2016 Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team - Mercedes

[iotar__]

There's a simple reasons nonsensical "disadvantaged by the team Hamilton" theories people are not even touching reality. It's because reality is pointing towards something opposite. Last race for example. If they wanted Rosberg to win they would not have put Hamilton on better tyres and would not have used an undercut against leading driver. True Rosberg was in front but:
- he was put after very early stop into traffic, while Hamilton was in free air, that's not disadvantage
- strategy was about Vettel, perhaps they didn't expect Hamilton to be so slow on softs
- there was a safety car that helped.
- being behind was disadvantage but 11 lap fresher tyres should have been more than enough, Rosberg was quicker on those and Hamilton slow

How on earth can you pretend that they wanted Rosberg to win? If they wanted that they either let them race towards the end (still should be an advantage for Hamilton), Verstappen was fine on a one-stopper, or put them on SS Rosberg first. They chose the only option that gave advantage to Hamilton instead which together with Rosberg's brake failure (another example of conspiracy/disadvantage?) enabled him the win.

[PhillipM]

They wouldn't have needed any of that rubbish if they'd left him on the one stop he'd been pacing his tyres for. They wouldn't even have been near each other on track.

[De Jokke]

Hamilton backed by charlie whiting, euhm did you forget 2008???

It's clear that Merc wants Rosberg to win, only one merc driver (all other merc engine teams included) with ongoing issues on his car (even Hamilton said so himself) and in Spielberg: strategy to get Rosberg in front of Hamilton + last stop they gave hamilton softs instead of supersofts but luckily Rosberg got graining (which merc didn't expect) + 2 times (yes 2!) a botched pitstop for Lewis. Rosberg' pitstops were flawless, hmmm I wonder why...

Why did Merc let them race, to cover things up, they know that they are being monitored by the fans. They already messed up Lewis' race (from pole) up to a huge extent (see above), so they couldn't impose teamorders (as it was way to obvious then). Merc didn't expect Lewis to be so fast on the softs (slower tyre!) and certainly not that he could overtake Rosberg.

[skoop]

+ 2 times (yes 2!) a botched pitstop for Lewis. Rosberg' pitstops were flawless, hmmm I wonder why...

Because mechanics are human beings and errors happen?

[De Jokke]

+ 2 times (yes 2!) a botched pitstop for Lewis. Rosberg' pitstops were flawless, hmmm I wonder why...

Because mechanics are human beings and errors happen?

2 Lewis, 0 Rosberg, strange if you ask me

[skoop]

+ 2 times (yes 2!) a botched pitstop for Lewis. Rosberg' pitstops were flawless, hmmm I wonder why...

Because mechanics are human beings and errors happen?

2 Lewis, 0 Rosberg, strange if you ask me

No it's not. It's just bad luck. As every season (14 & 15) this will be equal at the end of the year. Stop seeing conspiracys everywhere (on both sides).

[De Jokke]

Because mechanics are human beings and errors happen?

2 Lewis, 0 Rosberg, strange if you ask me

No it's not. It's just bad luck. As every season (14 & 15) this will be equal at the end of the year. Stop seeing conspiracys everywhere (on both sides).

Wonder what you'll say when Lewis has his next car failure or messy pitstop... probably bad luck again?

[Schuttelberg]

Hamilton backed by charlie whiting, euhm did you forget 2008???

It's clear that Merc wants Rosberg to win, only one merc driver (all other merc engine teams included) with ongoing issues on his car (even Hamilton said so himself) and in Spielberg: strategy to get Rosberg in front of Hamilton + last stop they gave hamilton softs instead of supersofts but luckily Rosberg got graining (which merc didn't expect) + 2 times (yes 2!) a botched pitstop for Lewis. Rosberg' pitstops were flawless, hmmm I wonder why...

Why did Merc let them race, to cover things up, they know that they are being monitored by the fans. They already messed up Lewis' race (from pole) up to a huge extent (see above), so they couldn't impose teamorders (as it was way to obvious then). Merc didn't expect Lewis to be so fast on the softs (slower tyre!) and certainly not that he could overtake Rosberg.

So you're saying Mercedes pay Hamilton 30 something million dollars to sabotage him? Ridiculous mate!

