I have not claimed to be sure of anything, I simply questioned why Rosberg was told to stay behind Hamilton instead of being told to save fuel. Given that the first quote you provide here is true, we now know the answer. Hamilton was more critical on fuel than Rosberg and was thus given 3rd place by the team.FoxHound wrote:Are you sure?Stradivarius wrote: I believe it is quite evident that this theory is not based on knowing the fuel load, but rather the fact that Rosberg was given the order to hold position, not to save fuel. Further, I find it likely that if Rosberg had been told he needed to slow down in order to conserve fuel, or else he wouldn't be able to finish the race, he would be more likely to accept and follow the order immediately. The only reason I can find not to tell Rosberg that he needed to save fuel, is that it wasn't the case.
Sure enough to come to a conclusion that Mercedes where somehow protecting Hamilton from a resurgent Rosberg, and it had nothing to do with fuel for both drivers?
http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2013/03/h ... am-orders/Mercedes had concerns about the fuel consumption of both drivers and asked them to save fuel in the second half of the race, Hamliton’s being the more critical.
"Had I not acted, the both driver's would have run out of fuel."
http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/form ... 02387.html
So the real facts are that Rosberg was told to conserve fuel, by holding position. James Allen and AMuS agree, and whilst neither are infallible, they get it right more times than not.
The second quote is just idiotic, as there is no actual reason why Rosberg should have to save the same amount of fuel if he did in fact have more fuel left than Hamilton.
If you imagine that two drivers from different teams were fighting each other, both being marginal on fuel, but one more critical than the other, there is no doubt that things would play out in favour of the one with more fuel on board. There is also no doubt that both teams would make sure that they made it to the end, spending as much of the fuel they had onboard as possible. As long as Rosberg stayed behind Hamilton, there is no reason he would spend any more fuel than him. But by attacking Hamilton, he could force Hamilton to spend more fuel than his fuel saving program would allow in the long run, and ultimately, Hamilton would have to stop fighting for position in order to make it to the end and this would happen before Rosberg was forced to do the same. Alternatively, Rosberg could just have saved as much fuel as Hamilton for some laps until he no longer needed to be careful with the fuel consumption, which would have happened to him before it happened to Hamilton.
Let me give an example with specific numbers: Let's assume the car needs 3 kg of fuel to go flat out for one lap. Let's further assume that Hamilton had only 28 kg of fuel left with 10 laps to go, while Rosberg had 29 kg of fuel left. They would both run out of fuel if they went flat out figting for position until the end. But by running in fuel saving mode, Hamilton could manage to spend only 2.8 kg of fuel per lap. In that case, Rosberg could simply have stayed behind Hamilton, also spending 2.8 kg of fuel per lap for the next 5 laps. He would then have 29 kg - 5 * 2.8 kg = 15 kg of fuel left, and 5 laps to go. Hamilton would have 14 kg of fuel left and would still be required to save fuel, 0.2 kg per lap, while Rosberg would have 5 laps at the end being able to go flat out.
These numbers are only examples to illustrate the point: If Hamilton was more critical on fuel than Rosberg, he would have lost 3rd place to Rosberg without the Mercedes team order, either by running out of fuel, or be having to stop fighting. I am not claiming that Hamilton is being favoured systematically, he may have gotten this advantage simply because he happened to be in front close to the end of the race. But on this occation, Rosberg first had the disadvantage (as pointed out by raymondu999) of either running heavier than Hamilton at the start, or spending less fuel at the start. Then he had the disadvantage again at the end, being denied to pass Hamilton.
