2016 FORMULA 1 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX **SPOILERS**

I have no insight into MercedesGP, so I do not know how big the "impact" of Lauda is other than yelling out his oppinion without consideration of the consequences on the psyche of his drivers...And when I say drivers I mean both of them

 

Concur. Toto even acknowledged this also. They play both sides and you can't have it both ways. They were afraid they might touch or crash and end the season on a sour note, so they tried to control Hamilton. In the end, they only had limited control, but they did create a lot of controversy. They set this culture and now they have to deal with it.

 

Honestly, i think i'd be so pissed from losing i'd be back in the car to get as much testing on the new tires as possible. Keep my head in the game and my spirits up. The driving is the therapy for me. I could spend hours in the car or the sim lost in my own world getting the feel for the cars.

 

No doubt you mean Ocon and Wehrlein.

 

Does Lauda even know who they are?

 

Good question. Apparently they are MB's official test drivers

 

Yes and it seems that when they had discussed this pre-race, Hamilton knew that all bets would be off after the last pit stop whilst MB thought he'd adhere to it throughout the race.

Hamilton would definitely deserve punishment for refusing Lowe's order - but Lowe's order is questionable at best.

Best,
Sammy

 

Lewis' should never have agreed to the Merc rules in any case. Don't say you'll agree NOT to to hold up the other driver yet do that the entire race.

 

According to what I've read everywhere, MB said that if Lewis backs Rosberg they'll pit Rosberg first. Lewis straight away figured that once the last pits were done, he could do just that.

He knew what MB meant, but knew that technically he could get away with it.

My own view, which is totally unsubstantiated, is that there was wink between Toto and Lewis after the end of their discussion.

After all we've all read Brawn's thoughts on Toto.

Best,

Sammy

 

Indeed!

Buuuut...you haven't been racing for over twenty years already. I don't know Lewis. He seems like he likes to have fun away from the track.

Honestly, I would expect he just feels physically ill after losing....or maybe not since he knows he gave it his all. I guess we'll know when his book comes out ; )

 

Yah I agree - that is not my style either. Just say it's not acceptable and see how they respond. But at that point you have to be prepared to sit.

 

Lowe has every right to provide the order. They built and own the car and pay the driver. Period. If LH or anyone else doesnt like it they can move along/quit. No one forces LH to agree to a contract and drive per the teams instructions. He is not an exception. Many of the grid could take that car and win and in fact might be better in the Mercedes than LH.

 

Alonso would show Elton a clean set of heels in the same car, he only looked good at mclaren as uncle Ron made sure he got every favour and every advantage he could throw at him.... and yet again, Elton **** on Ron Dennis just the same - classless little punk

 

In that case take the driver out of the car and make F1 autonomous cars. Don't like that idea? Then deal with the fact that humans are not robots and have the power to think and act for themselves. Teams and corporations are deluded if they think they can control situations like this with 100% certainty. Ham is not he first driver to respond in this way, and he won't be the last. Pretty much every multi wdc has this character trait. Alonso, Vettel, Schumacher, Prost, Senna etc etc.

 

Thats not my position but in the future we might not need them. The car is more of a factor than ANY driver now. So whats your point. You have none. They built the car, own it and can tell the driver what to do LOL> sorry but those are facts and are not in dispute. Period.

 

Absolutely. However, I didn't notice subirg dispute that.

Has none??? His (her?) quite succinct point:

This fact was proven to be so, once again, this past Sunday. Period.

 

To name Schumacher in this contect seems a bit strange in my opinion...You can say a lot about Schumacher but not that he was acting selfish against his own team. Unlike Schumacher Lewis often questioned team decisions and blamed the team in case he did not win...I doubt that you would have seen the same Punch-and-Judy Show after the lost Monaco GP if it would have been Schumacher sitting in the car. He would have said that the whole team (including him) made the wrong decision and "**** happens" instead of blaming the team for robbing his victory and disappearing before the team photo.
Schumacher was always part of the team, Hamilton seems only if it fits his arguments

 

At the very least I would've said, in public, that I'm here to win a title and if I need to back up Rosberg then I will.

 

This is true. But we all know that Ham doesn't know how to be diplomatic in that way. He is a very simplistic driver. He knows how to drive fast. Everyone knows he is 'faster' than Ros in a straight sprint, but he is no tactical or PR genius and never will be. His programming is very simple - he wants to win. All the time.

At the end of the day, this whole argument makes no sense to me. Merc had the WCC in the bag. They had nothing left to prove. The world knows how dominant Merc F1 is with or without winning Abu Dhabi. So why did they chose to try and impose random rules on their drivers in the interest of Merc? What interest? In fact, they would have generated much more PR value for decades to come if Ros and Ham had had an on track coming together a la Prost/Senna...

 

Thats not my point. I don't disagree with the fact that the team have the right to tell the driver to run around naked in the pits if they want to, they are just hired guns and technically employees. My point is that it is futile for teams to try and impose orders on drivers when they have the WCC wrapped up and there is blatantly no benefit to the team. Abu Dhabi was a straight battle between Ros and Ham, regardless of which teams they were driving for.

 

Teams are not composed of robots either. The driver should respect the people who works with him, specially those who are paying his salary. Just think about how Hamilton´s crew felt when he said that "someone" was against him.

I don´t get this mentality of "if you´re not a selfish bastard you´re not a winner". I think that behaving like a selfish bastard is actually a sign of insecurity: if Hamilton was so secure about his greatness, then he should let Rosberg win this year, beat him in 2017 and say: "hey, I´m a 4 times world champion and you only won me once because my car broke more often".

 

What you say is very logical. What I am saying is that in these moments of extreme tension, it is often hard to act purely logically. For these guys, there is no moment of higher tension than the last race of season with the F1 WDC up for grabs. We shouldn't be surprised when at these moments drivers decide to go off piste and do their own thing as Ham did.

 

Here's some of my pics from the GP. Mostly after the event…
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Very cool shots!

 

Funny comment from Horner on that note:

Christian Horner - Lewis Hamilton did nothing wrong in Abu Dhabi

"We know that Toto likes to control most things in the paddock, including other team's drivers!" Horner said.