Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team 2014

[warmasice]

I wonder whether Mercedes really want Rosberg to be champion like Peter suggests.

The thing is: I don't consider Rosberg the best driver in the field. Of course we all have our personal favorites, so this is a contestable statement but purely on driving quality I would place Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton, Button and Ricciardo a notch above Rosberg.

The reason Rosberg is currently leading the champoinship is that a) all the competitors have cars which are by far inferior b) his only true competitor Hamilton has fallen behind due to "circumstances".

For next year you would expect the margin between Mercedes and the other teams to have shrunken. So then Rosberg would not only compete with his teammate but also with the other teams.

I don't think Rosberg could win that battle. I think in 2015 Mercedes needs a a top driver next to Rosberg even if he wins this years championship.

Signing a top driver might become very difficult if Rosberg wins the championship and if he wins it this way. Hamilton might be considering to head back to Mclaren, if he does I doubt that someone like Alonso, Vettel or even Ricciardo would be standing in line to take the seat.

Alonso already gets angry when his teammate drives in front of him, I'm not sure what would happen if his teammate would crash into him. He would certainly not join a team which would allow that to happen and so would most.

You'd place Button above Rosberg? Seriously? I know each to their own, but there are a number of midfield/backfield drivers better than Button.

[acosmichippo]

I wonder whether Mercedes really want Rosberg to be champion like Peter suggests.

If that were the case, I don't think Lauda or Wolff would have been so outspoken against Nico and visibly livid after the race. They would have put a PR spin on it an simply said, "It was a racing incident, that's racing," and called it a day.

[acosmichippo]

Honestly, I feel like the stewards should have penalized Nico, especially now with the verbiage of "deliberate" and "proving a point". There wasn't even an investigation, was there?

Only LH said "deliberate". "Proving a point" just means not giving up early. It just doesn't make sense to touch a rear wheel with the front wing deliberately. In most cases this just destroys the front wing.

Who says it has to make sense? Nico has been furious with Lewis since Hungary, and could have let his emotions take over any logic. It's not like he can sit there and weigh the percentages in the middle of a corner. All I'm saying is I think the Stewards should at least have an investigation. If the telemetry doesn't tell them anything more, so be it, but I'm sure it would.

If the telemetry showed in some way it was done on purpose, they could have sent that data to the FIA so they could have opened an investigation.

I am surprised about all those guys screaming for MGP to punish NR. Why should a team punish their own driver? There won't be any points taken off from Nico, same as there wasn't any action taking points off from Lewis after the Hungarian GP.

They should punish Nico for causing an avoidable incident, ruining Lewis' race, and (most importantly from the team's perspective) disobeying the arrangement made prior to the race. Put in a young reserve driver who can still score some points for the team. Sure, they won't do as well as Nico - call it penance for not having the foresight to prevent the issue in the first place.

Dangerous precedent to potentially set, but with Nico having admitted guilt and the stewards not having done anything it's kind of an odd-ball situation...

There have been worse crahses being unpunished by the FIA. For example Alonso crashing Vettel in the same race. Just read the comment by Emanuele Pirro.
Or just read http://www1.skysports.com/f1/report/220 ... nd-bahrain
Or remember LH in Hockenheim.

And there have been much more minor crashes that have been punished. Let's keep in mind that Nico very likely intentionally caused this, or at the very least declined to avoid it, which is really the same thing in my view. That was not the case for the Alonso-Vettel incident and that kind of behavior is not acceptable in a sport where people are flying around in vehicles going 300+ kph.

All we hear is one side of the medal. NR is not the kind of guy to play the media card. He decided to keep team internals intern. Don't you think, team responsibles like this kind of behavior?
All you fans of LH, don't forget that the guy who leaves meetings early is LH. The guy who bitches permanently in team radio is LH. I think it is much harder to work with LH than with NR.

What more do you need to know other than the team finds Nico at fault? Even after almost a week of discussion and investigation. And you can leave Lewis' work habits out of the discussion, it's completely irrelevant. You're resorting to ad hominem attacks in the absence of any legitimate arguments.

Could we please stay a little bit neutral?
Of Course the crash was coused by NR. But it was an racing accident. Those things just happen.

Let's reflect on this again - Nikki Lauda and Toto Wolff, who have all the information, have a responsibility to hear both driver's perspectives (and if anything, ought to be biased toward Nico if you believe Peter Windsor's comments from a few days ago), and have both publicly stated that Nico was at fault and did it "to prove a point". Disciplinary action has been taken against Nico by the team. Yet here you are saying it was a simple racing incident, and you claim other people are not being neutral? Amazing.

[NTS]

F1 looks good with a woman on the podium

new world record, on the podium in your first ever GP. That would hurt whoever wins the championship in a Mercedes, everyone would say: look, even a rookie could win in that car.

[RZS10]

The Daily Mail probably isn't the most reliable source (haha), but according to them Rosberg got a six digit fine that went to charity ... sounds plausible, and gaining 18 points advantage in the WDC standings is surely worth that amount of money, hell, i bet he would pay his whole season earnings to secure the championship

[acosmichippo]

I think the point is, NR made a mistake. A stupid one. You can not blame him to try to a pass from the outside going into les combes. I am pretty sure he tried to get as close behind LH as possible. Unfortunately it was too close. That was his mistake. You should not forget that he was blamed being fast yet too nice to become WDC after Bahrain.

