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

[Tauri_J]

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

Hamilton's tyres were older than dirt

[mrluke]

Having run the longer 2nd stint i dont understand why they didnt put SS on. Otherwise what was the point?

[Fulcrum]

As per the previous race thread (Brazil), I'm absolutely loving the comical banter and post-race rationalizations, predominantly from Hamilton fan boys - I mean supporters.

Keep the excuses flowing folks. I'm sure normal service will resume come March next year.

In the meantime, let's celebrate the most dominant team performance ever - in between slagging off their management skills of course.

[dans79]

I bet next year Nico will take over the #1 all time spot.

[giantfan10]

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.

if Hamilton was doing a better job in the race he would have won just give it a rest

[Godius]

I did not really understand the STR team order towards Sainz to swap positions with Verstappen, he had a really shitty pit stop (a usual thing for STR-standards) which wasn't his fault that allowed Verstappen to close the gap to DRS-range. Verstappen could not get past by his own and he was clearly not the better driver between the two on the track today.

[WaikeCU]

Whatever the idea of strategy Lewis and his engineer were thinking, it simply didn't work. Lewis managed to close the gap to Rosberg right before the latter went in for his last stop. From what I could remember, Lewis was going purple (in the first sector?) when Rosberg pitted. I thought the obvious thing was Lewis to push all the remaining life out of those tires in the next 1 or 2 laps before making his final stop as well. This would release him back on track right behind Nico, but somehow the laps kept counting and Lewis was still out on track while Nico was closing fast. The window disappeared completely when Lewis finally went in and rejoined back on track with a 14s gap on Nico with just 14-15 laps remaining. The idea of going longer during the 2nd stint was a possibility, but the window to make it happen was simply not big enough.

[NathanOlder]

Who ever called the strategy, (over the team radio that was broadcast , it sounded like the team called it) it was ridiculous! They had about 40 laps to do on 2 sets of brand new soft tyres. So why th F@@k would you do stints of 25 & 15. Even a child would work that one out. And these guys are meant to be the best of the best.

[iotar__]

So Hamilton gets his stupid alternative strategy, is slow in the last stint and blames everyone but himself. Then invents another impossible strategy scenario he "didn't get", it can go like that in circles. You might say that you cannot make this up but actually I did , right after Brazil, I want my points. Final result of course had nothing to do with the strategy.

[Kingshark]

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.

In order for him to close a 6 second gap, he'd have to have dropped 6 seconds to Rosberg first.

Likewise, Rosberg's engine had far more mileage, so that might have somewhat limited him.

[NathanOlder]

How was it an alternative strategy? If he went onto the super softs id accept it as an alternative strategy. Or even going short on the first set of softs to maybe gain track position for the last stint and try and hold Nico of while Lewis was on older tyres.

[NathanOlder]

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.

In order for him to close a 6 second gap, he'd have to have dropped 6 seconds to Rosberg first.

Likewise, Rosberg's engine had far more mileage, so that might have somewhat limited him.

I think Lewis had a better car on the soft tyre. Nico was better on the super softs. Hence the pole position and a 6 second gap at the first stop. Lewis made it up on the softs so they were back to 0.933 gap at the end of stint 2. And had a whole stint on the soft tyre which Lewis was easily faster. So the audience were robbed of a climax

[ringo]

How was it an alternative strategy? If he went onto the super softs id accept it as an alternative strategy. Or even going short on the first set of softs to maybe gain track position for the last stint and try and hold Nico of while Lewis was on older tyres.

Lewis just doesn't want to blame the team, but it's obvious they kept him out to prevent a battle.
It was a no brainer to pit him the lap after like they always do.
And yes it wasn't an alternative strategy, as they used the same tyres and did the same number of stops. It was in fact a retarded strategy, from 1 second gap to 7 or whatever it was.

Anyhow, he got the job done for 2015, on to next year. I feel it will be same as the past 3 years.

[Manoah2u]

yeah, with all do respect to Nico's racecraft - i think the guy lacks character but not speed or racecraft - Nico is not 6-7 seconds faster than Hamilton. There was something totally off there and to be honest, i do think Lewis was a tad optimistic of finishing the race on his tireset when he was trying to discuss it on team radio @ lap 41, but i felt the team wasnt telling the full truth. I genuinly think he might have had a chance and i think Lewis is experienced enough with the car, team and track and tires to 'sense' or 'feel' to have a reasonable hypothesis for a possible strategy change.

but it doesnt really matter though, Lewis won the WDC, and Merc already had the WCC, so, big deal.

[andartop]

The way I understand it, Lewis wanted to go for a single stop strategy.
That would have been an alternative strategy to Nico.
Whether that was always the plan or it was decided at some point during the race we might never know, but with his comments in mind, it seems it was a joint decision with his team.
It just didn't work.