2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Yas Marina, 27-29 November

[ripper]

Using a little more fuel helps to keep a little lower engine temperature?

[atanatizante]

Guys, guys, just cool down a little bit, will you ...
You need to see the big picture in hindsight : after Lewis got the job done with WDC the team biased theirs attention towards Rosberg in order to keep his motivation alive for next year, don't you think?
Today strategy was another proof that the team didn't want to let them race knowing above all Rosberg has had a PU issue.
How could they boost Rosberg's moral for next year had he ended like last year with an engine failure?
And most of all how could this be beneficial for Mercedes having a negative advertising from an engine failure?

[Silent Storm]

Fuel usage:
http://oi65.tinypic.com/14c9vk0.jpg
Seems ROS used a little more.

Raikkonen more efficient then both the Merc.. Vettel started from back and always had cars in front of him so that must have helped him in having used less fuel..
If Massa had been in clear air Kimi would have used the least fuel this race but still he is very close to Massa.

Rosberg maybe running slighly rich to keep it cool.

[Jordan44]

Fuel usage:
http://oi65.tinypic.com/14c9vk0.jpg
Seems ROS used a little more.

Doesn't really mean anything. They don't actually let their drivers race so you can't strategically use fuel.

[tranquility2k4]

What I don't get in all of this is how Toto can so blatently deny that they cost Lewis a chance at victory. The facts are that Lewis was around 1.2 seconds behind Nico when Nico pitted. He has closed a gap of around 7 seconds and was clearly faster on the prime tyre, as the temperatures had dropped.

The fact Lewis ended up around 8 seconds behind him means the Merc strategy cost Lewis. At the very least if he had pitted just a few laps later, he would have given Nico a close race and may have even had the odd opportunity to overtake. Each lap they left him out I was thinking there is no way that he will be able to make this gap up.

[iotar__]

Fuel usage:
http://oi65.tinypic.com/14c9vk0.jpg
Seems ROS used a little more.

Doesn't really mean anything.

They don't actually let their drivers race

so you can't strategically use fuel.

Is that how they win championships? Is that the excuse today, "They" don't let them race? Hamilton wasn't quick enough and was outpaced thoroughly over the weekend - end of story.

- Grosjean - last to nine, flawless and even better than Spa, definition of putting the car where it does not belong, two Toro Rossos, Red Bull and right behind Williams. Ruined team's best efforts to not achieve anything with usual no practice and gearbox circus, could have been better.

- Bottas got away extremely lightly. Another joke ruling considering RG got the same for nothing in Hungary. Verstappen - also lightly, full off track overtake on purpose with no excuses and only 5 s. New strict track limits enforcing by FIA =D> . New batch of special treatment drivers.

[Jordan44]

Fuel usage:
http://oi65.tinypic.com/14c9vk0.jpg
Seems ROS used a little more.

Doesn't really mean anything.

They don't actually let their drivers race

so you can't strategically use fuel.

Is that how they win championships? Is that the excuse today, "They" don't let them race? Hamilton wasn't quick enough and was outpaced thoroughly over the weekend - end of story.

- Grosjean - last to nine, flawless and even better than Spa, definition of putting the car where it does not belong, two Toro Rossos, Red Bull and right behind Williams. Ruined team's best efforts to not achieve anything with usual no practice and gearbox circus, could have been better.

- Bottas got away extremely lightly. Another joke ruling considering RG got the same for nothing in Hungary. Verstappen - also lightly, full off track overtake on purpose with no excuses and only 5 s. New strict track limits enforcing by FIA =D> . New batch of special treatment drivers.

Nothing to do with Hamilton. I'm just making the point that it makes no difference how much fuel a driver saves because they control the engine modes and don't let you run higher than the other unless there are exceptional circumstances. Not sure why you have to link everything back to justify Rosberg winning races.

Mercedes are deceiving fans by telling them they let their drivers race and they don't. Since Belgium 2014 the polesitter wins/driver leading in T1 wins

[Jordan44]

It's fair to say a lot of people need some of Zoidberg's prescription.
http://i.imgur.com/8vXZdGM.png

Over this season I thought you guys were just slightly biased towards Hamilton, but these last races, the ammount of fanboyism I've seen is a disgrace imo.
The pressure was on for Hamilton to win it, he didn't, tant pis (= too bad).

Many here have accepted the fact Hamilton didn't do the job when it mattered in qualifying. But people are sick of Merc's strange strategies to stop the two being close on track.

[ringo]

What I don't get in all of this is how Toto can so blatently deny that they cost Lewis a chance at victory. The facts are that Lewis was around 1.2 seconds behind Nico when Nico pitted. He has closed a gap of around 7 seconds and was clearly faster on the prime tyre, as the temperatures had dropped.

The fact Lewis ended up around 8 seconds behind him means the Merc strategy cost Lewis. At the very least if he had pitted just a few laps later, he would have given Nico a close race and may have even had the odd opportunity to overtake. Each lap they left him out I was thinking there is no way that he will be able to make this gap up.

Well the gap was down to 1.00s, Nico would have been in DRS 1 lap after.
What is obvious as you say is that they don't want Lewis to Race Rosberg, as they need Rosberg happy for the group photos and other promotional stuff for the Mercedes brand.

