Rosberg vs Hamilton

[Paradise City]

Hamilton said it himself. At McLaren there was two strategists, one for him, another for Button. So he always had a support team out for him and him alone.

At Merc, one strategist, the driver that doesn't get ahead, hasn't priority on that strategist, so Hamilton felt he lacked some support. That fueled his disappointment I think.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

earlier on in the season Toto Wolff was touting this Merc strategy of 'letting our drivers drive' and 'for the good of the sport we owe it to the fans to do this' type stuff.

at the time most of here were saying that while very noble of them there will be fireworks at some point and low and behold we are starting to see the beginnings of that.

is this a case of to many talking heads at Merc? one boss encouraging this behaviour and now another boss saying that the behaviour needs to fixed.

mixed singles imo.

as for brand, World Cup starts in a few weeks and then its pretty much F1 summer break...by then the WCC will be sown up and many casual observers will have tuned out. Merc's dream season is going to go largely ignored by the public unless this driver row moves from palpable tension to outright physical altercation (preferably out of the car but i suspect they both fight like little girls so they will fight on track).

It would appear that you are right on the money Chilli

http://www.f1reader.com/news/zetsche...mercedes-98840


Zetsche is quite happy with them fighting, I suspect he means clean racing only though!

Talk about mixed messaging!

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by wnut

It would appear that you are right on the money Chilli

http://www.f1reader.com/news/zetsche...mercedes-98840


Zetsche is quite happy with them fighting, I suspect he means clean racing only though!

Talk about mixed messaging!

Well.... 'Yes' and 'No'.

in an ideal world there would be some strong competition amongst teams of people, that is what team sport is about. having two team mates both fighting for the world championship is entertaining but there has to be a limit to how bad it can get. It is not a personal war.

We have had Hulme and Brabham both in contention in 1967, the boss and the apprentice. At the end of the year Denny left and went to McLaren.
In subsequent years we had Reggazoni and Lauda (1974-5) and one got a definite ascendancy. Later we had Piquet-Mansell at Williams (86-87) and classically Senna- Prost, Webber-Vettel in 2010, and others. One will ascend the other will suffer in some way, to some degree.
On a grand prix teams two teammates shouldn't be feuding openly in public. Ultimately the team should take precedence and in this day and age they provide the equipment so without them you are a loser....
Lewis wears his heart on his sleeve, something the tabloids love and tabloid-like press will use against both of them to ramp the whole thing up.

What lewis cannot do publicly is try to play up to the press with allegations that are only suspicions, to get attention. Rosberg doesn't do that, so Lewis has to keep his emotions under his control. If he doesn't then, when the chips are down, Nico will supplant him, both within the team and on the track.

[Mike Bell]

If you use the principle that 'any publicity is good publicity' Merc can't lose.

As for the personalities involved, maybe as race fans we are looking at the protagonists too much as Drivers, not Celebrities. Look at them the other way round and Lewis is going to get far more column inches than Nico.....

I'm in the 'just get on with it' camp when it comes to Lewis, but can see that F1 is probably loving the extra publicity it is getting at the moment!

[321Go]

Seems as though Rosberg was involved in another 'off' today. Two people hospitalised. Rosberg not directly involved in them being hurt though. No credible sources to post. Slow news day item?? Anyone?

[321Go]

Found something. Nothing much. Carry on.


At which race do we expect them to have a Turkey 2010? It's going to happen sooner or later I think. My guess is Austria.
But it would be a little spicy if it was at the British GP, or the round after that, the German GP.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by 321Go

Found something. Nothing much. Carry on.


At which race do we expect them to have a Turkey 2010? It's going to happen sooner or later I think. My guess is Austria.
But it would be a little spicy if it was at the British GP, or the round after that, the German GP.

By that stage Red Bull could quite conceivably be right there on pace, so it would be a gift to Ricciardo or Vettel if the Mercs took each other out.

Despite all the bluster, I doubt very much either Merc driver has the balls to take the other out and risk their own points.

[321Go]

Originally Posted by chunterer

I doubt very much either Merc driver has the balls to take the other out and risk their own points.

Didn't stop Vettel from taking the 2010 WDC. He DNF that race too. And then did that finger twirl thing he did. Ahh.. the memories.

[TF110]

Some info...

Turns out Lewis said something along the lines of "I saw the telemetry and had a big smile on my face, wish you could have seen it..." Theres two ways to take that of course. As far as being friendly and shaking hands, I dont recall Nico doing that when he got beat in Bahrain, then again in Spain. I just heard "I dont like coming second to my teammate." No talk about that though.

