2016 Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team - Mercedes

[De Jokke]

Probably have another win if his team-mate hadn't rammed him off the road in Spain too...

Or... he would've had a second place and be only 1 point down if Lewis had kept his cool on the first lap....

And that is how you become a great driver. Look in front that the car is derating and don't bother going for overtake. Right.

Nico made a fool of himself there, not looking enough in his mirrors and putting lewis on the gras. We all know what happened afterwards. Even Martin Brundle gave a 60% rosberg - 40% hamilton fault ratio... So

[ringo]

Why does toto feel he needs to tell Jos Verstappen to speak to max?
Is he afraid max will crash Nico?

[zac510]

Why does toto feel he needs to tell Jos Verstappen to speak to max?
Is he afraid max will crash Nico?

Gamesmanship. Other drivers seem to be doing it too, ex-drivers. The successful drivers always get this treatment from other teams and drivers.

The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.

[dans79]

If you haven't noticed, it's pretty obvious nico has a problem when cars are in close proximity to him. Toto it's probably more worried about Nico getting caught up in the moment and taking himself out then he is about Max taking them out.

[George-Jung]

If only Domenicali had called the father of Petrov... could you imagine, haha!

[PlatinumZealot]

Did anyone notice when it slipped out of Niki's mouth that "Nico should win this race?"

[Phil]

When and where? What was the context of the interview?

[PABLOEING]

¿Who is the mercedes f1 engineer ex prodrive that we see in the Mercedes wall every race?

[lio007]

¿Who is the mercedes f1 engineer ex prodrive that we see in the Mercedes wall every race?

Do you mean James Vowles?

[NathanOlder]

Did anyone notice when it slipped out of Niki's mouth that "Nico should win this race?"

Yes I heard that. Just thouht he got his names mixed up, old git losing his marbles lol

[ChrisDanger]

https://twitter.com/MercedesAMGF1/statu ... 2418265089

[LookBackTime]

Interesting stuff! from Sky F1

"
Did Lewis Hamilton threaten to quit Mercedes amid the fall-out from his crash with Nico Rosberg at May’s Spanish GP?

Paddock rumour swirled on Sunday ahead of the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP that Hamilton told the team he would stop driving for the rest of the season in apparent protest against the team’s response to the two Silver Arrows’ race-wrecking crash at Barcelona.

Asked by Sky F1’s Martin Brundle about the reports following the conclusion to the ‘Duel in the Desert’, Hamilton refused to comment.

“After the crash in Spain there was a story you said 'I'm going to stop, I'm going to give up'. Is there any truth to that?” enquired Brundle.

"That is all private stuff that is in the past,” replied Hamilton.
"

http://www.skysports.com/f1/live-blog/3 ... m=referral

[Gettingonabit]

What were the team doing by instructing Ham to drive differently in the last few laps, whatever the results they had both titles sewn up. Asking a driver to throw away any chance of the title, however slim, was puerile. Would the likes of Alonso, Vettel, Schumacher, Prost or Senna done any different to what Hamilton did - I think not.

All they have done is open themselves up to accusations of bias - silly thing to do.

[Cold Fussion]

Because Mercedes want the best result possible which is a 1-2, and the only way could lose that result was by Hamilton doing exactly what he was trying to do. This problem was further exacerbated by their second driver needing to employ a risk averse strategy to on track battles with all drivers except his team mate. So in the eyes of Mercedes, all they are seeing is the possibility of Hamilton artificially creating a 4 way battle for the lead, forcing Rosberg to get aggressive with his team mate (let's not forget that it doesn't matter if some racing incident takes both Hamilton and Rosberg out from Rosbergs POV) and thus the distinct possibility than Mercedes could lose a secure 1-2, potentially a win and yet another on track disaster between their two drivers. They also appear to operate under the assumption that because it says in Hamilton's contract that he will follow team instructions that he'll do so when asked to, too bad for them they had no real leverage to do so in this instance.

[A-Bap]

Because Mercedes want the best result possible which is a 1-2, and the only way could lose that result was by Hamilton doing exactly what he was trying to do. This problem was further exacerbated by their second driver needing to employ a risk averse strategy to on track battles with all drivers except his team mate. So in the eyes of Mercedes, all they are seeing is the possibility of Hamilton artificially creating a 4 way battle for the lead, forcing Rosberg to get aggressive with his team mate (let's not forget that it doesn't matter if some racing incident takes both Hamilton and Rosberg out from Rosbergs POV) and thus the distinct possibility than Mercedes could lose a secure 1-2, potentially a win and yet another on track disaster between their two drivers. They also appear to operate under the assumption that because it says in Hamilton's contract that he will follow team instructions that he'll do so when asked to, too bad for them they had no real leverage to do so in this instance.

I don't think its as simple as wanting the 1-2. The team orders were uncharacteristically strong, and insistent, and the penalties that are being talked about are quite severe. This makes me think something else was in the balance, such as earning enough total points to earn the right to a larger Heritage Bonus.