Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team 2015

[skoop]

Strategy was a disgrace, but you can't win 'em all.

Hopefully they'll learn and regroup and win in China!


ps: what's up with Rosberg. He just can't match Lewis despite being on the faster tyre, having had more winter testing and FP's. Any ideas? Could well become a hami vs vettel season...

He's just not good enough? He's had far less time at the front, even in his rookie years pre-F1 and it might take him a long time before he reaches his optimum performance. Just doesn't have the skill.

Judging by his reaction to Lewis's Australia win, and his radio comments today, I think he is mentally beaten.

which quotes are you refering to? i'm afraid i didn't hear them during/after the race.
thanks in advance

[adrianjordan]

Strategy was a disgrace, but you can't win 'em all.

Hopefully they'll learn and regroup and win in China!


ps: what's up with Rosberg. He just can't match Lewis despite being on the faster tyre, having had more winter testing and FP's. Any ideas? Could well become a hami vs vettel season...

He's just not good enough? He's had far less time at the front, even in his rookie years pre-F1 and it might take him a long time before he reaches his optimum performance. Just doesn't have the skill.

Judging by his reaction to Lewis's Australia win, and his radio comments today, I think he is mentally beaten.

which quotes are you refering to? i'm afraid i didn't hear them during/after the race.
thanks in advance

He spent a lot of the race (or seemed to from the way it was played out on TV) asking for information from his race engineer about other drivers etc...

I do wonder whether Nico is being hurt more than Lewis by the ban on driver "coaching" from the pit wall...

[giantfan10]

the one that made me go hmmmmm the most was when he asked if vettel passed him if that meant that he had lost the race.....

[miguelalvesreis]

the one that made me go hmmmmm the most was when he asked if vettel passed him if that meant that he had lost the race.....

That's probably a sign that something must be done to make this guys have a little more to say about the way the race unfolds.
Forbid any communication between driver and pit except box in and safety. Have the driver decide the tire he wants for next stint, like planned or plan B! And tell them nothing about everybody else rythm or strategy!

They have to many aids and that's not helping the show! We are lacking surprise and diminishing chances to clever drivers.

We always had bothe kind of drivers! The amazingly fast ones and the ones that were clever! And that was amazing to see unfold!

Miss the way Prost was able to save tires to charge on the end of the race, miss Senna driving skill making everybody else seem from another league, miss Mansell way of going heart fast, Lauda sagacity and so on and so on

The difference is not really on the drivers since we have all those qualities on today's ones, Ham, Alo, But, Vet, etc. But is really on the fact that they have too many tools (people on the teams) to neutralise each other qualities!

Don't know if was able to made my point clear, tough!

[iotar__]

Strategy was a disgrace, but you can't win 'em all.
Hopefully they'll learn and regroup and win in China!
ps: what's up with Rosberg. He just can't match Lewis despite being on the faster tyre, having had more winter testing and FP's. Any ideas? Could well become a hami vs vettel season...

He's just not good enough? He's had far less time at the front, even in his rookie years pre-F1 and it might take him a long time before he reaches his optimum performance. Just doesn't have the skill.
Judging by his reaction to Lewis's Australia win, and his radio comments today, I think he is mentally beaten.

He spent a lot of the race (or seemed to from the way it was played out on TV) asking for information from his race engineer about other drivers etc...
I do wonder whether Nico is being hurt more than Lewis by the ban on driver "coaching" from the pit wall...

Oh yes, a 'team" thread These grasping at straws examples are so weak you don't really believe them yourselves. Wishful thinking of Rosberg's defeat crops up regularly and quickly disappears confronted with reality during last two seasons. Now timing is even weirder, race when his pace was comparable if not better than Hamilton's (hard to to tell).

As for reasons of frequent radio communication, not so much on driver's side but team's:

"It’s difficult as the engineers aren’t in the race cars, they have computers and numbers but we have nothing and I struggle to know what is going on, to stay on it it’s important to have details, I was missing that a bit today so we’ll discuss that after so I can have a better picture going on," he said.
"I didn’t understand after the first stop why I was closing on Lewis and then when we pitted he went into the distance, but it turns out he was on a different tyre which I didn’t know."

