A Daily Round up of Formula One news, inside whispers, opinion and comment. Today,
Early deployment of handbags in the Mercedes camp
Hippo’s View from the Waterhole: Incest wars – Unexpected Chance for Audi?
Early deployment of handbags in the Mercedes camp
After the race at Shanghai, which saw both Mercedes cruise to an easy victory, Nico Rosberg was less than impressed with his team mate’s approach in the first two stints. In a bid to preserve the option tyres Lewis Hamilton idled around the Shanghai circuit, backing his team mate into undercut range of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. When the Gestione Sportiva tried exactly that, Rosberg was forced to cover with an early second pitstop, forcing him to do a long third stint which was just a bit too long to make up for the W06’s appetite for Italian rubber.
Hamilton cheekily told Rosberg to ‘just overtake then’, knowing full well that he had ample speed to prevent that from happening as he demonstrated when Rosberg had peeled off into the pit lane. Lewis instantly picked up his pace, lapping at over a second a lap more quickly – and on worn soft compound tyres.
Martin Brundle marvelled, “Hamilton smashes the fastest lap of the race.”
He continued to taunt his team mate on Sky Sports F1 by claiming to have driven with just two fingers on the steering wheel. According to Toto Wolff he was consistently slower than the delta time the team demanded by at least 0.2 seconds.
Toto Wolff backs Rosberg’s opinion, but also tries to defend Hamilton. “Lewis has needlessly put Nico under pressure, but as the race leader it’s his right to do so.” Asked why Rosberg didn’t just drive past, the Austrian explained. “We’ve seen in free practice that the tyres die instantly if you just push a little too hard for two or three laps.”
“I don’t know if Lewis did that deliberately,” a frustrated Rosberg said after the race and tried to put out the fire by dumping a bucket of gasoline on it. “In the press conference he said he only thought of himself, which I think is an interesting statement.”
Putting aside the fact that this is known to anyone with half a brain since last year’s Hungarian GP, it means that the fireworks are on in the Mercedes camp quite early this year and today has shown that should the fight escalate, there are two scarlet pizza mobiles which could be in a position to profit from it.
Mercedes’ foreign Minister Niki Lauda said “The one who has pole has the advantage with the strategy, because he is first.”
There also seems to be a communication problem between Mercedes’ two Austrians, as Toto Wolff reveals that Mercedes contemplated putting an end Hamilton’s dawdling via team order. “We very nearly reached the point at which we had to make ourselves very clear over pit radio, saying ‘you have to do this and that’ to secure the team result. We were about to say that they have to increase their speed. It was exactly the scenario we spoke about in the morning. There was always the scenario that Vettel would be running closely behind our cars.”
Rumour has it that Gucci is running double shifts on their handbag production line.
Relight my fire: Renault News
According to Christian Horner. Red Bull and Renault have negotiated a cease fire in their latest war of words. The Red Bull mouth-piece and Cyril Abiteboul of Viry fame, allegedly sat down on Sunday for a discussion. It was either a trucker’s joint or one’s first instinct would be to cover the ears of all the minors in hearing range. It is hard to fathom that Horner would have been delivering gentle sentiments in light of Kvyat’s V6 flambé and the smoking remains of Verstappen’s Toro Rosso.
Renault admits that they have been slow to react to Red Bull’s needs and promises improvement, insisting that the remaining development tokens are enough to catch Mercedes. The French insist that they have a plan and that minor niggles like the fact that already three power units detonated in the back Kvyat’s car would not cause any rash action. Somehow this sound’s eeriely similar to the schedule of Hamilton’s contract negotiations.
Karaoke Homework: Sing to the tune of Paul McCartney’s “Mull of Kintyre”
Far have I travelled, and much have I seen,
Brakes are just knackered and gone is my spleen.
Past Pastor’s Lotus is the place I desire,
as I open DRS, my engine’s on fire.
My Red Bull’s on fire, oh my team mate is nowhere, I’ll see
if I can hire a seat with Marussia.
