If Hamilton doesn't win the championship a lot will have been down to his starts and the number of places he has lost as a result. Once Nico has been ahead of him, Hamilton has rarely been able to then get the better of him (Austria aside).
I think you are right. At some point one or both mercedes drivers will spin the wheels as the clutch just doesn't act predictably and then its down to where the finish... and IF they finish. In general both cars have got off line but have lost 4/5 places. a broken nose or a puncture form a cut would be pivotal too. Mercedes will want to get 1/2 in quali and a clean start. after that i just don't buy the conspiracies on the thing. I really don't think they care who wins. I am fascinated to see who's got most bottle.
I agree. Hamiltons quali performance has been good and should have got him more points lately. I have to say if rosberg fails to win... well the stewards will have had a large element in it too so its swings and roundabouts. he was going great til that occured and hamilton had him under pressure. As of now hamilton has slipped back and rosberg has been solid and untroubled in last 3 and its swung back. It does help the season no end to have them battling. I am wondering ricciardo can get involved in the fight in this race too.
The spotlight will be more on Rosberg following his unforced errors last year in Italy and U.S. He has shown little sign of these so far this year, but his title charge does seem to derail a bit in the last third of a season when the pressure really mounts. At the moment he has the lead and the momentum, he needs to keep it going and hope that Hamilton is the one to make the mistakes as he now needs to step back up again.
Lewis Hamilton has once again questioned Mercedes' pre-season decision to switch mechanics on his car, suggesting that the upheaval had a psychological impact. "The biggest effect it can have on the driver is psychologically, but that is not something I want to go into," Hamilton told the Press Association. "It is just all-round psychologically. If something changes when it doesn't really need to be changed, it can have all sorts of effects."
It's a fair point. If you're comfortable in your surroundings and suddenly it gets changed without your say so, then it does upset your equilibrium. Same with our day to day jobs, if you've built a good team around you who are then poached/transferred to other areas and a load of new guys come in, you feel like you have to start again with a new team. Who can you trust, who is good at their job etc etc. Takes time to settle down again.
Hamilton getting his excuses in to fuel the Hamelots ire and totally ignoring that It's the same for Rosberg, or is he saying that Rosberg got the **** end of the stick mechanic wise for Hamiltons 2 WDC's?
As Hamilton had a team that worked for him which helped him win 2 x WDC, he is the more likely to be affected if that then gets split up. Think about it............ As for your second point about **** set of mechanics, maybe there is something in there. He's had more reliability issues than ever this season, though I still think the starts are more him than anything to do with clutch set-up caused by bad advice etc etc How do we know Rosberg did not complain behind the scenes and was able to get Merc to swap mechanics over? If he did, then its done the trick as he has been far closer to Hamilton all this season than at any point over the last two. Maybe it is just psychological as Hamilton does seem to get ruffled more easily by things that some others would be able to just brush aside.
Whatever way we spin it, either its just pot luck which is racing - or - both drivers have been affected in different seasons. Both gain and both lose.
This good/bad set of mechanics thing makes no sense to me? If they thought there was a good/bad set why would they take the good set away from Hamilton and upset the status quo. Some people think Merc slightly favour Hamilton, some think they don't care, but they no one thinks they would take a risk to favour Nico. If you thought you had a good/bad set of Mechanics, why switch the teams over between the drivers? If you are going to change something surely you mix the teams up to try and expose the bad ones to the standard of the good ones and bring them all to a high level. As ASC/Smithers says this seems more likely to be over analysis of luck/excuses to explain away Hamilton's apparent mental weaknesses.
P1 throws up some interesting things. 1. Rosberg fastest. 2. Renualts burn nicely 3. 2 stop looks dodgy but it fastest way round. 4. Its bloody hoooooot. 4. Redbull pace on mediums looks to be putting them very close here. It looks to be crtitical to get poke then do a 3 stop after a clean start and charge through field. Sounds like someone on radio will be saying hammertime.
Hamilton made a huge error early on in his whiney part of the early season in attacking his mechanics like this. I dont know why some were move around there...who knows but hamilton made a huge error imo there. For all i know a mechanic or two requested to move cos they hated the guy. Or some were in fighting... Or the same could be said of the guys movee off rosbergs car. Who knows....
Anyone got the tyre data for today's times? Wondered if there were signs of good performance from teams onslower tyres. Also, any info on Alonsos race pace? Good to see him in P7 in practice2 but trying to find out if his long runs matched up with that new Honda unit?
I was watching c4 there and it seems hard v medium is just not a lot of difference. I think we need to watch and see who manages to do q2 on medium's. If you can start the race on medium's you can either go medium hard one stop according to them or maybe just the two stop. That seems a way to go which is a bit disappointing cos I would rather teams struggle with two stop and have to go 3 stop. Also ferrari topped Red bull in p2 so it's all turned about there. Deffo though the medium's and hards seem fine for the race so I could see a lot of teams just stretching out tyre life here. Honestly I paid no attention to alonso
Merc seem comparatively quicker on the hard, to others but Max seemed quicker on the Medium - it all depends on the strategy - but one things for sure, it will be a Merc pole by some margin. As good as Alonso seemed in P7, Button matched his times on his 1st run until he came across KMag who was obviously high from the fuel fumes from P1! McLaren seem very quiet on the delta (if there is one) between the two specs - plus the always run lighter on a Friday.
A three-way fight? Soft tyre average Driver stint used Mercedes 1:40.834 (11 laps) Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:40.895 (10 laps) Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:40.498 (10 laps) Max Verstappen *In/out and anomalous laps discounted ....but like I said above Merc were rapid on the Hards. Lewis banged in a 1:40 flat 8 laps into a run.
I seem to recall Merc saying they were mixing it up so the mechanics wouldn't become partisan so the overall harmony of the garage wouldn't be adversely affected? As to FP 2, Q3 for the McLarens? FI are the only non-works team ahead of them, which shows far they've come since 2008.
