That seems to be a frequent problem for him.Quote:
Originally Posted by steveaki13
That seems to be a frequent problem for him.Quote:
Originally Posted by steveaki13
I feel inclined to remind everyone that while a DNF for Nico will throw Lewis back into the fight, a DNF for Lewis and a first or second place for Nico will just wrap up the championship for the German. Be advised that luck is a double-edged sword. :p
Yup, DNF's can go either way. And even though Lewis has had more mechanical problems this year than Nico, I think he is still more likely to suffer another one than his teammate. It has nothing to do with driving style or Mercedes conspiracy theories, just logic based on where they are points wise and where they need to be to win. Nico only needs to finish 2nd in remaining races. With the dominance of Mercedes this year, he can afford to 'turn down the wick' a bit, thereby improving his reliability and still finish 2nd in races. Lewis on the other hand will need to do the opposite. If he wants to 'win it all', he'll need a string of wins as well as a bit of bad luck on Nico's part. He has no choice but to turn up the wick to get ahead of Nico. The down side of this will be decreased reliability. He'll be racing with a 'Hero or Zero' mentality.
Nico is not going to want to win it with a string of second place finishes .
All and sundry will see it as a weak win , for sure .
So , expect a battle , as Lewis has nothing to lose , and seems to have his head screwed on tighter now .
I would be in a very bad place given his experience with the Mercedes car this year. It has been a year where the driver title was not been properly fought for. From Hamilton's perspective, he has not really been given the car to fight for the title this year. Yea the Merc is quick, but is no good if it has points debilitating problems every other race. Frankly, Hamilton has nothing to be cheerful about.Quote:
Originally Posted by steveaki13
As a fan, it has turned out to be a farce of a season frankly. Any F1 driver in retirement would win the driver's title in their current state given the reliable car of Rosberg. Montoya, Villeneuve or even Mansell would win it, if you had placed them in the car at the start of this season and given Rosbergs Reliability plus Hamilton having the problems that he has had thus far.
That is not to say Rosberg is not a deserving winner if he pulls it off. It is just that, there has been no serious wheel to wheel battle at the front for the title. The 2016 Merc has been such a disappointment from a reliability perspective, from dodgy start problems to brake issue to all sorts of engine gremlins. Which has accumulated to a very hollow season as the fastest team of the season has failed to deliver a show. Considering the competition are really not in the fight but only thereabout to snap up low hanging fruits like when the Merc have a problem or two.
As a result, l really think this is not a very important season. F1 2016 has lacked gravitas.
Based on what we have seen so far, a DNF for Hamilton would not surprise me, hence a DNF for Rosberg may not throw the title wide open as some may think.Quote:
Originally Posted by N4D13
It has gone to the wire alas, but it seems the die is cast with exception of the hand of God or higher power to what transpires in Abu Dhabi. Rosberg is the only one standing in his way of being the driver's champion of 2016.
So should Lewis win in Abu Dhabi and Rosberg come second, it will be the first time a driver has won 10 races and not won the championship.
Looking at this fact and the reliability issues he has had, had the reliability been the same for both drivers, then we could have actually seen Lewis with one of the most dominant seasons in history only denied by reliability.
Quite true. the whole thing seems very fishy to me. We should analyze this season in some detail after Abu Dhabi.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Black Knight
Let's not forget that Rosberg has won 9 races. It wouldn't be the first time that a driver has won the championship without winning the most races. Indeed, Lewis himself has done that.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Black Knight
Never mind the fact that this is the season with the most races in F1 history - 21 Grands Prix. It would actually be surprising if the second placed driver in the championship hadn't won a significant number of races himself.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Black Knight
Besides, it's also quite convenient to overlook the fact that Rosberg's approach for the last few races has been rather conservative as he didn't really need to win them, so that's less competition for Hamilton. The whole "reliability took away Lewis' championship" argument is flawed - we don't know what would have happened and how both of them would have raced if, for instance, Hamilton's engine hadn't failed in Malaysia.