My Red Bull’s on fire…
Hippo’s View from the Waterhole: Incest wars – Unexpected Chance for Audi?
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the contributor and not those held by TJ13.
If your mother is a b*tch and can’t stand your girlfriend, get rid of her – the girlfriend that is, as there’s no real legal way to get rid of your mother.
Why is that? you may ask. The reasoning is simple. If those two women can’t stand each other, there is a high probability the reason for that antipathy is that they have exactly the same personality and in that case you may wish to re-evaluate your choice of partner. Take it from someone who’s been there, done that and still has the XXL sized t-shirt.
It appears the same tenet actually applies to the male species. How else would you explain that Volkswagen’s Ferdinand Piëch and F1’s Bernard Ecclestone hate each other with a passion. Old? check. Cranky? check. Manipulative? check. Greedy? check. Ruthless? check. The list goes on.
Those two men are the sole reason why we see Audis at Le Mans, but not at Monza or Barcelona. The German car maker has won everything in the world of endurance racing since the Romans departed, so the only way is down.
To this end, they recruited former Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali along with former BMW Sauber engineer Jörg Zander. They were tasked in the Autumn of 2014 to evaluate the costs and benefits of entering the F1 circus.
Despite the negativity of the Mateschitz cost/benefit current algorithm, these two men agreed this was a great Idea!
In January this year Volkswagen’s board of directors discussed the issue, but mum BoD chairman Ferdinand Piëch vetoed the idea, citing the continued presence of Bernard Ecclestone as the the reason for his non-negotiable nyet.
Two days ago Mr. Piëch, who is a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, decided it was a good idea to grab a firearm and shoot a bullet in his foot. For no reason whatsoever, Piëch announced: “I have distanced myself from [VW CEO] Martin Winterkorn.
In realistic terms, as Winterkorn’s predecessor Bernd Pischetzrieder can confirm, that mean’s Winterkorn is now officially toast.
This time however, Mr. Piëch faces something he has little experience with – differing opinions. The state of Lower Saxony, a shareholder in VW, basically said “WTF?” and the Porsche clan, represented by Piëch’s cousin and VW board of director member Wolfgang Porsche announced in no uncertain terms, that ol’ Ferdie’s logorrhea was his personal opinion and in no way connected to what the family thinks. It appears Piëch has taken a page out of Bernie’s book and started to self-destruct.
I wouldn’t burn those plans yet, Audi.
Nico “The Victim” Rosberg.
I thought Lewis showed excellent race craft yesterday.
Hey Nico one thing on the “to do” list for 2015
Pass Lewis on track.
Thanks, f1 fans.
Oh yeah another thing Nico, everyone suffers tire deg when following another car so get in front of Lewis and make him suffer a little tire deg. Stop b!tchen and just drive.
Amazing how angry everyone gets over Nico complaining about things. Clearly, these tyres are so stupid that the drivers cannot actually race each other. Clearly, this means that F1 races are just a series of tyre management stints with the order sorted out on the Saturday. Clearly, this means that teams need to organise themselves so their cars don’t hold each other up and cause tyre problems. Mercedes apparently have a rule that states exactly that Lewis needed to go faster to give more room to Nico. Clearly, from the smirk welded to Lewis’s face, he doesn’t give a shit.
@Mark Jones, you clearly enjoy the use of the word clearly, clearly too much. Maybe other words would do the same job and not sound so repetitive, clearly..
😨🔫 😈😈😈😈😈😈
Clearly your comment is not all bad, it did make me smile
Wouldn’t have been too difficult to have worked clearly into your second to last sentence, Mark…..:-)
According to Freud you should have a spouse like your mum. Although he didn’t say what to do if mum’s a bitch.
LOL! Amazing
Take it like a man, I guess. ..
If Rosberg had an ounce of race craft, he would have done to Vettel what Hamilton did to him. Instead of spreading dissection in his own camp, he could then have done so in Ferrari’s, as I’m sure Raikkonen would have been happy to take advantage.
