Ok. Well don't believe the fans because they are all Hamilton fans...well believe Wolff, Lowe, Lauda and the whole mercedes group....ok
I would stick out my neck to say any time mecedes is chasing a pack for a win and lewis and Rosberg are close together and they want one to make a run for the win... Lewis should be the obvious go to man. Reason why.... Rosberg struggles when overtaking... He seems totally dependent on DRS zones to make overtakes really stick. That race when he and lewis were duking it out i never had any doubt in my mind that Rosberg would have lost that battle even though he had the tyres on Hamilton. While he drove well lewis was out foxing him every time.. Like letting him overtake only to make the switch on him by next corner. They say Rosberg is more intelligent and is stronger mentally than Hamilton... Well, maybe we will see him come up from pit lane or very last on the grid to see his mental strength before the end of the season. To me mental strength isn't getting pole and running away with races, mental strength is having serious setbacks and never saying die... Fighting your way back up to a podium even though your most ardent fans didn't expect it. Hamilton did it twice in a row so we know he has the mental strength to battle back from adversity.... Now let's see what his team mate has...
He has the ability to fight back and get a result, but of the two, I would argue that Rosberg has been the mentally stronger of the pair. Hamilton needs to focus on his own racing and not concern himself with anything outside of that, otherwise I think Rosberg will have him.
Rosberg has the ability but he is too conservative when he has to overtake IMO. He takes too long to get the job the done, look at Bahrain, China when chasing Alonso, Austria and now Hungary. Mentally, yes he does have the edge over Hamilton but that can change if he gets a few setbacks when it matters. By that I mean when it's qualifying or race time and not during practice where he can look at the data and use it to his advantage.
They both have areas where they can improve as drivers... and one of the pair may take the title without overcoming their respective weaknesses. But if one is able to push on in the second half of the season, the other could be be soundly beat. I'd be spending the next four weeks in the simulator, going over the remaining races with a fine tooth comb if I were one of the pair.
Small feeling Hamilton disobeying orders will bite him on the arse later. Just how the cookie crumbles.
Some people believe what suits when it suits, regardless of whether it is right, wrong or debatable. It's amazing how things can be used, reused and selectively quoted to support any given point at any given time.
Hopefully not. But why should he have let him through? Mercedes knew he wasn't going to let him through because they are fighting for the title - just the two of them. This situation is really riling me up because in my opinion Hamilton did nothing wrong as had he been a team player he would have lost even more ground to Nico so it's like he can do no right at the moment. Hope he comes back from summer break pumped and ready to put on a Vettel-esque run on into the flyaway races.
I'm not sure, Manny. He did say that if Rosberg challenged then he'd let him go, but Rosberg just couldn't do it. I think if it had resulted in some wheel to wheel action that could of potential resulted in zero points, then it would have been a whole different kettle of fish. Personally I think he handled it correctly. Had he legitimately tried to race Rosberg and really been hindering a potential win... I think the team may have had a different view on the whole situation both internally and publicly.
Yet if I think of it your way, Mercedes didn't have much to gain and Nico was miles away from a duel when orders were released... We will see how it ends, but I reckon it will leave one of the two leaving the team.
Maybe (after next season)... It depends on if things really deteriorate or not. There's no doubt that the loser in this is going to have a very sore ego, but what the pair of them have to realize is that they're in a very privileged position right now and there can only be one winner. The loser is just going to have to dust themselves off and try again and not compromise their position within the team. Honestly... I can see Rosberg handling defeat better than Hamilton. Hamilton is just the more emotional of the pair in my opinion and sometimes opens his trap before really thinking.
Just to throw the cat among the pigeons... What if Merc continue with the gremlins, have a few unfortunate failures, start to slide backwards a little and Ricciardo takes the title in a double points mauling in the last race.... Now there's something to ponder. (yeah... I know.... Not going to happen... But what if???)
Unlikely but when asked about his title chances I sensed a calm and measured response from Daniel but inside he may have a little feeling. But next 2 races are Spa and Monza, so if Mercedes can get back to back one-two's I think hope will die down. I was thinking about this the other day and the 2 Merc's have a bit of a vulnerability about it as both cars were managing potentially terminal issues in the race and the pace advantage is still there but it is closing so who knows with double points on offer at the finale.
I had the exact same feeling, it seems double points were manufactured for this kind of scenario please log in to view this image
Update v1.4!! Well the last 2 races have caused some controversy but as it stands with 6 to go Rosberg to win: - Needs 2 more (25pts) wins and to finish 2nd in the remaining 4 races - Finish 2nd in all races and win the 50 in abu dhabi Hamilton to win: - Needs to win 4 25 point races + the 50 in abu dhabi - Basically all combinations if Rosberg finishes 2nd results in Hamilton winning Abu dhabi of course this is in the event of mercedes scoring maximum points at the remaining races So who will win at: (highlight Blue for Nico, Red for Lewis) Singapore Japan Russia USA Brazil UAE
I'm going to be awkward: Singapore Japan - Ricciardo, with Hamilton the highest-scoring Mercedes in 3rd Russia USA Brazil UAE - Vettel, with Hamilton 2nd That would give (assuming no reliability and each Mercedes finishes a maximum of 1 place behind his team-mate): Rosberg 366 Hamilton 353 Just goes to show how hard / lucky Hamilton is going to have to be to overhaul Nico, given that I kind of want him to win and he still doesn't!
