FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[CookinFlat6]

Interestingly enough, today clqrified the great connudrum for the impartial observer. Why have we not had more Bharains when Nico took it to Lewis and we saw a great even battle? and why has Nico come up short EVERY single time they go toe to toe on track (even when Nico crashed Lewis out he still couldnt overtake)

The answer has been there for a while, its just that we didnt want to consider it in the hope we would see another Bharain instead of a Monaco or Spa

The answer ofcourse is that in Bharain, Nico was using a higher (prohibited) power setting than Lewis, and Lewis was as usual a little too naive and trusting back then.

Even then although he was faster, he didnt have the guiile or racecraft to capitalise and stay ahead, and since then barring the Monaco car parking exhibition and the Spa point proving extravaganza, he has shown us that the difference between the 2 is not speed or car driving talent, but racecraft and a better application of the 'thinking on the feet' brain process as well as the kahunas to use ,ore speed through corners

[racechick]

And interestingly race craft is something pundits have not been keen to credit Lewis with. He' s fast over one lap but he isn't complete( he must have a little finger missing or something) he can't think a race through, he's just a balls out speed merchant that wrecks cars and tyres. Can't set the car up etc etc. You know the stuff. That's had to be rethought a bit this year.

[What's Burning?]

Oh billindenver, where art thou?

[The Second Coming]

And interestingly race craft is something pundits have not been keen to credit Lewis with. He' s fast over one lap but he isn't complete( he must have a little finger missing or something) he can't think a race through, he's just a balls out speed merchant that wrecks cars and tyres. Can't set the car up etc etc. You know the stuff. That's had to be rethought a bit this year.

A bit, RC? Entirely is more like it. I feel the need to add one other quality that has made the difference between the pair of them. Now, some may not like hearing this but, to me, Lewis has just demonstrated that he wants this more. Nico talks, talks, talks about fight back but doesn't really show it on track when there is a real head-to-head opportunity. He's good at the cheeky stuff (parking his car during qualies or taking out his team-mate) but when it comes to hard racing, he can't cope. Lewis want's the win more...he wants the Championship more.

Such fun!

[What's Burning?]

I always wanted to star in pron films, I just lacked the... "talent". Wanting something can only take you so far. In the end you need the talent. Were anyone other than Lewis or Alonso be sitting besides Rosberg in the other W05, we might be seeing Rosberg leading the championship comfortably. IMO he's driven with more fire and more lust than at any other time in his F1 career. Even when he was outscoring Schumacher, it wasn't anything burning inside of him. He was very matter of factly going about his job, and doing it without pressure and he won, he came out ahead of Schumacher for three seasons when not many people gave him a chance. Then again there was nothing really being fought for.

But this year, he's driving better, better than any of those previous season, yet he's looking short, coming up short, and as it's been stated not ONCE has he come out on top in a fair head to head race. I think this is a case wanting something only getting you so far. He did well when luck was at his side, but the law of averages averaged things out and we're left with the results we see today.

Still, he's put up a much more admirable battle as a teammate than Barichello in 2009 and Webber put up in the following years.

[Jabberwocky]

Again we missed out on an epic duel that we want. Look at yesterday's race where was the alonso/button style wheel to wheel driving out front .

[racechick]

Having the same cars contributed to that I think Jab. I know it should make the battle more intense but because Lewis has the edge it doesn't. Once Lewis made the overtake he kept just enough ahead to ensure he was safe with minimum damage to tyres and saving of fuel. Every time Nico closed the gap Lewis pulled it back at will.
Now imagine the battle were Alonso in the other car, or Ricciardo. Both have regularly demonstrated their race craft this year. I think that would have been immense.

I'm not wanting to put Nico down, I think he's very good and Lewis has not had it easy, but I just think Nico lacks the edge Lewis has, and the results of track battles and the 'wins' show that.

[Roth]

Again we missed out on an epic duel that we want. Look at yesterday's race where was the alonso/button style wheel to wheel driving out front .

We just have to accept it's not going to happen. Bahrain was it, and left us with an unrealistic expectations of what two top class unshackled drivers would make of a WDC fight.

