Head To Head Nico Rosberg vs Lewis Hamilton

Quintessentially I think you are imagining the digs my friend.

As for Merc allowing more parity than Red Bull did in 4 years. Can you explain that one too me? I saw a title fight between 2 Red Bull drivers go down to the last race in 2010. I've seen Webber beat Vettel to wins. I've seen Red Bull issue team orders to keep Webber in front of Vettel. I haven't even seen Rosberg beat Hamilton yet this season.

I'm not saying Merc aren't letting their drivers race because they are but this "Merc let their drivers race, Red Bull don't" is not based on facts its based on how people like to percieve things.

Can you give me an example of when Webber wasn't allowed to race Vettel? I can think of one example over the 4 years.
 
Silverstone 2011, Brazil 2012. People remember GB 2011 because Vettel was miles clear in the championship, and it was one of the few moments I can think of that the two cars were in direct competition.

Although the title went to the wire in 2010, it was less to do with Red Bull's racing spirit and more to do with Vettel poor reliability run.

As for the Webber/Rosberg comparison. Hamilton is the superior driver compared to Rosberg, I know that. But Rosberg is clearly superior to Webber, Vettel cleanly beat Webber in their first RBR season even with a number of mistakes caused from inexperience, the next year we only really saw Webber beating Vettel when he either didn't finish due to his poor reliability or because he had a cracked chassis. The years that followed showed the calibre of driver that Webber was compared to one of the 'aces' and ultimately why he was never sounded out by a top team. I think you could have argued that Rosberg and Webber were similar at the end of Rosberg's Williams stint, always consistent and showing good speed but just not quite that aspect that gets the tops teams calling your phone. However since 2010 he has been hugely impressive to me, beating Schumacher comprehensively in 2010, less so in 2011 and I actually think Schumi was the better driver in 2012 (yet he still prevailed). Then in 2013 he showed he can take the fight to Rosberg on an even playing field during a race weekend, maybe not always but the fact that he could actually do this and Webber could barely do it at all in his last 3 years shows me that there is difference in skill between them.
 
Silverstone 2011 is the one I can think of but the Merc did the same thing with Rosberg and Hamilton last season.

As for Brazil 2012. If we're going to count every time a team mate has moved over for someone to get the points to win the title on the last race then thats a lot of unfair team set ups we've had.

As for the Rosberg/Webber comparrison - hindsight is a wonderful thing. I maintain that Rosberg has a similar record and is rated just as highly going into this season as Webber was going in to 2010 and its only because he was so massively shown up by Vettel in the years that followed that he is seen as 'inferior'. After 4 years of being Hamilton's team mate Rosberg could suffer the same fate.

It still fascinates me how it appears that people aren't happy that Hamilton is on top form and winning the championship but they have to have that Lewis is on top form and winning the championship in the toughest way and better than anyone could do or has done.

Rosberg is certainly in the top 10 drivers on the grid but he hasn't shown me anything to suggest he does anything other than svrape into that top 10 right now. He might do yet but lets not present him as better than he is just yet.
 
Nico doesn't need to be anything more than good to pressure Hamilton because of Mercedes dominance. If he beats Lewis on setup then there is only so much a driver can do with the equipment they have. Twice Nico has found better setup than Lewis and on both those occasions anyone other than Lewis or Fernando would probably have lost out.

Lewis is delivering under pressure and the pressure is real. If Mercedes were not so dominant then perhaps the pressure would be less because a Red Bull or a Ferrari might separate them from time to time.

This is not the case. As things stand this will be a hard fought championship. If Lewis hadn't won the last four races he would still be second in the championship. He won two of those races by a whisker.
 
When you have two drivers battling it out for first and second every race you can say that's a tough championship battle because your main rival is always there to pick up the points when you make a mistake or have some bad luck.

In the "Vettel years" (2010-2013) there were 11 occasions when the two drivers that finished 1st and 2nd in the WDC finished 1st and 2nd in a race (not necessarily in the same order, so with Vettel 1st or 2nd and Alonso/Button (depending on the year) either 2nd or 1st). 11 races in four seasons comes out to three or four (3.67) races per year when this was the case. In 2014 four out of the five races so far meet this criteria, so it's already above the "Vettel era" average.

Granted, these stats don't tell you the whole story because you also have to take in to account the margin of victory, and if they are in the same team whether the two drivers are being allowed to race (2010 is possibly also disadvantaged as it was a three way battle). However, It's not really about them being in the same team, it's about them occupying the same time zone on track. Although we had very close championship battles between Vettel and Alonso they were very rarely battling it out at the front together on track.
 
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So everyone is talking about if Lewis has another DNF but what if Nico has a DNF? it would take Nico four race wins to bring him back level on points and with every win for Lewis the more dire Nico's predicament become also considering he hasn't been able to win a single race against Lewis so far then a DNF would be far more disastrous for Nico than for Lewis don't you think in fact it would mean game set and match Lewis Hamilton.

Bearing this in mind we could see the championship being over on Sunday..
 
I think that being a bit hasty Mephistopheles.

I think what people are trying to say is that in this championship great consistency is needed because your rival will always be there to collect second, yet they have to put like hell to make sure that it is not them in second.

On the flip side people would argue that it's an easier championship to win than we've seen for a few years because the Mercedes is so dominant, therefore the can only be one other driver who might steal the title.

Can't people just just have their say without people questioning each other's point of view constantly and going round and round in circles?
 
I don't believe I questioned anyone's point of view I just put forward an alternative one and even that is only a "What if." which isn't actually making a statement..
 
Mephistopheles , because we all expect Lewis to have the better of Nico all season. If Nico has a DNF then he will still finish 2nd in the championship. It makes little difference. If Lewis has a DNF, then he may finish second in the championship. This makes a big difference.
 
Well, it's not looking great, is it?

You can't say it's a harder title to win than 2012. For a challenger in 2012, an off day could see them behind their rival, two McLarens, Hulkenburg, one of the Saubers, both Lotus, Webber and a Mercedes. Not likely this year.
 

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