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Being a Hamilton fan it's difficult to be totally objective but I think Ham shades it slightly over Nico.
I think most were surprised by the relative pace of Nico compared to Lewis and it is pleasing as a F1 fan that there are two very competitive drivers at the Merc team otherwise this would be a very tedious season with Lewis strolling round on his own.
For me Bahrain showed Lewis' skills brilliantly and he should not have had a chance against Nico behind with faster tyres.
It really is very close between the drivers as the telemetry very often shows with Bonnington giving Lewis the message "the other car is faster in x corner or x sector than you." But then Lewis found a massive setup or driving style and blew Nico away but due to shared data Nico was able to wipe out the advantage Lewis previously had.
If Lewis isn't at his very best then Nico will have him and certainly the reverse is true too which is all we can ask of the drivers. Nico is certainly able to keep Lewis honest in a way no other team mate has so far. I don't think Lewis' final years are indicative of Button's performance but rather the poor form of Lewis and his dissatisfaction with driving yet more McLaren lemons while the RBs disappeared into the distance.
For me Lewis, Nico and Fred are the best of the best and any one of them in the dominant Red Bulls would've beaten Seb by some margin.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo On Line) To all of you: when you have one driver from a team that has a car that is winning everything – like Mercedes – and your team needs to win three times in a row (to catch them up), how does it work for team mates? For example, the guy who is behind, does it stimulate him to try to win or does it work in the opposite direction?
FA: Yeah, I said waiting for Rosberg. I don’t know really. For this, when it happens, it was a question for Mark last year, when Sebastian won nine times. For Rosberg now. It’s not so difficult to know what you’re experiencing. Probably I will answer because I will have the experience, but now... of course, I think Rosberg would like to win, that’s for sure.
SV: I would hate Lewis now, if I was Nico.
PM: I would hate Lewis as well. It’s a difficult answer. For sure, you always want to beat your team mate, you always want to do your best and to be ahead of your most close contender. For sure, it’s not ideal to always be at the back but in my opinion, they are both competitive, sometimes one is quicker than the other and sometimes it’s vice versa. It’s a difficult answer because it depends about any driver.
MC: It would be nice to be in that position, obviously. It’s hard to beat someone who never gives up and Rosberg, I’m sure, will never give up. I’m sure he will get his fair share of wins back. Sometimes if you’re constantly winning you sometimes let things slip so if you just make sure you just keep giving 100 percent, he will definitely get other race wins.
KM: I don’t have anything to add.
DK: I don’t want to talk for others but if I have to talk for myself there’s never a huge friendship between team mates so I think you always want to be in front of everyone and there are some circumstances, sometimes if you’re team mate is in front of you, it means that there is something that you can maybe do better but once again, there are different circumstances.
it's nice to see Nico owning up to the fact that he lost momentum, but this "I am definitely comfortable to keep on doing what I am doing," is not the right mindset.
Shakeman wrote:I don't think Lewis' final years are indicative of Button's performance but rather the poor form of Lewis and his dissatisfaction with driving yet more McLaren lemons while the RBs disappeared into the distance.
It's more that the tyres took away nearly every weapon in his arsenal. He couldn't push and was having to massively adapt the way he was driving, compromising his raw speed to try and make the tyres last. This year is still not balls out racing but it's much closer than it has been in the past four years and Lewis has a car he's comfortable in and can lean on when pushing.
Hamilton is one of the most adaptable drivers on the grid, alongside Alonso, and will drag a good performance out of any car. But asking for that final fraction of a percent that separates the great from the legendary is a tall ask if you have a car and tyres in which you cannot push.
Australia: Hamilton 1st, Rosberg 3rd
Malaysia: Hamilton 1st, Rosberg 3rd
Bahrain: Rosberg 1st, Hamilton 2nd
China: Hamilton 1st, Rosberg 4th
Spain: Hamilton 1st, Rosberg 2nd
Phil wrote:I think nico will be very strong in Monaco. Not sure about Barcelona, could be close. Canada will be lewis, as i think that must be one of his strongest tracks.
My two pence worth, Nico's strength last year in Monaco possibly was his ability to break later than Lewis. This year that may not be the case. So I think Monaco is also up for grabs.
It's hard to say who goes better at Monaco as they've only had the one race there as team mates. If we compare their history with who-ever was their team mates (just the classifications, we could argue all day about the events unfolding such as crashes, car failures, operational errors, team orders etc)
2006:
Rosberg beat Webber
2007:
Alonso beat Hamilton
Wurz beat Rosberg
2008:
Hamilton beat Kovalainen
Nakajima beat Rosberg
2009:
Rosberg beat Nakajima
Hamilton beat Kovalainen
2010:
Hamilton beat Button
Rosberg beat Schumacher
2011:
Button beat Hamilton
Rosberg beat Schumacher
2012:
Rosberg beat Schumacher
Hamilton beat Button
2013:
Rosberg beat Hamilton
Rosberg has classified higher than his team mate, for whatever reasons 6 times in 8 events. Hamilton has classified higher than his team mate 4 times in 7 events. Of the seven events they did compete together, Hamilton has classified higher than Rosberg four times.
