, and outclassed everyone with a 0.6 second margin over Robert Kubica.

In qualifying pace I think Massa and Hamilton have been quite evenly matched. If Massa’s Ferrari worked as well as Hamilton’s Mclaren did over a single lap, he may well have had a few more pole positions.

When taking everything into account this season I think these two men are hard to separate in qualifying. Qualifying is one of the things both have been very strong at in 2008.

Lewis Hamilton: 16/20
Felipe Massa: 16/20

Pace: Race

Overall this season Ferrari has been the better race car. It is a bit gentler on it’s tyres over a long run than the Mclaren is. Therefore over a racing stint Ferrari have the slight advantage. This advantage is more noticeable in hot conditions when tyre degradation is higher. So overall it is Massa who generally holds the trump card in this category.

In race wins this season it is five each to Massa and Hamilton. Although many say it should be six-four in Hamilton’s favour due to the controversial stripping of Hamilton’s victory in Spa. The win was handed to Massa. Lewis Hamilton has achieved 10 podiums to Massa’s nine in 2008

Both drivers have provided some stunning race pace this season. In Germany and China nobody could touch Hamilton’s very dominant pace. Massa excelled on the urban Valencia street circuit and in Bahrain. However overall in the races where you can fairly compare the race pace of both men, i.e. when one of them wasn’t involved in an incident or had a problem at some point. Hamilton seems to just have the edge.

During the season in those types of races there have been Felipe Massa days when he has driven faultlessly, and there have been those same days for Lewis Hamilton. The key difference is that Lewis Hamilton is closer to Felipe Massa on a "Massa day," than Massa is to Lewis on a "Lewis day."

Germany was a good example where Hamilton was the stronger of the two, and at times Hamilton was nearly 1.0 second a lap faster than Massa. After 17 laps he was 11.0 seconds ahead of Massa.

In contrast Istanbul is the track, which is practically owned by Massa. However Lewis Hamilton, on an unfavourable strategy, was able to give Massa a real fight, and even cleanly overtake him at one point. After 15 laps of the race at Istanbuul he was only 0.7 seconds behind Massa. When Hamilton is faster his margin per lap over Massa is large. When Massa is faster than Hamilton, it’s only by mere tenths every lap.

Spa-Francorchamps is very much a Ferrari circuit and one of the biggest driver challenges out there. However, at Spa, Hamilton was in a class of his own along with Massa’s team mate Kimi Raikkonen. At a track, which clearly shows who the best driver is, Hamilton won in a car that was slower than Massa’s Ferrari.

To conclude, both driver’s race pace are very strong, but when push comes to shove Hamilton can get a bit more pace out than Massa can.

Lewis Hamilton: 17/20
Felipe Massa: 14/20

Race-Craft

In terms of race-craft reputation, Hamilton and Massa are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Hamilton is has been renowned throughout his rise up the ladder as a very aggressive overtaker. Hamilton knows what position to put his car in and is very aggressive. He is willing to take the risk and go for the move even if onlookers fail to notice the opportunity.

Massa on the other hand has a very erratic reputation in terms of overtaking due to some failed overtaking manoeuvres in his career, and the fact that has often spent too much time stuck behind slower cars. Massa’s confidence in race craft just doesn’t match that of Hamilton’s.

In terms of offensive race craft, Felipe Massa has got a lot better this season. In Montreal he fought back well through the field after a pit stop problem. This included one of the passes of the season as he took both Barrichello and Kovalainen in the Casino hairpin.

The start of the Hungarian GP was also a defining moment for Massa as he took both Mclarens before turn one. He even took Lewis Hamilton in a move around the outside.

However despite these improvements Massa’s race craft is still lacking something heavily. His defence of Lewis in Istanbul and Hockenheim was extremely poor. On both occasions he opened the door for Lewis, rather than at least forcing him the long way round.

At Monza he spent too much time behind Rosberg, which lost him valuable points, and he made no impression on slower cars at Singapore despite the Ferrari being by far the strongest out there that day.

Hamilton’s race craft hasn’t been perfect this season either, however, He did brilliantly to get the lead back in Hockenheim after losing it due to the lottery of the safety car.

His overtaking in Monza was very hard but fair. However his attempt to fight back through the field at the French GP was very half-hearted and lacked conviction. His attempt at a move on Raikkonen at the start of Japanese GP was very poorly judged.

So in conclusion Massa’s race craft is still improving, but still not at a high enough level as it should be. Hamilton’s race craft has been better overall but he too has had some faults. This is perhaps the first time Hamilton’s race craft has had a bit of questioning for the first time in his entire motorsport career.

Lewis Hamilton – 7/10

Felipe Massa – 5/10

Wet-Weather Driving

Being a great in the wet is an integral part of being a F1 driver. The results from all the wet races in a season combined can make or break a championship. All the great F1 champions have performed heroics in the wet at some point.

Senna won by a minute at the 93 Donington GP. Schumacher won by a minute at Barcelona in a poor Ferrari in 1996. Sir Jackie Stewart went four times better and won by four minutes at the old Nurburgring.

There have been three races this season dominated by rain. These races were: Monte-Carlo, Silverstone and Monza. If you combine the points from these three races Hamilton leads Massa by twenty-two points to nine. That’s a huge thirteen point margin in Hamilton’s favour in wet races. That just about sums up the difference between Hamilton and Massa in wet races throughout this season.

Hamilton has an outstanding ability in the wet. His driving style suits the slippery conditions. He is brilliant at exploring the different lines, and finding where the most grip is at any given time of the race. Importantly, he also relishes the challenge, which is half the battle when becoming a great wet weather driver. A driver has to have the confidence and bravery to master the conditions. Hamilton definitely has that.

Felipe Massa on the other hand doesn’t. He isn’t comfortable driving in the wet conditions. However he has shown some improvement in driving in wet conditions. He led the first stint of the Monaco GP in wet conditions.

However, as the track went from wet to dry he slipped back. In Silverstone he simply never got a handle on the race, and it went from dreadful to diabolical as he span five times overall. In Monza he drove a solid race but got beaten by drivers in slower cars.

Hamilton did make a very big misjudgement at Monza by going out on the wrong tyres in Q2, and missed the best weather of that session in the process. Without that mistake and the predicted heavy rain, which never came, he could have scored a perfect thirty in wet races this season. Hamilton’s performance at Silverstone was simply awe-inspiring, and up there with the great wet drives mentioned at the top of this section.

Lewis Hamilton: 9/10

Felipe Massa: 5/10

In Part Two of this feature, we will assess who has done better in: Avoiding errors, handling pressure, fighting back and teamwork/setting up the car, with the final result and conclusion at the end.

Click HERE to read it.