Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team 2014

[KeiKo403]

I should mention, that Nico was the first person to disobey team orders in Bahrain, by using engine modes he wasn't supposed to.

And then Hamilton repaid this to Nico in Spain. Remind me, what was the race after Spain? Monaco?
I think we all have a clearer view on what goes on in Nico's head now...what he thinks he needs to do to win the WDC.
It's a shame really, I think we can all agree Nico had gone up in everyones estimations by taking the fight to a driver of Hamilton's calibre, now we all know differently though and I for 1 have lost all respect for the guy!

[Fulcrum]

Baby, bathwater, throw! Honestly, what a nonsense.

Hamilton is no saint, and neither is Rosberg. Perhaps it has taken longer for Rosberg to reveal these aspects of his character because he has never been in a situation that demanded as much of his ability to stress his moral conviction to breaking point. Perhaps it simply hasn't been focused on by the media because it happened fighting for 10th place.

Yet surprise, surprise, winning trumps all. This does not differentiate him from any of the 'great' drivers. Ironically, it actually identifies him as one, at least with respect to personality (I'm not motivating he is great on the basis of talent). Senna, Prost, Schumacher - they aren't members of the Saints club. Neither are Rosberg or Hamilton.

And all of this IF he intentionally hit Hamilton's rear tyre, which seems less likely than pure clumsiness. Occam's Razor implies the latter.

Alternatively, his car control is impeccable.

[SectorOne]

I do not really get what the Merc managment (eg Toto, Niki and Paddy) wants...
Teammates should be able to make this corner next to each other. Even Mag and Alo managed to do so and they surely didn't like each other very much during the last race...Merc has a crazy ruling and this supports the problems they have.
On one side it is ok to push your teammate off track, like Ham did in Bahrain, like Ros did in Canada, like Ham did in Hungary. So they are not driving like teammates as they loose positions with this, like Ham did in Canada or like Ros would have if he would have driven off track in Spa instead of into Ham's wheel.
But on the other hand there is a "no contact rule"???
For me this is completely out of rational ruling. As long as pushing off track is allowed there will always be contact at some point.

The problem with this is that the guy behind now doesn´t even have to use his brain, he can just stick his front wing in whenever he wants and the guy ahead now has to give him room.

The guy on the outside as always will have to back off unless he´s basically ahead coming into the corner.

[shamikaze]

imho, Nico was the biggest contributor and he could have avoided the incident hence you could (could, not should) lay the blame on him. If the team is equally convinced what could they do ?

if, and that is a BIG "IF", the team wanted to punish Nico for doing this (costing them the 1-2 basically. There are many ways they can penalize him indirectly. That is IF they want to punish him and IF they think/feel/are convinced he is the main actor in the fault.

I doubt any money-fine will bother Nico, so they could come up with:
* Nico, we-found-a-issue-with-your-gearbox and need to replace it -> grid penalty
* Nico, this eninge is toast, you'll need another one -> grid penalty
* .... others ?

As the car is ahead of the competition, a grid-penalty will allow him to work his way back up the grid and still finish in the point. But it could be considered a shot across the bow to race clean or stay behind.

After this, I would be (being in Lewis's position), ask/push/demand for separate data and privacy on car-setup, strategy, settings etc... At least then you are convinced your team-mate is not getting the better of your work/idea's/thoughts...

[adrianjordan]

I should mention, that Nico was the first person to disobey team orders in Bahrain, by using engine modes he wasn't supposed to.

And then Hamilton repaid this to Nico in Spain. Remind me, what was the race after Spain? Monaco?
I think we all have a clearer view on what goes on in Nico's head now...what he thinks he needs to do to win the WDC.
It's a shame really, I think we can all agree Nico had gone up in everyones estimations by taking the fight to a driver of Hamilton's calibre, now we all know differently though and I for 1 have lost all respect for the guy!

I think this is one area where they should now allow the drivers freedom, they should be able to use whichever engine map they want to.

[Phil]

Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton have agreed to postpone contract talks - and not approach other parties - until the intensity of the title battle calms down.

Hamilton is contracted at Mercedes until the end of 2015 but team-mate and title rival Nico Rosberg recently renewed on a multi-year deal. With the battle for the title set to become even more intense, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said he had agreed to wait for a quieter time to continue negotiations with Hamilton.

"At this stage it is very intense and you have to stay concentrated on the season," Wolff said. "But one thing is for sure, we are not going to talk to anybody else before having a very clear situation about how we can continue to work with Lewis. This is what we said to each other."

With over a year left on the current contract, Wolff said both sides trust each other not to look elsewhere.

