Fulcrum wrote: ↑06 Oct 2018, 19:59
GPR-A wrote: ↑06 Oct 2018, 11:55
PlatinumZealot wrote: ↑06 Oct 2018, 05:15
What I want to know now is Hamilton firmly number 1 now? Can we expect Valterri to pull over everytime until Hamilton WDC is confirmed?
Haha. As Hamilton supporter I have never in my wildest dreams have this happening. A lot of HAM fans have been wanting this especially in the McLaren days with Button but we never got it. Now do we have it? Feels a little weird if it is finally happening...
You would have seen this happening more often, only if there was credible competition from other teams from 2014 to 2016. Rosberg was pulled aside in Monaco 2016 as TEAM deemed it is important to WIN THE GP. There were times when Valtteri was 3 tenths slower and in between he had Ferrari. In the past, even if Nico qualified half a second behind, he used to start 2nd. When Lewis had messed up starts, it was always Nico who used to take advantage. Even when Nico had a bad start, a spin or any such issue, he could easily drive through the field to finish second. So, it made Nico look more competitive than he could have been, if there was a competitive Ferrari or a Red Bull like it has been past 2 years. In the wake of stiff competition, Mercedes had to favor one driver who has a better chances of winning the championship as they are doing now. In current times, I don't think Nico would have done any better than Nico. If he would have qualified the way he did from 2015-2018, he would have found a few cars in between and even if Lewis missed a start, it wouldn't have been Nico who would have taken advantage of it. With that, Lewis had a better chance of staying ahead of Nico and with that, "right to pit first". You see, the whole dimension would have been different.
That works both ways.
In 2016, Rosberg qualified on the front row in every race; Hamilton didn't on 6 occasions (mostly due to car issues, but occasionally due to errors). By your own logic, greater competition from Ferrari or Red Bull would have impaired Hamilton more than Rosberg.
If Rosberg were qualifying as well as he did in 2016, Hamilton would be making more mistakes. He certainly duffed a few starts that year.
Hamilton's operating with little to no pressure from Bottas (imo). If Hamilton nails a lap, he knows its good enough to beat Bottas. I don't get the impression he felt as comfortable when Rosberg was around.
That point, is what I am contending. In a situation like that of last year's and this, he wouldn't be qualifying on front row AS A GIVEN. Here is the difference between Lewis's pole and Nico's second place in 2016.
Australia - 0.360 second.
Spain - 0.280 second
Austria - 0.543 second
Britain - 0.319 second
Italy - 0.478 second
Malaysia - 0.414 second
USA - 0.216 second
Mexico - 0.254 second
Abu Dhabi - 0.303 second
I have omitted a few instances where the difference was less than a tenth or a tenth and half. All of these were straight forward qualifyings, without any drama for Nico. He took advantage of a double waved yellow to sneak a pole in Hungary, where Lewis was set get a pole and backed out completely to respect the double waved yellow. Azerbaijan, Singapore and Suzuka were the only places where Nico beat Lewis fair and square to pole.
Ask yourself, if the above given was the gap today (specially in the first part of last and this year), would Nico have qualified second. Especially with the Diva W08 and similarly difficult W09 (both for majority of the seasons). If those were the gaps, with a well behaved car and without any pressure of a credible opposition from another team, I would only think that, with difficult cars like W08 and W09 and with such high intensity competition, the gap would have been even bigger. That answers if he would have won those GPs that he won where Lewis fluffed the start.
