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With Lewis now 20 points ahead of Bottas and an extremely fast Ferrari, what will Toto do with the Championship priorities between the drivers? Would he continue to allow his drivers to race each other OR would he establish an unproclaimed de facto Number 1? I know it's just 2 races, but can they afford to lose points by allowing the drivers to race to race each other?
Too early, even Ferrari is letting Kimi race Vettel at this point.
Man I don't know what people are expecting from Bottas. It's an all new car and new team for him. It's kind of insane to expect him to be battling it up with Hamilton right off the bat! It's only been 2 races and he qualified only a thousandth away from Vettel! He will improve for sure. The year is young and so is the championship!
I don't think Rosberg would be doing any better at this stage either, given the qualifying gaps and increased competition from the other cars. Aside from the mistake in china, Bottas is not doing too bad.
I don't think Rosberg would be doing any better at this stage either, given the qualifying gaps and increased competition from the other cars. Aside from the mistake in china, Bottas is not doing too bad.
I think Rosberg would have in all probability qualified ahead of Vettel at least once out of the 2 races and would not have had made the mistake of spinning while trying to warm up the tires behind the safety car. So Mercedes would have had a higher cushion in terms of points in the constructor's championship and there would have been a bit more of a gap with between Vettel and Hamilton in the championship standings because I think Rosberg would have come in second at the last race.
I dare say Rosberg would be right up there with Hamilton in Qualifying. In fact, I think the only thing giving me some form of confidence regarding this years WDC battle with Ferrari is that it seems Bottas is "not quite there" which basically mean that there is less chance of both drivers taking points off of each other. Were Rosberg in that second Mercedes, I would expect sparks and very heated battles perhaps to the point that it could be destructive for the overall team. I think Mercedes was very fortunate not to have this the last 3 years - or better; they did, but it didn't cause them much problem because their dominance meant that there was still a very large likelihood they'd end up in a strong 1-2 with margin over the other.
I think this year, the situation is more controllable as long as Hamilton is in the lead, as Bottas is more certain to obey team-orders than the other way around. And if this year ends up being closer (and all evidence so far points to it being that), then Mercedes I think will be happy to give their full support to Hamilton if needs be. This might not be in form of team-orders, but I could well imagine scenario like Monaco 2016 repeating itself again, if one driver is ahead and slower and the other right behind and being held up and compromised.
I'm actually amazed Ferrari didn't do this in China when Vettel was clearly being held up by Kimi, especially with the latter complaining about possible technical issues. As a team, I would have expected Ferrari to go on radio and say "can you speed up? If not, let Vettel pass". This may go against the ethos of racing, but some would also have to consider that Ferrari already compromised Kimi's race after that situation; When they pitted Vettel for that 2nd stint of softs and kept Kimi out, hoping to force Mercedes to pit and possibly fall behind Kimi who then might be able to hold him up to the point that Vettel could close the gap. Of course that didn't work out, because Mercedes could stay out longer and make sure they ended ahead of Kimi, but the attempt on Ferrari's part clearly compromized Kimi's race vs. Bottas and the RedBulls. If they had let issued team orders earlier in the race to get Vettel ahead of Kimi, they might not have been in that position to begin with and perhaps achieved a higher 'team-result'.
Now, I am not arguing in favor of one or the other. Different perspectives form different opinions. As a team with hundredths of employees (1500 in Mercedes case), you want the luxury to control your drivers, to issue team-orders at will and dictate the outcome the strategy of both drivers. Mercedes is already in this peculiar situation in that they have one single strategist who decides what strategy both drivers are on. In theory, he can already influence and sway the race without any sense of equality and without the necessity of team-orders being issued. If you have two strategist, one for each driver, you could possibly have havoc and a very destructive environment, especially when both drivers are championship contenders.
The other perspective is that this sport survives on the people watching it and as a race fan, we want to see team-intra battles just as we want to see one driver from one team battling a driver of another team. Sometimes it's hard to have both at the same time.
