How different Monaco could’ve been for Mercedes had it not been for some timely team orders following which Nico dutifully allowed the 2008 Monaco winner Lewis Hamilton through. The pitwall ensured that they wouldn’t endure another disaster of a similar magnitude to that of Barcelona by ordering Rosberg to allow Hamilton to pass.
Speaking to Speedweek.com it’s revealed that Lewis was genuinely unsure Nico would gift him a pass on the notoriously difficult to overtake circuit of Monaco. It seems the team might’ve known that Hamilton might’ve forced the issue. But Lewis denies asking the team to allow him to pass, revealing that his engineer enquired why he was so slow.
“During the race I did not know anything of Nico’s issues,” said Lewis after the weekend.
“I learned only after the Grand Prix he had problems but it was clear to me I could go much faster.”
With frustration setting in, the 3 time champion formulated a plan to force a pass on his team mate.
“I could barely see anything from the spray, I thought to myself: If this continues, then none of us will win this race.”
“I studied his weaknesses, and waited for the right moment in which I could get close enough. I had secretly planned a surprise attack at the approach to casino, and pass around the outside! I know that this is not the usual place to attack in Monte Carlo, but this place I had chosen.”
Clearly an attempted pass at the part of the circuit young Max grew to know very intimately, would’ve been a serious gamble (pun intended), but perhaps more tellingly shows us how desperate Lewis was to turn his season around. Maybe he didn’t trust Nico to obey any likely team order sent to him? The Mercedes driver dynamic will surely only get more interesting as the season progresses.
“I had secretly planned a surprise attack” – Guffaw!
What does he do normally, announce it to the world?
Heh. +1
That’s best consigned to the “anals of history” methinks.
I’ve a few points here
1.) The pass round the outside at Casino was telegraphed as the most likely place Lewis would try. He got very close to giving it a go a couple of times. It was no secret if Nico was watching his mirrors.
2.) It’s pretty likely that Lewis would have forced a pass, post Spain Nico wouldn’t have wanted more contact given he’s in contract talks.
3.) If Rosbergs issues were brake temps why wasn’t Lewis struggling with the same issue whilst following Nico at the same pace for so many laps?
4.) Rosberg will regret having let Lewis past in a few months time. It might have hurt the team if he didn’t but it’s hurt his WDC hopes far far more. I think his current contract talks is probably what was in his mind when he let his team mate past. Hamilton would not have let Nico past even under team orders, take Hungary, Nico was basically a pit stop up on Lewis and the British driver still wouldn’t allow his team mate to pass, ultimately killing any hope of a Mercedes win that day. This is the race that Nico should have returned that favour, or cashed in his Malaysia ‘Negative Nico do not overtake’ chip. That’s not WDC mentality.
5.) Although not directly related to the above, those who cut chicanes in order to maintain position should be treated like those who cut chicanes to gain a position. We saw that happen a few times on Sunday (not just with HAM/RIC), Monaco is already tough enough to pass around without drivers having the ability to accidentally out brake themselves and maintain position. That needs looking at.
“Paul”
your point 3 – for one theory for “Why was Rosberg so slow?”, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/36409542
your point 4 – possible that Hamilton’s new contract already makes not obeying team orders a sackable offence, and Nico has been told the same applies to him even if his current contract does not explicitly say so. Nico explained in some interview http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2016/05/29/rosberg-baffled-lack-pace/ that “Mercedes asked him to allow team mate Hamilton past – which he graciously obliged. “It was pretty simple at the time,” says Rosberg.
“I was very far off the place and Lewis still had a chance to win the race, quite clearly, as he did. So it was quite straight forward for the team to give the other guy to win the race and it’s always been like that. So that was quite simple – of course painful, but it was quite simple decision at the time.”
Also in http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/124563/rosberg-had-complete-lack-of-confidence Nico says “I had to stay well away from the limit because otherwise I would have been in the wall.
“So that was the most painful because at that point I realised with that feeling in the car I wouldn’t be able to fight for the win.”
Asked how he was so short of confidence and pace, Rosberg said: “We are looking into it and trying to understand it. There are already a few things that have come up.
“What we do know is there was a brake issue with the temperatures, quite a large one.
“For sure it caused problems, but it”s too early to say whether that was all of it, or to come to any definite conclusions at the moment. It”s going to take a bit of analysing.”
Amir, But remember Fortis said there was nothing wrong with the car, so there must have been nothing wrong or different between the 2 WO7’S, which can only mean that all was down to number 6 driver race ability !!!
