Rosberg is scared of Hamilton and his superior racecraft (SPOILERS)

The basic premise of this thread is that Nico is scared of being behind Lewis because he knows that due to Lewis's superior race craft the race is as good as lost.

To start the thread with a notable quote:

What is clear is that Nico does have some good pace over one lap but cannot pass or race wheel to wheel very well at all. When Lewis is in the lead the race is very safe (in Races that they both started in a comparable grid position and both finished Lewis is winning 4-1). But whenever Nico is not in the lead his terrible race craft becomes obvious

Examples of Nico's inferior race craft:

- Poor start in Canada, loses out to Lewis, has to defend racing line very aggressively causing his team mate to lose a few places (aggressive but fair enough I suppose). Regardless, displays his anxiety about not wanting to be behind Lewis. Lewis then leapfrogs him in the pits but retires due to car failure.

- Austria - stuck behind the William's for an inordinate amount of time and has to rely on his superior car to leapfrog them in the pits. Lewis dispatches Massa within moments and Bottas not too challenging either. By dint of Lewis starting 9, Nico still wins - just (maybe not if pit stops were same time).

- Hungary - So many poor displays by Nico. Quintessential display of his poor race craft was when he was stuck behind a backmarker (JEV) despite having a much faster car, fresher tyres and having DRS (JEV had none). Lewis, on the other hand, dispatched him in a lap or so.

Spa: Nico has another one of his customary poor starts, loses out to lewis and to vettel. Gains the place back when vettel makes an error. Then in lap 2, purposefully drives in a dangerous manner causing Lewis a puncture and retirement. He arrogantly fails to apologise and states it was purposeful (see: Lewis Hamilton: Nico Rosberg said Belgian GP collision deliberate - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com ) Nico makes a number of other botched manouvers. Locks up making a desperate lunge at vettel and loses a place to bottas because of it. Passes one of the mclarens in a way that exceeded track limits and had to give the place back. Not to mention when chasing down riccardo he ran wide in the dry of his own accord and lost a second. Race victory couldve been his if he had the skill to do it (Ricciardo also supremely skilled and lapped far too fast in the end for Rosberg to catch - believe Nico's last lap was a 151.9 and Ricciardo 152.9 which is CRAZY given the tyre difference and given nico was taking 2.5 secs out previously - obviosuly didn't want the win enough).

Nico really is the Maldanado of the sharper end of the grid in terms of race craft. Nico and Maldanado are not all that different after all. Nico can rely on the pace of his car to qualify well so he doesn't have to deal with much wheel to wheel. The passing manoeuvrings he does make rely on the sheer speed of his car and fresher tyres than his opponents. But if he gets stuck behind other cars or faced with any adversity he is doomed. WHereas Lewis does well starting from the back as the results this season demonstrates (beat nico despite starting from the pit lane with nico on pole). Crazy that Lewis is doing as well as he is despite reliability (including nico causing lewis to DNF) being 5-1.


Discuss.


Here is also a season recap for those who may need a refreshing of their memories:


Australia: Lewis qualifies 1, Nico qualifies 3. Lewis DNF due to misfiring cylinder. Nico wins

Malaysia: Lewis qualifies 1, Nico qualifies 3. Lewis wins, Nico second finishing some 17 seconds behind

Bahrain: Nico qualifies 1, Lewis qualifies 2. Lewis wins, Nico second.

China: Lewis qualifies 1, Nico qualifies 4 (some 1.3 seconds off the pace). Lewis wins, Nico Second finishing 18.6 seconds behind.

Spain: Lewis qualifies 1, Nico qualifies 2. Lewis wins, Nico second.

Monaco: Nico qualifies 1, Lewis qualifies 2 (qualifying contentious due to Nico parking his car and Lewis not getting another lap in). Nico wins, Lewis second.

Austria: Nico qualifies 3, Lewis qualifies 9 (lock up). Nico wins, Lewis finishes second (1.9 seconds behind and would've won if pit stops as fast as Nico's).

Britain: Nico qualifies 1, Lewis qualifies 6 (was on provisional pole but decided not to put another lap in - his own fault Lewis wins, Nico DNF. Lewis would have won regardless as he was catching Nico exponentially fast and had an extra stint on faster tyre.

Germany: Nico qualifies 1, Lewis qualifies 16 (brake failure no fault of his own). Nico wins, Lewis finishes 3.

Hungary: Nico qualifies 1, Lewis starts from pit lane (car caught on fire in q1 no fault of his own. Lewis comes third and Nico comes fourth Controversy in that Nico expected Lewis to let him through but Lewis said he would if Nico got close enough to pass him - Nico couldn't manage that.

Belgium: Nico qualifies 1, Lewis qualifies 2. Nico comes second after purposefully defending a line that wasnt his and thus puncturing Lewis's tyre. Lewis DNF.


What is clear is that if Nico wins the championship he won it through good luck and ruthlessness and not skill. That will be his legacy. Lewis > Nico.

 

You've gone to a lot of trouble and you've been very thorough. Well done.



























































It's a pity you're wrong

 

^^^ Stop hating

 

This truth is going to hurt a lot of haters hear

 

father like son.

If nico wins he will be even more undeserving than his father. My hate for Nico reached new levels this weekend.

The evidence is there. OPen your eyes and switch sides. Nico is an entitled brat.

 

You're projecting.

Hate is such a strong word. I don't hate anyone I know, let alone anyone I don't know!

What's to hate? Just keep wishing for good fortune for Lewis...but to hate his opponent? That's a bit OTT

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ9xRFk25w8

 

Is it Nico's fault the battle with Lewis?

 

Wow.

