Mercedes Inter team Battle - Hamilton Vs Rosberg

[tfp]

Wouldn't you agree that a team order like that must have had a reason? If Mercedes kept Rosberg behind to stroke Lewis' ego by giving him a podium, they will do so again. I just don't buy the whole 'we don't want the to crash into each other'-Spiel. I'm still at a loss to find any good reason to keep the faster driver behind.
I understood it at Austin last year - Massa was cooled down because Fernando needed every point he could get, especially on a weekend were he was not his usual self. (Mind you, that understanding doesn't include the scumbaggery with the grid manipulation)
But we're talking the second of 19 races here. It was either a blatant favouring of Lewis or completely nonsensical.

Perhaps that wasn't the reason, and they were more worried that nico wouldn't make it to the end through lack of fuel if he attempted to take the fight to the red bulls?
I agree with your statement about in the USA last season. Ferraris trick was a bit sly. But I understand why they did it nonetheless.

[Bagwan]

All valid points, but at least to the general public it looked as if Nico was significantly faster and didn't need to save on fuel the way Lewis did. Had they let him pass they would still have gotten exactly the same amount of points. If one driver has to turn down his engine because he's marginal on fuel and the other one still has enough juice to go flat out, keeping the latter behind is a completely arbitrary decision with no justification whatsoever.
I've never been a friend of team orders. I didn't like how Eddie Irvine and Rubens Barrichello always keeled over when told to do so, because that takes away from Michael's achievents. One has to put up with it in the hot championship fight in the late season, but this early in the game I think it achieves nothing but putting F1 to shame. How many of us would put up with a football game, where the coach decides, who is allowed to score a goal and who isn't?

It's all risk versus reward in F1 .
To Ross , putting the two side by side was a risk not worth it .

Had the two touched , neither might score .
Allowing them to race also sets up a rivalry early on in the relationship between the two , especially if they did touch .
Nico didn't , in the end , make the move , but he sure looked like he was thinking hard about whether to ignore the order , and this leads me to believe there , indeed , was some agreement about them holding station after the last round of stops .

So , what was to gain ?
There were RedBulls ahead , but too far to get to in the final laps .
If they faltered , they would get them anyway .
They weren't caught from behind even though they were coasting to the end .

So , not much reward , but for individual bragging rights and a few points , which isn't enough , from the team's perspective , until later in the season when , as you've said , there is good enough reason to throw all the weight behind one driver or the other .

They've got two lions , and one just said "I could have won the battle." , and the other just said , "he's right , he could have.", so you have both understanding that they need to trust their team to see the bigger picture .

All is good at Merc .

[markabilly]

Actually, regardless of whether to turn loose the dogs of war and let them have at it.....the cars are being filled with minimal fuel and can not run flat out to the end of a race......so no orders would be a potential suicide run for both drivers

[steveaki13]

I think these two seem quite close and as Henners said. I am sure it will be called again like last week in favour of both drivers.

[henners88]

Good old Lewis is on 'Ant & Decs Saturday night takeaway' doing the introductions right now on ITV. Not sure whether its a team order or not though

[Valve Bounce]

Actually, regardless of whether to turn loose the dogs of war and let them have at it.....the cars are being filled with minimal fuel and can not run flat out to the end of a race......so no orders would be a potential suicide run for both drivers

Absolutely. Without refueling and having to use various grades of crap tyres, this is the only option for teams with two competitive drivers.
You make perfect sense, but then, so do I. OMIGOD! I don't believe I said that.

up top h? ch? top

[zako85]

Contrary to what the big name suggests, Mercedes actually operates on a significantly smaller budget than Ferrari and Red Bull. For that they haven't done too badly in the past.

But do not discount other enormous resource Mercedes already possesses. Engineers, wind tunnels, and all.

[zako85]

So why did Red Bull order Vettel to stay behind Webber? Is Webber the de facto number 1 at Red Bull?

IMO, most cool-headed people will say that this was a stupid order to Vettel. Giving either no orders or an order to Webber to let Vettel through would make a lot more sense. At the end of year, Vettel will be RBR's driver who will b fighting for the drivers title, not Webber. To give order to Vettel not to fight for extra seven points was puzzling. I guess Horner's memory of Turkey 2010 is still fresh.

[steveaki13]

I think it was a case of Red Bull being fair at this stage of the season. I think the team wanted a safe 1-2 after 45odd laps and were not worried at that point who the lead driver was.

Mclaren in 2010 told the drivers to stop racing late on in Turkey, and they are a team that normally lets the drivers race. I think its a fact of wanting a 1-2 rather than titles at this point.

Just My Opinion.