2015 United States Grand Prix - Austin, October 23 - 25

[George-Jung]

Best race of the season by far.
Congrats to the Hamilton fans!

Regarding the attitude of Rosberg, a bit of a shame.. a real gentleman wins with a smile and looses with a smile, at least make it look that way in public.

Last but not least, really a shame that Verstappen lost out his 3rd place, that would have been truly amazing!

[Vasconia]

I always thought Alonso was a guttersnipe for all his antics, and unfortunately Hamilton isn't proving much different. He is fantastic on the track, but if he keeps acting like this, he'll never be half the man his idol Senna was, which for a fan is 10 times more disappointing than watching him fight for titles and lose. Greatness is not just number of wins and titles. That's exactly why many, many people didn't think Schumacher was better than Senna.

Please, Senna was/has been one of filthiest drivers in F1 history. It was severely criticized by other drivers more than once, and even Prost said "he will someday kill someone". You cant be serious.

Senna's was a magic driver but he is not morally a good example of a clean and respectful driver.

[Vasconia]

I think the key thing about the start, and a lot of the starts this year, is that in Rosberg's mind, he wins/loses the GP in the first corner. Mentally, this is a big advantage for Hamilton because he really doesn't think this way, if he doesn't get him in the first corner or lap, Hamilton knows he will get him later in the race. Rosberg, however, thinks his only chance is at T1. He thinks the only way he can beat Hamilton is to qualify ahead and stay ahead.

This.

I think that Rosberg has realized that if Lewis is ahead he will not overtake him under normal circunstances. This reminds me the Hill/Shumacher battles when Michael knew that he was going to win every close battle and because of that he used to force the situation and put Hill under pressure and a limit situation.

[turbof1]

Hamilton indeed has more the capability of looking several corners ahead.

I think it is the experience from his youth in lower formula classes that shaped this, and perhaps one race in particular helped enormously:

During that race, he got stuck behind Vettel. Hamilton made numerous attempts to pass Vettel, but in each attempt he had to compromise his own line into the corners, which Vettel used to get back in front. Finally, Hamilton compromised Vettel's corner entry on every single corner to compromise his traction and speed on the small straight to get past (skip to 5:45 for that awesome battle!). Hamilton had to plan for almost all the corners of the circuit in order to get in front of Vettel.

Rosberg probably should have seen it coming that Hamilton would try to push Rosberg out - it would not be the first time in a long shot. Rather, as mentioned, he should have conceded the corner to Hamilton or even better conceded it but made it look like he's still trying to battle for it, cut underneath and get earlier back on the power, then attack Hamilton through the fast turn 2.

I still think it was quite agressive from Hamilton (not against the rules or anything, just agressive). He could have done it a tiny bit less extreme by leaving a bit more room for Rosberg. The door was shut for Rosberg in any case; in that position Rosberg would not been able to get the position back. It's quite nitpicky I know, and it does not really matter anyhow. However, when I said Hamilton was agressive, I mean that he banged wheels:

I personally feel it's one thing to bluff and push your opponent wide, but if he calls your bluff and does not move aside it gets tricky. Hamilton afterwards told the team he did not meant to do this and I believe him in that. Just that he needs to be a bit more careful with these things since if either driver their tyres hit the other his front wing, it's a slow and painful crawl back the pits to change a flat tyre.

I have to say though: Hamilton did try to turn more to the left, but his car seemed to understeer straight through.

EDIT: Hamilton's side of the story seems to confirm he understeered into Nico: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/121516

[sAx]

I also feel the hat accident got a bit excagerated. Hamilton was a bit inconsiderate, Rosberg was a bit mad. No big deal.

However, I think that the first corner incident will weight heavier. Admittingly, Hamilton was agressive there, although there's always the possibility he had huge understeer.

He didn't seem to wind much lock on from the in-car footage - no huge understeer, but he was a fraction ahead at the apex so the corner would appear to have been his to make going around the outside as difficult as possible for Rosberg. Which to be fair he did!

[Phil]

Rosberg probably should have seen it coming that Hamilton would try to push Rosberg out - it would not be the first time in a long shot. Rather, as mentioned, he should have conceded the corner to Hamilton or even better conceded it but made it look like he's still trying to battle for it, cut underneath and get earlier back on the power, then attack Hamilton through the fast turn 2.

Good points. Having reviewed the above video, what I also noticed is that Hamilton with his maneuver or understeer-moment compromised turn 1 quite significantly. You can tell by how hard he has to turn in to the left - and you can see it by the speed of the cars behind - namely the RedBulls - that take the corner at a much better angle and carry a lot more speed. If it really was understeering and lack of grip - imagine if Rosberg had yielded earlier, but as a consequence taken T1 better and carried more speed? He would have perhaps been able to use that for an overtake after T2 along the outside.

We'll never know. It does seem so, that Rosberg feels that he is needs to win T1 and that his chances are slim to battle it out on track. Essentially - broken in belief. Adding to that, with a deficit of 73 points with 3.9 races left, it's hard to change things around. He certainly has the ability and the speed, no doubt about it, but he certainly seems to lack the self-confidence, mental power, "aura" if you will, to challenge that race in, race out. I think some of that is through consequence - if you've lost 6 races and failed to capitalize on so many pole positions, it will take an effect. On the other side, for Lewis to turn so many races around despite not being on pole, must really add to that mental advantage he seemed to have this season.