"We have no interest of having any other conversation with any other driver, and we are not having any, and Lewis is not having any discussion with any other team. That is why we trust each other. At the moment we need to be concentrated on the championship and not get involved in contractual discussions or intense discussions, because it is something that is one and a half years away from us."

That's interesting, I bet Lewis is asking for contractual #1 status at this point in time, I know I would!

Or the team is using it to calm lewis into accepting that they [Mercedes] has the car and is the team to be, and if he wants to be there 2015 and be in talks about prolonging his contract, he should play nice and let the team deal with however they feel fit.

What does Lewis bring to the team besides PR? And how important is that PR to Mercedes? I take Nico is important in the German markets, but Lewis more so internationally. Given the question of talent though - the better the car, the less reliant you are on having the driver that is considered top of the range. In that sense; an Alonso is more important to Ferrari in its form than Lewis is to Mercedes. Any driver pairing this season at Mercdes would result in one of them getting the WDC. Question is; how long will that last?

2013 has shown IMO that Rosberg isnt far off though, so perhaps Mercedes on some level that besides market exposure, they dont really need Hamilton? For all its worth - Rosberg could become the next Vettel or Schumacher for them. That is; perhaps not with Lewis in the team while they take points off each other...

[astracrazy]

I doubt any money-fine will bother Nico, so they could come up with:
* Nico, we-found-a-issue-with-your-gearbox and need to replace it -> grid penalty
* Nico, this eninge is toast, you'll need another one -> grid penalty
* .... others ?

Your forgetting nico is actually a very smart engineer himself so he won't fall for that sh*t.

He deserves some sort of punishment but i don't agree with his race being sabotaged. Merc should be upfront and say this is what's going to happen - deal with it

i.e "your not going to get any data from Hamilton in the next race". "Hamilton will have first call on everything for the next two races" etc. etc.

Merc need to keep credible with whatever they choose. Sabotaging his race will be even more of a PR disaster

[acosmichippo]

Honestly, I feel like the stewards should have penalized Nico, especially now with the verbiage of "deliberate" and "proving a point". There wasn't even an investigation, was there?

Mercedes won't do anything, because it'll only hurt the team. As we all know, the stewards have no problem penalizing a driver for the team's mistakes, so it should be the same vice-versa. They may hold the view that the incident was punishment enough for the team, and from a team's perspective, that's understandable. But from the drivers' perspective, Lewis' race was ruined, and Nico was not penalized at all for causing an avoidable incident. People have gotten penalized for much, much less.

[astracrazy]

Honestly, I feel like the stewards should have penalized Nico, especially now with the verbiage of "deliberate" and "proving a point". There wasn't even an investigation, was there?

Mercedes won't do anything, because it'll only hurt the team. As we all know, the stewards have no problem penalizing a driver for the team's mistakes, so it should be the same vice-versa. They may hold the view that the incident was punishment enough for the team, and from a team's perspective, that's understandable. But from the drivers' perspective, Lewis' race was ruined, and Nico was not penalized at all for causing an avoidable incident. People have gotten penalized for much, much less.

I kind of feel they have to now based on what was said by management. "more than a slap on the wrist etc. etc.". And because of that they kind of have to tell us what they have done to prevent further controversy.

You can only imagine if there is a fuel leak, loose wheel nut, gearbox change in the next race which screws Nico. Speculation will go mad and prob be even more bad PR for the team.

They need to put the brakes on this by Friday at the next gp and put an end to it. People will ask so they need to answer.

I kind of feel they were maybe hoping that the FIA would of investigated to make there life easier (based on admitting it was on purpose etc.) and penalise him with a grid penalty or something - then they could say well his had his punishment on the track, we just fined him.

[i70q7m7ghw]

If the telemetry showed in some way it was done on purpose, they could have sent that data to the FIA so they could have opened an investigation.

[SectorOne]

https://twitter.com/andrewbensonf1/stat ... 7077390336 http://www.mercedesamgf1.com/en/news/20 ... statement/


Slap on the wrist as Hamilton realized shortly after the race.

[mikeerfol]

So no punishment for Rosberg, interesting

[adrianjordan]

Quick question, can a driver request that the FiA investigates another driver's actions?

Dangerous precedent to potentially set, but with Nico having admitted guilt and the stewards not having done anything it's kind of an odd-ball situation...

[adrianjordan]

https://twitter.com/andrewbensonf1/stat ... 7077390336

http://www.mercedesamgf1.com/en/news/20 ... statement/


Slap on the wrist as Hamilton realized shortly after the race.

I wonder whether they've both been told, "anything like this happens again and you're out of the car for the following race"??

[SilverArrow10]

watch Hamilton cause the next crash