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[LRW]

..... and Wolff can't ride a bike properly....

re: the "let Rosberg past" situation - yeah it wasn't the wisest decision, and with the luxury of hindsight, I'm sure Mercedes wouldn't do it again. They were probably just trying to do what was best to get maximum points for BOTH drivers, and ultimately the team.

But I still wont attribute it to favouritism to Nico - I think it was just one of those things. I don't even understand WHY people think the Mercedes team would favour Nico - and don't even try telling me its a German thing. Most the decision makers in the race team are not German.

The bottom line though, in all of this, is Mercedes reliability. They've never been great at that, and this season seems to be a downward trend. They need to be working on that over the summer, and let us get some more races like Bahrain - where we have two team-mates on equal footing, battling it out wheel to wheel.

[Jabberwocky]

30 laps on the soft tire was a big ask though. They had to be sure that he would not need to pit again.

I think it is bad drills from Lauda not to tow the party line in public about the radio call.

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[Jabberwocky]

Yeah, I think it was a predetermined strategy which they stuck to. Considering the weather, they always wanted to keep Lewis on a two stop and probably agreed on these tyres before the lights went out.

No thinking on their feet going on, Lowe is an engineer and Wolff can't ride a bike properly...so you can't expect much more. Just hope they manage to quench the shitty reliability issues.

Lowe caused the bike accident

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[Roth]

Roth almost jumped onto his computer to share another valuable discourse on mental weakness when Lewis spun on his first lap....but thought "oh f*ck" when he recovered and beat his highly intelligent teammate who started on pole, never made it past a Toro Rosso, never made it past Lewis with a superior strategy.

But anyway, Lewis needs to work on his mental weakness...starting from the pitlane in that superior Mercedes and only finishing 3rd. And his rash manouvre on Vergne was just dreadful, who'd take a gamble like that when fighting for the WDC? Numbnuts.

Meanwhile, Rosberg was dreadfully unlucky with the SC timing despite starting from pole, and incredibly cerebral in managing his tyres throughout the race. Did you know he was almost 3 seconds quicker than Lewis in the last 10 laps of the race. Champions drive IMO. Lewis needs to learn from him next time when starting from pole position. That is, if he can manage his car and not cause it to catch fire and all during Q1. This WDC is not about being fast, its about preserving the machinery. Let's hope Lewis makes it past Q1 in Spa.

Somebody's been paying attention. Well done, Hammy.

[Hammer278]

I couldn't have done it without you guiding me.

[Roth]

But they did know how much faster that tyre was because the commentators were saying there's a massive difference between them on the sat. And Lewis asked to go longer on his soft set because they were still good. I'm wondering if there's a bit of the McLaren type , work out what looks like the best overall strategy for both cars and stick to it. I reckon if Ross was there still Lewis would have been on the softs and won the race. Alonso went longer than Lewis on the softer tyre.

The call was idiotic and fuels the fired of those saying Rosberg is favoured. They need to be careful.

I think they did Rosberg a disfavour. If they favoured him they should have pitted him sooner, split the tires more evenly, esp when he couldn't get past Hamilton, and hoped a bit of clean air would do the trick. He was up and down all afternoon though. It was hard to tell if it was fully driver, car or conditions related. He steamed away at the start but got bogged down after the SC. There was definitely some sort of brakes issue, but unless Merc reveal how much, it's hard to know the extent.

[geetface9]

But they did know how much faster that tyre was because the commentators were saying there's a massive difference between them on the sat. And Lewis asked to go longer on his soft set because they were still good. I'm wondering if there's a bit of the McLaren type , work out what looks like the best overall strategy for both cars and stick to it. I reckon if Ross was there still Lewis would have been on the softs and won the race. Alonso went longer than Lewis on the softer tyre.

The call was idiotic and fuels the fired of those saying Rosberg is favoured. They need to be careful.

I think they did Rosberg a disfavour. If they favoured him they should have pitted him sooner, split the tires more evenly, esp when he couldn't get past Hamilton, and hoped a bit of clean air would do the trick. He was up and down all afternoon though. It was hard to tell if it was fully driver, car or conditions related. He steamed away at the start but got bogged down after the SC. There was definitely some sort of brakes issue, but unless Merc reveal how much, it's hard to know the extent.

At first I thought he had a brake issue too but then I was leaning more towards Rosberg just being cautious and not wanting to get caught out by the track conditions

[geetface9]

I couldn't have done it without you guiding me.

[Roth]

At first I thought he had a brake issue too but then I was leaning more towards Rosberg just being cautious and not wanting to get caught out by the track conditions

Maybe he's getting squeaky bum aswell. He could have been thinking about going into the break making sure he had a points lead. He's usually better than this. But he was going gangbusters at the end on a dry track. Like I said, up and down. Not a terrible day at the office but not a great one. Just good enough.

