Can't help think that some of the inconsistent rules / penalties this season have been deployed to keep a two horse race running to Abu Dhabi. For instance, Hamilton gaining a big advantage by going off at Turn 1 in Mexico without penalty. Verstappen does the same but gets penalised. Bernie knows his TV audience would have dropped off by a considerable margin without this "cliffhanger". His one saviour has been the shining light of Mad Max - but that's more good fortune than design.
The FIA has been very lenient to Hamilton after he caught 2 reprimands early in the season, but not receiving them for reprimandable offences later on. T1 in Mexico is another one of those things, with Charlie ''The Senile'' Whiting even coming to the press conference in Brazil to explain why he didn't get penalized (his answer was so long and ridiculous I'm not going to bother typing it out). The FIA (well, Gary Connelly) desperately tried to get Verstappen penalized in Japan for...well you tell me? Hamilton making his move so damn early even a one eyed nun would've blocked him. Of course a penalty would've meant that Hamilton moved one more position towards Rosberg.
As much as I hate to say it out loud.... I think my wife is right... its all fixed. it just seems that its a complete show... perhaps all the players don't know it ... like the movie the Truman Show, but I think its a bit rigged.
Bottomline: NR is not the WDC anybody inside FIA or MB wants. He is a very nice guy and a very good driver. But he is the 'next best guy' by definition. There is no marketing weight in him, no surprise or scandals. There is just no drama in NR - which gives him a good shot on the 2017 WDC, as there will be some drama factor with "losing 2016 WDC on the last lap" attached then. So, for some miraculous reason Rosbergs engine will fail in lap 53 - unless Mr. Verstappen has already slamed him into some wall before- and Mr. Hamilton will be the natural winner this year. Which would be right. lets face it: Nico has to grow some balls and kick Hamilton out in the very first corner. As he should have done before, as every great F1 driver would have done long time ago. F1 is a combat sport, a clean winner is theoretical, a factual winner always has blood on his hands. To Nico Rosberg: "Get P2 in qualifying, watch some Prost, Senna, Schumacher, Mansell VHS-Tapes prior to start and beat the crap out of LH. First corner, inside line, no breaks. What will the FIA 'wise guys' do? 5 sec penalty? 5 spot penalty for next races grid? **** them, go and get your title and .... ... wishful thinking. NR will be the good and clean driver that he is and will be happy about "another year to challenge, another year in a great team and another year with a realistic chance to win WDC!" (Press statement open for NR to use!)
Great story, but he doesn't need to do any of that. Why should he hit Hamilton? What if they do a '97 and exclude him from the championship? He'll lose his title! Get 2nd, finish on the podium, grab championship, watch Hamilton whinge for the next 60 years about how his car was unreliable and forget all the other facts of the championship, win at life. He'll be a deserved World Champion.
I am afraid you are right, I predict that we will see the incredible Lewis Hamilton steal the championship in the last round to feign it was a tough fight and we will be forced to hear it was just like Senna and Prost... Welcome to the WWF1! Sorry it has been a weak 3 years and I would have stopped watching mid season if it were not for Max and Ricciardo. Hoping next year is worth watching without the inconsistent rules rules enforcement to keep it close and lead us to the conclusion that Hamilton is as great as Senna, Prost and Schumacher.....Sorry I am not buying it.
If Nico is manipulated out of his title then f1 is dead, it's a shadow of itself already, if they steal his title away and give it to that arrogant little pissant Elton, it's finished for me. Nico beat him fair and square this year
If 2016 has been 'fixed' then that would make sense as they have also made a complete mess of F1 in a lot of other areas already ...may as well go for the full monty and screw up everything! I don't actually believe they have tried to fix the WDC...there are too many variables and too many people involved..they are not smart enough to organize that. Red bull have gone a bit more conservative on tyres so they might be going for less pit stops. I hope we will see a proper 'race' with no dirty tricks etc, however with so much at stake absolutely anything can and probably will happen.
We are talking about cars with thousands of moving parts (if any one breaks, the car is out of a race), extremely complicated power units, which rev at greater than 15,000 RPMs, over 1,000 corners per race, speeds in excess of 200 MPH, changing weather conditions, and 20+ huge egos of drivers. With all these variables, you actually think this thing COULD be fixed? Sorry, I am pretty cynical and I don't buy it.
Wait until next week before you say Nico beat him fair and square... I for one can't wait to see if Lewis can hold it together and go on to win if Nico gets hit in traffic of gets his first engine failure for the year. Only then you can say Lewis beat him fair and square .. well almost another two more engine failures etc for Nico and then they would be square.
cheez. you guys are sooo following the wrong sport. Again, I recommend chess for a level playing field if that is what makes your life. [irony] But then, if you believe in equalizing, then Lewis should also have severe brake issues, have a car explode in his face and shred his aerodynamics, have someone turn him by 180 degrees in turn 1 and then, to top it all off, have his own team mate just take him out of the race he would most likely win. [\irony] At least that is some of the misfortunes that happened to Rosberg in 2016, just typing from the top of my head. I guess no matter how it pans out we will never hear the end of the whining of the Hamilton fanboys, that should all follow the chess world cup. But then, while they are whining like Vettel, they might as well be kicked out of there, too.
+1 If Rosberg wins the title, all the above will never be mentioned. The Hamilton fanboys will devalue his championship down forever. Eventually the issues Rosberg has had will be forgotten and people just look at the Wiki results page... Lets not forget that since Rosberg and Hamilton have been teammates, there really isn't much between them.
Nascar would be proud of F1 this year ....... If we get a yellow flag for 'debris on the track' with 10 to go to bunch the field this season will be perfect.
And one should not forget that Hamilton always got away with a blue eye when something happened to his car... When he started last in Spa he got a red flag after many in front already pitted and the Ferrari and Max played bumper car to his favour... The one race he DNF with an engine failure was not one where he was folloed by Rosberg but by the RB so Rosberg did not gain as much points as it would have been in other races... So still he had some bad luck but he lost less points in these races than one might expect...I guess he lost more due to bad starts and a few collisions in the early season.
I haven't been following the rules development this season too closely. Are double points still on offer for the last race?