Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team 2014

[Chuckjr]

Simply draw up the papers and tell them sign on the dotted line. All that's required is not crashing into one another.

And then one of them says no, then what do you do?

First, gag order implemented.

Second, I inform him that he (as well as his teammate) has made light of and compromised the authority and provider of his race car and paycheck. His reckless words, actions, and/or choices on and/or off the track are acts of insubordination and are a breech of contract. (I assume insubordination is breech) Therefore, this will not be tolerated and the consequence is a required signature for a contract addendum.

Should that be denied he would immediately be pulled from the car for breech of contract and irreconcilability. Id bound him tightly to his contract and would not allow him to leave or drive for any other team till said contract was complete. Until he chose to sign, he would not drive nor be paid.

If these terms are unnacceptable then he is welcome to bring his little group of attorneys while the might of earth girdling Mercedes Bens unleashes a fury of counter litigation even Bernie himself would be impressed.

They are an employee for Merc. Employees abide by the rules or suffer the consequences. Toto is making this too controversial. These are just contracted race car drivers. Nothing more.

[Phil]

I dont see any reason why Mercedes should be too angry. They still came away with +18 points - the WDC and WCC a matter of time and formality, as long as they get the situation under control or at the very least, not blow up further.

If they start with threatening their drivers, or publicly shame them or attempt to limit the performance on one over the other, things will escalate further to the point it will end in a fiasco and some very red heads at Mercedes HQ.

If there was action to be taken, it should have taken place immediately during or after the race. Now the best thing is to get it out of the way.

There will be internal talk, Nico will apologise and that will be the end of it. What might be a direct consequence is that driver No. 2 (the one not leading after the first corner) will get an alternate strategy that will put him well out of harms way of intefering with the other.

This is Vettel/Webber in China all over again. All the fans screamed for action, yet in the end, it just went away and was forgotten. As many suspected, Webber decided to leave F1 or never got a renewal on his contract.

Really, why would Mercedes enforce any penalties on their behalf? They ultimately came off with 18 points (not that bad if you think about it) and they could care less which of their drivers wins the championship. What they dont want is bad publicity and any form of manipulation would guarantee that far more than keeping quiet.

Anything else is simply wishful thinking. It's a business, not a sport.

[FW17]

Mercedes has brought a new concept to F1; agree to disagree.

Great way to manage a volatile situation.

[CHT]

I agree with Boullier, Merc should have handle the situation with the media better.

When asked how the team can control Hamilton and Rosberg from now on, Boullier said: "You can't. It is unfortunate it happened on lap two but it is a racing incident.

"If you watch the last races it has happened many times. So it is unfortunate, and I understand why they may be upset because they missed a one-two result, but this is racing."

Boullier also suggests that Mercedes has to decide whether to have a media blackout about how it has resolved matter, or that it needs to explain what action it has taken - which could risk fuelling the controversy further.

"It depends on how much coverage you want after in the press," he said. "If you start to blame the drivers then obviously it is a policy that I will not recommend.

"It is better to clear the air outside of the track, but I am happy to not have that problem to manage. In the end you tend to think you are shooting yourself - but this is part of racing as well."

[SectorOne]

Second, I inform him that he (as well as his teammate) has made light of and compromised the authority and provider of his race car and paycheck. His reckless words, actions, and/or choices on and/or off the track are acts of insubordination and are a breech of contract. (I assume insubordination is breech) Therefore, this will not be tolerated and the consequence is a required signature for a contract addendum.

And what you get is 12 months of being in court during which nothing will be signed by the drivers.

Should that be denied he would immediately be pulled from the car for breech of contract and irreconcilability. Id bound him tightly to his contract and would not allow him to leave or drive for any other team till said contract was complete. Until he chose to sign, he would not drive nor be paid.

And the driver will do the same, saying Mercedes are in breech of contract, and another 12 months are added of court visitations. Still no papers signed.
4 drivers available, Bird and some kid off the street which will make sure Red Bull catches up and WCC is lost.

If these terms are unnacceptable then he is welcome to bring his little group of attorneys while the might of earth girdling Mercedes Bens unleashes a fury of counter litigation even Bernie himself would be impressed.

Yup and win or lose, no paper will be signed until court has decided, all while a season is in progress.

They are an employee for Merc. Employees abide by the rules or suffer the consequences. Toto is making this too controversial. These are just contracted race car drivers. Nothing more.

They are also people with rights and cannot be run over because Mercedes makes up stuff 5 days after a collision on the track.

