2014 Belgian GP - Spa-Francorchamps

[NTS]

Let's be honest, the Mercedes board will not accept having the championship leader benched or handicapped.
They are not paying hundreds of millions per year for losing out again and again.

I'm afraid you're right, anything they do will loose them even more points than they already lost.

However as a neutral-with-some-preference-for-Ricciarco-fan this is great. Can't wait to see Ricciardo close the gap and make this into a few thrilling season finals =D>

[turbof1]

hes a little baby

Looking at the amount of failures from both this sure is interesting.

“It's interesting because we had that meeting on Thursday and Nico expressed how angry he was – I was thinking 'It's been three weeks and you've been lingering?!' He expressed how angry he was, he literally sat there and said how angry he was at Toto and Paddy. But I thought we should be good after that and then this result … it's interesting.”

three weeks he´s pissed off because Hamilton did not let him past in Hungary.

Seems to me Rosberg might actually be the weaker one mentally. People thought Hamilton was finished in Germany, came back strong, thought he was done in Hungary, came back even stronger.

Rosberg gets one obstacle and he´s pissed. Then misses the start, gets even more pissed and deliberately hits Hamilton.

Pretty clear who´s the real baby at Mercedes.

Normally I would call this a bridge too far (and as a moderator would infact be very cautiously following this up since it often leads to bickering). However, and this is hugely sad, this time there's an actual and real chance it's true.

Guys again, I have to stress on it to keep it friendly among us. I know what happened causes a lot of emotions, but do please stay rational. Mercedes might be in chaos right now, but I'll not allow that to spread to here.

[Jano11]

Oh no, you dont get to back off like that, you claimed it was lewis fault, you cant back peddle now and claim you were right all along by changing what you meant. Nico should have known the outcome, end of story.

My point, check my posts, was that this is a racing incidents and I fully agreed with the stewards not taking any action.
Good try though.

Racing incidents can still be someones fault, you know that right?

Sure, this one had equal shares of blame, thus no action by the FIA stewards.

[dans79]

Let's be honest, the Mercedes board will not accept having the championship leader benched or handicapped.
They are not paying hundreds of millions per year for losing out again and again.
This was the 2nd race in a row where RB won while not having the fastest car and Mercedes AMG failed with the fastest car.
And this points to bad management of their racers. Ross Brawn did great until Toto and Niki pushed him out.

Usually companies don't look to highly on employees destroying company assets and endangering the life of there peers to prove a point.

[Töm87]

It seems like people are overlooking one important aspects of this race.
Riccardo is in contention for the title right now.
Let's get real this won't be the last Rosberg/Hamilton incident this year. With the double points in the last race, anything is still possible for Riccardo.

[deterherligt]

https://twitter.com/willbuxton/status/5 ... 2087127041

[ChrisM40]

Sure, this one had equal shares of blame, thus no action by the FIA stewards.

No, even ones where there is no action can be entirely a one way fault. The thing that pushes the stewards to act is the degree of fault. Assuming it was an error, it was a tiny one, with a big consequence. The consequence isnt what prompts the stewards to act.

[Raleigh]

Wasn't sure Monaco was deliberate but this is different.

Nico hacked the wheel left, away from Hamilton, then turned hard back into him to increase the force of the impact. While there was ample room to the left and Lewis was on the racing line. Only going to get one shot at it, have to be sure there is a puncture. Wasn't just the tip that made contact but the whole endplate, as shown by the damage to the main flap.

And if this was deliberate, then Monaco was probably deliberate too.

[Töm87]

Calling today's incident a colition is a joke in the first place. It was a meter of a few cm. Could have happened either way a couple of times this year.

[SectorOne]

And if this was deliberate, then Monaco was probably deliberate too.

Slots nicely in together with Canada as well doesn´t it?

Rosberg might face tougher penalties within the team,

And although Mercedes wants to wait for the dust to settle on the weekend before holding a crisis meeting, Wolff has assured Hamilton that a simple telling off is unlikely.

"Today we've seen the limits of the slap on the wrist," he said. "Maybe the slap on the wrist is not enough.

"If Lewis has said that it's going to be a slap on the wrist, and that there's going to be no consequence, then he's not aware of what consequences we can implement."

When asked what the team could actually do to rectify the situation, Wolff said: "A lot. But I'm not going to comment on this right now."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/115551

[Waywardism]

Mercedes are confirming what Hamilton has said is correct...

I can't find this anywhere, and my Google powers are usually considerable. Give us a link...

[NTS]

Nico hacked the wheel left, away from Hamilton, then turned hard back into him to increase the force of the impact.

You're mis-quoting and exaggerating. He did not say "I ran deliberately into Lewis", according to Hamilton, Rosberg said he didn't avoid the accident to prove a point. Which is totally different from trying to "increase the force" when running into somebody.

The "other" part of the Hamilton quote actually adds to my point about his style:

[..] look at Sebastian [Vettel] on lap [one]. He was actually further up and he knew he wasn't going to go out the other side. He was sensible about it.

So yes... "He knew he wasn't going to go out the other side" basically means "I will not let him stay there and he knew it". Which is a choice, but it does make him part of the blame for racing incidents.

[SilverArrow10]

Mercedes are confirming what Hamilton has said is correct...

I can't find this anywhere, and my Google powers are usually considerable. Give us a link...

Jennie Gow, the sky reporter tweeted about it all I have found so far.

[Jonnycraig]

Mercedes are confirming what Hamilton has said is correct...

I can't find this anywhere, and my Google powers are usually considerable. Give us a link...

Couple of British reporters say Mercedes told them that.

Amus meanwhile state Rosberg said nothing of the sort.

Man the trenches, it's a diplomatic crisis.

[Jano11]

I honestly don't know. It would be interesting to know if there is anything in their contracts covering this regarding imposing fines on them or something along those lines. Other than that, what can they do except sack him or give his seat to someone else for a while? What would you do?

I would give his seat to the reserve driver for a couple of races.

I can't imagine Toto responding to this in a light-handed manner if it's true.

Let's be honest, the Mercedes board will not accept having the championship leader benched or handicapped.
They are not paying hundreds of millions per year for losing out again and again.
This was the 2nd race in a row where RB won while not having the fastest car and Mercedes AMG failed with the fastest car.
And this points to bad management of their racers. Ross Brawn did great until Toto and Niki pushed him out.

I think Niki Lauda would infact make a great team manager. Unfortunaly, and that's where I believe the real issues lies, is that Niki only can act as a consultant. He doesn't have real power within the team.

I am not convinced by Lauda. He failed at it with Jaguar some 10 years ago, with much more docile drivers and no championship fight. He is a good example as to why a good driver does not equate a good team manager. Plus he likes to create controversy, this alone is a bad trait for a team manager. he's just another Helmut Marko. Luckily RB have Horner and Newey to keep Marko in check, otherwise who knows how bad RB would have fared in the last 4 seasons.