Niki believes a lot of things. A lot of those beliefs are not factual, simply his stern opinion. To believe otherwise would simply be foolish. Niki certainly has an eye for driving talent. No doubt. However, he has historically been one of opinion - and is never shy with sharing those opinions (right or wrong).
Although I'm not a Bernie fan he did say that F1 has become too much of an engineering championship and less of a driver one, and I've been saying that for years-think of the Williams active suspension car-F1 needs to get back to its roots.
Yet Bernie relentlessly courted the manufacturers and the many millions they brought to F1. We reap what we sow.
I've posted this elegy to Juan Manuel elsewhere so please forgive the repetition and its length and accept my disavowal of intent to capture the thread: It is always interesting, though not necessarily meaningful, to compare and try to rank the truly great athletes from different eras. One has to recall that circumstances differed, most often dramatically. I was lucky enough to watch in person a good deal of international motor racing in the 1950's, 60's and 70's. Jim Clark is surely in the pantheon of the greatest motor racing drivers in history. I was at his races at Monaco, Silverstone, Zandvoort (Netherlands G.P.), and Spa and he was magic. As to Stirling Moss, among others I attended the race that he says is one of the three best he ever drove, the 1961 Monaco G.P., where in a seriously underpowered 4-cyl Lotus-Climax he beat the far more powerful V-6 Ferraris of Richie Ginther and Phil Hill. I also personally saw Juan Manuel Fangio race and if I had to pick one driver for one race, Fangio would be the man. Recall that he started motor racing in Argentina in a hot-rod Chevie, over mountain dirt roads that were more traces than roads. He was already almost 40 years old when he first came to Europe to race and 46 when he won the last of his five World Drivers Championships in four different cars for four different teams. His win on the Nurburgring Nordschleife in 1957 in an outclassed Maserati was truly epic. He led by 30 seconds over Mike Hawthorn - who would win the world drivers championship the next season - and Peter Collins in much faster Ferraris, had a disastrous pit stop on lap 13 (of 20) that put him almost a minute behind Hawthorn and Collins and on the next 7 laps of the Green Hell, the most treacherous circuit in racing history, proceeded to set a new lap record on each succeeding lap, passing both Hawthorn and Collins to win the race and the world championship. P.S. if you click on his name you can find a Youtube URL of Fangio driving laps at Monza. Check it out, notice how rough the road surface is, how the suspension is constantly working, how the curbs are 6 inches high - no possibility to mount the curbs, and how infinitely close to each apex Fangio places the wheels. It is unbelievable. Fangio started 51 races, had 29 poles, 23 fastest laps, 35 podiums and 24 wins, winning 47% of all the races he started, against the best drivers of the era! Also recall how many drivers from that era died racing in F1, some 30 during the 8 years he raced in F1, except Fangio and Moss who sustained almost fatal injuries at Silverstone and Hawthorn who died in a road accident. Moss, Clark, Prost, Senna and Schumacher were truly great, Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton are in the process of writing their own remarkable histories and legacies, Moss, whom I met at Lime Rock early last month and got his autograph on the Motorsport magazine that published the story of his Mille Miglia win, the best racer ever not to be world champion and surely the best ever in true open road races, a format Fangio hated. But Fangio was in a class by himself. Just my 2c.
That's illogical. It's a win for Mercedes whether it's Hamilton or Rosberg, so they are not 'keeping Nico down' in order to win, which is pretty much guaranteed anyway.
They demonstrate weekly the disregard they have for Nico, they are only happy for the constructors points, their mirth when he has a problem or makes a mistake is there for all to see. Watch the footage of him winning in monaco, they were absolutely fuming that it wasn't their little lad
So you rely on the opinions of Alonso and Lauda??? The first needs to justify why he did not get the upper hand on a rookie and the second is his team boss...Now these are great unbiased sources, well done!
Believe whatever you like, just review the footage around Nico events, make up your own mind, I know what I see and hear on the subject, some of the gossip from within the paddock itself
It's a great mistake on their part to undermine Rosberg and favour Hamilton. Nico is a very good driver who probably can match Hamilton on speed. I will accept that he may have a tiny bit less racecraft in terms of overtaking than his team mate. I don't think he is disruptive in the team and he is a solid team player who rarely crashes and brings constantly points to Mercedes. What is there not to like with Nico? Some of the reliabilty problems he had encountered have been puzzling to me, to say the least?
I think Nico is maybe just too nice a guy at the end of the day, a bit like pre-crash Massa. He tries very hard to be fair, and is a very good racer, but maybe the maturity has set in too early for him and this takes the final edge required to make him champion while he is paired with someone who would step on his face to beat him, regardless of morality. Toto and Niki have some kind of mental block about him it seems, he is treated so much like the 'naughty rookie' if he challenges properly. Why else would they bash him in public, rather than behind closed doors, from pole position have his engine settings turned down?, and generally show a disdain for his achievements. When he beats Elton to pole, Niki only wants to talk about why Elton didn't get it, not how well Nico drove to beat him to it. Undoubtedly, merc put up with all this as to sky, Elton is the main focus, stupidly believing that F1 fans are nationalistic in their support, that English fans will only support an English driver, which is total rubbish. Evidenced yesterday as they read out tweets, having asked fans to tell them if they thought Elton was a great, the resounding answer was most thought he wasn't, and most thought he was far from it. Every tweet was 'Emma from London' 'bills from York' etc. Merc seem to be trying to stay on track with marketing Elton to the detriment of anything else. It was funny in the coverage last nite, as they tried to make up time with Ricardo/kyvatt dancing, and the shot went to Nico who was out of the garage waving to some of the hardy fans, and the commentators mischievously suggested that if Elton and Nico were to put on a show, it would likely be a boxing match.
And then you guys say that moderation is one-sided if you get banned by putting down others as "asinine"...
Nico has 3 adversaries in his team: Hamilton, Lauda and Wolf. The only good thing is that he has probably the best car to remain everyone, from time to time, how good he is.
Nice to see Nico get hold of the car in the rain today. If it starts under the safety car, let's hope Elton doesn't do his usual trick of losing his mind and bashing his way past. It would be different if he ever demonstrated any finesse
Today again,and under difficult circumstances, Nico has shown his skill and adaptability by catching the pole position. That's proof that he is a serious contender.
I'm curious, Kimi's contract and Nico's contract, do they expire at the same time. Nico + Vettel at Ferrari would be an interesting pairing.
With Hamilton he already tried and failed 3 years in a row. If I were Nico and had the opportunity from Ferrari I would give it a go against Vettel. If he doesn't succeed he is just the new guy at Ferrari. If he wins he will be a genius. Much better than trying a 4th time against Hamilton. Plus Ferrari is making huge progress. They might be the team to beat in 2016 or 2017.
