Has Hamilton fallen out of favour with Mercedes?

[Zico]

Does have nothing to do with that. Nico isn't very popular in Germany, so no PR value. If they wanted to make the most of a German WDC, they would have ditched either Lewis or Nico for Wehrlein, who is very popular, especially among woman folk.

The striking thing is, that Lauda personally got Lewis to Mercedes and was his biggest team-internal champion since day one, up to the point that, being a comercially rated pilot, he personally piloted Lewis's private jet (for instance after China '14). Sometime between Austin '15 and the start of this season there must have been massive fall-out between lewis and Lauda, because this year he's turned into Lewis's most vocal critic.

Fair comments, makes a lot of sense to me. I haven't really followed the whole Merc team relationship thing, just had a gut feeling after seeing Lewis's body language recently that things are not rosy in the garden. I found his comments and guardedness quite revealing.

I guess the question is whether this fall out has travelled further into the team. Maybe Totos furious reaction of hiting the table on Sunday was only once he realised Nico had broken his front wing?

[Bagwan]

Does have nothing to do with that. Nico isn't very popular in Germany, so no PR value. If they wanted to make the most of a German WDC, they would have ditched either Lewis or Nico for Wehrlein, who is very popular, especially among woman folk.

The striking thing is, that Lauda personally got Lewis to Mercedes and was his biggest team-internal champion since day one, up to the point that, being a comercially rated pilot, he personally piloted Lewis's private jet (for instance after China '14). Sometime between Austin '15 and the start of this season there must have been massive fall-out between lewis and Lauda, because this year he's turned into Lewis's most vocal critic.

Striking also is that he seems not to have the paddock fooled , as Marko joined the chorus , apparently in unison .

[dj_bytedisaster]

Striking also is that he seems not to have the paddock fooled , as Marko joined the chorus , apparently in unison .

It was difficult to project, even with a transcript, but when Benoit sort of asked why all the world says they are friends again, from the tone of Lauda's and Marko's replies you would translate it as something like :

"Dude, are you daft? You should know he only made that up!"

But I wanted to stay true to the original as close as possible. That's why all the English speaking media ended up with widely differing interpretations. Of all the German speaking people, the Austrians are the most difficult to riddle out, because like none other country they project their meaning not by what they say, but HOW they say it. I'm a native German speaker (Prussian dialect) and have lived and worked in Austria for close to a year, but it has taken me six months to comprehend Austrians speaking at normal speeds.

That's why Lauda is often misquoted. I saw the dubbed video on Sky Sports today, and they didn't even get the most basic things right, like who said what.

Just to give an example: The two-syllable response "Ah, ge'", depending on speed and intonation can mean all of these:

- Really? (surprise)
- Oh, Really? (doubt)
- Yeah, sure (disbelief)
- You don't even believe that yourself, do you? (dismissive)

It's worse than Mandarin...

[Nitrodaze]

Does have nothing to do with that. Nico isn't very popular in Germany, so no PR value. If they wanted to make the most of a German WDC, they would have ditched either Lewis or Nico for Wehrlein, who is very popular, especially among woman folk.

The striking thing is, that Lauda personally got Lewis to Mercedes and was his biggest team-internal champion since day one, up to the point that, being a comercially rated pilot, he personally piloted Lewis's private jet (for instance after China '14). Sometime between Austin '15 and the start of this season there must have been massive fall-out between lewis and Lauda, because this year he's turned into Lewis's most vocal critic.

I think it would explain the emerging isolation of Hamilton within the Mercedes camp; if he has lost one of his most influential supporter within the upper echelon of the team. How he managed that is very much of interest. If we go by Spielberg, Toto do not seem to be warm to Hamilton either. And the British lot have been very quiet or neutral in their comments about it so far anyway.

The situation is hard to read very clearly. But one aspect that seem to be emerging more clearly is the support that Rosberg is commanding, is a lot higher this year than for Hamilton. This sort of swing of support would typically occur where a driver, wittingly or unwittingly disrespects his team. Hence the swing of support to Rosberg, may not be anything to do with his German roots. But simply a reaction to something that we are not privy to, that Hamilton may have said or done.

[Bagwan]

This is how I see it .
You have just seen a driver turn in when squeezed out , when his team-mate , multiple times in much the same circumstances , has taken the other option of avoidance .
You have just heard about the "destruction" of a personal room within the Merc motorhome set after a mistake in qualifying in Baku , with a note at the end saying that it gets worse the longer Nico is in front .
That implies that there may have been a few melt-downs .

And , remember , Hamilton again this race , openly questioned his team's decision to put him on different tires , implying again a paranoia about not being favoured .


I think it just accumulative , really .
It's just an act , as they say .

[Mia 01]

Niki Lauda had enough I Think, but I´m not the person to comment further in this thread.