Hamilton has just been outright unlucky with all his engine failures. Just to clear you up on the strategy front- At the previous race, Hamilton was put on softs for the last stint because it was the better tyre. Rosberg himself would have bolted softs on but he didn't have any left. Secondly, although Lewis was behind Nico after the first round of stops, he got the opportunity to under-cut Nico, thereby getting first call and the better strategy but he made a mistake on his out lap. Had Hamilton and Mercedes not made the pit stop and on track error, Lewis would have easily under-cut Nico.

So, No, Mercedes are not giving any preference to any of their drivers, however, their strategy at the A1 ring was extremely weird.

[Jolle]

There is no conspiracy for either side of the garage to "let them win", for a billion dollar project, that simply doesn't make any kind of sense. This isn't the kindergarten playground.
The same goes for "so and so is lying", rubbish. Of course you're going to tell the press that there are no problems, matters like that should be contained within the team, that's just basic PR stuff. Same goes for putting the blame on someone, you start off with defending a member of your team "must be a technical error" before you put the blame on someone. Again, every team works like that, not just in motorsport. The moment they will be honest right from the start, then you need to worry.

Like any high performing team, anywhere, there are arguments, between management, drivers, consultants, etc, that process is one of the things that make a team like that work. And again, without that friction you should worry, then the team isn't working as optimal.

For drivers, you need to dislike each other a bit, it's part of the motivation. It's all about managing the "disliking"before it becomes to much. A great example of this is Senna-Prost. Senna used his dislike of Prost as one of his motivations to just get that extra bit what he needed sometimes. The moment Prost retired, they were friends, Prost even was a board member of the Senna Foundation.

The team Mercedes are faced with two problems since hybrid era. The biggest one is reliability of non-performance parts. There have been many silly small things that went wrong on the car that are there for years, like wire loom in the steering wheel, a spark plug injector thingy, a tube fitting, accelerator damper and a fuel line. Just recently some mistakes in the hybrid power units. The other problem is the way the drivers have been racing each other, which, according to most experts, the way Rosberg deals with problems on track if he's challenged. There is a big chance that he already spend a few hours with a driver coach in the simulated working on this, and will continue this the coming weeks after the decisions he made in Austria.

If you look at it from the perspective of "we have a problem" instead "who's to blame" you can work with the team and the driver to better the team, instead of making a scapegoat. Just the same rules as a normal team. You evaluate, make changes, coach, etc etc. If a team just quits after "it's your fault", then things won't change and this will happen again.

[skoop]

So, No, Mercedes are not giving any preference to any of their drivers, however, their strategy at the A1 ring was extremely weird.

I think the strategy was kinda weird, because they changed it during the race. They realised/thought that Rosberg would catch and overtake Hamilton at the end of the race. That would've led to a huge blow out.
Unfortunatley they didn't consider Rosberg pulling of a classic Rosberg (just kidding)

[De Jokke]

Hamilton backed by charlie whiting, euhm did you forget 2008???

It's clear that Merc wants Rosberg to win, only one merc driver (all other merc engine teams included) with ongoing issues on his car (even Hamilton said so himself) and in Spielberg: strategy to get Rosberg in front of Hamilton + last stop they gave hamilton softs instead of supersofts but luckily Rosberg got graining (which merc didn't expect) + 2 times (yes 2!) a botched pitstop for Lewis. Rosberg' pitstops were flawless, hmmm I wonder why...

Why did Merc let them race, to cover things up, they know that they are being monitored by the fans. They already messed up Lewis' race (from pole) up to a huge extent (see above), so they couldn't impose teamorders (as it was way to obvious then). Merc didn't expect Lewis to be so fast on the softs (slower tyre!) and certainly not that he could overtake Rosberg.

So you're saying Mercedes pay Hamilton 30 something million dollars to sabotage him? Ridiculous mate!

Hamilton has just been outright unlucky with all his engine failures. Just to clear you up on the strategy front- At the previous race, Hamilton was put on softs for the last stint because it was the better tyre. Rosberg himself would have bolted softs on but he didn't have any left. Secondly, although Lewis was behind Nico after the first round of stops, he got the opportunity to under-cut Nico, thereby getting first call and the better strategy but he made a mistake on his out lap. Had Hamilton and Mercedes not made the pit stop and on track error, Lewis would have easily under-cut Nico.

So, No, Mercedes are not giving any preference to any of their drivers, however, their strategy at the A1 ring was extremely weird.