It doesn't make any difference how many races there are or who won how many of them. The rules at the beginning of the season were that the driver with the most points at the end of the last race wins the championship. That's how the season started and that's how it will end. Though i will admit that sometimes it's fun to play the "what if" game.
Also quite true. But it is the circumstances around the entire season that is in question.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyL
If you take Malaysia alone into consideration, without the engine failure, Hamilton would have been 2 points ahead at the end of the Brazilian GP. We would be going into Abu Dhabi with the question whether Rosberg can somehow snatch it from Hamilton.Quote:
Originally Posted by N4D13
By the way, the reliability issues were highly significant to the way things are stacked up going into Abu Dhabi. Without those reliability issues, Rosberg would not be in contention at all. It would have been a repeat of 2015.
But that was that, we look to now and what might transpire in Abu Dhabi. Rosberg is not only in contention, he is firmly in the lead. His only task is to keep it together and try to finish on the podium at Abu Dhabi. If he does that, he would be the driver's Champion of 2016.
Nobody remembers the woes of Rubens Barrichello when he lost what seemed like Ruben's first drivers title at one point in the Brawn in 2009. Ruben had all kinds of reliability issues. His car almost fell apart as one of the springs in his car dislodged, struck Massa in the head and almost wrecked Massa's career.
It is who comes out of the last grand prix of the season ahead that history remembers.
In a recent interview , Button suggested he might be open to bribes for taking out Rosberg , as Hamilton is a rich man , but mentioned it might have to be as he is being lapped , as they aren't in the same league in speed .
Just a joke , but the race will be somewhat like that , with both Mercs on edge , not able to finish first without first finishing .
Without a weather misread by the Bulls , Nico wouldn't have had second last race , and would have been back farther in the spray , and we know that car doesn't follow others easily .
He was lucky .
It aint over yet .
Lots of wheel banging in the last race please Mercs!! Let's have some excitement.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Has Rosberg mentioned anywhere that he has just been conservative for the last couple of races? He has actually publicly said quite the opposite so it sounds like this is something you just conjured up in your head.Quote:
Originally Posted by N4D13
The reliability argument isn't flawed. Even with reliability impacting many of his races this year, Lewis is still only 12 points behind. I think we can all agree that he has lost at least 30-40 points reliability wise this year so he should be champion now. Rosberg lost a whopping 3 points and gained many points from Hamilton's misfortune so the championship would be over now with Hamilton having another WDC. That's not to take anything away from Nico, he has been excellent this year but lets call it as it is and, for once, stop with this whole "You make your own luck" nonsense and things like that. Rosberg has just been that - lucky. Lucky in a way that was out of his control. He has pretty much had zero reliability issues which directly impacted the race barring Silverstone.
Sometimes luck just plays its hand. I think Rosberg will be champion and, in my opinion, he deserves a championship but he's also going to be a lucky one.
To me it sounds so logical as to be almost inevitable, regardless of what Rosberg publicly claims. How many sportspeople would actually admit something like that to their opponents?Quote:
Originally Posted by The Black Knight
It's all speculation in the end and I don't think many drivers ever take their foot off the gas. Driving in a way that is not normal only leave s a driver open to uncharacteristic errors. It's nothing other than speculation and, given the qualifying we saw in Brazil, with both drivers balls to the wall on their laps, there is certainly no evidence to support it. Rosberg certainly didn't look like he was peddling anywhere. This sort of foundless speculation is what shite reporters thrive on.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyL
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bagwan
Like Button is so poor that he has to eat cup noodles every day for lunch and dinner.
He just likes cup noodles , that's all .Quote:
Originally Posted by zako85
You don't have to be poor to like cup noodles .
What you got against the cup noodle people , man ?
Maybe they don't have their own planes , but wow , these poor people (and I don't mean that in the monetary sense) deserve some respect , dude .
