Hamilton will clinch the championship: If he wins and Vettel does not finish second If he is second, Rosberg does not win and Vettel does not finish in the top five If he is third, Rosberg does not finish in first or second and Vettel does not finish in the top six If he is fourth, Rosberg does not finish on the podium and Vettel does not finish in the top eight If he is fifth, Rosberg does not finish in the top four and Vettel does not finish in the top nine
Both Ferraris have 10 place grid penalties as they introduce a new engine so not so good for Vettel getting the win or second place he needs. Unless something fruity happens. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/121451
That puts a bit more pressure on Red Bull. Do they take the new Renault engines and get the same 10 place penalty or do they stick with this engine and try and get some extra points. Then again they are 70 points behind Williams and 57 ahead of Force India. So maybe they do have nothing to gain from fresh Renault engines. They have a good idea of the reliability of the current Renault engines but no idea of the new one..... Testing the new engine will help Renault and maybe Red Bull if they have to use Renault engines for next year. Changing the engine now at the same time as Ferrari might help Williams but not enough to hurt Ferrari. I wonder if Horner and co won't go with new engine in case it is much better and they will then have been whining about nothing?
It's about individual results though isn't it? If both Mercs retired in Brazil and Ricciardo finished second to Vettel by two seconds with an old engine with a few race distances on it already they'd kick themselves for not taking the more powerful engine. I never understand why teams are so reluctant to take a penalty when an upgrade is available, so you'd rather have a sub-par engine for the rest of the season to guarantee your mediocre results continue? It's good to see Ferrari have gambled and taken the upgrade straight away, really like how they've gone about their business since Arrivabene joined the team, hope their approach pays off with another victory before the end of the season. Edit: These comments would probably be more appropriate in the race thread than here.
Nico Rosberg: “I’m not talking about losing the world championship, because Lewis deserved that this year. But Lewis didn’t win the race in Austin. I lost it.” If you can explain a mistake, there is no problem. But at the moment it feels as though there is something invisible stopping me from succeeding. An enemy that is so hard to combat. Some call it fate, others bad luck,” he said. I think he is still sleeping. In fact he thinks some ghost is somewhere stopping him from winning and making him make mistakes...lol. Yeah he is funny..lol
Rosberg has 'lost' many races through mistakes he has made. That is the difference between being a WDC and not a WDC.
There is not a lot he can do for the remainder of the races that he isn't doing now. Drive as hard as he can and try and make the most of any chance.
I think his mind is on his family, which is fair enough. Wasn't there a driver once who said having a family cost you X time per lap?
I think many have made that point in the past - it could also be a case of the age, experience and maturity that makes people calculate risk differently.
How many times has he done that over the last two seasons? He needs to learn the Heimlich maneuver, then he may stop choking. Needs to have some psychotherapy or he'll be 2nd no matter who is in the other car.