[GrizzleBoy]

I also feel the hat accident got a bit excagerated. Hamilton was a bit inconsiderate, Rosberg was a bit mad. No big deal.

However, I think that the first corner incident will weight heavier. Admittingly, Hamilton was agressive there, although there's always the possibility he had huge understeer.

He didn't seem to wind much lock on from the in-car footage - no huge understeer, but he was a fraction ahead at the apex so the corner would appear to have been his to make going around the outside as difficult as possible for Rosberg. Which to be fair he did!

If you're already suffering low grip understeer in a braking zone which by definition means the tyres are not affording the grip you need, adding more lock will only do the opposite of what you want.

You need the wheels to keep rotating if you want to slow down.

If you add more lock in a braking zone with already low grip where you're already struggling to make the car slow down let alone turn, that's a sure fire way to make the brake force more powerful than the rolling friction of the tyre and stop your wheels moving. Aka lock up.

When you lock up, the only direction you go is straight on. Not what you want on a less than 90 degree bend.

[Facts Only]

People (obviously non-competition drivers) seem to think that because Hamilton didnt wind on more left-hand lock he was deliberatly pushing Rosberg wide. Whereas anyone with an ounce of driving skill knows that if you are understeering just turning the wheel more makes things much worse. You need to try to get the wheels back to a point where they can grip which can mean reducing the amount of steer angle. (this is for RWD though, the same is not always true of front and 4WD cars where you can use the power to pull the front wheels in)

[MercedesAMGSpy]

Totally deserved title for Lewis Hamilton and what a race to win it.

Rosberg, no words, how he behaved...has only himself to blame.

Keep an eye on that Verstappen chap, we are watching a future Great.

[bonjon1979]

Finding the reaction to the T-1 move quite bizarre but utterly unsurprising. Driver on inside of the track can't just disappear, not on the ideal line, is always going to understeer and go on. Rosberg should've braked earlier and cut back. He wouldve had an easy overtake on Hamilton. Hamilton was fully alongside Rosberg going into the braking zone, there is simply no way that a car can outbrake and go around the outside of someone in that scenario, it's never going to happen and Rosberg would've/should've known that.

Cap stuff was just hilarious - Hamilton was clearly getting into his head, winding him up and Nico bit. That was Lewis looking to next years championship, trying to keep in his head and nico took the bait. Paddy Lowe looked absolutely furious with Nico - i've never seen him give such a death stare before. How long does rosberg have on his contract? I thought next year was his last year? Unless he gets off to a flyer I'm not sure we're going to see it renewed at Merc. I could see him in a mclaren at some point in the future though...

[PlatinumZealot]

Everytime Hamilton makes a move on Rosberg, I see smiles on the faces of Lauda and Toto.
Rosberg has been unlucky in many ways, but the atmosphere since Spa 2014 sure doesn't help.

They smile out of endearment. They love Rosberg, but they have sort of accepted that he doesn't have the mental fortitude to hold it together under pressure in the race. Smiles of endearment and acceptance of the expected.

[PlatinumZealot]

I don't see how throwing the cap back makes Rosberg a loser. Hamilton was just being tasteless adding insult to injury. He has to go ahead and make something daft like that on the moment he wins his 3rd title.

I can understand why Rosberg would take it that way, however I think Hamilton was just saying in a non-verbal way; "Hey man, we got to go outside, get up, stop your childish sulking." I guess being a German he would take Ham's non-verbal communication a different way.

[SiLo]

Everytime Hamilton makes a move on Rosberg, I see smiles on the faces of Lauda and Toto.
Rosberg has been unlucky in many ways, but the atmosphere since Spa 2014 sure doesn't help.

They smile out of endearment. They love Rosberg, but they have sort of accepted that he doesn't have the mental fortitude to hold it together under pressure in the race. Smiles of endearment and acceptance of the expected.

Lauda was just shaking his head, Toto looked like he was just smiling because he couldn't believe it.

[Postmoe]

People (obviously non-competition drivers) seem to think that because Hamilton didnt wind on more left-hand lock he was deliberatly pushing Rosberg wide. Whereas anyone with an ounce of driving skill knows that if you are understeering just turning the wheel more makes things much worse. You need to try to get the wheels back to a point where they can grip which can mean reducing the amount of steer angle. (this is for RWD though, the same is not always true of front and 4WD cars where you can use the power to pull the front wheels in)

There is always some amount of initial correcting of the trajectory on an understeer situation that was absolutelly absent in this case. So..

... either Hamilton is able to predict understeer before experiencing it.
... either he didn't correct because he was scared he would lock (but, man, this you do with a bike were you can't lock your front in the wet).

Or he just wanted to push Rosberg out, wich he could rationaly try to do with the cars amost in parallel.

[MercedesAMGSpy]

Everytime Hamilton makes a move on Rosberg, I see smiles on the faces of Lauda and Toto.
Rosberg has been unlucky in many ways, but the atmosphere since Spa 2014 sure doesn't help.

They smile out of endearment. They love Rosberg, but they have sort of accepted that he doesn't have the mental fortitude to hold it together under pressure in the race. Smiles of endearment and acceptance of the expected.

I never understand why people are suprised when these kind of things happen. Of course they will say infront of the camera that Rosberg is a good driver and just as good as Hamilton, but that's all the usual PR bullshit.

They know who is the better driver and they know which driver needs to win it for them when Ferrari is a real threat and it's not Nico Rosberg.