Congratulations Nico Rosberg, a worthy winner of the highest honour in motorsport: World Drivers Champion, 2016. A world championship is all about points (Bernie: thanks for listening and thanks for scrapping your daft gimmick: double points for the finalé trivialised the main basis of a world championship which must be respectful to each and every event). Points may be amassed one way or another, and so long as sportsmanship is not part of the equation, anyone who comes out on top has earned it. Rosberg is a sportsman. He has never attempted to cheat and has been punished for whatever indiscretions he was deemed to have committed – and he has put them in the past and got on with the job he needed to do: exploiting Hamilton's greatest weakness at exactly the right moment*. Some may view Rosberg's recent tactics as less than heroic. I've even seen some refer to him as cowardly; but this is nonsense. He played to his strengths by calculating his World Championship; and that is at least as valid as any other aspect to achieving it. *Hamilton had some dreadful luck but, in the sporting vernacular, he also dropped the ball this year. He was complacent and did not put the necessary work in when it could have made a difference. Yes, he suffered failures at critical moments but he also squandered points off the grid with poor starts. The former is essentially out of a driver's control but the latter was something he could and should have applied himself to far sooner in the season. As it was, he seemed to view poor starts as something to be relished – almost as if it would prove he was 'even better'. Error… –And it seems to me Rosberg sensed this and seized what will probably prove to be his only chance. Fair play and congratulations. Hamilton: go back to racing school and sort your priorities out. Bad luck is only part of the equation but you can work on everything else, including what you do when you're not actually at an event!
I think that's a bit unfair on Hamilton, not to take anything away from Rosberg who has taken his opportunities well, but with the early reliability problems he was on the back foot from the start and had to claw back points which he did. But Malaysia was the race where Lewis lost the wdc. If not for that he could have won it by 27(?) points. But that's F1, luck plays its part. Should we criticise Lewis for being a media focal point? It does seem that he's distracted at times but that's not what lost him the title. I really believed Lewis would do it, although at the same time I didn't want to see Nico lose it at the last hurdle.
Congratulations chap. If it's a role within the Honda factory, please make that engine awesome. All the best!
Opera reporting this morning that Hamilton could face the sack, but as it's the papers il consider it made up BS. That said, what a situation F1 finds itself in. A team actually holding a meeting to discuss whether to punish their driver for trying to win a World Championship. I despise Mercedes Benz.
I'm sure there is some press hype going on there. If Merc does not have the fastest car in the field next year, you'd want Hamilton rather than Rosberg in the car.
Congratulations on the new job, I hope you love it. Please do come back to this "football" message board and share what you can
Congratulations on the new job, I hope you have a great time doing what ever it is that you're going to be doing!
I seriously can not believe the fuss being made over this: "The Telegraph adds: 'Lewis Hamilton could be suspended by Mercedes after brazenly and repeatedly defying team orders in a futile attempt to deny Nico Rosberg a first world title…Not only did the ruse backfire, it cast him into potentially serious difficulties with his employers, who suggested he had created a situation of "anarchy"." They word it in such a way that Lewis wasn't also competing for the world championship and he was just trying to stop Nico winning it in favour of a non Mercedes driver.
Hamilton certainly isn't the first to ignore team orders. With a championship at stake, he used his brain. It's no different to backing up the pack after a safety car scenario. Anyway, anything conversial or exciting is good for viewing. Prost v Senna, Schumacher v Hill and Schumacher v Villeneuve, Hamilton v Massa. They all stick out.
Same sort of thing in the Guardian. 'Hamilton faces mercedes wrath for defying team'. 'go slow tactics leave sour taste'. Etc.
Had to laugh at Vettels accusation of 'dirty tricks'. I wonder what he would have done in that situation.
Vettels had a season full of irony. Hope to see him in a fight next season with several others at the front. Been a very off year to his hight standards.
Also I just have to say, all this talk about an inconsistent Lewis this year is codswallop, not counting 1st or 2nd places as they are expected of Merc in which ever order, he's had 5 bad races (not counting his engine failures, one of which he still got 2nd place!) to Nico's 7. Lewis: Bahrain - 3rd Spain - Retired Europe - 5th Singapore - 3rd Japan - 3rd Nico: Spain - Retired Monaco - 7th Canada - 5th Austria - 4th Great Britain - 3rd Germany - 4th Malaysia - 3rd (Would have been 4th had Lewis not retired) Lewis' engine problems which he can't really be blamed for: China - 7th (Engine Failure - Lost him at least 12 points assuming Nico would still win and Lewis 2nd) Belgium - 3rd (Penalties for new engines - Lost him at least 3 points assuming Nico would still win and Lewis 2nd) Malaysia - Retired (Engine Failure - lost him 28 points in the swing as lets face it, he was going to win that race without that retirement) Total lost points: 43. With the above in mind, if Nico and Lewis had of been switched and Nico had of won the final 4 races and Lewis came 2nd then Lewis would still have won the Championship by 15 points. Yes, he has had bad races but so had Nico (no driver is perfect). Those are not what lost him the title. The reliability is. Yes a driver needs a bit of luck and not taking away Nico's achievement as he has had that luck this year and done what he needed to, to win the Championship. But removing the engine failures and Lewis has still had the better season.
That's a bit unfair. Spain - Retired because his team mate crashed into him Monaco - He moved over for his team mate Canada - He had a puncture and was forced to do another pit stop Austria - Collision with his Team Mate British GP - Stewarts penalty for radio message - Rule scraped soon after. Germany - Stewarts penalty for pushing Mad Max wide. Malaysia - First corner collision caused spin. So, shall we now count the points Nico lost with these?
Nah, sorry Cosi mostly disagree except maybe Hamiltons social life distractions, Rosberg is second rate driver when racing Hamilton, proven many times for all to witness, a "true" world champion would not ask for help on the radio. True that Rosberg identified Hamiltons potential flaws and exploited them but that is a Rosberg flaw also, having to connive a method of beating your team-mate rather than out drive him.