I don't know why no one has mentioned it, but if Mercedes were being true to their "let them race" policy and their " if the second driver was under threat of losing P2" policy, they would have pitted Hamilton first, or .. pit Lewis right after Rosberg did when the gap was down to 1 second.
They knew, had Lewis pitted right after Rosberg with such a small gap that Rosberg will be pushed to the end until he either makes an error, Lewis overtakes him, or he pushes and blows up his engine.
So they decided to keep them as far apart as possible.

It's just annoying that this doesnt apply when Nico is the one trailing. I guess they know Lewis has a better race pace, so he can pick up the slack in the tougher situations.

[Mattchu]

First off i`m not a Hamilton fan, nor am i a Rosberg fan (i actually don`t really have a `favourite`), what i do want to see is racing, not only between teams but also team mates. Toro Rosso seem to have the right ingredient, they let their two drivers attack each other and overtake but also one will let the other through when the situation is needed.
Watching that race i thought we could be in for a crackerjack final stint, both Mercs should have pitted on consecutive laps like they have done all season, then it would have been go on lads fight it out to the finish but don`t take each other out. Whoever comes out on top wins the race (obviously).
Rosberg may well have pulled a gap on Hamilton and gone on and won the race, he would have been out of DRS range after the pit stops i`d imagine.
But we never got the chance to see that, lets hope next year at least one other team is challenging Mercedes so they actually have to think about what race they are running and not just manipulate the order!

World Champion - Lewis Hamilton

Best Qualifier relative to teammate - probably Grojean

Driver of the year - Sebastian Vettel

Rookie of the year - Max Verstappen (very closely followed by Sainz)

Overtaker of the year - Max Verstappen

Worst driver of the year - obvious

Most entertaining for stuff other than driving - Fernando Alonso

p.s. The anti brigade seem just as pathetic as the pro brigade!!! People mostly want to see racing...

[ringo]

It's fair to say a lot of people need some of Zoidberg's prescription.
http://i.imgur.com/8vXZdGM.png

Over this season I thought you guys were just slightly biased towards Hamilton, but these last races, the ammount of fanboyism I've seen is a disgrace imo.
The pressure was on for Hamilton to win it, he didn't, tant pis (= too bad).

Many here have accepted the fact Hamilton didn't do the job when it mattered in qualifying. But people are sick of Merc's strange strategies to stop the two being close on track.

I agree, but let's not forget the race is what matters. Don't let mercedes create this silly idea that you get it all in the race because you qualified higher. The only thing you get for qualifying higher should be an 8 metre headstart.
I hope they change their race manipulation for 2016.
Nico either improved or Lewis relaxed, but it's plain to see that Lewis still has the race pace advantage, and it kills the excitement when totto tries to sanitize it for the end results. I can't believe i'm saying this but Mclaren are a better team. At least you have both sides of the garage racing each other.

[zeph]

Very funny.. but no. The team for some stupid reason want absolute harmony going into next year, and to do that that have to keep Rosberg in good spirits going into the Christmas party. Yup, Hamilton has his championships Rosberg ends the year winning everyone's happy... ugh..artificial racing. I can't wait for Hamilton to leave to Ferrari.

Because Ferrari doesn't do team orders?

[Just_a_fan]

It's fair to say a lot of people need some of Zoidberg's prescription.
http://i.imgur.com/8vXZdGM.png

Over this season I thought you guys were just slightly biased towards Hamilton, but these last races, the ammount of fanboyism I've seen is a disgrace imo.
The pressure was on for Hamilton to win it, he didn't, tant pis (= too bad).

Rosberg did a better job in qualifying for which Hamilton had no answer. Hamilton was doing a better job in the race as he closed a 6 second gap with ease and Rosberg had no answer.

[Shooty81]

It's fair to say a lot of people need some of Zoidberg's prescription.
http://i.imgur.com/8vXZdGM.png

Over this season I thought you guys were just slightly biased towards Hamilton, but these last races, the ammount of fanboyism I've seen is a disgrace imo.
The pressure was on for Hamilton to win it, he didn't, tant pis (= too bad).

Rosberg did a better job in qualifying for which Hamilton had no answer. Hamilton was doing a better job in the race as he closed a 6 second gap with ease and Rosberg had no answer.

Who won the race? Rosberg pulled a gap of the same size "with ease".

Have you seen Hamilton's tires after the race? No chance to catch Rosberg.

[andartop]

"I think in hindsight once Nico had pitted I would have backed off a bit and made those tyres go a lot longer," said Hamilton, reflecting on his race.

"The tyres were still fine at the end so I thought I could have taken them to the end but that didn't work out.

"Going too long [in the second stint of the race] was probably not the right thing to do but we gave it a try and I did the best job I could with it."

from gpupdate

It sounds to me Hamilton made a decision along with his race engineer that simply didn't work out.

The same complaints that we heard about Merc not allowing them to try different strategies after Brazil, we now hear about Merc allowing them to try different strategies, simply because the one chosen by this side of the garage didn't work?

It would be interesting to see if he had made this strategy work whether he would have been able to keep Rosberg behind him in the last few laps. This being a circuit that allows overtaking and all. In reality, Merc might have just saved Lewis from an embarrassing DNF had he insisted to go to the end on one stop and kept pushing more than he should to make the tires last the distance...

Nevermind, I'm sure he'll be back on top form at the start of 2016.