Hmmm. I've seen LH loose parts of his wing or at least rub it against others too. I think that was at Hockenheim ... and in the end he was lucky that enough stayed together.

My conclusion is yes, both of them don't want to be behind the other and are getting desperate to show their superiority. Der of course they want to. This always happens with 2 very quick drivers and cars.

Fact is: LH is NOT faster than Nico.
Fact is: LH made more mistakes during qualifying than Nico did. Lots of mistakes that he then blamed on the car ... pft
Fact is: Neither are going to give in to the other. We win there because it will be fun to watch
Fact is: Nico's passing attempt of Vettel was a little raw and he was lucky that did not cost him a result
Fact is: Nico was able to consolidate and get good points again.

Finally an interesting season. I'm watching Ricci slowly gaining points ... he will could pass LH as LH is a win or bust driver but I don't think he will catch Nico.
Pete

 

Dan's not scared of either of them, he's a very calculating driver

 

Dan's beating the defending 4x WDC in the same car on a team built around him. Dan doesn't fear anyone.

Future star in the making...

 

Shows that haters will deny the factual stats. Nico is simply not at LH level. Never has been, never will be.

 

Who got pole at spa?

 

And all those other poles of the season! Even the ones where Ham was out of Q, if we don't count them Nico is well ahead.

In races where he finished behind Lewis he's normally right on his rear end.

I can't be bothered yet about some of the ''facts'' in this thread and how wrong they are, I hope someone else will take the time as I simply can't be bothered to argue with a wall at this time of day.

 

I think it works like this....Lewis is head and shoulders better than Nico, so...If Nico gets pole, it's because Lewis had problems, but if Lewis gets pole, it's not because Nico had problems, but because Lewis is just that much better.

Same with wins and the lead in the championship.

I think I get it now.


oh geez

 

Australia - LH had pole. 1 up for LH
Malaysia - LH had pole. 2 up for LH
Bahrain - Nico had pole. Back to 1 up for LH
China - LH had pole. 2 up for LH
Spain - LH had pole. 3 up for LH
Monaco - Nico had pole. Back to 2 up for LH
Canada - Nico had pole. Back to 1 up for LH
Austrian - Nico was faster than LH. Even
British - Nico had pole. 1 up for Nico
German - Nico had pole. 2 up for Nico
Hungary - Nico had pole. 3 up for Nico
Belgian - Nico had pole. 4 up for Nico

Sorry the stats do not indicate that LH is faster. Even if you remove some of the results, Nico has been faster 4 times!!!

Like I said, LH is damn great fun to watch and probably better at charging up from the back of the field, but he is not faster. There is not much in it at all but based on qualifying Nico is the slightly faster of the two.
Pete

 

Yep, nail hit.
Pete

 

Yup...Just look at how Hungary is described. You'd think this was all because of Hamilton's superiority and nothing to do with the timing of the SC. I Can't be bothered yet to comment on the rest of his totally unbiased views.

 

So, back to the title of this thread, I don't know what Nico has to be scared of.

Unless I was biased, I don't think I'd really like to make a call on which of them is "better" or "faster" because it seems that under the right conditions, the answer can change....and if it's that close, then they're equal.

I have to say, though, that I was surprised that there were two things I thought Lewis would excel at...rain and spa...but that actually wasn't the case.

 

Obviously you all didn't read the first sentence of the thread. We are talking about race craft not pace over one lap in qualy.

Bet here is the corrected version of what you said:

Australia - LH had pole. 1 up for LH
Malaysia - LH had pole. 2 up for LH
Bahrain - Nico had pole. Back to 1 up for LH
China - LH had pole. 2 up for LH
Spain - LH had pole. 3 up for LH
Monaco - cancelled due to 'questionable circumstances'
Canada - Nico had pole. Back to 2 up for LH
Austrian -1 up for LH - Lewis made mistakes
British - Even - Lewis made mistakes not going out again
German - cannot be counted - lewis brake failure
Hungary - lewis car on fire in q1
Belgian - Lewis had brake glazing issues

Even. Note, Lewis also claimed it was the cars fault in Austria and Belgium. In the interests of fairness I put one of those on each side.

Races where Nico has finished behind lewis:

Malaysia: 17 seconds behind
Bahrain: Right on his ass. But he was 10 seconds behind when an opportune safety car came out. And then lewis held him off when Nico was on the faster tyre and had DRS. The commentators were quite frankly amazed. Which is another point to add to my mounting evidence regarding Lewis's superior wheel to wheel. Nico did make a good crack at it for a guy who can't even pass a backmarker whilst having DRS.
China: similar to Malaysia, 18.6 secs.
spain: right behind
Hungary: Nico finishes right behind, but given Nico started on pole and Lewis started in the pit lane that is a formidable achievement, safety car or not.


You can lace your points with sarcasm all you want but you all have failed to address the issues of race craft. Fact is lewis is miles better. I will concede, pace over 1 lap - Lewis is slightly faster but due to lack of consistency its about even. His errors would probably diminish if he wasnt under the psychological pressure of playing catch up.

 

Maybe he needs a reasonably priced car

 

Thanks for so perfectly proving my point.

fish in a barrel.

 

sigh...reasoning and logic only works on logical people.

 

Good...so you agree with me

 

*sigh*

Bahrain: Nico was 10 seconds behind because when they where dicing for the lead it was getting way to close, Mercedes put him on the slower tire. Lewis held him off after SC.

Hungary: You fail to put in that Rosberg lost his (12 seconds or thereabouts) lead because of Ericsons' crash and the SC coming out after his pit. The top 4 lost out because of this. Hamilton also threw the car into the wall in the opening lap.