Whose fault is it?

[Garry Walker]

That's where the infamous team-internal "rules of engagement" at Mercedes come into play. They were established after Spa 2014 and they demand that team-internal overtakes require that the driver behind takes responsibility to avoid risk. That's why Nico always backed off when Lewis chopped across his bow. This time it was Lewis's responsibility and he ignored it, which was why even his biggest supporter was po'ed with him.

Except the difference is that when LH was agressive towards Nico, Nico had the possibility of backing off. This time, Nico closed the down on Lewis just a tiny fraction too late and LH couldn't back off from the move anymore. I am more tolerant today of Nico's actions today, than yesterday, but I still put most of the blame on him. He closed the door on LH, when LH had his front wing already next to Nico's rear wheel. No way of backing down from there.

He demonstrated his two main weaknesses this weekend. First was his inability to setup his car. Smoking pot at Barbeidos seems to be more important. His qualifying lap was an amazing piece of work, but it came about because he was given Rosberg's setup data. He had gone nowhere on Friday. And his second weakness is the lack of race intelligence. Lewis always operates with the crowbar. Sometimes a needle is the better tool, but he doesn't know how to use it.

Besides the fact that drivers don't set the car up, name one driver who doesn't occasionally use his teammates setup. Senna did it, Prost did it, Schumacher did it. You have ZERO proof that LH does it more than other top drivers.

[andyone]

Toto said that Rosberg lost momentum out of the corner ,maybe due to power loss,Hamilton avoided a rear collision ,and went for the pass Rosberg then tried to close the door ,forcing Hamilton onto the grass at 200 kph .Stewards will decide penalty at end of race .

i think he has a point here. Hamilton was fast and he would have gone right behind Nico as he was gaining really fast.

[dj_bytedisaster]

From where does your 100 metre figure come ?

I would guess from his imagination. The boost button works instantly.

[The Black Knight]

Don't be stupid .
If you'd bothered to read all my comments , you'd see that I have apportioned blame to both , and you might have surmised that I was leaning back towards it being a more even split on blame .

Don't be stupid enough to assume that I haven't watched the on-board , and the view from the helicopter as well .
I have , and didn't miss Nico's clear intention to shut the door .
And , I didn't miss Lewis trying to get there before he did .

I was assuming that the press of the button would give a more instantaneous boost than 100 metres later , it's true .
But , it was something that I read this morning , and I can't seem to find it again for reference .

From where does your 100 metre figure come ?

Fair enough and apologies for my misinterpretation.

Lewis mentioned the 100 metres in an interview, that the mode switch takes 100 metres to kick in thus Nico didn't get and immediate benefit from hitting the boost button.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ha...-words-737175/

[The Black Knight]

They do within Mercedes. After the infamous accident at Spa they developed a number of rules, internally called "rules of engagement", which demand that team-internal overtaking is only permitted without taking obvious risks of crashing and the overtaking driver is obliged to make sure of that. That's why Lauda was so po'ed despite being Lewis's biggest supporter within the team. As far as I can remember, this was the first time he blamed Lewis for anything.

Rubbish. You can never apply these type of rules to two racing drivers. Mercedes know this as much as anyone else. Lauda was pissed off because, as usual, he reacts before he knows the full story. Lewis had no obvious risk of crashing when he committed to the overtake, not until Nico cut across him.

[dj_bytedisaster]

Fair enough and apologies for my misinterpretation.

Lewis mentioned the 100 metres in an interview, that the mode switch takes 100 metres to kick in thus Nico didn't get and immediate benefit from hitting the boost button.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ha...-words-737175/

If it would take 100 meters to kick in it would essentially be useless, because it is often used to defend against DRS. Giving a DRS'ing guy 100 meters head start would render it completely useless. I would be careful about the technical details that Lewis gave away in the interview. They were clearly aimed at stirring fire. For instance he said that Nico started the race in the wrong mode, which is technically impossible. Nico configured the wrong mode, into which the car switched after the RS mode was turned off automatically. His intentions became all clear when right on cue the Hamfosi brigade started bandying theories about that Nico only had consistently better starts than Lewis because he was cheating with engine modes.

Lewis is quite skilled at using interviews and social media to keep his supporters ready to rumble.

[AndyL]

Another example of x-box generation driving from Rosberg - he was down on power and had left a door open which he thought he could close without harm to himself. Where could Hamilton go? LH was committed to the move and being squeezed attempted to avoid collision but was too far on the grass. Just as well that Rosberg was unable to profit from his appalling decision!

Actually I think it's an example of Senna/Schumacher style ruthlessness from Rosberg. Obviously he wasn't deliberately attempting to cause an accident, but at the same time he chose not to leave a car's width and made absolutely sure that, one way or another, Hamilton was not coming through.

