Is Rosberg really a better qualifier than Hamilton?

[FB]

Yeah, what great reminder for him that he lost.

 

[racecub]

Well yes. It's all academic now, as far as this season goes. But it's still interesting to try to pick apart what was going on and why. I'm sure these two will be tooth and nail again next year and lessons learnt, advantages found will be carried over. So the question remains...
Was Nico slower in the race because he was the faster qualifier this year?

Is this why Lewis won 6 out of the last 7 while Nico grabbed the qualis?

And if so was this down to a late set up change by Lewis? Something he began doing after Spa.

 

[snowy]

Nico is very pragmatic and all season long has been aware of what he is up against. Early on, as he took his qualifying to the edge, it was pretty ragged compared to Lewis. Eventually he smoothed it out and Lewis, forced to respond, became the ragged one. After Lewis's first run of four wins Nico knew there was a big hole in his race performance. Despite thorough analysis and significant improvement Nico would have been well aware that there was still a mountain to climb.

Nico will take many positives from this season and I doubt very much that he's done much sulking. If RBR, Williams and Ferrari fail to pull their fingers out and offer some resistance, we will still have an epic season as these two push each other on to yet another level.

 

[Il_leone]

Nico has improved but you forget there was 3 incidents that were mechanical which affected Lewis - Austria, Germany and Hungary and then you had Monaco where Nico reversed to slow everyone down

If Hamilton can get his qualifying sorted out then lets see how Rosberg responds

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Perhaps Nico, on realising he couldn't beat Lewis in the race, focused on a qually setup to try and gain an advantage? I don't see a clear reason for him to sabotage his own race setup if he was equally good on race day.

 

[Brogan]

I posted this on the head to head thread but it's also relevant here.

The poles and wins stats for the two drivers this season are:

Rosberg - 11 poles, 5 wins
Hamilton - 7 poles, 11 wins

Hamilton only failed to convert one of his poles - the first race of the season in Australia when he retired after a couple of laps with an engine problem. Rosberg took the win.
Rosberg failed to convert eight of his poles, retiring from the British GP with a gearbox issue, with Hamilton winning five of the races and Ricciardo the other three.

Ultimately it's impossible to say what the reasons are for the relative performances - it could be set up, change of components, driver ability, good/bad luck, the "Monaco factor", or a combination of all.

 

[mjo]

Hamilton seems to have his priorities right - the points are awarded on the Sunday. There is no point potentially sacrificing your race performance for pole, when you'll be starting near the front anyway.

 

[FB]

Or nurfing your tyres just to prove who has the biggest member.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Why do people keep making reference to a driver saving his tyres in Q3 to save them for the race? They race on their Q2 tyres so Q3 can be an all out blast. Noticeably there were occasions when both the Mercedes drivers had very little, if any, lead in Q2. I presume that is where they did the tyre saving, it was very noticeable in the final race of the season.

 

[Brogan]

In the same 15 qualifying sessions as mentioned in this post: http://cliptheapex.com/threads/is-r...alifier-than-hamilton.7156/page-2#post-266681

In Q2 the stats are:
HAM - 8, total time 24:05.145
ROS - 7, total time 24:05.309

Again, almost nothing in it.

For completeness, this is Q1:
HAM - 10, total time 24:01.345
ROS - 5, total time 24:04.729

Total laps:
HAM - 272
ROS - 280

 

[teabagyokel]

Just as an addendum to the Monaco factor - Hamilton was outqualified at Monaco because his first lap was slower than Rosberg's. Had he put in a better time, then he would have not given the opportunity for any shenanigans, or for his day to be ruined by a yellow flag from any of the other 9 cars.

Incidentally, Hamilton has only outqualified his team-mate at Monaco on 3 of his 8 F1 visits.

 

[racecub]

That's really interesting stats Brogan. It shows Lewis quite a bit ahead in Q1, much closer in Q2 and similar in Q3. That tallies with Lewis working a set up from the off and Rosberg working towards it over the weekend and through quali. He may copy Lewis' data for this, but we don't know. What we do know is Rosberg has aced the q3's since Spa, since lewis and his engineers 'did something different'. If Brogan's figures are averages over the year( taking out the mechanical issue races) then it again highlights that Lewis was much worse in his Q3's since Spa, because Rosberg took most of the poles since then, but their average figures are the same. So lewis got worse and Rosberg got better at Q3 after Spa. Yet Lewis won all but one of the races. So for me, it comes back to the fact that Lewis changed something after Spa, and that thing was his set up between Q2 and Q 3 , when it was too late for Rosberg to copy it.

Guys thanks for the great responses, keep them coming! This was the sort of discussion I was hoping my post would trigger, rather than silly emotional responses.

 

[teabagyokel]

You can't change your set up between Q2 and Q3, it is parc ferme.

 

[Jen]

This was the sort of discussion I was hoping my post would trigger, rather than silly emotional responses.

 

[Hamberg]

rather than silly emotional responses.

No need to beat yourself up about it

 

[racecub]

No need to beat yourself up about it

Don't worry on that account!

 

[Lewywo4]

Thanks to all the thoughtful and considered replies to my post, it's interesting to hear different views.
I just want to clarify that I wasn't suggesting that Hamilton was the better qualifier this season, clearly he wasn't, Rosberg was, I was at pains to point that out at the start of my opening post. What I was interested in considering was not the 'if' but the 'why'..

It was obvious to me racecub that you was trying to convey, it wasn't the 'if' but the 'why', Rosberg at times was faster than Hamilton.

Lewis seemed to have a season long problem, with locking especially that left front wheel. During the beginning of Q3 at Singapore Hamilton locked the left front fairly heavily, and I immediately said shit, there goes pole position. I was rather suprised like Nico who hollered " Dammit," to find out that Lewis was still able to take pole, and Rosberg had lost to him by 0.008 sec. I wondered then what Hamilton would have beaten Rosberg by, if he hadn't locked up that front wheel.

Let's hope in 2015 that Lewis can resolve this problem.

 

[teabagyokel]

The thread title is "Is Rosberg really a better qualifier than Hamilton?"

You can't really criticise people for answering that question.

 

[Lewywo4]

Next season I wouldn't get all bent out of shape if the results were the same. Nico wins the trophy for most pole postions, but more happily seeing Lewis joining Senna, Stewart, Brabham, Lauda and Piquet at becoming a 3 times WDC.

 

[racecub]

indeed teabagyokel that is EXACTLY the question I'd ike addressing!