A bit weird wouldn't you think? Both in terms of strategy itself and especially lack of information about it when tyre management was important. It happened on purpose and not for the first time (Bahrain where Rosberg was "surprised" by strategy or Barcelona).

[noel]

a minute's silence in the memory of pit boards.

his bloody steering wheel alone is smarter than the apollo lunar modules, why is coaching from the wall even a thing?

[Phil]

I don't really want to start a lot of Rosberg/Hamilton ying-yang, but I do wonder if there was any internal talk on qualifying when Rosberg ruined Hamiltons lap. It might not have been "the" lap, but tyres do degrade and one could say that the tyre was at its best on the first go. Hamilton was doing personal bests up to the point he closed in on Rosberg. Now, Rosberg claimed that they both had aborted the lap, calling it a "non-issue", but if that were the case, Hamilton wouldn't have closed the gap to that point. It was also quite funny to see once Hamilton had passed Rosberg that Nico then immediately upped the pace to stay on Hamiltons tail.

This little scrap might also have ruined Mercedes pole position, because as we know, Hamilton never beat his time, so the first one counted. As to why he didn't improve, I don't think anyone ever exactly analyzed what went wrong, but it was rather close. Anyone know what happened on Hamiltons last attempt?

As for the FIA: I'm fairly certain that if this were two cars from different teams that Rosberg would have received a penalty if at the very least a visit at the stewards. I think it's okay that the team can deal with these things internally if it can be and it is done, but if and how it is, I guess one can only speculate about.

[Kiril Varbanov]

Coulthard: Rosberg is showing “worrying signs” - http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/coult ... ying-signs

[SectorOne]

Anyone know what happened on Hamiltons last attempt?

I´m gonna DL the Quali and see but my brain is telling me they ran into traffic, namely the Williams.

So they did the first run, second run Ros backed off, Hamilton back off, then they both went again and hit Williams in traffic.
But don´t quote me on that, DL:ing Quali right now.

[Sevach]

Anyone know what happened on Hamiltons last attempt?

I´m gonna DL the Quali and see but my brain is telling me they ran into traffic, namely the Williams.

So they did the first run, second run Ros backed off, Hamilton back off, then they both went again and hit Williams in traffic.
But don´t quote me on that, DL:ing Quali right now.

Some guys on Twitter where saying Hamilton went for "revenge" drove somewhat slowly infront of Nico, but don't quote me on that.

[SectorOne]

Checked the Sky feed now, Massa was ahead of Hamilton but i doubt it had any impact on Hamilton setting a lap. Can´t say for sure though as you only get to see them coming out of last corner and there´s quite a gap between them.

Rosberg was far back to the point when Hamilton had crossed the finish line Rosberg was still in last corner apex. So i doubt he held him up.

Must have been the BBC feed i heard them say the Mercedes was caught up in traffic on last run ( i watched both stream simultaneously)

[Phil]

Yeah, that's what I recall from the BBC broadcast too. But as you say, on the feed itself, I can't remember him being right being Massa when he came onto the finishing line. I don't recall the exact time (or sector times) he posted either, only that he didn't beat his best, where as both Vettel and Rosberg improved over their former times...

Thanks for checking btw!

[SectorOne]

Last run for all three guys, sector wise. Vettel has just put in the laptime that almost netted him pole position.

Vettel a tenth quicker through S1 then Rosberg,
Rosberg a tenth quicker then Vettel through S2, same as Hamilton,
Hamilton two tenths quicker then Rosberg in S1,

*croft commentary so when he says a tenth it could vary quite wildly.

(driving positions on track was Vettel - Bottas - Massa - Hamilton - Rosberg)

so if i get this right, Hamilton was two tenths up on Vettel while entering S3.

[Phil]

So perhaps it was traffic in S3... Maybe it wasnt Massa, but a car on an inlap? I wish i had the lap timer... Unfortunately the fia website does not supply the qualifying data as they do on race day...

From what it sounds like, Hamilton could have improved his time if not for whatever happened in S3... Maybe a driver error....

[aral]

So perhaps it was traffic in S3... Maybe it wasnt Massa, but a car on an inlap? I wish i had the lap timer... Unfortunately the fia website does not supply the qualifying data as they do on race day...

From what it sounds like, Hamilton could have improved his time if not for whatever happened in S3... Maybe a driver error....

Or maybe Vettel was just faster?