Head To Head Nico Rosberg vs Lewis Hamilton
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snowy
Champion Elect
Not so in this case. Because there is access to all the data and telemetry their race engineers are constantly updating both drivers with specifics about how lap times are being achieved. Despite the fact that they don't share the same specific driving style they are converging on the same solution. They are cloning each others driving and ultimate lap time. Also the race strategies are being formulated by one person to achieve a very specific result: they are targeted at converging the two drivers at the end of the race, one on the optimum strategy the other on the less favoured. This is not mano-a-mano, it is Mercedes playing God.
So the drivers are at each others throats due to the let them race policy but I'd rather that than the one driver plays the number 2 role policy as I really do not like team orders.
So who is at fault the drivers both want to win the championship and so they were never going remain friends but it is getting beyond the stage of them simply no longer being bessie mates, have the team mismanaged them or was this inevitable?
So who is at fault the drivers both want to win the championship and so they were never going remain friends but it is getting beyond the stage of them simply no longer being bessie mates, have the team mismanaged them or was this inevitable?
snowy
Champion Elect
The strategy is to converge the two drivers at the end of the race and not to determine who wins. That is why Nikki was so vociferous about the collision being on lap two. But it is a very perverse way of "conducting" a race and it does not have any fairness about it. Particularly if one party uses an unproscribed engine setting during the race or refuses to slow down to let the other pass and get his strategy back on track.
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An interesting comment. But what do you mean? Not trying to 'catch' you, but would like to understand your viewpoint.
Well ....
=> There is boring contrived (Vettel circa 2011 to 2013... 2.5s ahead after lap one ... his team mate at the tail end of his career just not good enough to consistently challenge) ...
=> And there is un-boring contrived (Hamilton and Rosberg pretty equally matched ... one faster than we thought ... the other maybe not as fast as we had assumed ... sprinkle in some mechanical issues on the perceived faster one ... and a little bit of Indy Car rear tyre tapping without a wall to be put into by the other .... and bob's yer uncle ... someone else wins races that, based on a pure car advantage that the Mercedes enjoys should not be winning ...)
Eff Juan ... likin' it ...
=> There is boring contrived (Vettel circa 2011 to 2013... 2.5s ahead after lap one ... his team mate at the tail end of his career just not good enough to consistently challenge) ...
=> And there is un-boring contrived (Hamilton and Rosberg pretty equally matched ... one faster than we thought ... the other maybe not as fast as we had assumed ... sprinkle in some mechanical issues on the perceived faster one ... and a little bit of Indy Car rear tyre tapping without a wall to be put into by the other .... and bob's yer uncle ... someone else wins races that, based on a pure car advantage that the Mercedes enjoys should not be winning ...)
Eff Juan ... likin' it ...
snowy
Champion Elect
For Mercedes race strategy to work (the converging at the end of the race) with parity it is necessary for both drivers to drive to specific target laps or within certain constraints, if one uses a boost setting that causes them to converge one lap earlier or later then the other will be disadvantaged. That is why Nico was reported as complaining that Lewis had used a boost setting when he shouldn't have in... was it Bahrain? And Lewis countered with a complaint of the same sort about a previous or subsequent race. Nico's gripe with Hungary is that for his agreed race strategy to work he had to be allowed to pass Lewis unhindered. Was Lewis using all the means at his disposal to keep Nico out of DRS range? Perhaps settings they had agreed previously were only to be used in the last few laps during their convergence on a one, two.
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The only strategy Mercedes should have is to tell both drivers to drive as fast as they can without damaging the car (that includes hitting each other). I've said before that giving them "go faster" buttons and telling them not to use them is ridiculous.
Does each driver know the other driver's "convergence" strategy? They are racers and they are not going to care what the other one is planning to do. Their only aim is to win.
Does each driver know the other driver's "convergence" strategy? They are racers and they are not going to care what the other one is planning to do. Their only aim is to win.
Handbags at dawn then...
One for the "new Senna and Prost" school of thought. At least they had the the sense to decide the championship when they hit each other. A case of being premature in this instance I think.
As it was.
snowy
Champion Elect
Ever since Schumacher and Villeneuve came together in Jerez it has been illegitimate to use your car as a weapon and saying to the person overtaking you "If you try to overtake me I will ram you off the road". It is exactly the same for the guy behind. He is not allowed to say "either let me through or I will ram you off the road". This is the point that is being made/contested, this has nothing to do with a racing incident, it is a row over using your car as a weapon.
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