I feel like reliving '88 on fast forward just to see if that's what we were expecting, or if even our dream seasons have succumbed to revisionism.

[CookinFlat6]

yes its a shame Nico has not really had the chance to duel with Lewis apart from Bharain. We havent had a chance to see what would happen if they were both racing without issue. We havent had a chance to see what Nico can do. Lewis would have had a much tougher battle if it wasnt for him being untouchable by Nico over a race distance.

This time round it was that Nico hadnt got to grips completely with the complicated ERS systems and with the radio ban wasnt able to get the coaching that would have made it a fair battle.

Its like Lewis' steering wheel being simpler than Nicos and with much less buttons, seems like the 2014 Ers sytems suits the more simple minded driver, or rather the driver who is more able to simplify complex processes. almost like a reverse cerebralism, the simpler you are the easier you get a grasp of the most comlicated sequencies and tasks.

At least Nico is able to clearly explain what went wrong whereas Lewis seems to have forgotten by the end of the race, or maybe he didnt even know something went wrong in the first place. shame, we are been robbed of seeing 2 equal drivers race on an equal footing

[What's Burning?]

Nico did have a fantastic pole lap though. It's the turning poles into wins he should work on over the winter.

[Hammer278]

If I were Nico I'd just want to get 2nd place in qualifying from now onwards...since pole with Lewis 2nd basically guarantees I lose the race. Oh except my home race in Monaco of course.

[LH44]

No doubt his single lap pace is a match for anyone but racecraft is not something Rosberg is going to magically discover over the winter. He's built this up over his entire career. It was quite clear from Bahrain that there is a clear difference in ability over a race distance betwee both drivers. Rosberg's race engineer's prescritive messages allowed him to close the gap to some point until it was outlawed and now he has to do it all by himself. Judging by his post match comments, he probably would've won the race yesterday If coaching was still allowed.

[CookinFlat6]

Yeah, I think Nico would benefit from a Nascar style coach on the radio. 'switch the boost button to on Nico' and 'turn left, left, no, not my left, your left' etc etc

Shame about the radio ban. Nico obviously counted on it giving him an advantage and so was caught offguard and is running out of time to adapt. We were robbed of seeing Nico able to handle Lewis on a level playing field. Hopefully by next year he will have had more time with the engineers and learnt more of the cars functions etc as well as maybe a wider repertoire of racing lines through the various corners

[What's Burning?]

I love Monday morning quaterbacking. Here's some insight as to what may have happend to transform Lewis from Saturday to Sunday. It's clear that the lack of wind and warmer temperatures put things squarly on the setup of Friday's long runs where his pace was good to begin with. But there were no more pesky lockups from Lewis on Sunday... read this.

"There's no real special recipe, I've just got to work my arse off for these next two races and try to improve. Today's not just a win, there are a lot of things I can still take out of today in terms of how I drove. There are things that I should have done in qualifying that I didn't pick up on that were visible from previous years. Small things like that, I'll make sure I pick up on them and leave no stone unturned."

Apparently they looked at runs he'd made in the previous attempts in Austin and as it turns out he was going a little deeper and a little wider in previous years which he adapted to on Sunday. He'd been trying to compensate for the braking issue by braking a little earlier and tighter and it wasn't working out. It is a fascinating sport isn't it?

[CookinFlat6]

That is incredible really how complex these machines are now. Also interesting that the machines and their actual optionality, i.e what can be changed to optimise them, is actually a fraction of what the driver himself can do by adapting his technique for any given setup.

We were led to believe at the start of the season that for the first time this would be different. It would be those who understood the engineering to trump those with mere racecraft. it was even said by supposedly intelligent grown up sports writers that those able to push more buttons would prevail. I remember the derision that accompanied the discovery that Lewis had eliminated a fair number of buttons on his wheel than Nico. Some thought it showed the gulf in intelligence while some of us argued that it showed more intelligence (not education) to be able to achieve the same functions with less variables

Of course we will never get feedback from those who were so vocal earlier about these things, its a nice glow to nevertheless feel their seething frustration through the silence

what fun.....