Honestly Mercedes did sugar coat the team orders a bit today ......If they were honest James would have said "Let Lewis by if you don't he is going to cry like a ***** and make our lives miserable until Rio!!!!!"
So regarding Mercs more than miraculous turnaround, seeing them gain a half second from where they were behind Ferrari, I pulled my tinfoil hat out from the closet and have begun to grumble aloud. So it’s clear to me that F1 and the FIA absolutely prefer to have Lewis win the title because of the rock star life he leads and the publicity for F1 gained while he launches clothing lines, bangs models, jets around with musics popular stars now... instead of a personality like Seb who will just retreat home and quietly mow his own lawn until next season. The FIA obviously knew what “trickery” Ferrari had figured out to gain their short lived advantage. Given what’s on the line between Lewis vs Seb winning the WDC, I’m wondering if Merc didn’t receive a phone call or some technical papers. A several weeks ago, they were completely bewildered... stunned and at a total loss... now the past 3 weeks or so... they’re back to their totally smug and arrogant behaviors. I just wonder how that happened. Again...just entertaining the conspiracy theory since the season holds a lot less interest to me now.
We clearly need a major re-structuring again at Maranello. In the way of benign (and not so benign) dictators, El Grande Sergio was clearly keeping together warring fractions that are now at each other’s throats. Very sad because there have been times this year when it all looked so positive.
Major changes aren’t required. The team is very good. They need further refinement and continuous improvement.
Me watching today's race.... When the most interesting thing is watching Putin give away the trophy you know something is wrong. Image Unavailable, Please Login
When Ferrari has "team orders" -- they are cheaters When Mercedes has "team orders" -- it's great strategy!
You're obviously not paying attention to the technical development race if you truly believe what you wrote. It is very well known that Merc's sudden performance improvement is due to their rear wheel development which allows better temp control of the tyres. No more dramatic over heating and loss of performance = big step forward. A simple change that required some innovative engineering. Nothing more. But go ahead and believe your conspiracy theory if it makes you feel better. Look - it's simple. Merc out engineered Ferrari. Merc have better drivers than Ferrari. Merc have better strategy than Ferrari. End of. We have been well and truly beaten... yet again. And this time, we can't use the usual excuse of 'Merc Power'. This year, it's all down to overall team incompetence.
Let's face it, Mercedes does a better job because they are a bigger company, have more resources, employ more engineers and have more money to throw at a problem than Ferrari: it's that simple. When they will have reached the end of their programme, in 3 or 5 years time, Mercedes will pull out of F1, as they have done in the past , leaving the arena for Ferrari to play with the small teams left. As for the commercial aspect of F1, I think Liberty is more interested in the publicity fallout than the FIA.
I have always been in favour of team orders in certain circumstances. When you have a driver fighting for the title, it's logical for the team to ask his partner to help him. I have seen McLaren and Williams lose titles because of they didn't want to interfer in the rivalry between their drivers.
Team orders were going to happen today. The outcome of qualy results. Team orders are part of F1. No one can be shocked. https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/139065/vettel-defends-mercedes-strategy -- Sebastian Vettel has defended Mercedes' tactics in the Russian Grand Prix, calling the rival Formula 1 team's decision to move Valtteri Bottas aside for Lewis Hamilton a "no-brainer". Hamilton inherited victory at Sochi when Mercedes told Bottas, who was on course for his first win of the season, to let the championship leader past. Victory for Hamilton, combined with Bottas keeping Vettel at bay for the rest of the race, means Vettel trails the Mercedes driver by 50 points with five races to go. Vettel said: "Well done to both of them, they played together as a team very well. "In their defence, all the questions - I know you guys love controversy so therefore ask naughty questions to them as individuals, but I think in the position they are it's a no-brainer what they did today. "Maybe not all the questions are justified."
I also do want to point out that the Ferrari organization had a great loss. Others have brought this up. They may be suffering a loss of Sergio’s influence. We knew they would as any organization would however perhaps his influence was not only greater than we expected but perhaps loved by the team. Could Ferrari’s appearant plateau of team and car performance be more directly resulting from the loss of Sergio than we initially thought ...? If so how and who can replace his management style? Camilieri will have his work cut out.
Does anybody believe Lewis would have said the same thing if it was Ferrari? Gesendet von meinem SM-G930F mit Tapatalk
But... is it good racing? Is it good for the SPORT? That is the problem. This is not baseball where all 9 players contribute to a victory. This is 2 individual drivers driving as hard as they can -- until one person on the team says "hey, you're going too fast! Slow down already! Let the other guy win." Now you have to put an asterisk next to Hamiton's total victories. That's unfair to him as well but the facts are, he didn't win this race -- it was given to him. Racing should be racing. Best driver wins in that particular venue or day. That's what makes it exciting. If we know in advance who will win and who will lose we will no longer find it interesting. I can't imagine Roger Penske telling one of his drivers to slow down in the Indy 500 because another driver on his team needs "the points". Why should that not also apply to F1?
Agreed governing body needs to switch the order and reverse the points...need to stop this stuff. Let the best driver win!
do you actually know the meaning of that phrase or are you literally looking for a crocodile coming out of hamilton's face? dont be churlish. just look at the post race interview.
Team orders have always existed in GP, even during the pre-war era, because teams tend to push their driver with the best chances to lift a trophy, a championship, etc... True that in the US, drivers don't have the same mentality, maybe because the teams don't have the same structure, and the prize money is distributed differently, I don't know. In the US, I have seen drivers from the same team having different sponsors.
Then, you could put an asterix on some of the wins of Caracciola, Fangio, Surtees, Sheckter, Schumacher too, who inherited them from team mates.
Any real racer would not want a charity win; it’s no different than cheating. I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying as the driver it can’t possibly be as gratifying as winning on his own laurels.
There's nothing wrong with team orders when the WDC is on the line. It beats the hell out of constantly screwing your #2 with bizarre strategies so he won't pass your #1 driver. Image Unavailable, Please Login
The fact is that team orders are exposed now, with the public made aware of radio messages between drivers and their team. I think it was a bit more subdued before, with messages passed in code on the pit boards. I must say that some of the "switches" aren't very elegant and irritate the spectators. The FIA tried to legislate against eam orders during Schumacher time, but thought better of it after one season. There is no point making rules that you cannot enforce because you cannot prove the infraction.
Even if the FIA stepped in and flat out stated that you cannot order drivers to switch positions on the track!! There would still be team tactics. I.E. Slower pit stop for one car over the other car, Calling one car to slowdown due to a "Telemetry" reading, then once the other car is past then step it back up. Hell they could run down pit lane and ask Stroller to hold up the lead car while being lapped. The sad fact is you cannot control team orders or tactics.
Marchionne was the driving force behind the team’s reemergence. The team doesn’t seem to be the force that it was prior to his death. It COULD be a factor in the reversal of fortune, but could easily not be also. Merc fixing their rear tire issue is the more likely reason