The BBC link doesn’t answer why Lewis who was sat behind him lapping at the same pace had no tyre pressure/brake temp issues. If the cars are lapping the same sorts of speeds it stands to reason, given it’s the same car, that his pressures and temps would also be low, but that wasn’t the case.
‘Given its the same car”……
So why hasn’t Nico suffered the same MGU-H failures? I mean they’re the same car, right?
Luck of the draw. Components fail. Was there an issue on Rosbergs car? The point stands though, if two cars that are basically the same vehicle lap at the same pace why would one have tyre/brake temp issues and the other not?
The BBC link may not fully answer your question, but it hints at the reason. On crash.net, it is reported
” With Hamilton revealing a ‘rule’ in Mercedes that stipulates the faster driver be assisted by his team-mate if victory is at stake, the defending champion – after sweeping past on lap 16 on the run to Casino – says he didn’t realise Rosberg had moved over for that reason until after the race.
“I didn’t know what happened, I thought he had a problem,” he said. “Of course he did have a problem, I guess keeping the temperatures in, which I had as well. Just managed to keep the temperature in the brakes and the tyres — That makes such a big difference, my win in 2008 at Silverstone, I could keep the heat and temperatures in the tyres and no one else could, so I was grateful that I was able to do that today.”
Re Hungary 2014…..
Pitwall….”Lewis, can you let Nico through please as he’s on different strategy than you”
Lewis….”I’m not slowing down to let Nico pass, if he catches up, he can pass”…(at that point, Nico was over 6-8 seconds behind and Lewis was about 2 seconds behind Alonso)
Nico….”why isn’t he letting me through”
Pitwall…..”Nico we gave him the message”
Now during that entire sequence of radio traffic, at no time did Nico get to with a second much less DRS range of Lewis’s car to even attempt an overtake (and in 2014, the aerodynamic effect when following other cars, had less of an effect as they do now). Lewis did not refuse to let him by, he merely said he’s not slowing down for him to do so, especially when he wasn’t even within range. Had he done so, the gap between him and Alonso would’ve gotten much bigger.
Both drivers on the day could’ve won the race, on Sunday Nico had absolutely no chance. So to use that as supporting evidence to say had he been asked to do the same, he wouldn’t have, is flawed as the circumstances then and now, were completely different.
You can see here he was clearly within a second and within DRS, maybe take off those Hamfosi tinted specs off once in a while http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/22058/9397796
Rosberg had the pace and car to take the win that day. He didn’t though, because whilst his tyres were fresh his team mate refused to help the team and ergo removed any opportunity for that to happen.
I looked at the link you provided. Yes, briefly Rosberg was withing 1 second, and he still couldn’t get past, even with DRS. Did you read the article that went with it? It clearly states that Hamilton was the only one who thought it through properly and it would have been a terrible mistake for him to slow down to let Rosberg past.
“Surely the Mercedes pitwall must have realised that with the soft tyres a second a lap faster than the mediums then, even if Rosberg had to make another stop, he was still in the same race as Hamilton. Surely they must have noticed that for Rosberg to gain track position Hamilton would have to slow down first. And surely they must have realised that, if Hamilton had slowed down and yielded, then not only was he liable to lose out against Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso but that he was certain to finish behind Rosberg too.
Just what were they thinking? Answer: They just weren’t thinking at all.”
The reason Merc made the call was because Rosberg had the car and tyres to attack Alonso and Ricciardo. Back then the Merc had a big power advantage over Renault and a pretty nice one over Ferrari. Rosbergs new tyres were eaten up say behind Lewis who never challenged Fernando. From a team maximising it’s potential points it made perfect sense, as Sunday did, from a WDC perspective it made no sense, like Sunday.
I think you’re both wrong.
Why in the world would you expect LH and NR (or anyone, really) to behave logically, consistently and rationally over any period of time longer than a few minutes? That’s a recipe for disappointment right there.
Surely everyone grows, changes their mind, tries new attitudes, reverts to old attitudes, etc all the time. I know I do.
I barely agree with the sh!t I wrote here last week, ffs.
I for one hate the team interference but in this modern F1 with all the corporate money that is needed i can see the point. Nico did his part for the team on Sunday and I don’t know if Lewis could have passed him given the form of Nico in the past. I think that both cars would have been out that weekend if he had really pushed the point, I am not taking anything away from Lewis but Monaco is a special track and as we witnessed with Ric,losing track position is a major factor here but I wish we could have seen a proper race rather than team manipulation
Paul, +1 in all you said.
Well the judge 13 has its own rules. Down here we mok anything. Any time.