I think Rosberg might do better to focus on his overtaking manoeuvres rather than Heimlich – who some say was a fraud (but as usual, Miggins, I admire your wit! ). So far as I can remember, the last race (Austin, 2015) is the first and only time he's overtaken Hamilton on track during an F1 race, and this was due to a significant mechanical advantage whilst Hamilton was overhauled by others. Even accepting this, and going back to before they were both in F1, I cannot remember an occasion where Rosberg came out on top in a straight fight. (I'm sure it must have happened, but I just cannot recall a single instance). Successful overtaking (and defending) is the one and only way Rosberg can upset Hamilton's increasing psychological advantage. For brevity in this post, I'll stick to overtaking, since the theory for defending repeats many of the same words. The problem with overtaking another car when both head toward a corner at the same speed is that the overtaker must always brake later if they both brake with optimum pressure on the pedal and the track surface offers the same grip level across its breadth. With all else equal, there is no other possible way this can happen. He needs to set it up in advance – as Hamilton does – by positioning predominantly to the inside when approaching a turn; the exception being when this is quickly succeeded by a turn in the opposite direction. In the latter case, he can position to the outside but must be sufficiently good on the brakes to get alongside to prevent Hamilton's trademark block – which leaves no alternative but to back off if he wants to remain on track – thus gaining the inside line to the next corner. The real problem is that Hamilton is truly masterful on the brakes. Whilst not wishing to go overboard with gushing compliments, Hamilton has an exceptional talent when it comes to predicting exactly how much cohesion there is just 'up the road' (one or two seconds ahead) and sufficient self-confidence in his ability to modulate braking* to get very close to this limit more often – and that is key – than virtually anyone present or past. Rosberg has the speed. He really has. Indeed, he always has had. Actually, I'd venture that up against anyone else, he'd look much better. What he seems to lack is the extraordinary talent of his current adversary. Now that I've committed myself to such derisible speculation, I might as well follow it up with the suggestion that Rosberg might well get the better of Alonso now, if they were to be paired together. And opening myself for further attack (why not? ): Alonso was at the height of his powers when Hamilton started. Nuff sed? Yep: my opinion is that unfortunately, Hamilton would destroy him now – and that Alonso himself instinctively senses it. *Modulating (fine-tuning or finessing) one's braking in an F1 car is difficult in the extreme. This cannot be over-stated. The only similarity with a road car (and almost all other forms of motor racing) is the principle alone: that such pressure modulation is desirable. The actual way this is achieved in an F1 car is so difficult it is hard to put into words but I'm going to try. In the average road car, an emergency stop can be achieved by flexing one's ankle. The necessary pedal pressure is in the order of a few kilograms and skidding is usually overcome by a tiny reduction (a modulation) in pressure; flexing one's ankle upward a fraction. Bear in mind that skidding occurs very early and at much lower speeds when a vehicle has so little grip to begin with. An F1 car has enormous grip; actually, a staggeringly enormous amount. It is therefore far more difficult to lock-up in the first place. But when it does, its driver is pushing down so hard it would almost bend the metal of a road car's pedal – and in most cases would actually break the braking mechanism! In F1, we're talking in the order of 100kg pressure; about 20 times more than a road car in an emergency and over 100 times more than when a road car is being driven normally! Yet in F1, this is repeated at almost every corner (because it is usually left as late as possible), lap after lap with an ever less sensitive foot and an ever more fatigued leg (the leg is not used at all in correct braking of a road car; instead, one's foot simply pivots gently at the heel which should be on the floor) but in an F1 car, the leg must 'back-up' one's foot. Now try modulating from 100kg to 99.6kg whilst keeping an often vibrating eye or two on the world outside your own very hot cockpit… In response to my own last line, the fact is that all F1 drivers can do it to almost exactly the same degree. My point is that Hamilton has an exceptional ability to fine-tune it a tiny bit more accurately – and more often – than his peers. Unfortunately for Rosberg, he's the one and only current driver with whom such a comparison can easily be made.
Rosberg is too fair. He should stand his ground and authority when Lewis tries a move. Let him crash into you and look stupid because at the moment he knows you will bow down to him.
I think it's too late now, if he'd done it early in their pairing he may have gotten away with it, but probably not. don;'t forget that in only their 2nd race as team-mates they nailed their colours to the mast and ordered Rosberg, the faster driver, to give up his position so Hamilton would get a podium. I think if Rosberg did as you suggest now, he'd lose his seat. Mercedes aren't there to race, they're there to sell their brand, they won't let their poster boy get beaten by a team-mate with no fans, it doesn't make commercial sense.
Completely agree, I think from day 1 they have wanted Hamilton to win, which makes perfect sense from a boardroom point of view. Lauda and Wolf inherited the Team from Braun, they went to the board and got the money to sign Lewis, they inherited Rosberg from Braun. They have nailed their colours to Lewis's rise and now with his 2 WDC, they can go back to the board and say that they were right to invest this money.