Rosberg's attitude after qualifying was interesting. He seemed quite unconcerned about being outqualified by a quarter of a second, like he's accepted that Hamilton's pace is going to be untouchable on a regular basis. I think he's realised that to win a championship against Hamilton is going to require that kind of ruthlessness to maximise every opportunity he has, and deny his teammate any opportunity that he can.

[The Black Knight]

If it would take 100 meters to kick in it would essentially be useless, because it is often used to defend against DRS. Giving a DRS'ing guy 100 meters head start would render it completely useless. I would be careful about the technical details that Lewis gave away in the interview. They were clearly aimed at stirring fire. For instance he said that Nico started the race in the wrong mode, which is technically impossible. Nico configured the wrong mode, into which the car switched after the RS mode was turned off automatically. His intentions became all clear when right on cue the Hamfosi brigade started bandying theories about that Nico only had consistently better starts than Lewis because he was cheating with engine modes.

Lewis is quite skilled at using interviews and social media to keep his supporters ready to rumble.

I'm not sure you read what I said correctly. It takes 100 metres to switch from the incorrect mode Nico was in going around turn 3 to switch into the correct mode. After RS mode was switched off, Nico found himself in an incorrect mode. I think this was safety car mode. Anyway, he then switched back to to his normal race setting mode but this mode takes 100 metres to switch in. It's not until this mode switch is completed that the boost button will work. But yes, the boost will work straight away under normal circumstances. It's ridiculous to suggest Nico was cheating with engine modes. That's clearly not the case. He has simply been better off the line so far this year.

[Bagwan]

Actually I think it's an example of Senna/Schumacher style ruthlessness from Rosberg. Obviously he wasn't deliberately attempting to cause an accident, but at the same time he chose not to leave a car's width and made absolutely sure that, one way or another, Hamilton was not coming through.

Rosberg's attitude after qualifying was interesting. He seemed quite unconcerned about being outqualified by a quarter of a second, like he's accepted that Hamilton's pace is going to be untouchable on a regular basis. I think he's realised that to win a championship against Hamilton is going to require that kind of ruthlessness to maximise every opportunity he has, and deny his teammate any opportunity that he can.

Nico pounded around the track on long runs and was confident of his race pace and tire management , I believe .
Couple that with his better starting this year and I think it explains his unconcerned reaction .

I also think he now understands that an over-confident Lewis is easier to beat than beaten down determined one .

[Mifune]

So the arguments begin... Whose fault is it you ask? Well, if you can be objective then these are the facts:-

1. Hamilton lost the drag race to the first corner. Rosberg overtakes on the outside which shows how Hamilton has taken care to give Nico tons of space to avoid a collision.
2. They come out of the corner in to the short straight to turn two. Nico moves left to cover that side
3. Nico discovers that he wasd in the wrong engine mode and proceeds to correct it quickly before turn two. At this point, Nico was down on power and Hamilton was clearly much faster as he was bearing down on a slower Nico.
4. From Hamiltons perspective, Nico had the left side covered but had the right side open by more than a cars width. Hamilton, seeing the opportunity on the right, decides to overtake. Meanwhile, Nico was fiddling with knobs on the steering.
5. Nico finished just in time to see Hamilton heading for the open right side then turned sharply to cut him off. But his reaction was abit late. Hamilton had to take to the grass to avoid a collision, lost grip on the grass, spun round and crashed into Nico.

So the questions are as follows:-

Would any other driver in the grid in Hamilton's position seeing the opportunity and the clear open door to Nico's right not attempt to go for the overtake?

Did Nico, knowing he was in the incorrect engine mode, hence would be slower than the cars behind him momentarily take the right action to avoid a collision from the faster cars behind him? Hence was his attempt to defend the open right side of him under his circumstance not dangerous? Both drivers walked away from that one, but it could have also easily been a fatal accident for Hamilton.

This is racing, not an effing procession. I think Nico should have left a car's width as Hamilton left for him at turn one. His late move to defend the open right side as a result of correcting being in the wrong engine mode was reckless and unsportmanlike. It is similar to his move on Ricciado that resulted in him having a puncture to the rear when he had the opportunity to take the lead of the championship going into the mid season break in 2014.

In my opinion, the stewards at the race were crap. We wanted to see a fair fight at the front, what we saw today was very sub-standard defensive drive by Rosberg that cost Mercedes easy 43 points. I was quite surprise to hear Lauda who normally is very objective about his opinions blame Hamilton before the analysis of the accident had taken place. Hamilton was abit naive today to quickly accept fault without first waiting to see all the fact of the accident before putting his hand up to accept the fault.

Should we expect accidents to occur each time Rosberg receives challenge from a charging Hamilton? At this rate, Mercedes may hand the drivers title to Redbull or Ferrari [if they get their act together].

It is not respectable to not accept fault when it is clearly yours. Nico caused what could have been a fatal accident by not leaving a cars width. You may argue that he was in front and had the right to defend. Our conversation would haave been very different if Hamilton got killed due to that accident which was clearly very reckless.

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