Team orders can be issued in various forms and shades of grey. I don't expect Mercedes to ever employ the nastiest of team-orders - i.e. issuing one driver in the lead to "slow down" in order to give the 'lead driver' behind a chance to secure more points. That's just wrong on so many levels and IMO would be against the ethos of genuine racing. However a situation like Monaco 2016 (Rosberg slow, Hamilton behind on fire) or perhaps a situation like China 2017 when VET was being held up by Kimi and could be fighting for the win, well, I could definitely see team orders being issued in some form without the backlash of the entire F1 community happening, especially considering that overtaking seems to be a lot harder this year with DRS being much less effective.
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
I dare say Rosberg would be right up there with Hamilton in Qualifying.
The question that we never get answer to is, while there was no one in sight in qualifying battle for last 3 years meant Rosberg would surely get a 2nd at the worst, could he have been error free in the current environment where a fast charging Vettel is also vying for pole. I doubt. We have seen Nico breaking in races and making mistakes when Lewis put pressure. So it's not a given that Nico would have been battling with Lewis for pole the way he did in the past.
I wasnt referring to Rosberg getting second due to the margin Mercedes had over the next best, but the times he actually beat Lewis to pole. He may have not beat him overall, but every now and then, he would convincingly. Now i dont know about you, but that impressed the heck out of me personally. Because Lewis is IMO that good.
Not sure Bottas will be quite on that level. This might be unfair to him, given he is new at the team and has only had two races thus far, but it is none-the-less the feeling i have that is based on how he faired against Massa at Williams. Different car, different rules, different formula, so historic results dont necessary apply. But Hamilton looks quite comfortable and confident so far. A bit like in 2015. I haven't seen him make any big errors yet when it counts. No doubt the pressure there, but i think he is more relaxed this season because he isnt battling his team mate who shares everything - even the data and setup - alone (so far), but battling a driver of another team while having the backing of the entire Mercedes team behind him. That must be much easier than before.
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
As predicted Bottas sacrificed raxe pace for qualifying pace and it came back and bit him in the Bott. Looking back it was a stupid move because now the team thinks he's another Kimi in race pace and surely gives more traction to making Hamilton the number 1 driver from now on.
All I wanted to hear from wolff is that we aimed for one stopper and we were caught by the SC.but no, he was always going for two stopper, yet he left Hamilton behind vettel and Bottas having massive problems with tyre pressure. And he got undercut FOR THE SECOND TIME this year. This team can leave you speechless (Canada 2016)and can make you believe they are a bunch of amateurs with their strategies.
Or is it the absence of Nico Rosberg and Paddy Lowe?
Absolutely terrible mistakes. Mercedes has the best car, still gets shadowed. They were saying they were going to learn from Australia. But they didn't. This year they need to work really hard and be more creative. Otherwise it will be Maranello that will take the opportunity to beat them
They weren't challanged for 3 years in a row. If something went wrong, they won with 10-15 secondes in stead of 30 seconds. That's the difference to now. The Ferrari is only a tiny little bit slower or even par and Mercedes has to learn, how to fight again.
Or maybe Ferrari had more (Merc are supposed to bring PU update in Spain) and almost every argument is pointless. How do you expect them to give team orders at lap 10 or whenever Vettel pitted? Even with hindsight we armchair fans can get it wrong
People forget that a car in front can still get undercut just as it did in previous years. For Mercedes, difference now is that they don't have only their own two cars leading the race, but a red car as well (it could have been dark blue or orange-black or yellow-black, doesn't matter). Where, in previous years, they determined the strategy for the car behind, now they don't and that car behind can (and will, given the chance) undercut the car in front.
Unless the car in front goes first (and that's always a risk, as seen in China and almost in Bahrain) or it makes a stellar lap (while the car behind is on an out-lap) and goes right in after it, there doesn't seem to be much you can do. And don't forget that with these cars it's more difficult to overtake and new Pirellis have a very linear degradation, so the car leading after its final stop has the best chances to win, whatever the car behind does. That too is a lot different compared to previous years...
