really? I think you'll find that was said by a few people when he was at HRT, oh, some 4 years ago now. I guess it's only when he goes wheel to wheel and beats Hamilton driving an inferior car that certain people take notice, although I wasn't one of them until the tail end of last year
Just for clarification, because it rained does that mean because they put wet weather tyres on when it dries up they don't have to use both tyre compounds? If so Paddy Lowe is lying when he said neither could have won the race. If they'd switched Lewis to a 3 stop then he would have been second minimum. if they'd put the options on instead of primes when he came in at end of lap 39 he could have pitted lap 54/55 and been on fresh options again and would have had too much pace to not get past Alonso
The only way Mercedes would've won the race is if they had pitted Rosberg immediatley when the SC came out. The drivers who pitted 2nd chance all ended up miles behind their team-mates, except Rosberg who ended up on hamiltons tail.
Correct. Fantastic race, was stuck on a train with only your good selves and BBC live text to keep me updated, so couldn't wait to see the highlights this evening. Superb drives from Ricciardo, Alonso and Hamilton. All very impressive and here's hoping we see more battles that close in the rest of the season! On the latest Mercedes team orders saga, I can see why they made the call, but I don't think it was fair. Had Hamilton let Rosberg through I reckon he'd have cleared the traffic when he exited the pits, which might have converted into a 2-4 finish rather than a 3-4, as I think Rosberg probably stood a better chance of passing Alonso. It's the right thing to do for the Constructor's championship, but such is their dominance I don't think they should be too worried about 3 points. I also think Hamilton was correct to keep Rosberg behind though, as Rosberg was never applying the required pressure (tyres going off or holding back and waiting?). Had Rosberg been trying to put moves on Hamilton (costing both of them time and risking a collision), then Hamilton should have let Rosberg go.
I think Rosberg needs to be a little more sharp when it comes to overtaking though...why just wait for DRS..why not try other stuff and not be so predictable in his moves? I am sure he is a really good driver but he needs to make a decision to go for it instead of wasting his tyres trundling around behind someone that is obviously slower than him like in the case of the Vergne. Any time he is behind Hamilton he doesn't seem to know what to do. I thought he would have closed the gap quickly after the team orders but he just sat back there hoping Hamilton would slow down for him to get by. One Rosberg gets caught in traffic he struggles. And he shouldn't in that car..in my opinion.
Like to congratulate Lewis on being the most successful Brit regards Podiums, 63 I believe beating that of David Coulthard who took 15 years to amass those Podiums driving mainly Newey cars compared to Lewis's 6.5 years driving mainly inconsistent Mclaren cars serviced by the kwik fit crew in the pits on race day. Soon it will be Mansell's British record of 31 GP wins that will belong to Hertfordshire boy, a record breaker from the time he came into F1.
With regards to the Vettel debate, he is a world class driver, undoubtedly. However, his superiority in his 2nd and 4th titles IMO exaggerated peoples opinions of him. It was clear that he and Newey together had mastered the technicalities of that car and Seb just ruthlessly and robotically dismantled fields. His 1st world title was one he should never have won (I mean that in the sense other people threw it away- not his fault!) and was never in position to win that championship until half way through the final race, with Alonso and Webber failing miserably in traffic whilst Vettel just got on with the job. That was the first year post Brawn/double diffuser and Red Bull hadn't mastered the blown diffuser to perfection- and funnily enough Mark Webber was more than a match for Seb that year. Now that the blown diffuser has gone, Ricciardo is more than a match for Vettel too. Vettel deserves more time to be judged (so do a few more given the superiority of the Merc right now), but, although he has had some bad luck (todays safety car for example), Ricciardo has a definite edge, and it will be interesting to see if Vettel is able to get the upper hand and threaten again, especially from 2016 onwards when Newey will not be designing any cars for him. I just feel that when you consider the people he is ahead of in terms of WDC's (level with Prost on 4, in front of Senna on 3), he doesn't quite compare yet. His legacy for me will be determined by the second half of his career- nothing personal against him- just to definitively prove his raw speed and that he can dominate without the huge Newey/Blown Diffuser edge. I was never much of an Alonso fan a few years back but crikey, what an effort today dragging that Ferrari around. Week in, week out, the guy proves himself to be quite a driver. I hope for his sake Ferrari can put him in something that can fight next season. The sport would be all the better for it.
The thing is, you can only beat what's out in the field.... and if they stumble, than that's their fault.
People have very short memories, I don't recall a lot of Lewis fans moaning when Nico was instructed by Brawn not to pass Lewis last season and I do recall a lot of people laughing at Vettels unfortunate experience of letting Riccardo past in the same situation! For the record I don't have an issue with Lewis not moving over, only the hypocrisy of some of his one sided supporters. Merc could easily have got round it by pitting Nico a few Laps earlier to limit the damage. i also admire and respect Lewis for acknowledging that Nico would have beaten him and that he is racing fir himself and not the team.
I'm not sure what you're getting at Smithers. The only Issue I personally have had with Vettel when it comes to team orders is that he's kinda fudged around it afterwards. He was right to go for it in Multi-21, he was right to say tough luck to Ricciardo, but at the same time he should stand up for himself afterwards. When Rosberg was held back, Hamilton said his result didn't feel good, today he justified his actions and didn't fluff over it. Exactly what Vettel should have done.
Post race I get the impression that Mercedes are glad Hamilton didn't move over. We can be fairly certain that Rosberg would have been 2nd at worst and regardless of the teams possibly better result you'd have the PR disaster of engineering Rosberg ahead of Hamilton. The teams are in it for themselves but they're also marketing machines, the fallout could have been fairly bad, especially after all the allowing them to battle waffle. Lauda summed it up pretty well post race.