Unless, of course, Rosberg lacks Hamilton’s ability to preserve his tyres.
Destructive racing, where the point is not to maximise your own chances, but sabotage the strategy of the opposition. I’m not sure that too many people want to see that.
“Destructive racing”
Care to discuss Seb’s “destructive” race starts, where he weekend-in weekend-out shamelessly pushes opponents into the wall or onto the grass prior to T1? 😉
Schumi approves this.
Schum would – he invented it
That’s not really a new found concept to racing is it hippo?
Destructive racing
Utter nonsense.
For a start, saving his tyres for a longer stint would have maximised Rosberg’s chances of challenging Hamilton.
Potentially pushing Vettel into a fight with Raikkonen would not only have done the same, but might also provided some sorely needed on track action.
It’s not either/or as you suggest – it’s both.
Your critiques of Hamilton always seem to assume his omniscience regarding the tactical situation, and state of everyone’s tyres. You seem unable to pay Rosberg the same compliment.
The problem here is that Hamilton went deliberately slower than he was told to go by the team. There is no valid reason to go 0.2 to 0.4 sec slower than the team wants you to.
That’s what Wolff said after the race. He went slower than told to and kept Nico in Ferrari range for no good reason. The team wanted them to pull away slowly as a 4 sec buffer is better than 2 secs.
How can you say he was going deliberately slow, when the only time he was told to up the pace was when Nico complained?
Why was he not told that before Nico’s message? So clearly the team was happy with the pace at that time.
Why was he told to speed up then? The team could have told Nico that Lewis needed to preserve tyres. You can discuss this all day, but in the end I think Lewis didn’t ‘accidentally’ fail consistently to hit the delta times given by the team.
He knew that if he kept ROS in Seb’s range it would eventually mean that the team would be forced to cover VET. That meant either ROS would be forced to run an overly long middle stint – hence he could gain time at the second stop or be forced into an early stop and run a long third stint. In both cases it was more or less a guarantee that ROS wouldn’t be in a position to challenge him late in the race.
Quite a cowardly approach for someone who says every weekend that he wants to win by fighting someone, wouldn’t you say?
There is no problem here.
As Wolff also said after the race.
You still haven’t really addressed the fact that Rosberg had another tactical option open to him. Mercedes knew by the second stint that the option was lasting longer than they originally thought possible, and that they had a pace advantage over Ferrari. Rosberg could have managed his second stint in exactly the same way as Hamilton.
Sauce for the goose; sauce for the gander.
Lewis’ tyre strategy is switched mid-race and instead of the premium tyre he now has to run the option tyre in the middle stint. He knows that the Ferraris are gentler on their tyres, so he has to be careful not to kill his tyres and still maintain a comfortable lead. As long as his team-mate is not challenging him, he won’t speed up and ruin his tyres. What happens to Rosberg is the Merc pitwall’s job, not Lewis’?
For me, it was just another cock-up by a weak management at Merc, simple as that.
And let’s be honest, if it was Seb in that Merc, arguments would have been different 😉
So your real beef is that Hamilton didn’t ensure that Rosberg was in a position to challenge him later in in the race ?
Really ??
It’s not Lewis’ job to ensure it. But if you go into a pub shouting ‘I want a fight’ every week and then evade the drunk hools, it makes you look a wee bit daft.
His tyres weren’t even close to the cliff, he could have preserved them and still pull away from the Ferraris, but he didn’t.
I don’t see how Hamilton stopped Rosberg from fighting him. I’d even go as far as saying, by driving slow to preserve his tyres, he was inviting an overtake attempt from Rosberg. This whole argument is ludicrous.
Because Lewis could have easily held Nico for two three laps and that’s how long the tyres last in China if you push them. Had Rosberg really tried to attack, his tyres would have been dead instantly. Why do you think the only overtakes we saw where outside the top 6?
Perhaps but if you have two equal cars how do you stay close and pressure the leading driver into a mistake? All he needs to do is get away sufficiently before DRS and then give the car behind dirty air through the twisty bits.
