Will Mercedes now use team orders?

[henners88]

Sorry , henners , but you need to cut Nico some slack on that one .
If he had held Lewis up any longer , you would have flayed him for being selfish and not playing the team game , and you know it .
He let him by because it was the right thing to do .

He let him by because he knew he would wreck his tyres trying to defend. It was the right thing to do for him, Hamilton and the team. If the order had come when Nico believed he had a chance to win, I am not convinced he would have moved over. I don't think either of these guys would move over in that situation, nor should they.

If he had held Hamilton up and cost either of them a win, of course I would have criticised him.

[steveaki13]

The one thing I don't get about this ranking is that you said one post above you would rank Hamilton higher if not for his ability to **** up sometimes. How much higher than that?

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I meant in historical company. I view him as the best around today, but not amongst the very best drivers in history.

[dj_bytedisaster]

He let him by because he knew he would wreck his tyres trying to defend. It was the right thing to do for him, Hamilton and the team. If the order had come when Nico believed he had a chance to win, I am not convinced he would have moved over. I don't think either of these guys would move over in that situation, nor should they.

If he had held Hamilton up and cost either of them a win, of course I would have criticised him.

Hamilton has never in his life thought about the team. Why should Nico? All it would have taken was to delay im one or two more laps and RIC would have won even with the pit blunder. Yet, Rosberg, didn't hesitate. Lewis would never do that.

[henners88]

Hamilton has never in his life thought about the team. Why should Nico? All it would have taken was to delay im one or two more laps and RIC would have won even with the pit blunder. Yet, Rosberg, didn't hesitate. Lewis would never do that.

One is a triple World Champion and the other is not.

Rosberg needs to be more ruthless but be good at it too.

[steveaki13]

I kind of agree.

These kind of things have always happened in motorsport and if you are good enough and ruthless enough they seem to work for you (Senna, Schumacher (although it worked once and failed once).

Nico had some luck in Monaco where it worked but generally he comes out even or worse off.

I without doubt see more incidents ahead as this Championship looks closer than either of the last 2.

[jens]

It is the ever-lasting dilemma, isn't it? For spectators it is great and even for the team it can create some additional publicity if there is a great rivalry, which catches attention.

On the flip-side you don't want to lose too many points and you don't want to look unprofessional. Even though Mercedes currently enjoys a relatively comfortable advantage in the points, they won't tolerate crashing out in every other race.

[henners88]

The last two incidents have involved Lewis going for gaps and Rosberg being far too aggressive. Yes you could say Lewis is aggressive too by trying to sneak by, but I do think Nico needs to learn that contact is not the only way to defend. There is nothing wrong with closing a gap, but both racers need to respect each other.

Just remember back to when Button and Hamilton were battling in Turkey a few years ago, they touched but had a mutual respect for each other. They knew when to pull out or yield. I don't get the impression Nico has that level of race craft and he does tend to buckle at times when under pressure on track. His best moment was Bahrain 2014. I wish we could go back to that level of professionalism from both of them.

The main problem is both drivers are sulky when they don't get their own way. At least when Button was Hamilton's teammate he didn't hold a grudge, he is generally a nice guy. That is why Barrichello looked bad in 2009 when he played the sulky card with the media. Mercedes need 2 very different personalities, not 2 identical IMO.

[The Black Knight]

I meant in historical company. I view him as the best around today, but not amongst the very best drivers in history.

I regard Alonso as the best of the current grid and, unless someone does an amazing season like he did in 2012, I can't really see that changing. Hamilton is a great driver but he does not walk with the all time greats, in my opinion.

What annoys me about Hamilton is he has the ability to be amongst the all time greats but his work etiquette, or lack thereof, is what lets him down. He doesn't work enough with his Engineers. On any one day, he can be untouchable but then the next he will piss around and be completely off form. Look at Baku qualifying, or Austria Free Practice sessions. He's very inconsistent. I don't remember many off days for Schumacher in his prime. He was simply incredible, the best ever as far as I am concerned. I can remember many, many off days for Hamilton and it doesn't have to be that way if he worked harder.

[Nitrodaze]

Hamilton has never in his life thought about the team. Why should Nico? All it would have taken was to delay im one or two more laps and RIC would have won even with the pit blunder. Yet, Rosberg, didn't hesitate. Lewis would never do that.

In the Monaco circumstances, Hamilton would have realized just as Nico did that he could not win the race with the car under him and in the interest of the team he has to step aside. You are suggesting that Hamilton is unreasonable. I find that quite surprising.

[jens]

The main problem is both drivers are sulky when they don't get their own way. At least when Button was Hamilton's teammate he didn't hold a grudge, he is generally a nice guy. That is why Barrichello looked bad in 2009 when he played the sulky card with the media. Mercedes need 2 very different personalities, not 2 identical IMO.

Well. Mercedes may indeed employ team orders, but it is unlikely drivers would yield them... Except in extraoardinary circumstances, i.e at Monaco in 2016, because Rosberg was so slow and deep down he knew he had no chance to 'fight' for the win. Otherwise - who can blame the drivers, when the WDC is on the cards in a close fight.

It reminds me a bit of Red Bull situation between Vettel and Webber, where the drivers repeteadly didn't obey to team orders (Brazil '12, Malaysia '13), forcing Horner to admit that "drivers failed understand, what Multi-12 or Multi-21 means."

But these things can happen, when there are two 'difficult' characters racing on one piece of tarmac. And all of them want to win!

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I think the main problem for Mercedes isn't that the drivers 'race' against each other, but... when they collide. Recall the late phase of 2014, when there were multiple races in which Rosberg qualified ahead, but Hamilton passed him on track (US, Japan). Good clean fights. I don't think anyone had a problem with these.

However, when there is "racing", you can't completely iron out possible mistakes one (or both) contenders may make. So it is a difficult dilemma for Mercedes. They must trust their own drivers are professional enough, which means that while they are racing against each other, they have the skills not to make many mistakes in these situations.