But then this here-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/for...o-Rosberg.html this is wrong. Judges are suppose to be impartial. Nowhere does it say they interviewed other drivers. Just Nico. He 'interogated' him? Im sure. He says "you will not find a more honest driver in f1". Nico claims he went too fast and locked up. Thst was his story. They used data from hamiltons car as well. Hamilton was also traveling 7kph faster than his previous best but didnt lock up. Seems a little controversy is what they want. I dont think taking a drivers "honesty" into consideration should be a means of coming to a conclusion. Would other drivers (who are obviously less honest according to Warwick) get the same treatment? Or would their lack of honesty be a factor? Thats kinda stupid imo.

[Adam43]

You appear to have accidentally linked to the Daily Mail.

[TF110]

The source is a questionable one, so Ive heard. But other sources have the same quotes from warwick. Not sure how often espn and autosport quote the daily mail? He makes some good points, but saying things like Lewis should man up and driver's honesty coming into play making a decision doesn't seem just. Thats my opinion though of course. This will be interesting going to Canada. Charlie Whiting has suggested that they could add a minute extra to qualifying in the future in cases like this. That probably wouldn't even be enough for another lap so it seems pointless.

[Armco Bender]

F1 gets a bit boring so they take a leaf out of the WWF showbusiness manual and now we've got "Pretty Boy Lewis" fueding with "Nasty Nico"......oh well gives the punters something to talk about..

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Armco Bender

F1 gets a bit boring so they take a leaf out of the WWF showbusiness manual and now we've got "Pretty Boy Lewis" fueding with "Nasty Nico"......oh well gives the punters something to talk about..

Wish they would take a couple of pages out of MMA handbook and at least deliver the action on schedule!

[321Go]

Now look what Lewis has gone and done. He's comments on growing up in Stevenage has outraged the local Stevenage Borough Council. 'Derogatory' and 'unfair' they're saying. Councillors are calling for his head. But an apology will suffice apparently.

[Aysedasi]

Oh let's all get a life.........

[Moneyseeker]

If he's not careful it could end up as Lewis v Lewis....I think over the season LH will win it, but I have always thought he is vulnerable on mind management, so he may well have to beat himself and Nico - if you see what I mean.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Moneyseeker

If he's not careful it could end up as Lewis v Lewis....I think over the season LH will win it, but I have always thought he is vulnerable on mind management, so he may well have to beat himself and Nico - if you see what I mean.

If Rosberg decides to really start playing mind games with Hamilton, then what?

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Moneyseeker

If he's not careful it could end up as Lewis v Lewis....I think over the season LH will win it, but I have always thought he is vulnerable on mind management, so he may well have to beat himself and Nico - if you see what I mean.

Thanks again Damon!

[garcon]

Originally Posted by 321Go

Now look what Lewis has gone and done. He's comments on growing up in Stevenage has outraged the local Stevenage Borough Council. 'Derogatory' and 'unfair' they're saying. Councillors are calling for his head. But an apology will suffice apparently.

Seems like everyone from Stevenage could do with a thicker skin.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by garcon

Seems like everyone from Stevenage could do with a thicker skin.

It's all starting to go a bit Ali G really isn't it? 'the mean streets of Stevenage'

Must have been tough coming up through the ranks with only that McLaren backing to rely on.

Hold on - there's something in my eye.

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

It's all starting to go a bit Ali G really isn't it? 'the mean streets of Stevenage'

Must have been tough coming up through the ranks with only that McLaren backing to rely on.

Hold on - there's something in my eye.

Quite...you can tell that Lewis is not thinking straight with this whole background nonsense, he may not have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he was certainly handed one by McLaren and Mercedes when he was in short trousers!

He should have known that this sort of comment would not stand up to much scrutiny, unless he has forgotten who RD is already....

Many of his contemporaries are still scratching a living as ARDS instructors at race schools, with the odd race alongside Gentleman driver thrown in and without his massive multi million pound backing, Lewis would probably be doing the same. A bit humility goes a long way sometimes.

My advice to Lewis woud be to forget the mind games as it is absolutely HIS weakest link.

Here endeth the lesson....

[bjohnsonsmith]

Hamilton/Rosberg not like Prost/Senna: Toto Woolf.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114185

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

It's all starting to go a bit Ali G really isn't it? 'the mean streets of Stevenage'

Must have been tough coming up through the ranks with only that McLaren backing to rely on.

Hold on - there's something in my eye.

Don't diss the Stevenage Massif, you'll get more than something in your eye if you do.

[bjohnsonsmith]

An interesting article, with Christian Horner's take on Hamilton/Rosberg, plus a look at past rivalries in F1.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114192

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

An interesting article, with Christian Horner's take on Hamilton/Rosberg, plus a look at past rivalries in F1.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114192

It makes an interesting read, but I bet Horner is loving seeing another team having to deal with the same problems he's had over the past few years (apparent dominance and bickering team mates). Plus it's good from a team mind games point of view to say that he thinks Mercedes are going to have difficulties because of this.