The 2016 F1 WDC Title Dumpster Topic

[Just_a_fan]

You are right. And the big problem now: Wolff will sack Ham for the first three races according to media and will put Wehrlein into the car to have another German winning.
Bye bye WDC 2017

Any references for that?

If they do that, Hamilton will just walk away from F1. If they have him contractually to prevent that, then he'll just drive it around slowly and make them look silly.

Can't see them doing that. Way too big a risk of very bad publicity for Mercedes.

[djos]

Least deserving champion in a long time. Out qualified and out won by his team mate. Didn't win it, was gifted it by the team's mistakes on the other car. Even had the team on his side in the last race. Poor show Mercedes.

Amen.

Did not overtake his team mate once on track.

Yep, needed to grow some balls and overtake Lewis.

[djos]

Wow, never thought I'd see people call a driver "dishonorable", "shameful" etc. for trying to win the fvcking title without breaking any rules. What a sad bunch of haters you are.

Hamilton's drive was a near masterstroke. He slowed down Nico enough in the last sector, but pushed hard enough in the first few corners so as to deprive him DRS... Except the last lap. On the final tour, Vettel was closer than the penultimate lap, but Rosberg got DRS from Hamilton for the first and last time during the race and that protected him from a sure overtake from Vettel. What might have been, had they come side by side proper. Rosberg probably would've yielded seeing that 3rd was enough anyway.

And that's why i said 'near'.

Agreed, Prost, Senna and Shuey would have all done the same.

[ringo]

Another thing which struck me was that Hamilton was driving close to 2 seconds slower at the end and probably 1 sec slower through the race; and still no one was able to catch up. So did Red Bull/Ferrari really closed up through the year?

Toto made some calls to some other teams during the race. I just find it hard to beleive that they couldn't catch Nico and Lewis, especially Max and Vettel. It just doesn't seem to add up that Lewis literally was snailing the car around the track and the others were going all out and couldnt catch up.

[RA168E]

My two cents on this matter is not whether it was deserving or not for Rosberg to win the championship. The driver with the most points wins, therefore Rosberg is champion. Good on him, he drove well all year, and im saying this as someone who cannot stand the guy as a driver, in person in interviews I dont mind him at all, would actually maybe hang out with him were I given the chance. Ive supported Hamilton since I started watching F1 in 2007, so I am properly upset about him not winning this title. All these people claiming "witch hunt" and everything about him this year are pretty far out with their reasoning. Rosberg got the brunt of it last year, so I guess it evens out in the end, no? His tactics in the race were amazing to watch, the way he knew how to back him into them at the most ideal places for him and to gap him when he needed. A master class of driving. But people saying its dirty and not fair, how many other world champions did dodgy moves to win championships in much more dramatic and blatant ways? Adelaide 94, Jerez 97, Suzuka 89, Suzuka 90? Those races ring any bells? Those were downright blatant moves and only once did the driver have any sort of punishment. Hamilton out drove Rosberg all year when the car held up minus one or two races. Rosberg out scored Hamilton to win the championship, and to the victor goes the spoils.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Horner backs Hamilton over "naive" Mercedes

When asked what he would have done about Hamilton if he was his boss, Horner said: "We know that Toto likes to control most things in the paddock including other teams' drivers… so you could not expect any different.

"They are racing for a world championship, the drivers' world championship. There are only two guys in it and they are both in the same car.

"Lewis – winning the race was never going to be enough for him and he drove a tactical race. He didn't do anything dirty. He drove a tactical race. He didn't do anything against the rules and I think it would be unfair to criticise Lewis for the way he drove.

"It was obvious that coming into the weekend that was his only chance of achieving the result he wanted. It would be unfair to criticise him."

When asked if the tensions at Mercedes were something that Red Bull could exploit, Horner said: "I understand that Toto has suggested Lewis followed my instruction rather than his and he should come and drive for Red Bull...but maybe it works better to talk directly to the driver rather than the father."

[ringo]

Some ask why hire Lewis if they want Nico to win? but they have to look on it this way; Mercedes gave lewis 2 wdc so they are telling him t chill and humble his self, its Nico's turn now. This year was for Nico, from the start. They did not want him to go another year without being champion.
It slipped out of Paddy's mouth after the race. He says things are more balanced now; we have 2WDC. So it was their corporate agenda to have 2 champions in the team. It bodes well for them with marketing.
Imagine Lewis winning 5 championships with Mercedes and Nico have zero; it would look rather pitiful. It's almost like showering your adopted child with gifts and your legacy, while locking up your firstborn in the basement and feed him on bread crusts and water for 5 years. They had to give Nico a piece of the pie and this year they helped him every step of the way. They had made attempts in the past to assist him but they weren't enough.

here are a few, remember these?
Giving Nico Lewis data, and helping him to understand it.
Radio coaching, telling Nico what lewis is doing, where he is braking and how exactly where to make certain adjustments.
Breaking their lead driver pit first rules only when Nico is behind.
Breaking up the harmony with Lewis' mechanics which indirectly affected reliability.
Putting lewis on question slower tyre strategies any time he has a chance to run down Nico and pass him
Keeping lewis for many laps without pitting him one lap after Nico if Nico is leading (they watch the in lap and notice Lewis is going to fast so they hold him out till Nico builds a gap on his fresh tyres)
Return of driver coaching over the radio.

So as you can see from the above facts that yes Mercedes have tried to even things out over the years. The main mistake Lewis has made is to trust the team and not do more background work to ensure he was getting a reliable car and technical support behind the scenes to solve issues like the clutch paddle and that engine mode thing in Baku.

[dans79]

My take is that Nico is undeserving, as he won by luck not by merit.