The car behind will eat it’s tyres trying to get by.
I’m not saying it’s impossible but it’s maybe a task to high for Rosberg who we (and Hamilton) knows are too much of a gentlemen to get his elbows out.
So it was a stalemate then. But the argument is pointless. Hamilton can’t be blamed for anything as he also had a right to preserve his own tyres. Rosberg was allowed to pit and cover Vettel. He then had clear air to launch an attack on Hamilton.
The Merc as far more tyre limited on the soft tyres than the Ferrari’s. I doubt it would have ruined Seb’s tyres and even if he had, he would have just undercut Rosberg.
Not what Vettel said during the race.
And the undercut wouldn’t have worked – he didn’t have the pace on the prime to go faster than Rosberg had he conserved his tyres like Hamilton.
lol… all of this talk…. who here HONESTLY thinks that had Rosberg been P1 at the time that he would have been thinking about Lewis’ pace and possible threat from Fararri? …
Totally agreed… I was wondering the same thing… Ros can maintain a 2.5-2.7 secs behind hamiltion and destroys Vettel’s tyre and strategy. But that’s just my opinion/query
Poor Nico, he knows that he’ll never be able to overtaken Lewis. He also knows that as soon as a Ferrari gets within a second, he’ll be toast because he can’t defend.
Yesterday we saw the boy Verstappen in his 3rd F1 race make a couple of outstanding overtaking moves. Nico has raced 169 times and is in his 10th year and I doubt he’s made one memorable overtake – ever.
We knew this year would probably be tougher for Mercedes to keep on winning, they’re lucky to have Lewis who knows how to race and won’t roll over as soon as he see’s a red car in his mirrors.
“outstanding overtaking moves”
Maximilian is still the epitome of the Xbox generation, forgetting when to hit the brakes and going incredibly wide and deep into corners. He is taking a lot of risks when doing some of the maneuvers, and it’s only a question of time he rear-ends a car Button-style.
So far he’s been lucky that drivers realized in time that there was a Perez-style kamikaze plunging at them, and graciously hit the brakes and/or stopped turning in. But when Maximilian does this for a 2nd time to Kimi, expect tears:
I have to admit to having echoes of your ‘forgetting to brake’-comment in my head during that manoeuvre.
Question – seriously – can you provide examples of the ‘later than late brakers’-club which differ from what Max does? I know Hamilton is a member…
I think (but I’m no expert, and Carlo would know better) there is no issue with braking late, provided that you keep it onto the racing line, hit the apex (or at least don’t miss it by the wayside), and take good speed into the corner and out of it. But this is not what Maximilian is doing, hence my criticism.
From what I see, Verstappen at times completely loses the racing line when he brakes late. In the move above on the Sauber (not sure if it’s Nasr or Ericsson, maybe van der Garde?), Verstappen parked it in the middle of the corner, with no speed left, while the Sauber was literally forced to park it in there for a second or two. You can see this in how the Sauber crawled to a stop, and then accelerated well behind Verstappen who left absolutely no space to the other guy.
My feeling is that these guys learn how to crash in feeder series during many a year. It’s possible that Verstappen will learn how to crash under the spotlight in F1…
when Lewis first hit the scene, he rolled thru everybody with bonzai braking up the inside. after awhile, the rest of the boys upped their game and either denied the inside or did the crossover. Lewis became somewhat ordinary for a few years. but Lewis learned how to become really quick and not only had that one tool for his use. Max will soon look very ordinary when the rest wake up. he has a very long way to go before we call him a superstar in the making…
Thanks for the explanation. I would say ‘after Alonso / Vettel @Monza rules’ cover that you need to leave space on the asphalt – not on the racing line, that’s impossible.
In that light, you could see these manouvres as very clever.
Time will tell. I got a feeling we’ll revisit this subject in the future 😉
@verstappen
“I would say ‘after Alonso / Vettel @Monza rules’ cover that you need to leave space on the asphalt – not on the racing line”
If you mean their two Curva Grande incidents, then the rules crafted actually concern a straight. Technically Curva Grande is considered a straight.
