A-Bap wrote:But with Nico it's a "lucky win," and "things went just his way today." The guy never seems to get proper credit for his victories, and I think he's earned it.
I'm not going to get into the post-race celebrations. I'm not a fan of them, just as I was quite disgusted by them in Monaco last year after a win that was blatantly undeserved. Each to his own.
I do respect Nico though, but certainly not for his win yesterday, nor the win in Bahrain. I respect him for being pretty damn impressively quick and very consistent. I also respect him for 2 masterful race starts in Melbourne and Bahrain, possibly 3 if you include China, which was good enough.
Deserved or not, IMO, I always rate a driver given the performance of himself and his team-mate. For the same reason, I highly rate Alonso as one of the best, and by the same token, have had my doubts over Vettel considering his 4 WDC titles have been won with a very good car and a team-mate who had a lot of troubles and issues. 2014 with Ricciardo as his team-mate did not help either. On the other hand, Vettel has impressed me since with Ferrari, although, again here too, I don't regard Kimi as being A.) on top of his game B.) a particularly strong team-mate. I may be wrong on both accounts.
Now, Rosberg is a very strong driver. He has to be, considering his performance against Hamilton. But again, the last 3 wins were not of any substance IMO. He didn't do anything spectacular and (again IMO) lucked into them somewhat. He beat Lewis two times at the start, which was great, but I don't rate a driver alone on his starts. In 3 races so far, Hamilton ended up with a damaged car after the first lap and this has tainted a clear comparison between the two. He did not have a fight yet. 3 races in so far, and Nico simply got what was a logical conclusion to circumstance. In other words, Nico was driving a one-man-race so far. No real competition, much less pressure. Now if he had won with Hamilton right behind his tale for most of the race, it'd be a different story and I would attribute more excitement over his wins.
Anyway, the season has just started, but IMO that 36 point lead he already has is mighty. Assuming no technical gremlins, Lewis would have to have 6 straight wins to regain the WDC lead. That will take us to pretty much half-way-point of the season. If he suffers another glitch, a DNF, that would set him back
another 4 wins. Assuming Mercedes do their car justice and both usually either finished 1st or 2nd. Judging the pace of that Mercedes, I have no reason to believe Ferrari is close enough to snatch 2nd from them in any race, if not for circumstance. So Lewis will have a very hard time to catch Nico. Also, I think Nico is strong enough to prevent Lewis capturing 6 race wins in a row. If we assume a more balanced act, or even 2/3rds of the wins going to Lewis, it'll take 9 races.
The problem this season, as last, and the one before, is that that Mercedes is too good, the gap to the 2nd best team big enough, so that every Mercedes driver is either winning, or 2nd, or much further down the grid. This means that the pressure is a lot higher to get the wins. Everytime you don't, it's a potential 7 point deficit at least. A DNF costs 25 points. That's a lot of points to be giving away. If the grid would be more competitive, the "wins" would be less substantial.
So yes, I highly rate Rosberg and I very much look forward to the first race we will see them both in undamaged cars in an uncompromised race battling each other. Then we will have a truer picture to their relative performance against one another.
