Rosberg retires !

[Zico]

I'd really like to see Valteri at Merc. It is a good match Imo..

[The Black Knight]

SHENANIGANS!

The impact to the chassis is massive if you happen to be talking about an engine which is a stressed member of said chassis. The gearbox and entire rear suspension ever since about Ferrari 312T in 1975 quite literally hangs off the engine.

I reject your fantasy and substitute it with reality.

It has an impact yes but no more of an impact than the refuelling ban had in 2010 with the massively larger tanks. All changes have an impact on chassis no matter what they are but 2010 certainly isn't regarded as a major rule change year, is it?

[The Black Knight]

I think he is tougher than that, but l do buy the quitting while ahead part. Even so, he could have done it in a way that does not place Mercedes in an uncomfortable position. It is beginning to seem there is some level of protest in is decision.

It boils down to this: he is a coward. He finally won with a huge amount of luck so he has decided to run. He knows as well as everyone else he can't beat Lewis in a straight fight so he is quitting now that luck finally went his way, with a little Mercedes help.

The emotional and mental drain is part of it too but it's all the same reason, he isn't man enough to defend the title.

[Zico]

Yes Nico required a bit of luck to win but reliability is part of the equation for every WDC and he actually did very well against a top drawer opponent.
Quitting on the crest of a wave doesn't make him a coward. You are coming across as being very butthurt and bitter. I'm no Nico fan but give credit where credits due... and it is due.

[Rollo]

It has an impact yes but no more of an impact than the refuelling ban had in 2010 with the massively larger tanks.
All changes have an impact on chassis no matter what they are but 2010 certainly isn't regarded as a major rule change year, is it?

1989 was in the same way that 2014 was. Changing from a normally aspirated engine to a turbocharged engine, or vice versa, changes the whole shape of the rear of the car.

Plus, never in F1 history has any teams dominance survived massive rule changes.

What the hell does constitute a "massive rule change" in your book, if changing both the configuration of the engine and how it breathes does not?

[onemanband]

1989 was in the same way that 2014 was. Changing from a normally aspirated engine to a turbocharged engine, or vice versa, changes the whole shape of the rear of the car.



What the hell does constitute a "massive rule change" in your book, if changing both the configuration of the engine and how it breathes does not?

I started to think back in history and there have been 2 times in F1 history when domination has been stopped by massive rule changes - 1961 with rules changing to 1.5 engines and 2014 with the new hybrids.
Banning the active suspension comes close but Williams had still very much a dominant car until 1998.

Other times (like banning sideskirts in 1981 or ground effect completely in 1983 or even 2009 did not have one team dominating at all previous to the changes)

Maybe new engine rules in 1952 that made Alfa quit stopped a domination

[onemanband]

I would also like to add that both of these times, in 1961 and 2014, the massive rule changes were related to the engines, when one manufacturer, Ferrari and Mercedes respectively, got a POWER UNIT advantage for some reason.
That is why, if Mercedes domination ends in 2017, the reason is not in new aero or tyres, it is because other engine manufacturers will have caught up with the all-dominant Merc PU.

[Rollo]

Other times (like banning sideskirts in 1981 or ground effect completely in 1983 or even 2009 did not have one team dominating at all previous to the changes)

1983 is interesting because it marked the first season where turbo cars were sufficiently reliable enough not to explode at every outing. Renault's yellow teapot was the first but even so, that was 6 years earlier.

I think that it was Alboreto's in in Detroit where they all basically clanked around on a tight street race, that was the last normally aspirated win until the end of turbocharging?

[onemanband]

I think that it was Alboreto's in in Detroit where they all basically clanked around on a tight street race, that was the last normally aspirated win until the end of turbocharging?

Yes. And it wasn't due to the turbos being unreliable but that the NA cars were just fast on that particular day. And Piquet had a puncture from the lead 9 laps to go.

The turbos were reliable already in 1982 (at least the Ferrari was) but that season was a freak one in pretty much every way.

[zako85]

Shows Mercedes teams agenda so was to just get him a championship before he retired.

I hope by now even you realize how flawed this argument was. If Mercedes knew in advance that Rosberg would retire, they wouldn't have been caught with their pants down with regards to his replacement.