Then the end result is Mercedes reputation is destroyed even more and very few drivers will want to drive for them.
Basically what keeps them semi-relevant is producing good cars which is never a certainty.

[WaikeCU]

I dont see any reason why Mercedes should be too angry. They still came away with +18 points - the WDC and WCC a matter of time and formality, as long as they get the situation under control or at the very least, not blow up further.

If they start with threatening their drivers, or publicly shame them or attempt to limit the performance on one over the other, things will escalate further to the point it will end in a fiasco and some very red heads at Mercedes HQ.

If there was action to be taken, it should have taken place immediately during or after the race. Now the best thing is to get it out of the way.

There will be internal talk, Nico will apologise and that will be the end of it. What might be a direct consequence is that driver No. 2 (the one not leading after the first corner) will get an alternate strategy that will put him well out of harms way of intefering with the other.

This is Vettel/Webber in China all over again. All the fans screamed for action, yet in the end, it just went away and was forgotten. As many suspected, Webber decided to leave F1 or never got a renewal on his contract.

Really, why would Mercedes enforce any penalties on their behalf? They ultimately came off with 18 points (not that bad if you think about it) and they could care less which of their drivers wins the championship. What they dont want is bad publicity and any form of manipulation would guarantee that far more than keeping quiet.

Anything else is simply wishful thinking. It's a business, not a sport.

Could be. I have the feeling that Toto is just saying "Unacceptable" just to show the world he's also gutted, but in reality he's actually delighted with this turning point. Rosberg leaves unpunished and with +18 points. Toto guarantees his German driver that everything is still going according to plan and he doesn't have to worry. All Nico has to do is to read this piece of paper that Toto wrote himself to publicly apologize he made a mistake (which is loads of bull). Nico has to do this, so Lewis thinks he still has the team backing him up, when in reality he's the driver that will end 2nd at the end of the season anyway. Toto just wants Lewis to think he's still has the chance to win the WDC, but it's already scripted at the pitwall.

[elf341]

I dont see any reason why Mercedes should be too angry. They still came away with +18 points - the WDC and WCC a matter of time and formality, as long as they get the situation under control or at the very least, not blow up further.

If so it's only because of the high points haul at the start of the season.

I find myself in complete agreement with Eddie Jordan in this matter:

They have cost the team. Let's be clear. Between Hungary and the race at the weekend, they've cost the team about 40 odd points. It's unacceptable. I'd go mental if I was in charge of that team. I'd fine them and I'd say even the slightest rumour of anything like this happening again and you'll be replaced.

[The team is] being run by two drivers who are like spoilt kids and are doing what they want to do.

Mercedes have built this year nothing short of what is a work of art, which is made all the more spectacular when one considers the toils they endured in previous seasons - a justification for the direction of their programme which many thought was being driven off a cliff back in 2012. The W05 *should* have gone down in history as an equal to the mighty MP4-4, but right now it will look weaker than the F2002/F2004 which although great cars are often seen as being flattered by custom-designed tyres. For me, that is a huge shame for the team of engineers who put their heart and soul into this car.

[CHT]

I dont see any reason why Mercedes should be too angry. They still came away with +18 points - the WDC and WCC a matter of time and formality, as long as they get the situation under control or at the very least, not blow up further.

If they start with threatening their drivers, or publicly shame them or attempt to limit the performance on one over the other, things will escalate further to the point it will end in a fiasco and some very red heads at Mercedes HQ.

If there was action to be taken, it should have taken place immediately during or after the race. Now the best thing is to get it out of the way.

There will be internal talk, Nico will apologise and that will be the end of it. What might be a direct consequence is that driver No. 2 (the one not leading after the first corner) will get an alternate strategy that will put him well out of harms way of intefering with the other.

This is Vettel/Webber in China all over again. All the fans screamed for action, yet in the end, it just went away and was forgotten. As many suspected, Webber decided to leave F1 or never got a renewal on his contract.

Really, why would Mercedes enforce any penalties on their behalf? They ultimately came off with 18 points (not that bad if you think about it) and they could care less which of their drivers wins the championship. What they dont want is bad publicity and any form of manipulation would guarantee that far more than keeping quiet.

Anything else is simply wishful thinking. It's a business, not a sport.

