After the Spa incident a few seasons ago Nico was definitely neutered. What will happen this time? Pete
I think they realized with hindsight that at Spa they did quite some damage to Nico and would likely try to avoid doing that to a driver again and find better ways to deal with such situations. Hamilton should be realizing that he is racing from a different position now. He has been equally aggressively driving from the championship lead against Rosberg in the last years, where Rosberg couldn't allow a collision for closing the points gap. Rosberg always avoided contact by allowing Hamilton to push him out of the track. Hamilton now needs the clean pass on Rosberg to stand a chance to recover points. That his paradigm towards racing must shift is probably the outcome here. The team will discuss the incident and surely will avoid repetition. Can he change? Can he change without losing what makes him the racer he is? I don't know. I would be surprised. Perhaps Hami should pull a Rosberg, party less and work on his starts.
Hamilton had to apologize and got spanked by Lauda, so maybe they 're going to neuter him this time! But I think they're not going to neuter anybody. It's a long season, lots of races remaining, and Mercedes still has a comfortable margin for errors. Also they realize that if they don't bring a good show, sooner or later they'll be emasculated by FIA like they did with Ferrari in 2004. And if they can't bring a good show, at least they can bring some controversy and backstabbing between drivers.
The change to F1 was apparent yesterday for at least 1 race. A dominating Mercedes wont be missed by fans at all. I think that train will now call for boarding and leave the main station soon. Yesterday showed what F1 should be vs what we have with Mercedes. At least one can hope useful change will take place over time
We had a Red Bull era, a Ferrari era before, a Williams era and a McLaren era before that, so I have no problem with Mercedes being at the front for a while. They just have superior engineering to the other teams at the moment, and a good pair of drivers. The next formula may change that.
Nobody died, the race went on. Mercedes will repair the cars, the egos will repair themselves when they finish 1-2 for the rest of the year. As to the race fans not missing Mercedes? Would you say the same thing if it had been two Ferraris in the crash? No? Hmmm... I understand it, but damn, there sure is a bit of bias here, eh? D
Had it been both Ferrari's in the crash, would the racing at the front been any closer? - No, both Mercedes' would still have driven off into the distance and would have dominated the race. With both Mercedes' out of the race, suddenly the result wasn't a forgone conclusion between two drivers, just about anyone could win if they got their tactics right, so for the "general" F1 fan, both Mercedes' crashing out of the race made it a far more entertaining race than losing both Ferrari's would have.
All those eras had at least 1 great rival either within the team or the competition. This era we either see boring 1-2 races or they crash into each other. They don't race like great rivals they race like snobby kids that need to be put in the corner after a race.
Maybe you prefered the Ferrari era when Irvine or Barichello had to slow down according to team orders at the Scuderia to let Kaiser Schumacher go past? At least Hamilton and Rosberg fight among themselves to win. As we have just witnessed, it isn't stage managed.
I'm a Hamilton fan, but I was saying this last year. If you look at that start yesterday, Hamilton CLEARLY had the jump off the starting line, and Nico reeled him in like he was in a Manor. I think this whole steering wheel 'race settings' issue wasn't accidental, it exposed Nico figuring out how to use the starting modes to his advantage and somehow he just fumbled his transition. That can happen when you take initiative to figure out how you can better utilize the car's systems to provide a greater advantage.
I think it will be Hamilton. The team have been supporting him a lot in the past, i just have a feeling this year, Rosberg is the chosen one to bring the title to Merc.
No one will be neutered. But you bet your a$$ Nico will be lectured and retrained on how to set his car in the correct mode until he gets it right and can do it blindfolded...
Nico Rosberg learns the most valuable lesson all champions must know // F1 News // James Allen on F1 ? The official James Allen website on F1
Do you really think drivers figure out this advantage on their own by playing with buttons? It sounds to me like Nico has a special starting mode that was exposed yesterday.
Keep it up Nico. We need a few more of these collisions early in the race with no penalties. It's helping Hamilton. It also gives Ferrari or Redbull a chance to win which is very entertaining.
Lol, another race goes by and Hamilton is unable to gain back any points on Rosberg. How is it helping him again?
Damn....I can't believe nobody has figured it out yet. I didn't say crash every race. I said 2-3 identical incidents will actually help Hamilton more than Rosberg. Anti-Hamilton brains can't figure it out....LOL