I know team mates are rarely the best of friends, but there seems to be very little respect between the pair. It must be difficult for the team.
My opinion is Rosberg simply cannot do it on the track against Hamilton so has to avert to leaning on his team to try and influence things as well as trying to use the press. I think he did rattle Lewis last year but crucially he couldn't make it pay which must have been crushing mentally. As a result of that his reserves of 'taking it on the chin' are very low and he is simply cracking under the pressure. It would be staggering if he could beat Lewis this year to the title. If he doesn't then he will have to accept being the No.2 driver which I don't think he can. As a result he may have to move. But its early days.
It's like he's given up in 3 races... The fact that Lewis, the media and even Mercedes themselves are more interested in watching out for a guy who is in a car 0.9 slower just shows how 'dangerous' Nico is on track while this emotional. Nico can't afford a Monaco or Spa incident, the masses would bury him in so much verbal **** it would make multi 21 and spy-gate look like an afterthought. Come on Nico, it's been three races ffs and you are cracking already?
My advice to Nico would be to take pride in his podium finishes, and remember there are plenty of races and racing scenarios that may occur in his favour.
Agreed. If he does pull a fast one on Lewis it only falls into Hamilton hands. He would finally lose public opinion - which is already lost to a lot of people (myself included). I think he needs to be liked too. Wants to be on a pedestal like Michael was in Germany.
Even if Rosberg wanted to go, where? Should Raikkonen retire, he could try his luck against Vettel, but the culture there would mean he'd quickly be a much more established number two. It's certainly only a worse situation than he's currently in. Red Bull will look to Max if they need to replace either driver, assuming his form continues. Back to Williams in Massa's seat is probably the best position within a team he could engineer for next season or probably the year after. And I can't see him taking that.
I think if Nico does another stupid move like that with the added ferrari pressure this year, they (Lauda,Wolff and Lowe) wont just verbally berate him, they'll fire his arse and throw him under a train and end his season there and then.
It is difficult as he wants to win but isn't strong enough to be a no.1 I just think he wont be able to hack being number 2 to Lewis for too much longer. He needs to be careful not to take things too personally and make his position untenable. Agreed on your comments regarding a move to Ferrari and Williams - he may just have to take a move back to Williams. McLaren maybe if Alonso goes?
Alonso has a three year contract I believe, which makes that option tricky. I'm not convinced they'd take him either.
The only seats I can see available are if either Button or Kimi retire. I can imagine that Alonso would be able to get out of the McLaren drive if he wanted, there must be a performance clause?
Coward for leaving a team with a hideously underperforming car when he is in the latter years of his career? I doubt Alonso could care less either. He wants to win at all costs.
Like his former Williams team-mate Rosberg discovered he wasn't good enough and started to play mind-games, like his former team-mate it seemed to work for a while, then it back-fired and he choked, now it's simply a continuation. Rosberg simply isn't good enough to be a champion and he knows it, he's had his chance through mechanical failure and that's it. This season is over as a WDC unless Hamilton gets hurt , so I wouldn't let Nico follow me down the stairs if I were Lewis. Hopefully Ferrai and later McLaren, can make some races out of it later, because I suspect Mercedes have a no racing rule in place which is why Nico bitched so much about the gap.
Come on. You can't be serious. According to Rosberg he didn't want to go closer to Hamilton be cause that would thrash his own tyres.... Why does he think Hamilton was pacing himself? The answer is..because Hamilton didn't want to thrash his tyres. Hamilton didn't know what Ferrari had in the bag and surely he didn't know how close Vettel was from Rosberg. I think Hamilton learnt from the last race where Ferrari was very good on their tyres and I am sure he didn't have their data to be able to detect that they would or wouldn't be able to do the same here. Rosberg was hoping the team pit him first hence all the crying...well he got his wish only to find a flying Hamilton in Front of him again. They both have the same cars and if Hamilton can pass him on track so many time then surely Rosberg should feel he can do the same. Nothing beats a trial but a failure. You know what? I would love to see Rosberg get a few more poles just to see If he changes his approach to a challenge from Hamilton this time around. And it's more exciting watching Hamilton hunt him down than the other way around.
What seems to have got lost in this debate is the fact that Hamilton changed his tyre strategy before the first stop - remember the conversation about "we will go to prime at the first stop" to which Hamilton replied "these tyres (the options) are fine", No doubt the Mercedes engineers did their sums before making that change but it's an added reason for going at a conservative pace after the stop to make sure they could last a long middle stint on the softer tyre. After all, higher tyre wear than the Ferraris was a big factor in Malaysia. In any event, Vettel said that he couldn't close on Rosberg because of fears for his tyres, so there doesn't appear to have been any need for Rosberg to panic.
I pretty much 95% certain Rosberg is an official #2 driver. reasons for: - Not a world champion. - Paid the least - Strategy he is placed on suits a number 2 driver covering the lead driver. - Not the biggest publicity mogul - No experiance of leading a top team - German but not a real german so He doesnt catch the national heart like schu or Vettel. Kind of reminds me of Barichello at Brawn GP or Coulthard at mclaren. You just know they are not the favoured within the team. Maybe Irvine at Ferrari? Reasons against the thought of him being #2?: - you tell me
He has nowhere really. I'm sure he'd still be on the grid nest season, but nowhere where he'd be scoring podiums. He's in the process of being broken down like Webber was, this is his career now, a supporting role at a top team.
Put in a nutshell there, that is exactly what is happening. The fact that it is so early in the season is just worrying. He is the closest challenger to Lewis in cool conditions, and every time the lights go out he has no answer whatsoever.