Could be. I have the feeling that Toto is just saying "Unacceptable" just to show the world he's also gutted, but in reality he's actually delighted with this turning point. Rosberg leaves unpunished and with +18 points. Toto guarantees his German driver that everything is still going according to plan and he doesn't have to worry. All Nico has to do is to read this piece of paper that Toto wrote himself to publicly apologize he made a mistake (which is loads of bull). Nico has to do this, so Lewis thinks he still has the team backing him up, when in reality he's the driver that will end 2nd at the end of the season anyway. Toto just wants Lewis to think he's still has the chance to win the WDC, but it's already scripted at the pitwall.

I can totally understand TOTO's feeling because he broke his shoulder recently during a team building bicycle ride with the 2 drivers, and obviously the drivers doesnt show any appreciation or guilt

[Maynard G. Krebs]

I agree with Boullier, Merc should have handle the situation with the media better.

When asked how the team can control Hamilton and Rosberg from now on, Boullier said: "You can't. It is unfortunate it happened on lap two but it is a racing incident.

"If you watch the last races it has happened many times. So it is unfortunate, and I understand why they may be upset because they missed a one-two result, but this is racing."

Boullier also suggests that Mercedes has to decide whether to have a media blackout about how it has resolved matter, or that it needs to explain what action it has taken - which could risk fuelling the controversy further.

"It depends on how much coverage you want after in the press," he said. "If you start to blame the drivers then obviously it is a policy that I will not recommend.

"It is better to clear the air outside of the track, but I am happy to not have that problem to manage. In the end you tend to think you are shooting yourself - but this is part of racing as well."

For once I agree with Boullier.
If you are going to have two #1 drivers, this is almost inevitable. They are going to race close and race hard and sometimes they are going to hit. If you don't want that you should probably get an aging driver or a young driver and have a clear 1-2.
I still believe Nico was slowing and just turned in too soon. I know those guys are good, but to deliberately hit someone like that is too chaotic and risky to be able to do it and know the outcome is going to be good for you and bad for the other driver. Whatever Nico might have said about proving a point was likely just meant to make Lewis think twice about being too aggressive around him and let the team know that if they are going to let Lewis get away with aggressive driving they better let him too.
I say let them race but fine them if the stewards finds one of them at fault for damaging the other (assuming something like that is possible within the contract).

[dans79]

I know those guys are good, but to deliberately hit someone like that is too chaotic and risky to be able to do it and know the outcome is going to be good for you and bad for the other driver.

check out this video, a 90% chance is pretty good odds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A58fhIIvJ6o

The other thing to consider, is any race that Lewis doesn't finish is good for Nico, even if he himself doesn't finish.

[Tim.Wright]

I know those guys are good, but to deliberately hit someone like that is too chaotic and risky to be able to do it and know the outcome is going to be good for you and bad for the other driver.

check out this video, a 90% chance is pretty good odds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A58fhIIvJ6o

Except that the chance that you will hit that 3cm wide strip with a 1cm wide endplate you cant see is probably less than 5%...

90% of 5% gives you a total probability of 4.5% that you will get the desired effect.

Add to that the fact that 90% of all statistics are just made up on the spot and its clear its Maldonado's fault.

[Edax]

Really, why would Mercedes enforce any penalties on their behalf? They ultimately came off with 18 points (not that bad if you think about it) and they could care less which of their drivers wins the championship. What they dont want is bad publicity and any form of manipulation would guarantee that far more than keeping quiet.

Anything else is simply wishful thinking. It's a business, not a sport.

I think they have to do something because it is a business. I think your right in your assesment. Their business is simple: marketing cars trough sport. That is what Mercedes is paying them for. They don't care who becomes champion, but they do care how he becomes champion and whether he portrays the values of the company. If it was just about racing they did not have to sent their drivers trough media training.

But I don't think they can let this slide.

The message they want to show is that Mercedes delivers a superior products, and is exclusively driven by very cool and honest people.


And in that respect this is becoming an utter fiasco. What they show instead is that Mercedes drivers are a couple of spoiled cheating brats. At ferrari they could get away with that, most of us will a) never own a ferrari b) consider ferrari owners spoiled brats anyway. But I can guarantee that Mercedes would have rather had no points at all than being boohed on the podium.

[Emerson.F]

Nico should be demoted to number two driver. What a twat. Lets hope Toto will make sure he will be dealed with.

[SectorOne]

Rather interesting thing Peter is saying about the board, not sure what to make of it.

[dans79]

Rather interesting thing Peter is saying about the board, not sure what to make of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EQBry3Fuy8

I love freelance press, they don't have to toe a company line, and instead can say exactly what they think!