[geetface9]

Yeah I think it was ok. I'd rather him get fourth than take himself out like hamilton almost did on lap 1. Championships can be won and lost on days like today looking back at them at the end of the season.

Just to confirm, I just read on the f1 site that he was having some issues with brakes overheating. obviously it wasn't too bad as there wasn't much noticable impact other than dropping back from vergne a bit but it may have been instrumental in vergne getting past him in the first place.

[Ferrari man 009]

Just to confirm, I just read on the f1 site that he was having some issues with brakes overheating. obviously it wasn't too bad as there wasn't much noticable impact other than dropping back from vergne a bit but it may have been instrumental in vergne getting past him in the first place.

Did Vergne not jump Rosberg (and Alonso) at the SC stop? As im sure Alonso had to fight past Rosberg and Vergne on the restart before heading after Massa and Ricciardo?

[racechick]

30 laps on the soft tire was a big ask though. They had to be sure that he would not need to pit again.

I think it is bad drills from Lauda not to tow the party line in public about the radio call.

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Alonso did over 30, and at 1.6 sec a lap Lewis would have had time to come in again for more. He had loads of them!

I'm glad Lauda put it out there, it needs addressing. I don't think Nico is being favoured but they're giving that impression and will take a load of stick over it. Good move by Lauda to acknowledge in public it was an error and try to stem the way a lot of people's thoughts are going.

[geetface9]

Just to confirm, I just read on the f1 site that he was having some issues with brakes overheating. obviously it wasn't too bad as there wasn't much noticable impact other than dropping back from vergne a bit but it may have been instrumental in vergne getting past him in the first place.

Did Vergne not jump Rosberg (and Alonso) at the SC stop? As im sure Alonso had to fight past Rosberg and Vergne on the restart before heading after Massa and Ricciardo?

Nope, vergne was behind but passed rosberg going into turn 1 as soon as the safety car pulled in and racing resumed. It looked kinda like rosberg just let him go by, so it must have been that braking issue or rosberg was just too cautious going into the turn as he didn't want a repeat of what happened in Q3 given the conditions

[Roth]

Just to confirm, I just read on the f1 site that he was having some issues with brakes overheating. obviously it wasn't too bad as there wasn't much noticable impact other than dropping back from vergne a bit but it may have been instrumental in vergne getting past him in the first place.

Did Vergne not jump Rosberg (and Alonso) at the SC stop? As im sure Alonso had to fight past Rosberg and Vergne on the restart before heading after Massa and Ricciardo?

Alonso and Hamilton appeared to have the ability to make up a few places where others struggled after the SC, then it settled down. They exploited the conditions better maybe, the colder tires and brakes. It certainly helped Alonso onto the podium. You could only truly understand the race on a prettily coloured chart.

[geetface9]

What I'm about to say, I say from a mercedes standpoint and not from a standpoint of favoring one driver over another. Mercedes lost two chances for a win today when they didn't make hamilton move over for rosberg. As has been pointed out, hamilton would have gotten 4th had they done that, but at the time of the call, they were looking at rosberg gaining 3-4 seconds a lap like he did at the end for the chance of a win and also the possibility of hamilton's tires holding out for the win, so when they made that call, they were looking at TWO scenarios in which a win was at least feasible. I think hamilton made the right choice for himself by not just pulling over, and I don't hold that against him. I would have said the same thing, "yo, tell rosberg to get on my gearbox and then I'll let him through, but not a moment before." The ball was dropped when mercedes didn't emphatically tell him to GET THE $#@! OVER because from their pitwall they were looking at the possibility of TWO winning scenarios, two different strategies as I mentioned above. So all in all, whatever hamilton gained by finishing ahead of rosberg, mercedes lost in the end because they don't care who wins, as long as one of them does and preferably as a one-two. Again, I'd have done the same thing as hamilton, and that's coming from an obvious rosberg fan. But I think the team may come under criticism that is reminiscent of red bull last year in malaysia when they told both drivers to turn their engines down and one was like NOPE! It's a little different cuz they got the 1-2 but I expect mercedes may take some heat over this. Or not, because so many people think hamilton shits gold

They obviously had no confidence of Hamilton overtaking Alonso because asking Hamilton to move over at that point was asking Hamilton to settle for 4th place, makes no sense to me and seems like one of the worst calls Mercedes have made so far.

As I mentioned, in hindsight yes he'd have got 4th place, but at the time they were expecting alonso to pit again and lose positions. I don't think anybody expected alonso to last so long on those tires. I know I didnt. Hell of a drive from alonso on those tires!