Is part of that history making future losing 8 races in a row to your 'mate, and then take him off in frustration in a bid to not make it 9?
True dat. He's good but not a GOAT. The fact that he can't setup a car and had to rely on Nicos settings in Spain speaks volumes to me. In a perfect world I'd love to see three car teams and ricci in the third MB. IMHO he'd spank both nico and Lewis.
Ricci is hardly GOAT material himself. He can't even beat a rookie in his first ever RB race! Saying he'd spank Nico and Ham is basically calling them mid field drivers which they are not. Ham is plenty fast as a sprinter, but he isn't a rocket scientist or even half decent strategist. So clearly doesn't have GOAT dna either.
Yeah. Hard to beat the rookie when your team screws you..Ricciardo 'bitter' over three-stop strategy - PlanetF1 : PlanetF1 BTW, not a rookie. Already had a year in. I have to say I was surprised they had him stop three times myself. That looked like Ricci's race. Not saying RB gave it to Max but if the bra fits....
I agree that Ricci was handed a rubbish strategy. Just as Vettel was. Bad luck for sure and I very much doubt it was deliberate. Re Max being a year in- that just isn't true. The TR is not an RB - totally different aero, chassis and engine. It is a completely different animal. This was his first race in an RB. Impressive how quickly he got to grips with it and he will only get better. Back on topic - I don't see nice or ham as worthy of a Ferrari seat...
I don't think either team really needs Nico. They should steal Stoffel. He's the next big thing with actually something behind him. Both Kimi and Nico are good drivers but at this point neither are long term plays. I'm not one of the "he only wins because of the car" guys, but I don't think Nico has shown consistent brilliant drives at all. He's been pretty much unchallenged this year and even in the last couple races last year. Kimi is so hot and cold. You never know when his finger is going to slip off the shift paddle.
I think Ferrari was just trying to cover Ricci with Vettel which ended up being the wrong thing to do. Maybe but STR and RB are basically the same team. Max is impressive for sure but it's a jump to a better car not a worse one. Kvyat probably had the harder job trying to get used to the STR. Nico would be a good number two to Vettel unless he wins this year's title. Then I doubt he'd want to accept a number two role. Ham and Vettel at Ferrari would probably be a disaster but fun to watch. As far as neither being worthy, that's just silly. Ham is a 3 time WDC and Nico has been right there and has a good chance of being the WDC this year. Ferrari has had some wankers in their cars in the past, way worse than Nico or Ham.
3 stop WAS the fastest strategy, but as the track evolved it started to go to the 2 stop. This was only 8 laps from the end when it turned out that both Verstappen and Raikkonen managed to keep the tires together. Had the tires gone off a little earlier Vettel and Ricciardo would've pounded. Ricciardo is a force to be reckoned with IMO. Pending how you look at 2014, he at the very least matched Vettel; not something to take lightly. Great qualifier, Fantastic wheel to wheel racer, has done some dive bombs and made them stick. On top of that he's an extremely likable guy.
Given that Rai and Ves went to a 2 stop strategy with over 30 laps remaining, the teams clearly knew that a 2 stopper was viable well before the last 8 laps...
http://www.autobild.de/artikel/formel-1-diskussion-gas-und-bremse-9431893.html Apparently Rosberg wants the same contract as Hamilton at Mercedes, 30M a year, Mercedes isn't giving it to him. Can't see any reason for Ferrari taking Rosberg, even more so considering it doesn't seem very clever from a marketing point of view in having two Germans.
That's crazy considering he's lost the title to him twice in a row now. if he wins this year maybe he should get a bit more but he simply doesn't have the numbers. All that considered, he'd be crazy to leave. His only chance at winning is with Merc.
My opinion entirely. At Mercedes he has a good car that allows him to win, and be a contender for the title. Even if the WDC eludes him, Mercedes offers him a good career, I think. Why would he risk it all by going to Ferrari?
That's what we all thought when Lewis went to Mercedes (even though McLaren wasn't then what Mercedes is now) Makes him look like a genius now, doesn't it?
Vettel/Ricciardo are the teams' #1 chances of finishing higher. Why give the slower (or in Verstappens' case, unproven) the faster strategy? It vastly depended on keeping the tires in a working window.n
I think it was quite clear when Hamilton went to Mercedes, that McLaren was going to lose their MB engine. Beside, as much as Ron Dennis insists he discovered and groomed Hamilton, Hamilton feels that his owes his career to Mercedes. Career moves are always a risk.
No it wasn't. Hamilton left McLaren at the end of 2012. Red Bull was still dominating with the Renault engine, and no one knew how well the Mercedes V6 engine compared to any other engine, which came into play in 2014. No way that Hamilton, or anyone outside of McLaren/Mercedes knew Macca was gonna lose their MB engine back in 2012.
I think he knew. You see, big teams like Mclaren like to have an exclusive distributor. They don't want to depend on another team. The minute Mercedes made their own team, it was certain that Mclaren are going to look for another engine distributor. They want an engine manufacturer that will put them in the first place.
Yes but I think that Lewis, having raced with Nico before, figured he could beat him in a straight fight. So really if MB got the car right then he would be extremely well placed within the team which did come to pass. Plus McLaren was hardly a world beater at that time so leaving wasn't that big a risk, IMO. Nico leaving a team, which has the best car right now for another team which has been saying wait till next year since pretty much 2010 and to be a likely number two on that team makes zero sense, even if they pay him a boatload of money. His opinion may change if he does win it all this year but way too early for that.
