Poll Out of Ten - 2014 Russian Grand Prix

[Dario Resta]

I don't see any change in his driving or attitude.
He still went for it at T2 and it could quite easily have gone right for him, or he could have ended up taking them both out.

That didn't look to me like a move attempted by someone who "had the wind taken out of his sails".

I see both. Nico wasn't making those sort of mistakes earlier in the season. If he'd taken both of them out the P45 would have been in the post - or maybe not as Lewis now leads the WDC, so not so much harm done. Nico's driving now looks a bit desperate, where for most of the season he was very controlled. The post Spa Merc management / Lewis moaning/ British press/ boo the cheating Kraut hysteria over naff all as far as everyday racing incidents go has massively affected his confidence. If you didn't see Nico's face on the podium at Monza when he was booed, then you should. The man was crushed. If that had been Lewis getting that treatment, no doubt opinions would be different.

Everyone knows Lewis is the faster driver, but it doesn't give him entitlement, many WDC's have been won by being consistent. It's funny how some people's opinions of Nico have changed now he's in a WDC fight against the British golden boy. Lewis will be a deserving champion, as would Nico. Well, for some people anyway.

Would you have been happy if Lewis had been at fault at Spa and been publicly destroyed live on TV while he was still racing? Toto and Niki were bang out of order to throw Nico under the bus before hearing both drivers out. Has that affected him? Of course it has.

 

[Westy]

Well said Dario Resta

Lewis is a polarizing character. I feel sorry for Nico to some degree, he is a great driver and seemingly a great bloke. He just happened to be lumped in with a rival like Lewis and is not getting a fair shake now. Had he been driving the exact same season against Vettel everyone would be cheering him on, not booing him.

 

[sushifiesta]

To be a WDC you have to deal with some controversy or being unpopular sometimes. Also, it was pretty clear that Nico was feeling the pressure before Spa as he kept on bickering about injustices he felt about incidents at Bahrain and Hungary, for example. Then he makes a mistake in Belgium but gained massively from it which the fans and team reacted to. The response was harsh but you have to be able to deal with that. The number of mistakes Nico has made recently suggests he needs thicker skin or that he's having to push beyond his limits to try to beat Lewis.

Let's not forget that Lewis is the one who should have been under pressure in the championship after ending up miles behind...

 

[Brogan]

I guess people see what they want to see, based on their own particular bias or agenda.

 

[FB]

I seem to recall Vettel being booed at a few races last year, winning 9 in a row was the appropriate response to the boo boys.

 

[snowy]

In general people completely underestimated Nico Rosberg but he has shown on numerous occasions that he is very talented, competitive and astute. He is now being analysed and dissected in the same way as Lewis. Unfortunately by nature people speculate, defame and disseminate inaccurate information about other people. Neither Nico or Lewis are suffering from, battling with, or cracking under any of the things that people hope, suspect, infer, protest or insist. They have enough internal and external problems of their own without the World and its monkeys on backs projecting all their problems and anxieties upon them.

There is an expression that all racers are familiar with, it's probably the racing drivers mantra: "Shit happens."

 

[snowy]

The more superstitious racers know that shit happens in threes.

 

[Bill Boddy]

That's diarrhea.