2016 Grand Prix of Brazil - Interlagos, 11-13 November

[turbof1]

That's not a reason to assert there's nothing between the two which was my original commentary to you.

Quote me where I said exactly there is nothing the 2 . This is what I said exactly:

This is still a mechanical sport. Luck plays a huge factor when there's little to pick between 2 drivers

And you are questioning why I defend my statement when you make something entirely different of it... . Please take care to attentively read what's been said. I stated multiple times myself Hamilton is overall better. I only stated the difference between the 2 is too small to overcome mechanical fortune (like Phil delightly puts it) inherent to the sport.

Btw, Hamilton's bad starts are exactly that: they are his bad starts. That is a driver skill. I don't recall if you or somebody else raised that Hamilton claimed an issue in Monza, but nothing was found or otherwise stated about it afterwards. Maybe we should accept that they were in his sphere of influence.

His mechanical issues, that's different. Those are things he can't influence and therefore are bad luck. Without them he would indeed be WDC. Still, Rosberg did well to stay within striking range. There were championships where one driver had more failures then Hamilton and still was able to claim it.

but unless you're not a part of the human race, not expressing doesn't mean that you don't have them regardless of how fair and balanced you try to seem.

Oh but I have. If you really want to know, I am a Hamilton fan. But that does not mean I feel a need to make Rosberg's performance smaller than it actually is. Favouring someone neither necessarily needs to lead to a bias.

[PlatinumZealot]

I think one of three things was very clear at all the safety car restarts; either:

1) Nico has no idea how to maximum a restart in order to pressure his opponent
2) he was very nervous about getting close to Hamilton
3) they had some kind of intra team agreement about not pressuring each other at restarts

Because Nico gave acres of room every single time - in stark contrast to Max or Checo who were pressuring the guy in front in order to get the jump. He seemed to be making it very easy for Lewis but maybe that's just him playing the percentages (which I guess is understandable).

It's because Nico didn't want to risk aquaplaning. We saw a great risk of aquaplaning when the drivers followed each other too closely in the uphill section. I would say he was being smart.

[Fifty]

What did Guiterrez say on the radio that pissed Gunther off so much?

[PlatinumZealot]

Nico's primary strength has always been his qualifying. He beat Schumacher handily. Despite that, he's still losing out to Hamilton in that stat.

That's not the point. The point was the difference is small. Small enough to be comfortable second in most cases.

That is flawed. The difference is not small. And with the Mercedes you can easily secure a front row even if you are 6 tenths off in most cases. I actually thought the gap in quali between Nico and Lewis increased this year.

[TAG]

That's not a reason to assert there's nothing between the two which was my original commentary to you.

Quote me where I said exactly there is nothing the 2 . This is what I said exactly:

This is still a mechanical sport. Luck plays a huge factor when there's little to pick between 2 drivers

And you are questioning why I defend my statement when you make something entirely different of it... . Please take care to attentively read what's been said. I stated multiple times myself Hamilton is overall better. I only stated the difference between the 2 is too small to overcome mechanical fortune (like Phil delightly puts it) inherent to the sport.

Btw, Hamilton's bad starts are exactly that: they are his bad starts. That is a driver skill. I don't recall if you or somebody else raised that Hamilton claimed an issue in Monza, but nothing was found or otherwise stated about it afterwards. Maybe we should accept that they were in his sphere of influence.

His mechanical issues, that's different. Those are things he can't influence and therefore are bad luck. Without them he would indeed be WDC. Still, Rosberg did well to stay within striking range. There were championships where one driver had more failures then Hamilton and still was able to claim it.

Yes you made it very clear in your subsequent posts, not in your original post. You also made it very clear that Rosber's luck is just that, nothing special, nothing undue happening it's just your common luck that always has a hand in close championship battles.

Somehow you completely overlook that the only reason the battle is close is due to the one guy going through 8 engines which the other has not. At least three of the victories Rosberg has had have been entirely unchallenged. Come on now, seriously? Your impartiality is suspect when you try and sell a line like that.

[wesley123]

At first it was funny, but now it is just getting annoying how commentators can turn literally anything into praise for Verstappen.

haters gonna hate.

Cancels out the people stroking their ****s on everything Verstappen does.

[andartop]

Oh dear.
There is a chance the WDC will be won by someone who is not the fastest guy on the grid in the best car, just a good enough guy in the best car.
Shock.
Awe.
(sarcasm)
Have you guys ever heard of names like Prost, Mansell, J.Villeneuve, Button, Vettel...?
It happens.
Maybe change the rules so the most popular guy on the grid should get the title, gift LH about 50 points to compensate for his bad luck, or sabotage Nico's car in Abu Dhabi?

[turbof1]

That's not a reason to assert there's nothing between the two which was my original commentary to you.

Quote me where I said exactly there is nothing the 2 . This is what I said exactly:

This is still a mechanical sport. Luck plays a huge factor when there's little to pick between 2 drivers

And you are questioning why I defend my statement when you make something entirely different of it... . Please take care to attentively read what's been said. I stated multiple times myself Hamilton is overall better. I only stated the difference between the 2 is too small to overcome mechanical fortune (like Phil delightly puts it) inherent to the sport.

