What do you think should (will) be Rosberg's tactics in the next four races?

You clearly interpret it differently to me. When Nico went to Merc, the new engine rules weren't even on the horizon. He was at the team and then a few years later they invested big in the next generation of rules and hence the foundation of their success. From what he knew at the time of making the move it could have gone either way. To my mind it's a case of right place, right time, rather than him having been hired to be part of this period of dominance.

For comparison, when Ferrari hired Schumacher they had a clear plan to build an unstoppable winning machine and he was a key part of that.

 

Christ.... It's handbags everywhere.

 

For some strange reason, reading that sentence made feel quite excited. Do you have a dungeon at home?

 

I can't quite work out why, but something tells me Miggins doesn't have much time for Hamilton.

It's just a hunch I have.

 

Yeh I agree that being in a power formula the rule changes made the difference, but the car development in chassis, systems and aero would have been going on long before. If we are saying that Merc lucked in by acing the rules then I suppose both drivers lucked into a WCC car, but then again that could be said for a lot of drivers.

I don't think Nico was initially part of the long term plan of dominance like you say, but then again dominance isn't guaranteed, but as driver he (and MSc) must have had some form off development that rolled over into the DNA of today's machine.

 

That's interesting, Where did you hear that?

It could add some spice to Mercedes for next season if it happens. I wonder what, or if, anything would change, and who would benefit.

 

every WDC has been lucky to find themselves in a title winning car, but the better you are the better your chances of moving to a team that have one, Rosberg jut happened to be at a team that built one a few years after he'd joined them. Nothing Rosberg had done in F1 justified him getting one, so he did 'luck' into it, whereas Hamilton has shown from day 1 that he does.

 

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you mate. I agree that most if not all WDC have been fortunate to be in the right place at the right time, but are you saying because Nico is deemed to be sh1t that he lucked into the car he was already in, but because Lewis was a WDC he didn't?

Having thought about it a bit more Lewis would also have had an input into the development as well, let's not forget that. On the flip side Lewis was also fortunate to "luck" into the 2007/2008 McLaren - maybe if he ended up in a Sauber - well who knows?

 

I'd agree with Miggins. There are two elements mainly to winning a WDC, especially the way Hamilton, and Vettel before him, have done in such a dominant way. There is also sometimes a judgement call by a driver if/when he decides to switch teams. Vettel left RBR as he could see there was little point in carrying on if Renualt got no better with their engine. Hamilton was seeing that McLaren were stalling on performance so went over to the Merc works team in the belief they were better placed to head up the grid.

Hamilton has been proved right, Vettel is going in the right direction and his decision may be fully vindicated next year if Ferrari take another step up.

One, is an element of luck that your teams/engine partners design a dominant car to the extent you have no real rival other than your teammate. It is then down to the driver to use that car to its maximum to take advantage of its dominance.

That is where Rosberg has failed, as did Webber with Vettel. They had the car, but didn't use it as effectively as their teammate did.

No point having a great car if you can't beat your teammate, you'll always finish 2nd.

 

Fair shout. Button gave Hamilton a real test when they were teammates. Not so sure whether the same would happen now with the tyres being different, as Button often had the edge in the race because he was the 'better' driver at the time. Hamilton's racecraft is much improved since then.

 

Don't get the point of that.... Anybody could easily say "If you put <insert driver name> in the same car as @JensonButton, he wouldn't have had it so easy in 2009."

Where did that quote come from?

 

I think the point was that he doesn't rate the job Nico is doing, not that Lewis isn't a worthy winner. I took it as a slight on Nico, which I found interesting. Button is normally very diplomatic as well.

 

Interesting that he didn't mention Alonso too.

 

I don't agree every driver is lucky to end up in a Winning car. For example Schumacher was plucked from Jordan into an already winning car to elevate the team to the next level. He was also enticed to Ferrari for the same reason. To some extent he made those cars.

As time has gone the driver's input to development has been less, but for chassis development is still relevant, being about feel and consistency. Powertrain development is more quantifiable/scientific and the Merc engine was dominant before the drivers even got in it and hence I'd give Rosberg and Hamilton less credit for their car than Vettel/Webber/Coulthard for the dominant RedBulls.

In terms of lucking in to cars. I'd say it's possible that Hamilton could have predicted that Merc were due for an upswing in a way Rosberg's couldn't. His management talked to everyone and could have got a sense that the Merc Powertrain programme was significantly more advanced. Merc had also started stealing top talent by then. The signs were there, and I'd think they were the best bet, but not yet a sure thing.

The Button comment is also relevant, because I'm sure part of Hamilton's reason for moving on from McLaren was that whenever the car was good Button beat him. Therefore if McLaren produced a quality car capable of a Championship, he wasn't likely to be the one that won it.

People also talk about Alonso's poor career management wasting his talent. It's interesting to note that when Hamilton moved to Merc, both he and Alonso were really targeting the RedBull seat, which as it turns out would only have been a short term fix. Team Hamilton were better/luckier than Team Alonso at finding a good alternative, when the door slammed shut at RB, for sure.

 

Good post.

 

Nico is a fast driver, no one would dispute that. He just needs to get nasty and not care what anyone thinks about him...right now he cares too much, which might make him the better man off the track...just speculation. Unfortunately, the track is where his job is.

 

you know what, we've all forgotten Bahrain 2012.

F**k Rosberg

 

Those were some meaty squeezes.

 

I think Lewis needs to make sure that he wins at least the last race of the season to ensure he has the momentum going into next season.

Although I think Lewis is better than Rosberg, he needs to maintain him just to keep him in his place.