[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

in hindsight and given what we know now, is it still fair to call Nico a team player?

if F1 is a team sport and we know what the mechanics sacrifice each year to aid their driver, then how admirable is it that Nico left one year early and only after he accomplished his dream of individual victory?

he left his team and his side of the garage in a massive hole...for sure fair play to Nico for retiring but im not sure he still qualifies as a team player.

this is of course not to say that LH is a better team player or anything, rather, just saying that both these guys have been playing at the same game.

I agree wholeheartedly...

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Completely disagree. If you try and apply this to the real world then it doesn't stand-up. If I achieve what I want in my professional life, I'm free to leave my employer any time I want. They pay me to do a job, I do it, and that's it. I don't owe them anything, and I can leave whenever I want. Remember that this isn't just a sport - it's a job. Any other athelte in any other sport wouldn't be called selfish for retiring, and any other employee in any other sport wouldn't be called selfish for retiring.

Rosberg was paid to do a job by Mercedes and he did. That is all he owns them. Arguably in 2016, he did that job better than anyone else in the entire world. It also isn't fair to say he's left after accomplishing his individual victory as he also accomplished the teams championship 3 times in a row.

You could also argue that it is not a team player who would stick around after he's accomplished his lifes goal and take up a top seat, bringing in the cash whilst doing it. I'd argue he's more of a team player, than say, Damon Hill, who spent over 6 months deciding if he'd retire or not, whilst earning some nice money.

As I've said elsewhere, if it'd been Lewis Hamilton who'd just binned his team after they'd helped him to win the WDC there would have been pages & pages of *****ing about his attitude on here...