I can't be the only person who's thought that, as no one has criticized Rosberg in this forum for being miles off his teammate's pace in Brazil (or if they did, I've missed that). For all we know, he's certainly no slouch on wet conditions, so I hope you'll concede that he was actively avoiding risks. It's very hard to imagine that he'd have driven the same way had he needed to win to keep his championship hopes alive.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Black Knight
I suspect Nico is being a smarter driver than he was earlier in the season, and a bit conservative. He can afford to with that Merc.
It just looks to me as if Hamilton is just pushing to the max and actually driving at his best. We all know that he is the better and faster driver so it's not all that surprising to see him out front as he is. In post qualifying Abu Dhabi, a very edgy looking Rosberg conceded It simply wasn't possible for him to match Hamilton's pace today.Quote:
Originally Posted by N4D13
Going on past history I fully suspect Nico to win the championship, Hamilton has lost a few WDC'a due to circumstances out of his control despite being the best driver. It wouldn't surprise me if that happened again.
That was a display of supremacy by Hamilton in Q3. He raised the bar each time he laid down a fast lap. Everyone else were just playing catch up. The cool thing about it was, each run was quite a gap from second place man Rosberg.
The Q3 time [1:38:755] was roughly 3 tenths off the fastest qualifying lap ever done on this track. That was in the pre-hybrid era by Vettel in the 2011 Redbull-Renault and was at 1:38:481.
The best chance possible for Rosberg to have a trouble free race this weekend, was to start the race on pole. He was clearly trying hard to achieve that today, but Hamilton had the legs on him all the way from Q1 to Q3.
Rosberg may have been spared the fiesty dutchman Verstapenn, but he has Ricciado on his tail who l think would not mind taking the highest podium step possible if he smells a chance. It is looking like it may turn out to be a cracking race, assuming the Ferrari and Redbull remain in the mix.
I wonder, with the constructors championship settled, would Hamilton back Rosberg into the Redbull and Ferrari and see what shakes?
Let us not forget that Lewis would be in much better shape if he didn't have start miscues. The one in Japan really hurt him.
It could be that Nico is , indeed , being conservative .
But , given the zillions of different settings that one can use , and the fact that the tires are as they are , and the constantly dropping track temperature , and the preferences of each , it could just be that he hasn't got it just right for a few races .
And , Lewis has .
I suppose hearing you can win by being second in your ear every five minutes might implant the idea , but ,I doubt it .
Interesting though(or , at least , I thought so) is to see Nico a second back in Q2 .
Just how much more scrub did Lewis put into his race set of tires , going that second faster ?
Will Nico be able to see a longer stint on those skins ?
The commentators spoke constantly of how critical the out lap was to the time set , so it begs wonder if a little kinder lap in that second round might yield a bit of advantage .
The Bulls on the supers will go long in the first stint , so keeping your ultras sweet may be a key for the Mercs .
If someone takes Rosberg out or mechanical woes affect him Will MB hang Hamiton out to dry ?
By MB are you referring to Mercedes Benz ?Quote:
Originally Posted by driveace
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tazio
I think he means either Martin Bitmarsh or Maurizio Barrivabene...
Here is my prediction of the race outcome:
Boss
Danny Boy
Fred
Nico
:angel:
I think the first 3 will finish how they start. :/
...but if it rains... ;)
Just so we'll have lots to talk about , Hamilton will inherit the lead when Nico's engine goes bang , but will be taken out when Max tries to overtake both the Honey badger and the his Merc around the outside at the final corner , making it look like Massa will win , but he's overtaken by Fernando whilst they are both beaten by Jensen up the inside , giving McLaren their first post-Dennis one-two just one race in , and Jensen , a final win .
Massa almost drowns in a mixture of tears and post-race bubbly .
Nico , having believed he'd lost the title , leaves the track and twitters the presser , helped by Lewis and his pesky cell phone , and Lewis draws goat horns on him with his "funny" app .
Massa , in third , almost drowns again , in his tears and bottle of water .