I will admit having been a high level athlete (runner) at one point in my life, that I and a lot of other people I know hold ourselves to a higher standard than a win is a win. Wining and beating a top competitor, was not the same as winning and running a crappy time, or beating an opponent I out classed, or beating a top competitor who was compromised because of injury or some other reason.

[dans79]

Horner backs Hamilton over "naive" Mercedes

When asked what he would have done about Hamilton if he was his boss, Horner said: "We know that Toto likes to control most things in the paddock including other teams' drivers… so you could not expect any different.

"They are racing for a world championship, the drivers' world championship. There are only two guys in it and they are both in the same car.

"Lewis – winning the race was never going to be enough for him and he drove a tactical race. He didn't do anything dirty. He drove a tactical race. He didn't do anything against the rules and I think it would be unfair to criticise Lewis for the way he drove.

"It was obvious that coming into the weekend that was his only chance of achieving the result he wanted. It would be unfair to criticise him."

When asked if the tensions at Mercedes were something that Red Bull could exploit, Horner said: "I understand that Toto has suggested Lewis followed my instruction rather than his and he should come and drive for Red Bull...but maybe it works better to talk directly to the driver rather than the father."

I've always suspected Toto, was a control freak, little stories/comments like this kind of prove that. This could actually put some wait behind the idea of Lowe leaving, i'm sure working with a control freak gets old quick.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Breaking up the harmony with Lewis' mechanics which indirectly affected reliability.

Just to put down my thought on this. I don't think the swap of mechanics affected the reliability of Lewis. In fact, they were the same mechanics in 2014 who were with Lewis when he suffered a host of reliability issues in 2014. What I believe is, those mechanics and most importantly the Chief Mechanic knew subtle details of Lewis' settings that might not be all in data, which probably went to Nico. Remember, in the beginning of the year Toto said, they did it because the garages were increasingly split and some data was not being shared.

On Lewis' part, he feels that he had worked closely with these mechanics for 3 years (2013-15) and they had formed a close knitted group that would understand his needs better, rather than having a group of mechanics, especially Chief Mechanic who starts from ground zero to understand his needs. Because Nico was anyway losing, it didn't mattered to him of having new set of mechanics, while Lewis felt let down, because he stood to lose the most of that swap. Once again, I don't think it was related to reliability.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Keeping lewis for many laps without pitting him one lap after Nico if Nico is leading (they watch the in lap and notice Lewis is going to fast so they hold him out till Nico builds a gap on his fresh tyres)

A classic instance was Austria this year. On Friday, everyone said the UltraSofts were not going to last beyond 3 laps, though it was very conservative estimate! The most that anyone could have driven on them, was around 8 laps. Ferrari went with SuperSofts to be aggressive on first stint. While they pitted Nico after 9 laps, Lewis went for 20 laps on a set of tires that he had qualified on! He did all the hard work to have one stop. But he was betrayed and was given 2 stopper for no reason and that too, they waited until the 23 second he had built on Nico to erode. They were responsible for the blunder that happened later. For all the bravado that Toto expressed after Abu Dhabi about Lewis not listening to team order, he simply chickened out after Austria and did not even had the decency to accept the blunder. Clear sign of favoring Nico.

[marvin78]

Yeah. There ist "evidence" for both sides. In the end they all are more or less constructed bei the own opinion of the drivers. Take a decent neutral look at the facts und you will see, that nobody knows enough to judge about Mercedes or the drivers.

[zac510]

Not really wishing to pour more fuel onto this trainwreck of a thread but I have been wondering whether Lewis had given up the championship at 2/3 distance and just wanted to put the fear into Nico Rosberg. For example, Nico might be having a good time now (at least I hope he is) but when he gets in the car next year he might be reminded of what his teammate can do.

[Vasconia]

here are a few, remember these?
Giving Nico Lewis data, and helping him to understand it.
Radio coaching, telling Nico what lewis is doing, where he is braking and how exactly where to make certain adjustments.
Breaking their lead driver pit first rules only when Nico is behind.
Breaking up the harmony with Lewis' mechanics which indirectly affected reliability.
Putting lewis on question slower tyre strategies any time he has a chance to run down Nico and pass him
Keeping lewis for many laps without pitting him one lap after Nico if Nico is leading (they watch the in lap and notice Lewis is going to fast so they hold him out till Nico builds a gap on his fresh tyres)
Return of driver coaching over the radio.

So as you can see from the above facts that yes Mercedes have tried to even things out over the years. The main mistake Lewis has made is to trust the team and not do more background work to ensure he was getting a reliable car and technical support behind the scenes to solve issues like the clutch paddle and that engine mode thing in Baku.

Any proof of that or is simply part of your imagination just to justify why Nich has won? its incredible to read how well some people know what happens inside the team. Some of you must have very privileged information, right?

Its like the super realiable information about Hamilton´s departure or about a supposed severe penalty for him. Its easy to just throw ideas without any information, at least one of them could be true...

Lewis has trusted the team? really? because every time he has had a problem he has suggested just the opposite. Then the team speaks with him and he declares later on that he believes in his team.

[basti313]

Are you both saying Lewis had a perfect season and didn't leave more than 5 points on the table through his own errors?

I think he and a lot of other people know Lewis left points on the table. However, what so many trolls, blissfully ignorant, and fanboys here seem to forget, is that Nico also left a lot of points on the table.

Nico is a mediocre driver. I thought Lewis is more than mediocre? But if I see it correctly and nicely founded by your list, we had two drivers throwing away points with mediocre performances. So who of them deserved to be WDC?
If Nicos car would have failed to make it more equal, would Lewis really be the well deserved champion by beating mediocre Nico by a few points who is not a deserved champion?