But if we’re talking about the corner, the rules dictate much less than we like to think. I found this account supremely insightful on the “rules of engagement” within a corner (including a cool-headed assessment of the Hamberg incidents from 2014):
https://f1metrics.wordpress.com/2014/08/28/the-rules-of-racing/
dive-bombing
Hmmmm…
Thanks for the link.
It’s not dive-bombing if you still make the corner.. also, the apex is dynamic depending on your racing line ;). Kimi is one of the best for close combat, so I’ve no doubt both cars would still finish the race in a Kimi/Max tussle, Kimi knows you get no points for a DNF.
@f1esty
“It’s not dive-bombing if you still make the corner.. ”
You will certainly know better than me, but I suspect that it could still qualify as dive-bombing if the defender is already in turn-in and you ultimately end up diving into the defender. At that point it won’t matter if would have still made the corner, as you’re already sharing the same piece of asphalt with the other car…
“I’ve no doubt both cars would still finish the race in a Kimi/Max tussle,”
Ahem…. [clearing throat… Kimi will f^ck you over if you do stupid stuff… still clearing throat]… Monaco 2013.
Kimi may know how to work out close combat, but he is intransigent, and has a very low threshold for pricks who should know better. Here’s what Kimi thinks of such moves: “That idiot will crash into me!”
Of all the defenders that day from Checo, Kimi was the only one to leave little space the first time, and no space the second time round. As far as I go, he deliberately chose to provoke a racing incident there:
That’s how you gain position. Braking later. Sometimes to late… Danny boy did the same in the Red Bull. . That’s racing
First and foremost, F1 is a race, it’s not a drivers ‘excuse me’. Any driver who’s caught out by an ‘unexpected’ overtake, should not be in F1. Jeez, spectators and viewers have been moaning about the lack of action and when we get some, you complain.
“First and foremost, F1 is a race” – if only
Oh my god! Can people please stop calling an overtake in which the attacking driver does not lose control of his car for even a millisecond a risky maneuver!
The only reason you would call it risky is because the defending driver does not expect it. But in all cases, were there to be a crash, according to the regulations the defending driver would be at fault since Max was ahead on the inside every time. So even if there were to be a crash just because the defending driver does not expect the attack does not mean the attacking driver shouldn’t do it.
Just because 90% of the drivers would end up in the gravel doing a similar maneuver does not mean the other 10% should stop doing it. This is racing, not normal traffic on the public road.
Interesting that Mercedes are creating another inter team problem – maybe its all planned to spice up the battle for the WDC – cos, to be honest I cant see how such domination can sustain global interest for a whole season?
Exactly! Everyone argues over whether Lewis was blameless or not after Nico’s accusations, but not a single person has actually mentioned that this was another Merc pitwall cock-up, intentional or not.
I must say that after years of getting nary a whispered acknowledgement that they supply engines to four-time WCC RBR, Renault and their explosively-powerful PUs have been remarked upon by Horner et al almost daily now for eighteen months.
No doubt the marketing bods at Renault have been excitedly counting the media mentions and calculating the value to the brand.
Not sure that any publicity is good publicity in this case…
Exactly. Renault F1 finally aligned their marketing profile with the substantive qualities of their product: ***poor reliability***. I really don’t think that the marketing types at Renault HQ wish Renault road cars to be blatantly associated with poor reliability…
Poor poor Nico crying to anyone who will listen…..”Lewis is not paying fair, he’s thinking about himself in the race and not about me…😭😭😭😭”
The more he keeps going in front of the cameras b!tching about why he couldn’t do this or that, the more desperate and weak he looks. He’s not going to get the sympathy vote from the public, so grow a pair.
He was asking for the Ferrari’s to get involve so as to take points off his teammate, so now that the Ferrari’s are right up his backside and his team-mate supposedly used that to his advantage, he’s b!tching! Oh the irony.
