GPR-A wrote:Yesterday though, Nico was given the pit stop ahead of Lewis on second pit stop, despite both eying for a win and leading. The gap was very close and Nico could have easily undercut Lewis, if Lewis would have screwed up while Nico was in pits.
It wasn't that close. For an undercut to work, the time delta of the new tyre + in-lap needs to be greater than the other driver on the older-tyre and his outlap. At the point Lewis pitted, Nico had already reached the drop-off of his tyres and was losing time vs. Lewis (so the gap was increasing) and the gap wasn't that small to beginn with (at that point 4+s I think, and increasing). So Lewis wasn't in danger of losing position due to the undercut at all.
On the spat between Rosberg and Lewis:
My thoughts on it is that Rosberg is growing increasingly frustrated. Lewis is doing a superb job and he is also doing a brilliant job at managing his tyres. If we look at the first part of the race, the gap was always very close, with the gap being around 1.1 to 1.3s. At first, it seemed Rosberg was gaining, but later, it showed that he used his tyres different, pushing a bit too much in the beginning, which made his tyres go off later, when Lewis had more capacity left. The same was also true in the 2nd stint; Nico pushing at the beginning, Lewis maintaining and then having more performance left in the tyre towards the end of the stint.
Nico's criticism doesn't make a lot of sense, because as one said, if he wanted Lewis to go faster, the easiest way would have been to push more, close the gap and add pressure to Lewis. He didn't do that. Instead, he decided to add pressure through the team by playing the 'team-player' who's only goal was to secure the 1&2 and make it seem his team-mate in the lead was sandbagging him into Vettel behind. IMO this is simply a classic attempt of trying to get the team behind you, nothing more. Can't blame him for trying - he didn't have any answers on the track, so rattling the cage with a bit of internal drama like what happened last year in Monaco is something that could work. I'm sure Mercedes spoke about the scenario that Ferrari might give them a few headaches, so had some pre-determined plan to make sure they can achieve that 1&2. He was simply trying to capitalize on that, making it seem Lewis wasn't doing his "bit".
Rosberg is a fiece competitor, he wants to win. This time last year, he was still riding on the effect of Lewis having his DNF in Melbourne and was enjoying a lead, despite being outperformed in every race up to that point (sans the one Lewis had his DNF). Monaco was the turn around and it put him in the lead again. If things continue the same with Lewis leading up until Monaco, even a turn-around performance in Monaco will not change the standings in the championship.
From Rosbergs point of view, this has not been a good start. With Ferrari being stronger than anticipated and Lewis leading every race so far, midway through the season, he knows the team will rally behind what is their leading driver. The bigger the point gap is, the harder it will be for him to bounce back. So it's crucial for him to turn around something.
I wouldn't write him off just yet. Although to be fair; The only reason Rosberg was ever as close as he was last year in the championship is because of Lewis's DNFs and the fact that them mostly finishing first or second ment a rather small increase by 7 points when a DNF ment a 25 point deficit. At the end the DNFs leveled out, but 11 vs 5 wins sais it all really. Nico will bounce back, I'm sure and he will win race(s) this year, that I am sure of too. But Lewis is strong and he was last year too in these same races.
Merc should have stuck to their guns and should have said, "NO NICO, UNTIL LEWIS PITS, YOU ARE NOT COMING IN".
. China "alleged" incident was minor but is a part of a bigger picture. If after early stop it's between Rosberg and Vettel should a leading driver be involved in affecting that.
