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[CookinFlat6]

Ferrari, even at the height of their domination couldn't win every race, and lost 2 or more. Also with a talent like Seb who is like Fangio, we can expect him to beat the Mercs a few times this year even in the 2 bd or 3rd best car
Lewis. Kimi and Alonso all managed this through the RBR domination

[racechick]

Has to beat Ricciardo first

[bud]

Mercedes says it has a duty to allow its drivers to race freely in order to keep Formula One exciting.

Mercedes has dominated the 2014 season so far, with three wins from three races, but has allowed Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to battle on track. At the Bahrain Grand Prix the two drivers provided an enthralling duel for the lead and executive director (technical) Paddy Lowe said Mercedes would not have it any other way.

"Imagine if we had imposed team orders from lap two, what a terrible thing that would be for Formula One and the philosophy of Mercedes motorsport," he said. "It's something that we base ourselves on and the sport is about, but it's also about the drivers. They are great drivers and professionals and you want to give them the opportunity to race, which is what they do."

Lowe said the battle between the two drivers was also being played out on the pit wall as the two sides of the Mercedes garage managed their power units to offer optimum power to their drivers and help intensify the battle.

"One of the enjoyable aspects and one of the new games you can play in Formula One is energy management," he said. "With this power unit you have a battery and you have various manoeuvres you can pull. It was the same with KERS, with KERS you could save up energy and deploy it in double boosts, but with this power unit that effect is even more extreme.

"There are opportunities to manage your energy flow, save it up perhaps and play it out in different places. The team is very well practiced and trained in that and how to use that with the drivers. What we saw in those last ten laps was not only the drivers competing but each side of the garage competing and playing the game of energy deployment.

"It's a cat and mouse game of staying one step ahead with the use of the energy around the lap. You have to be very aware of that and you may have heard a lot of strategies on the radio, but that was a pretty exciting internal aspect to that competition."

However, one aspect the team had not anticipated was that its open data policy would mean the two sides of the garage could see what the opposition was doing.

"It's an interesting point that we hadn't predicted because we hadn't studied the scenario, but they could see each other's data so they would immediately know what he's done and then they react."

Lowe is confident Mercedes can make good use of its early advantage over its rivals to extend its lead at the top of the championship.

"The season is long but you'd have to say ta the moment we've got a good performance gap that will certainly sustain us for a few races to come, I hope!"


Read more at http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/stor ... rm0j60c.99

Respect

[LewEngBridewell]

Respect

Yup

[racechick]

Respect

Yup

They've nailed this. It's a team sport yes, but it shows how team orders blunt competition, demotivate people and stifle racing.
This team share data, so all gain advantage if one side finds an advantage, but drivers, engineers and mechanics are at war! Keeps them all knife sharp. It's brilliant!

[Hammer278]

Mercedes could be onto something big here. People have forgotten (or not even witnessed) the 1988 season where a racing team was able to dominate and provide a show for fans. Recent fans (including myself) who started watching from the early/late 90s have only seen teams employ number 1/2s or seen reliability issues for the number 2 drivers consistently throughout a season letting the no.1 runaway into the lead.

If they keep playing this game right (And both drivers are on their A game without making fools of themselves) all season, the fan base is going to be massive. I can see how Formula 1 can seriously benefit Mercedes in their global car sales and if they manage to finally beat BMW in sales this year I won't be surprised one bit. If Ferrari sales could drop massively after Austria 2002, there's no reason for Mercedes/Daimler to be affected in the opposite manner.

[Nin-Chin]

Here is a good analysis.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/04/08/mercedes-fair-fight-hamilton-rosberg/

[Hammer278]

Here is a good analysis.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/04/08/mercedes-fair-fight-hamilton-rosberg/

That's fantastic man, thanks for sharing.

[CookinFlat6]

Here is a good analysis.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/04/08/mercedes-fair-fight-hamilton-rosberg/

Excellent stuff mr Chin. F1 fanatic is brilliant for analysing lap times and comparing drivers performnce

[racechick]

Yeah great read Nin-Chin! Thanks for that. Wow! Sounds as busy on the pit wall as in the car. That was phenomenal. Lewis even whilst ecstatic over the win and thanking the team is already thinking about the next race.....our side needs to get quicker. This is epic!!

I also like Lewis' response when paddy first came on and said " Lewis! this is paddy"
" What's up? " says Lewis.

Scrupulously fair that was. That's how I like things, fair.

[CookinFlat6]

Also sheds more light on the infamous Button vs Lewis attempted heist all thos years ago. When Lewis was told to turn down his engine and that Button also, why did no one confirm to Lewis after he asked that Button was on a charge with 'attack mode'

Did someone overide Lewis' engineer telling him that or did the engineer want Button to pass?

Never mind its history, but still telling when you see how it really should be done

[racechick]

Those incidents did come to my mind when I read how Merc handled it, and the scrupulously fair, driver in front gets the call, no jumping team mate when behind on track by getting first call on the pits. But as you say it's over and done now and Ron is back in McLaren. Ron never stopped Lewis having a fair fight with Alonso and I don't expect he'll allow unfair treatment of mag now.
I wonder if we'll see more teams adopting the Merc method of 'let's go racing , lads, and lets do it fairly' approach when they see how much it's appreciated by fans.

[CookinFlat6]

I am not sure drivers like Alonso and Seb would sign these contracts were they are not guaranteed number 1 status though

[Hammer278]

Send Nin Chins link over to Alonso's personal email and he won't touch Mercedes with a stick from here on in.

[racechick]

I am not sure drivers like Alonso and Seb would sign these contracts were they are not guaranteed number 1 status though

Well they will look the worse for not being prepared to fight fairly with a team mate.