Toto and Niki not told him recently to stop acting like a b!tch and get serious.
The true irony here is if I say something about hamilton like you just did you shoot me down. All racers (big and small) are cry babies. But if you take a shot at Rosberg for something hamilton also does (whining if it doesn’t go his way) dont expect me to not mention Lewis next time around…
I really don’t understand what your comment has to do with anything I’ve said, it rather seems like you’re taking a personal shot at me, because I did not address you in my comment.
Nothing I have said is different from what others have said. Nico continually b!tching about his failure to beat his team mate, is doing him no favours in the publics eye. Now that’s all my comment was about.
You are perfectly entitled to say whatever you please, so don’t make it sound like I’m the reason why you don’t express your opinions on said driver.
No you are not. Yet you do always seem to shoot at me if I say anything like your comment about Lewis. And you fail to see the irony. I just wanted to point that out. Nothing more, nothing less. Because I even agree with you on the Nico thing. This was just a bit playing around. Putting out a fire with gasoline 😉
During the interview yesterday, Nico was asked..,
“If you were in the same position, wouldn’t you have done the same thing?”
His response……
“That’s not relevant”
So by that response, he would’ve done the same thing, so why complain?
Because had he said again “Lewis drove like a world champion” everyone would fall asleep and the season would be over. Now everyone talks and argues and throw their handbags in the air despite the fact it was a boring race.
Please keep your even-handed, rational and logical comments to yourself 😋
Oh, yes, sorry, don’t want to kill any handbag wars in this site too… 😉
Have to agree. What Max did began in modern F1 with Senna. As was said hundreds of times, he put you in a position where you either had to move or crash. Someone earlier mentioned Hamilton doing the same – he did, and does. Seb’s also one of the best at this tactic.
Though I’ve criticized Verstappen in the past, he’s clearly a quick study. Sure he’ll make “hubris moves” —- but what truly great driver doesn’t???
Well done LH, ideal result. 1-2 for the team so they can’t be too grumpy, but team mate p’d off as though it had been a 1-3. Poor NR is increasingly looking like the meat in an LH/SV sandwich 😝
I spotted Lewis was backing up Nico up into Seb really early, I’ve done that kinda thing in go karting before, its a nice easy way to give the guy who’s giving you a hard time someone else to worry about. If the roles had been the other way round, im sure Nico would of done the same, but i believe Lewis would of found a way past, you only had to look at Max, his only way to overtake was to follow someone close through the corners, because of his lack of top speed, so its clearly possible.
I think maybe we shouldn’t give Nico such a hard time, he’s just had his butt kicked for the umpteenth weekend, if that was me id be frustrated too and problably say stuff i shouldn’t. I think what probably hurt more than anything was, he knew he was being toyed with.and he couldnt do anything about it, and its that fact he couldn’t do anything about it, that’ll eat away at him.
” I think what probably hurt more than anything was, he knew he was being toyed with.and he couldnt do anything about it, and its that fact he couldn’t do anything about it, that’ll eat away at him.”
exactly. and in his anger he didn’t realize that if you are a racing driver, it is never a good look to complain that the guy that won the race in front of you was going too slow,especially not, if you weren’t able to challenge his lead even once.
I fear Rosberg is becoming a Mark Webber in Mercedes (with more luck)
Well, I think that’s a lot of the frustration, TBH. After almost nailing pole position, I was hoping to see a bit more action from ROS, and his lack of response to that situation is really why people are giving him such a hard time.
To a degree I’m quite sympathetic, as I suspect the tension of racing in that environment is substantially more than most appreciate. Once it became apparent that the situation wasn’t going to change substantially, he had 3 choices. Go forward and chase Lewis, go backwards and try to save tyres and extend or do nothing and complain. He chose door #3 and that’s why people are reacting thus. Hopefully he will learn from this and do something more entertaining during the race should this situation occur again. Can’t complain about the entertainment afterwards, been plenty of that.