Hail jebus
#JebusSaves
So is religious intolerance OK on here?
You claim “Down here we mok anything. Any time” but the Judge says racism is not tolerated. So you are clearly wrong. Not anything. Not any time.
Racism isn’t tolerated. But the mokking of racism is. We laugh about it all the time.
This is a disappointing comment
I concur, not only disappointing but inflammatory.
Well did you expect anything else?
That’s a relief. ‘Tis only through you do I truly know that I am on the right track. *winky face*
@WTF_F1
Oh please for the love of all good dont bring the damn EU human rights crap into here.
I can’t think of a worst body of government than the EU, its a bunch of unelected overpaid money grabbing idiots and Europe would be better without them.
Yes,Lewis has found faith and if that works for him then that’s great. The problem with freedom of thought is it must work both ways,i might not agree with what you say but I will defend your right to say it.
Don’t be so harsh. Last I checked there had not been war in European Union countries for the past 60 years or so, a first in centuries, nay, millennia. The EU and its soft-power have no doubt a hand in this… By removing some frictions between squabbling nation-states the EU offers a semblance of stability to the region, which is overall a laudable thing.
yeah but apart from bring peace and provide a platform to be a large player in world markets.. what has the EU ever done for us. #imBrian
Lol, I’m sure there’s a YouTube video going around with that….. great comment 😉
Anyway, back on topic everyone please. No more EU talk thanks. I voted TJ13 out years ago, makes for a better tax haven
Lewis makes parallels between himself and Senna. Senna too believed he had God on his side so this is a valid comment albeit in a somewhat typical edgy, satirical style of RR.
The problem is that people are too serious. They don’t like to laugh when it’s considered a bit edgy.
For me it’s about intent. If he absolutely genuinely meant it in a warn friendly manner then I’ll agree with you. If he did mean it like that then it simply didn’t land. If he meant it as inflammatory comment intended to hurt then he deserves some push back. You can’t give the comment a pass but condemn the reactions. We could equally ask why you took the push back comments so seriously?
Because I take everything I do seriously. Oh wait… I don’t…
But no one mocked Senna for his beliefs or used it to demean and disrespect him, did they?
You clearly didn’t read tabloids in the 80s
Nope, I was too busy enjoying my childhood under the island sun to read discriminatory comments about someone’s religious beliefs.
…nor did he/they realise there were cumulative team-mate analyses prior to 2013. Apparently, such things are black magic, micro-analysis and a conspiracy born to favour Button and his #Buttolonians. Haha. Brilliant stuff. C’est la vie.
Is that all you’ve got? Surely you can do better than that?
😏😏😏
Hahahahaha, yeah… no. Good one though. 😀
You should visit my twitter feed… or Dawkins’, or Gervais’. You’d enjoy it. Trust me.
Peace out, G.
@WTF_F1
Please keep comments on topic as of now. Sorry if your comment (some valid points there) got deleted but this isn’t a democracy…
A fair decision judge and noted for future hearings
Ok. Fair enough 😉
But what about that EU though.. Cracking bunch (winky face)
I did laugh at the fipo, though.
For those loving stats, Hamilton has now won at least one grand prix in every of the 10 seasons he’s competed in.
2007: 4
2008: 5
2009: 2
2010: 3
2011: 3
2012: 4
2013: 1
2014: 11
2015: 10
2016: 1…for now!
Are there any other drivers in history with a similar accomplishment? Either won at least a grand prix in every season or how many seasons in total or consecutive ones.
…there’s obviously Schuey who had been been winning for 15 years running (’92-’06), but I mean others
He’s tied with Prost. And don’t forget the poles as well.
I think Prost has 11 in total. Obviously Lewis has the record from debut season. Prost and Schuey did not win in their first season. So, what about poles, who’s ahead of Lewis?
nobody, only Senna is a match!!! still I rise man.
What’s with the name? That’s almost as passive aggressive as our “everyone be nice (except me n’ mates)” moralist. LOL. Salvu, you do make me giggle, sometimes, I’ll give you that.
McLaren78….
Nope, Prost has 10….
http://www.statsf1.com/en/statistiques/pilote/victoire/annee-consecutive.aspx
Sorry, wasn’t clear, I meant Prost has 11 in total, not just consecutive
STATSF1 Is A Site With A Lot Of Interesting Statistics, Including Those.
No One Beats LEWIS In Having, At Least, One Race Win Every Single Season.
Poles, Too.
In Terms Of Fastest Laps, He Only Missed 2009, But That MCLAREN Was A Pig, Earlier In That Season.
GO, 44 !