[The Black Knight]

Here's an exact Transcript of Lauda's interview. The translations in Englisch speking media are all of questionable veracity:

Situation. “Sport&Talk” in Red Bull owned Servus-TV’s “Hangar 7”. A table for four, on one side Swiss commentator Roger Benoit next to Nicki Lauda, on the opposite side, the Moderator next to Red Bull’s Dr. Marko.

R. Benoit (complaining about lack of spark in F1): This concerns Mercedes, now. The fans, you know, they all have their favourites, Verstappen, Ricciardo or whoever is toiling about out there. Hamilton-Rosberg, (exasperated hand gesture), now Hamilton, of all the things he could do, even starts acting as a conciliator.

Annotation: The German original says: “Jetzt holt der Hamilton auch noch den Weichspüler raus.”, which literally translates to: “And now, of all the things, Hamilton unpacks the fabric softener”

Using or fetching the fabric softener is a common German euphemism for either whitewashing or suddenly abandoning hostilities and switch to a concilliatory approach.

R Benoit: (puts his arm around Lauda, overacting sarcastically): “Rosberg, in reality he’s my friend, and things between us become better and better, and all that. Well, in that case it’s over. It’s like two boxers coming to the ring, arm in arm.”

Lauda interrupts Benoit: “He lied. It’s as simple as that”

Annotation: In German Lauda says: “Der hat gelogen.”

He refers to Lewis by a generic article only which is (in formal German) considered rude, however in southern Germany and Austria, it is quite common to talk like that.

Lauda: “The conciliator act was just so he so he had something to say again. But when those two start driving, he will try anything, and it become worse and worse the longer Rosberg is ahead of him.”

All four guest start talking over each other, until Benoit yells the loudest and asks: “But the whole world says they are friends again.”

Lauda and Marko (in unison): “Hello? It’s all show, pure show!”

R.Benoit: “Well, then I want to know: Why did he destroy his room in Baku?”

Annotation: It should be noted that Benoit used the verb ‘zertrümmern’, which doesn’t mean causing damage. It explicitely means significant or total destruction.

Lauda: “I was there, you know.”

Benoit: “So why?”

Lauda (laughs): “Because he drove into the wall.”

Benoit: “And who pay for the damage?”

Lauda: “He [of course]. You can rely on that. (laughs about Benoits naivete) To me he said, I’m not allowed to come in because he’s going to bash in everything. (shrugs) That’s what he did.”

Benoit wants to launch into an interpretation of the scene, but Lauda interrupts him and pats his arm. “The conciliatory act was just a bullshit story.”

(video ends)

original video (may be geolocked to Austria)

http://www.servustv.com/at/Medien/Me...uemmert-Zimmer

One has to wonder about Lauda and what he was trying to achieve my making the above comments.

Mercedes is after issuing a statement countering what he said in that interview that Lewis didn't destroy his room and he wasn't lying about his Rosberg relationship. It's the PR spin now but the damage is already done.

Personally, I think Mercedes should fire Lauda on the spot for those comments. He doesn't contribute anything to Mercedes and is turning into more and more of a clown.

[Nitrodaze]

One has to wonder about Lauda and what he was trying to achieve my making the above comments.

Mercedes is after issuing a statement countering what he said in that interview that Lewis didn't destroy his room and he wasn't lying about his Rosberg relationship. It's the PR spin now but the damage is already done.

Personally, I think Mercedes should fire Lauda on the spot for those comments. He doesn't contribute anything to Mercedes and is turning into more and more of a clown.

The Mercedes team management are in a state at the moment. They have lost some credibility at Austria in their handling of the aftermath of the crash. Lauda's TV comments just complicated things further. Then, there is the aimless warning, not to the driver that caused the last two crashes, but to both drivers. There is even the suggestion that both would be suspended if another collision occurs. Kind of, regardless of who causes the collision. How fair is that? :-).
It almost seems like they are not allowed to admonish Rosberg for his unruly driving. As such it appears harder for them to get on top of the problem. They have a clear dilemma of how to control the situation and it seems most likely to end up in a very costly conclusion.

Personally, l am very disappointed that Red bull and Ferrari are not close enough to make Mercedes pay when they have these silly moments. that would have naturally controlled the situation. If Verstapenn's Redbull was within a second of the collision, he would have won that race. And the Mercedes team would have had a better perspective of the situation.

[Big Ben]

PR talk is one thing... this looks more like the behavior of a pathological liar. The way he lies about his magical relationship with Rosberg is fascinating.

I guess Lauda just doesn't like the douche... that's what makes him reveal these things. I understand him.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[dj_bytedisaster]

Mercedes' statement read like:

"Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten."

http://www.spannersready.com/f1-arti...ff-at-brackley