He’s paid to get the WCC for Merc, but Merc wants two WDC in their camp.

Outright unlucky, 3-4 races, ok, but almost ALL of them, you don’t fool me but hey keep believing what merc wants you to believe.

The last stint was ideal for the SS, as it wasn’t that long anymore to the finish. Even Vettel managed to do enough laps on the SS before he crashed (and the grip level was still intact, according to Vettel).

The opportunity to undercut, Ted kravitz asked this to Toto I think: “why do you give lewis the undercut but let him only drive one lap before pitting Nico”. Even Kravitz finds it weird…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBitIaPYvCM
And then Toto’s answer: "you don’t understand / your gettings things wrong "
(come on mr. Wolff)

[FoxHound]

The opportunity to undercut, Ted kravitz asked this to Toto I think: “why do you give lewis the undercut but let him only drive one lap before pitting Nico”. Even Kravitz finds it weird…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBitIaPYvCM
And then Toto’s answer: "you don’t understand / your gettings things wrong "
(come on mr. Wolff)

Hamilton's strategy was quicker in Mercedes simulations. Sims do not always transpire into reality, but it's what the team goes by.
Hamilton would have been marginal at the end of the race on 1 stop strategy, and we know from Rosbergs pace on the final stint on US tyres that he would have been scything into Hamiltons time. It was literally the last 2 laps we saw him start to fall back.

Furthermore, pushing the tyres past their normal range had consequences, as per Vettels failure. We could easily be talking about why Mercedes did not react to this by not pitting him twice.

[cooken]

Can we finally give it a rest with the tinfoil hat theories please? Over the last couple of seasons there has been a fairly even distribution of bad luck doled out to both drivers, enough to cast a colossal shadow of doubt on any preferential treatment. Every new incident people latch on and seem to erase the entirety of history save for a cherry-picked selection of events. Its complete and utter nonsense.

Do you honestly expect Toto and Co. to come out and lay blame on one party or another? He is only ever going to try and dissolve the situation, regardless of what goes on behind the scenes. His public statements give NO indication of internal affairs, in fact, that is probably one of the guiding criteria for crafting them in the first place...

As for the pitstops....mistakes happen. None of us here can comprehend the amount of pressure involved in those situations. A symphony of motor-skills orchestrated between multiple fallable humans, operating on a partially moving car that has just been ripped around a racetrack - and some think they are adding in a coordinated "mistake" to cost an additional precise amount of time. Get real. I suppose Lewis' horrendous luck on pitstops with McLaren can only be explained as sabotage then.

[justmoi]

Can we finally give it a rest with the tinfoil hat theories please? Over the last couple of seasons there has been a fairly even distribution of bad luck doled out to both drivers, enough to cast a colossal shadow of doubt on any preferential treatment. Every new incident people latch on and seem to erase the entirety of history save for a cherry-picked selection of events. Its complete and utter nonsense.

Do you honestly expect Toto and Co. to come out and lay blame on one party or another? He is only ever going to try and dissolve the situation, regardless of what goes on behind the scenes. His public statements give NO indication of internal affairs, in fact, that is probably one of the guiding criteria for crafting them in the first place...

As for the pitstops....mistakes happen. None of us here can comprehend the amount of pressure involved in those situations. A symphony of motor-skills orchestrated between multiple fallable humans, operating on a partially moving car that has just been ripped around a racetrack - and some think they are adding in a coordinated "mistake" to cost an additional precise amount of time. Get real. I suppose Lewis' horrendous luck on pitstops with McLaren can only be explained as sabotage then.

You really couldn't make some of the nonsense that's being said up.

[KeiKo403]

I recall that Norbert Haug wanted Nico in at McLaren all those years ago when it was McLaren Mercedes. Ron was adamant that he wasn't quite good enough and didn't want him. As soon as Merc get their own factory team Nico pops up there.

The Mercedes board love Rosberg - not actual fact - so the team never really outright blame him for anything. Instead we hear terms like "brainless" aimed at both Ham & Ros, no Toto only Ros was brainless in Autria incident and what he did in Spain (which btw was the same as he pulled in Bahrain a few years ago on the inside of the straight between T2 & T3)

The main point I'm truying to make I guess is that Rosbergs contract will be renewed because of the long standing relationship between him and Mercedes. I doubt he'll ever become a world champion though. I just wonder if he'll sign the contract N. Rosdonaldo?