Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team 2014

[seinfeld]

quick question. wasnt Aldo Costa the engine guy for Ferrari a while back? or was he just an engineer? I remember him def being a Ferrari man!

[Waywardism]

quick question. wasnt Aldo Costa the engine guy for Ferrari a while back? or was he just an engineer? I remember him def being a Ferrari man!

He was Rory Byrne's assistant and then took over as Chief Designer when Rory retired.

[RZS10]

Wolff said they might actually replace the driver who's at fault should they crash again in the next races - is it just me or is Hamilton the one who suffers more from that? I know he has to be careful anyways since he has to finish all the races, but he has to be extra careful in fights with Rosberg now, ofc the same goes for Nico but he has a rather big lead in the standings ... now they are still allowed to drive as they please but have to be extra extra careful, which is almost like "only overtake if it is a no risk maneuver" ~> don't overtake... to me it seems like Rosbergs alleged "proving a point" worked after all

[ScottB]

Wolff said they might actually replace the driver who's at fault should they crash again in the next races - is it just me or is Hamilton the one who suffers more from that? I know he has to be careful anyways since he has to finish all the races, but he has to be extra careful in fights with Rosberg now, ofc the same goes for Nico but he has a rather big lead in the standings ... now they are still allowed to drive as they please but have to be extra extra careful, which is almost like "only overtake if it is a no risk maneuver" ~> don't overtake... to me it seems like Rosbergs alleged "proving a point" worked after all

I don't think either of them will get fired for another collision, it would depend on the circumstances for one. Both have them have made plenty overtakes and dueled with each other this year, I'm sure they can do so again!

[Just_a_fan]

Interesting snippet from Coulthard - gossip, admittedly, but bound to have a grain of truth behind it:

And within F1 - as more information creeps out with the passing of time from conversations between team members - more and more people are coming to the conclusion that his 'mistake' in qualifying in Monaco, when Rosberg went down the escape road and cost Hamilton a chance to beat him to pole, was anything but.

If Hamilton keeps his head down and just drives quickly I think Rosberg will struggle. I think reliability will decide the title; if they both have 100% reliability then Hamilton will win. If Hamilton has another DNF or big points hit then the pressure comes off Rosberg enough for his own speed to show through and take the title. A chess match has less moves and counter-moves!

[WaikeCU]

Interesting snippet from Coulthard - gossip, admittedly, but bound to have a grain of truth behind it:

And within F1 - as more information creeps out with the passing of time from conversations between team members - more and more people are coming to the conclusion that his 'mistake' in qualifying in Monaco, when Rosberg went down the escape road and cost Hamilton a chance to beat him to pole, was anything but.

If Hamilton keeps his head down and just drives quickly I think Rosberg will struggle. I think reliability will decide the title; if they both have 100% reliability then Hamilton will win. If Hamilton has another DNF or big points hit then the pressure comes off Rosberg enough for his own speed to show through and take the title. A chess match has less moves and counter-moves!

More like: a chess match has less moves when you flip the table!

[iotar__]

So it's only assassination of character by friendly journalist whose job and bread and butter is to sell Hamilton. At least we're past the stage of Rosberg is not worthy and LH will annihilate him with natural speed in qualifying. Btw did you see what Webber had to say about Spa, posted in Monza thread? Minor accident, outcome changed everything, it's usually attacking driver to blame but with front wing accidents Ham was involved etc. He'd get downvoted if he posted that here (I want my points back;-))

After hearing Marussia bloke (Booth?) during free practice discussing Rosb/Ham and turning Austria into example of how somehow positive Hamilton risks and Rosberg doesn't instead of admitting it was a huge failure under pressure in a dominant car my trust in "anonymous predominantly British part of the paddock that thinks Rosberg is a villain" is at level of zero. Of course they - Coulthard, Brundle - are again not saying that themselves, they trust Rosberg but others you know... What a bunch of cheap trick and you are using it as a proof of anything?

Edit: If Coulthard wants a discussion about characters that is also much closer to the subject of the team he should look no further but Monaco and driver openly demanding preferential treatment against his team-mate and race leader, it was Hamilton and in was a fact not Rosberg and gossips.

[FoxHound]

Are the journalists making up the Monaco or Spa incidents?
If Rosberg wants "to prove a point" that entails keeping his nose in a closing gap, then people will write about that. If he parks his car in Monaco whilst his team mate is on a flier, people are gonna write about that.

Rosberg has brought the publicity upon himself, in much the same way Hamilton has been the architect of his downfall in the past. So I've no sympathy.

Interesting also how well Hamilton has taken his misfortunes this year.

[mrluke]

Interesting also how well Hamilton has taken his misfortunes this year.

He's gotten used to it by now

[Phil]

I agree, I'm mighty impressed by the way and how calm he has been so far. To some degree, I'm a bit concerned part of it might be "resignation". 22 points is still a massive advantage for Rosberg with the 6 races remaining. Another DNF for Hamilton could already be the nail in the coffin, so the pressure is definately on to deliever race by race. If my math isn't off, Rosberg wins 2 of the remaining races excluding Abu Dhabi and he can afford to come 2nd in anyother race. Despite all this, Lewis seems to be quite calm and focused. It's going to shape up to be quite a remainder of a season, that's for sure.

[WaikeCU]

I favor Lewis for the remainder of the season. He's been strong at Suzuka, COTA, Interlagos and Yas Marina for a few seasons. He's also strong at the Marina Bay circuit, but I have the feeling that Nico might have the edge. I also believe it's mentally better to be behind on points when going to the penultimate or last race of the season.

[SilverArrow10]

I too have a feeling Rosberg will be very difficult to beat in Singapore, every other race I think Hamilton should be good.

[Phil]

Funny, I always thought Lewis is massive at Singapore. He's had his fair share of bad luck (especially 2012, but other years too, when he collided with Webber), but as far as "stop & go" circuits go, I thought he's usually quite good. And I think in Monaco this year, he was right on Rosberg's tail for the majority of the race until he realized there was nothing he could do. I do think Rosberg is extremely strong in qualifying though - and qualifying will be especially crucial at Singapore.

I'm more inclined to think Interlagos will be the tricky one for Lewis. I always thought he struggled at that track, more so than he should. We'll see I guess.

[SectorOne]

22 points is still a massive advantage for Rosberg with the 6 races remaining

Three more wins and Rosberg taking second and the gap is down to 1 point with 3 more races to go.

Definitely doable.

[prince]

22 points is still a massive advantage for Rosberg with the 6 races remaining

Three more wins and Rosberg taking second and the gap is down to 1 point with 3 more races to go.

Definitely doable.

I feel, Lewis needs a better race engineer than Peter Bonnington and may be the whole of race management team. All of Lewis' results at Merc are of his own smart thinking with very little help from his race engineer. So many times Bonnington comes on radio when Lewis does not need it and seems sleeping when he actually need him. And whenever he gives inputs, most of the times Lewis ignores it. Yesterday's was also a classical case. In last few years, I have seen only Rocky (Vettel's engineer) and Andrea Stella (fernando's engineer) to be precise and very effective race engineers who understand what their driver exactly need.

P.S.: Rocky is not Vettel's engineer this year and that could also be a reason why Sebastian is struggling in terms of race strategy.