Btw, Hamilton's bad starts are exactly that: they are his bad starts. That is a driver skill. I don't recall if you or somebody else raised that Hamilton claimed an issue in Monza, but nothing was found or otherwise stated about it afterwards. Maybe we should accept that they were in his sphere of influence.

His mechanical issues, that's different. Those are things he can't influence and therefore are bad luck. Without them he would indeed be WDC. Still, Rosberg did well to stay within striking range. There were championships where one driver had more failures then Hamilton and still was able to claim it.

Yes you made it very clear in your subsequent posts, not in your original post. You also made it very clear that Rosber's luck is just that, nothing special, nothing undue happening it's just your common luck that always has a hand in close championship battles.

Somehow you completely overlook that the only reason the battle is close is due to the one guy going through 8 engines which the other has not. At least three of the victories Rosberg has had have been entirely unchallenged. Come on now, seriously? Your impartiality is suspect when you try and sell a line like that.

Look, I am not going to argue when you are making things up. I did not claim there is no difference between the 2. I only claimed the difference between the 2 is too small to overcome an inherent part of the sport (luck). Again, if you can quote me on that, then go ahead

[dans79]

Maybe change the rules so the most popular guy on the grid should get the title

Nico would be really far down the order then!

[andartop]

Maybe change the rules so the most popular guy on the grid should get the title

Nico would be really far down the order then!

...together with LH!
Max would be champion and Vettel second I think based on FIAs driver of the day standings.

[turbof1]

Oh dear.
There is a chance the WDC will be won by someone who is not the fastest guy on the grid in the best car, just a good enough guy in the best car.
Shock.
Awe.
(sarcasm)
Have you guys ever heard of names like Prost, Mansell, J.Villeneuve, Button, Vettel...?
It happens.
Maybe change the rules so the most popular guy on the grid should get the title, gift LH about 50 points to compensate for his bad luck, or sabotage Nico's car in Abu Dhabi?

Exactly. People often forget this is a mechanical sport and take reliability too much for granted. At one point in time cars broke down that often they had to introduce a rule where every driver's worst and best race got deducted from their point total. Just to say: it used to be much worse. I am too lazy to look up, but there's probably a driver in your list which needed for his opponent to break 5 times more down then he himself did, to win the WDC.

[f1316]

I think one of three things was very clear at all the safety car restarts; either:

1) Nico has no idea how to maximum a restart in order to pressure his opponent
2) he was very nervous about getting close to Hamilton
3) they had some kind of intra team agreement about not pressuring each other at restarts

Because Nico gave acres of room every single time - in stark contrast to Max or Checo who were pressuring the guy in front in order to get the jump. He seemed to be making it very easy for Lewis but maybe that's just him playing the percentages (which I guess is understandable).

It's because Nico didn't want to risk aquaplaning. We saw a great risk of aquaplaning when the drivers followed each other too closely in the uphill section. I would say he was being smart.

Smart it may well be.

What he needs to dispel a notion that he is not as good as Hamilton? Not really.

I'm sure he'll be happy with another second, or even third, place in Abu Dhabi - and it's not massively surprising given Keke won a championship with only winning a single race - but it won't do as much for his reputation as you might imagine beating Hamilton to a world championship in the same car would.

Then again, if Rosberg is realistic, he's probably already fessed up to not going down as one of the greats and thinks winning a world title - by hook or by crook - is still pretty darned good. If so, fair play, just nice to see drivers out to prove they're 'the man'.

[TAG]

Look, I am not going to argue when you are making things up. I did not claim there is no difference between the 2. I only claimed the difference between the 2 is too small to overcome an inherent part of the sport (luck). Again, if you can quote me on that, then go ahead

I think when one starts to argue semantics, the point becomes secondary which is the only tactic to argue semantics. Let's let sleeping dogs lie since you're still unwilling to acknowledge that they're close only because of luck not despite it.

[ChrisDanger]

Look, I am not going to argue when you are making things up. I did not claim there is no difference between the 2. I only claimed the difference between the 2 is too small to overcome an inherent part of the sport (luck). Again, if you can quote me on that, then go ahead

I think when one starts to argue semantics, the point becomes secondary which is the only tactic to argue semantics. Let's let sleeping dogs lie since you're still unwilling to acknowledge that they're close only because of luck not despite it.

It's not semantics. He's clarifying what he meant by what he said, which you misinterpreted, yet you continue to stand by your misinterpretation. Like talking to a brick wall...

[cooken]

I saw this race as a massive opportunity for Rosberg: to perform well in the wet and lay to rest a lot of this discussion of WDC merit. Instead, he put in a typical "meh" performance, made worse by allowing Verstappen to pass him easily on the outside very early on. The only place we saw aquaplaning was up the hill, but this happened in T3, and he was relatively slow everywhere else too.

For Verstappen, the biggest highlight for me was how he caught Ricciardo, who was stuck behind a queue for several laps, and then made quick work of the whole lot. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think his tires were that much better than Ric's. Either way, his commitment and efficiency in working his way up to third was very impressive.