Head To Head Nico Rosberg vs Lewis Hamilton

[Josh]

I know what you mean. Bahrain was breathtaking, but I felt Lewis had it in hand. Today (Spain) Lewis seemed to me a little more desperate,less happy with the cars handling, asking advice from the engineers. When he's happy with the car he's confident he'll deliver. I thought today was more touch and go. Perhaps I'm reading to much into it. He still won with a car not handling quite right, but if Nico had been on his tail for ten laps, I'm not sure he'd have held him off. But he has the four wins, not bad.

Fair enough, I didn't pay a lot of attention to that stuff to be honest. I didn't really expect Hamilton to have to fight for his position, and in the end he didn't really have to fight that much unlike Bahrain.

 

[Slyboogy]

Where Rosberg lost it is when they brought him in a couple of laps too late in the second stint. Hamilton gained quite a bit on him.

Another race lost for Rosberg that he should have won, although I'm being a little harsh on him here, didn't do much wrong in this race.

 

[Wombcat]

It's not the first time this year they leave Rosberg out a couple of more laps than Hamilton. I'm kinda surprised they did it again, last time they did it, it didn't work out for him either.
Or maybe they wanted to compensate Hamiltons' bad pitstops?

 

[racecub]

Wasn't Rosberg on the harder tyre for the second stint? So they'd want him staying as long as possible to spend less on the softer tyre for the last stint. Hamilton was on the softer one for the middle stint. They did tell Rosberg to look after his tyres in that last stint. Just a thought.

 

[Hamberg]

They were both on the same tyres for the first stint, it was after that pit stop Nico lost time.

 

[teabagyokel]

I think Hamilton is bloody hard to get past, myself.

 

[sushifiesta]

I think Rosberg ended up on the faster strategy (if you look at team mates down the grid, the ones that 3 stopped or used medium tyres in the last stint tended to come out on top) and he also gained more than 2 seconds over Hamilton in pit stops. If you match the strategies and pit stops it might have extended the gap to something more like 3.5 seconds at the end of the race, which is a tad more comfortable.

 

[Lewywo4]

I know what you mean. Bahrain was breathtaking, but I felt Lewis had it in hand. Today (Spain) Lewis seemed to me a little more desperate,less happy with the cars handling, asking advice from the engineers. When he's happy with the car he's confident he'll deliver. I thought today was more touch and go..

racecub.....During Q1 on Saturday Lewis said, " no question now, we've made the car worse." Still Hamilton was able to take that car, and secure pole position during Q3. After qualifying the car is placed in Parc Ferme conditons, and then can't be touched. Lewis had to start the race in a car which gave him problems during qualifying on Saturday, but still even after heavy pressure from his teammate, managed to with it on Sunday.......Good on him.

 

[Mephistopheles]

So all this is just a way of Lewis saying to Rosberg you're shit mate, you've got the better setup the better strategy and you still can't beat me you knobend...

 

[Bill Boddy]

I thought that the tyre strategy was being used to keep the drivers apart until the final stages of the race; there is less risk of a collision that way whilst still keeping to the (fiction) of having them race flat out against each other for the victory. One race soft, soft, hard for the lead driver and soft, hard, soft for the other.

 

[Mephistopheles]

That certainly is one possibility Bill Boddy after all that same strategy has been used twice now and it would have worked in Bahrain if it hadn't have been for the safety car the two drivers would have been nowhere near each other...

 

[Mezzer]

So all this is just a way of Lewis saying to Rosberg you're shit mate, you've got the better setup the better strategy and you still can't beat me you knobend...

I think there's very few people who think that's what he's saying. As always, though, there will be some who can never say anything good about him.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I think he is an extremely talented driver and a worthy champion, I just don't think he is god almighty and above playing mind games that's all..

 

[Kewee]

If everyone opens there eyes they will realise what we're seeing is one of the modern era's top drivers finally reaching a level that will prove him to be one of F1's greats. That shouldn't open the way for any one of us to criticise Rosberg, he's proving to be a superb driver and coming second to Hamilton shouldn't change that. It would be very sad to see his reputation tarnished by some simply because he may end up being dominated by a driver of Hamilton's talent.

 

[Hamberg]

Saying, my only competition is x and x wouldn't be winning if it weren't for the car, or saying "having x as my team mate will be no different than having x" is mind game territory.

Saying my car is somehow worse when... Somehow the car is worse is what's commonly known in the industry as feedback.

 

[Splash]

At some point this season Nico is probably going to beat Lewis by the same kind of margin we have just seen. I am sure he (Nico) would be far happier knowing he had had a tough battle and beaten a great driver rather than beating a so-so team mate.

 

[Quintessentially]

I’ll tell you one thing the Nico-Lewis tussle is a far better sight than Webber v Vettel and Nico can hold his head knowing very well that Lewis can’t shake him off and the gap between them is next to nothing. Mercedes have also behaved with class and modesty. They are not doing their victory dance in everyone’s face at every opportunity like Redbull.

 

[snowy]

There is something very disconcerting and possibly counterfeit about the way Mercedes is handling race strategy. Why were Lewis's pitstops so slow? Why did Nico extend his first stint on the medium tyre, then come in one lap later on the hard than Lewis did on his second set of mediums?

Mercedes ought to be challenged and condemned for orchestrating a strategic show when it is impossible for it to be such. Both sides of the garage know exactly what the other is doing, why they are doing it and are being conducted by Paddy Lowe.

Seeing as they have such an advantage over the rest of the field Lewis and Nico should disable their DRS and fight out the championship mano-a-mano.

 

[Bill Boddy]

It seems to me that Mercedes are using the first stint as getting a decent lead over the opposition. They then put the drivers on differing tyres to ensure that there is a period of consolidation with no close fighting between the two. The final stint is to get the two drivers back on terms so they can have a final shoot-out which will keep the tv cameras on them and also give both the drivers a chance to win.

 

[snowy]

While we're about it Lewis and Nico no longer need to share their data. They are so far ahead of the rest of the field it makes little or no difference to the teams development program now.