I don't blame him for trying the pass, I blame him for not backing out when it was obvious it wasn't going to work. Which was pretty much right away.

Let Emanuele Pirro answer:

“We needed less than 10 seconds to decide that the contact was innocuous and not worth pursuing,”

“It was something venial that had unfortunate consequences, but the contact came in a few millimetres, in other words neither of the two cars had sudden movements.”

“There was no intention, perhaps Rosberg was a little cunning and clever to try it, but in the end the main problem was what happened within the team. The contact between Alonso and Vettel on the final lap, for example, was much clearer, but there again there was no investigation.”

At the time, I felt the same way. Just seemed like a clumsy, stupid move. But the statements from Merc since then have changed everything. Lewis said it was "deliberate". The team acknowledged Lewis' comment was "broadly accurate". Wolff said it was "to prove a point". That changes everything.

We only heard about the team meeting what LH said about it.

Doesn't matter who said what in the meetings, the team has clearly sided with Lewis on this. That's all we need to know.

The biggest mistake by MGP was to publicly blame NR immediately after the race (and before the teammeeting even began). Just read the recent news. Wolff and Lauda have been too emotional after the race, in my view. Now the world looks much different.

Honestly, I find it refreshing. If a driver acts like a jackass, he should be called out on it.

[Writinglife]

F1 looks good with a woman on the podium

new world record, on the podium in your first ever GP. That would hurt whoever wins the championship in a Mercedes, everyone would say: look, even a rookie could win in that car.

Hamilton already did this with McLaren, 3rd in his first GP race.

[SilverArrow10]

The Daily Mail probably isn't the most reliable source (haha), but according to them Rosberg got a six digit fine that went to charity ... sounds plausible, and gaining 18 points advantage in the WDC standings is surely worth that amount of money, hell, i bet he would pay his whole season earnings to secure the championship

Well that was written by the same guy who is massively biased against Hamilton, and right on the dot the same author has just released an article about how the crash was Hamilton's fault. But it makes sense, like it matters to Rosberg though.

[SectorOne]

I think the point is, NR made a mistake. A stupid one. You can not blame him to try to a pass from the outside going into les combes. I am pretty sure he tried to get as close behind LH as possible. Unfortunately it was too close. That was his mistake. You should not forget that he was blamed being fast yet too nice to become WDC after Bahrain.

Sure if you ignore the fact that he wanted to make a point.
If it was a genuine mistake you would have put your hand up straight away and confessed.
Instead he claimed to not remember the incident, that turned out to be false then the story changed to it was a mistake.

[ScottB]

The Daily Mail probably isn't the most reliable source (haha), but according to them Rosberg got a six digit fine that went to charity ... sounds plausible, and gaining 18 points advantage in the WDC standings is surely worth that amount of money, hell, i bet he would pay his whole season earnings to secure the championship

Well that was written by the same guy who is massively biased against Hamilton, and right on the dot the same author has just released an article about how the crash was Hamilton's fault. But it makes sense, like it matters to Rosberg though.

Fining these guys is nothing, a six figure fine to Rosberg is probably like a three figure one at most to us normal types, it's certainly not going to trouble him.

It would be interesting if there has been any punishments laid out for them as to what will happen if they crash into each other in future, e.g. 'Right, £100k fine this time, and if you do it again you'll be out the car for a race' would focus minds a lot more than 'Right, £100k fine this time, don't do it again.'

[Shrieker]

Ouch ! This can have serious ramifications for Rosberg's title bid ! :

Anonymous Team Source Reveals Rosberg Penalty

[Kingshark]

The thing is: I don't consider Rosberg the best driver in the field. Of course we all have our personal favorites, so this is a contestable statement but purely on driving quality I would place Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton, Button and Ricciardo a notch above Rosberg.

Button above Rosberg? Really? If you compare how both staked up against Hamilton on pure pace, you'll quickly figure out that it's the other way around. Button could never out-qualify Hamilton 8-4 in equal cars.

I also disagree about Vettel on that list. He seems too sensitive to the behavior of his car and can only perform if his machinery suits him. Rosberg is more adaptable than Vettel, and just as fast.

[adrianjordan]

I also disagree about Vettel on that list. He seems too sensitive to the behavior of his car and can only perform if his machinery suits him.

It's funny when you think about it, the same is often said about Button...I wonder how people would view Vettel had he only won 1 title...

[KeiKo403]

I wonder if Rosberg or Hamilton will be in the drivers press conference and if we'll have a Team rep in the TP conference for this weekend.

It'd be good for the fans to know what the punishment is too i think

[lio007]

Aldo Costa about some common facts of this years car (in the 3 year development-phase there were, besides the PU, a strong focus on interaction of aerodynamics and weight balance, and especially tyre use with a strong emphasis on suspension geometry). And they are working almost 100% on next years car, because they expect a strong reaction from RB and Ferrari and they want to continue their dominance next year. They also keep the new partnership between Honda and McLaren in mind.

http://www.omnicorse.it/magazine/41235/ ... anciamento