For you Hippo, even though I know you’ll disregard it like you do most things…..
Nico explains Lewis’ complaint….
http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12472/9803575/nico-rosberg-explains-his-accusations-against-lewis-hamilton
I’m a LH fan, no doubt about that; but i must give Nico credit for actually replying diplomatically to a fan’s negative comments. I’ve never seen Lewis do that. Let’s be honest, Lewis isn’t the easiest person to pass on track lol… i understand Nico’s views
If Lewis had pushed flat out through the race and had had any reliability issues I’d imagine that there would be quite a few people giving him grief for ‘being an idiot’ or using whatever new nickname someone on here would inevitably conjure up.
If you’ve finished first in every meaningful session of a weekend, you maintain your position at the start and can then drive a comfortable race, I don’t really get why you wouldn’t want to take it relatively easy in the race to avoid any mistakes but also, with current engine allocation restrictions, to want to minimise any reliability issues. Rosberg already has an advantage over Hamilton in terms of the numbers of parts used, so playing the long game and taking it easy when you can makes much more sense than trying to go flat-out constantly.
It was pretty clear that the Mercedes team had a pace advantage all weekend so I find it hard to believe that the 1-2 was ever in doubt. As we saw, when push came to shove Hamilton picked up the pace and they kept their positions until the end with relatively little drama. Bear in mind Raikonnen was catching Vettel too, so I don’t think it would necessarily have been the case that a trouble-free Vettel would have been able to catch an ailing Rosberg on older tyres.
I imagine that the root of this was probably just Hamilton trying to give Rosberg a little needle, especially after qualifying in Malaysia. Whether Rosberg held Hamilton up deliberately or not, it still happened, so it just seems to be the same thing here. The difference between Hamilton and Rosberg is that Rosberg tries to play these games on the Saturday when there’s relatively little consequence, whereas Hamilton plays them on Sundays when there are actual points at stake.
Best line I saw in the British tabloids coverage of Rosberg’s rants –
“Handbags indeed, but ones enjoyed by the smirking Vettel.” Mercedes implodes via squabbling drivers Vettel will be laughing all the way to the top step.
Nico needs to knuckle down and concentrate on his race craft. I was expecting him to come fast out of the blocks after last year, but it appears he’s still stuck to them. Lewis without any distractions is just a little bit out of reach for Nico. Lewis will get a stiffer challenge from Vettel and Kimi before Nico manages to find his form (by which point it may well already be over for him in terms of the championship).
Here’s the report from Mark Hughes on the race and explains why Lewis wasn’t actually intentionally backing Nico up – Maybe some of those on here who thought he was may actually change their minds, but i’m not holding my breath.
http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/f1/reports/2015-chinese-gp-report/
So much for those hoping that the Hamberg arguments would die out… 🙂
I have been reading a lot of ‘theory’s’ regarding Hamilton’s race strategy in Shanghai. The one factor, a quite significant factor in my opinion, that i have not read as of post, is the ongoing contract negotiations between Mercedes and Lewis. Maybe i’m way off base, maybe one has nothing to do with the other.
What i do know, in my Yeoman’s opinion of course, is that this in-team battle involving Rosberg and Hamilton took a turn for the worse at Monaco last year, in Q3 specifically. Subsequent to that date on the 2014 F1 calendar we have been treated to one of the best Soap Opera’s available on modern day television.
My two cents.. If Lewis wanted to back him up, he would have done a better job of it. Also, if you left your front door open, would you be surprised if someone walked into your house?
Karaoke Homework: Sing to the tune of Paul McCartney’s “Mull of Kintyre”
Far have I travelled, and much have I seen,
Brakes are just knackered and gone is my spleen.
Past Pastor’s Lotus is the place I desire,
as I open DRS, my engine’s on fire.
My Red Bull’s on fire, oh my team mate is nowhere, I’ll see
if I can hire a seat with Marussia.
My Red Bull’s on fire…
This is still hilarious even at the end of the day…Is TJ13 releasing an album?