I'm tempted to give the nod to Rosberg but I think it'll be very close.
While Hamilton says he likes Monaco, it does tend to be one of his weaker circuits. I think this is probably where Rosberg has his best chance of a victory.
Nico didn't get the win he needed, but it was a wash for the drivers. Only the engineers will know who was compromised more.
Monaco is the one race this year that is totally up for grabs. There's no assurance that Merc will take pole or even hit the front row. I don't think it's even worth trying to guess. And if it rains...
beelsebob wrote:While Hamilton says he likes Monaco, it does tend to be one of his weaker circuits. I think this is probably where Rosberg has his best chance of a victory.
I agree on the basis that Monaco tends to be less about driver skill and more about strategy and luck. And by luck I mean things like timing of safety cars and getting taken out by somebody who forgot to brake for turn 1.
Hamilton hasn't driven poorly there, he's just had rotten luck. I remember one year when it looked like he really had a strong setup going into qualifying and he binned the car because it jumped over a bump.
So yeah poor luck and slight mistakes have cost him big time before he even lined up at the grid.
Can't really say he's slow around it, but qualifying is everything i guess.
johnsonwax wrote:Monaco is the one race this year that is totally up for grabs. There's no assurance that Merc will take pole or even hit the front row. I don't think it's even worth trying to guess. And if it rains...
Come on...
The Mercs are so far away from the field. One second in Barcelona may only be half a second in Monaco, but this is easily enough for a 1-2.
johnsonwax wrote:Monaco is the one race this year that is totally up for grabs. There's no assurance that Merc will take pole or even hit the front row. I don't think it's even worth trying to guess. And if it rains...
Come on...
The Mercs are so far away from the field. One second in Barcelona may only be half a second in Monaco, but this is easily enough for a 1-2.
Well it's a short track and peak engine power isn't important (although Mercedes still has the best drivability). So RBR will be closer, and they'll jump up and down and point to their 'gains', but Merc will still be out front and will have a huge advantage in Canada. RBR could really struggle there with the Williams and Force Indias coming on strong.
Not sure if this is the right thread (opposed to the race specific one) - but as an performance analysis, I think it's also good for this one.
This was a really interesting race IMO (the Barcelona one). If Lewis was a bit "on edge" during or after the race, I think I can understand that. Lewis wants to be the fastest - in control. In this race, perhaps, he didn't get that feeling. In Bahrain, at least, he could tell himself "the safety car ruined what was a done-deal and I still came out on top when all odds were against me". Looking at Barcelona - perhaps that feeling is more "damn, I was struggling a bit during the race, Nico was faster and had this race gone on for much longer, he would have had me".
To a degree, I can completely understand this line of thinking. It's not "if you win races" - it's "how". And in that sense, the feeling after this race perhaps was indeed that Nico looked quicker.
Was he really quicker? I'm not sure. On one hand yes, on the other, I'm not sure. Lewis lost a bit of time in the pits (I think 2 seconds) which can happen. I'd rather have a slow pit stop, then a catastrophic one where he gets out too early with a loose tyre or something. Then there's also the point of strategy. Nico and Lewis were neck at neck. Hamilton got the better start and got himself out of the DRS zone to lead what was a pretty steady 2 second gap throughout the first stint. At the end of it - Nico had more pace - closed the gap, but Lewis pitted, gave himself the slight undercut and Nico went two laps longer. All good so far.
Then there was the pace in the middle stint. I feel Lewis should have been faster, but effectively the gap remained quite constant - at times, it seemed Nico was even slightly quicker on the harder tyre relative to Lewis. This, IMO, was quite odd and unexpected. Then, there's also that fuel graph - where Lewis was always quite clearly using less than his team-mate was. Was he underfueled? Was his max less than Nico, so he would have to conserve a bit more fuel throughout the race? Or did he simply push less, was more economic by driving style and carried around more weight than he needed? The answer to this question might answer some of the performance differential between the two - and why it was closer in the end, than it perhaps could have been.
Irregardless - the last stint was too close [from Lewis's point of view]. I'm thinking that perhaps the OPO tyre was the quicker strategy or Nico's car was just set up that little bit better.
Anyway, 4 wins now for Lewis - opposed to 4 2nd places for Nico. I still think, Lewis being the WDC - he is under slightly more pressure. From Nico's point of view, he is yet to prove himself a WDC. If he loses out to Lewis this year - yes, it will be a blow losing in what is the most dominant car on the grid, but he will be doing so to a proven capable and WDC winning team-mate. For Lewis - he is a former WDC - and I think for him, winning this year is a must. No excuses.
I personally think Nico will win a few this year - and I think Monaco might be the one. It will be very interesting to see how this progresses.
Last edited by Phil on 12 May 2014, 15:18, edited 2 times in total.
Not for nothing, Rosberg's Championship is the only thing that lends credibility to Hamilton's recent success. Otherwise, he'd just be the guy who's had the best car. — bhall II #Team44 supporter
