New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by Jagdtiger14 »

While Hamilton won 10 races, objectively you cant really count his last 4 in the same vein as you can his first 6. Obviously Rosberg had a season winning strategy that didn't necessarily involve winning those last 4 races.

Verstappen...very young kid with a lot of talent and spunk, but like Hamilton, I dislike his style and attitude. Maybe he'll grow into maturity, or maybe not and become another Hamilton on and off the track. I hope not.

I do hope however (and this coming from a Mercedes fan), that Ferrari can turn things around with a new season and new rules. I would love to see Vettel/Kimi vie for more championships. And see Red Bull compete with the other two as well.

Congrats to Haas in their inaugural season. 29 points! 8th in constructors. I see them doing a lot better next year with a season under their belt.

Congrats NICO!

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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by warspite1 »

At least a couple of newspapers are running the story that Lewis may be sacked/suspended because of his failure to obey team orders.

Now this may just be a way of selling newspapers and there is no possibility of that happening - although Wolff is on record as saying "anything is possible".

If this is true, there can only be one reason for it:

Its a neat way of getting rid of the Hamilton/Rosberg 'problem'. With Rosberg as reigning world champion (entitled to carry No.1) there is perhaps less 'need' for Hamilton to be with the team provided they can replace him adequately. As for who would replace him, the Ferrari/Vettel relationship is hardly a love in at the moment. Could McLaren stop Alonso moving over with a sufficient compensation payment made? Money talks and .......

I am afraid Mercedes have made themselves look pretty foolish over this episode and they cannot seem to understand in the ivory tower of the boardroom at Stuttgart that their instruction yesterday was nonsense and turns people away from them. Imagine if in the last three years they had employed two nicey, nicey, after you claude, type drivers. Let's ignore the fact that drivers such as those would actually not be very good (so they would probably have had to take the Ferrari approach with No.1/No.2 drivers). Mercedes may have won a couple more races than they actually have and there would have been no controversy either. But F1 audiences - the reason Mercedes are in the sport to get their brand name out there - would have plummeted even more. Don't they get that?

Mercedes were constructors champion. Whatever happened yesterday, Mercedes were going to provide the drivers champion. This was the finale of the Formula 1 World Championship. This is where viewers around the world are turned on to watch F1 - or turned off at the tedium.

Given Nico's bullet proof engine reliability, there was only one way that Lewis could win the championship. But they wanted Lewis to hand his teammate the title by driving off into the distance, closely followed by Nico.

Apart from the crime of providing the F1 audience around the world with an exciting race, what exactly did Lewis do wrong? Did he break any FIA rule? Did he cheat like Schumacher or Senna or Prost? All of whom drove into drivers in order to try and win the World Championship? Did he hold an expletive ridden press conference that was aired to the public - children included - like Senna in Japan?

No, all he did was to use his driver skills to do something extremely well that many drivers (Rosberg included) have confirmed is actually quite difficult - to be sufficiently slow as to back up your opponent but not lose the first place he himself needed as a 'must have'.

I would fully understand Mercedes actions if the result yesterday affected them i.e. they could lose the constructors or drivers titles. If that were the case then they would perhaps be entitled to issue team orders (after all not doing so has denied many a team the title in the past). But that was not the case. Instead you had a situation where they were artificially telling a driver that they would not allow him to race for the title that, like Nico, he had worked damned hard for. THAT Mercedes, is what I call unsporting behaviour.

I'll leave the last word to Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, who said that if he was in that situation as team boss he would not have interfered:

"With where they were at, it was just down to those guys, so it was only ever going to be that kind of battle between the two of them".

"Congratulations to Nico, he's driven a great season, he's a very worthy world champion but it was naive to think that there would be any different approach with what's at stake."

"He [Lewis] won the race as slowly as he could, it's only like in a football game where a team might protect from the opposition by kicking the ball around and not enabling them to get hold of the ball.

"There's only two drivers competing for the world championship, it was totally obvious that we was going to do that.

"He didn't do anything dirty, he didn't do anything against the rules and it would be unfair to criticise Lewis for the way that he drove."

Source: Autosport.
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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by zakblood »

one of the main reasons i don't no longer watch F1 any more, it's less to do about racing, and more about who's Ego is the biggest, and who has always the most money, kind of boring now while it used to be more fun imo, more like a monthly soap, which has put me right off
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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by Crossroads »

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Congratulations to Nico Rosberg. A deserved Formula 1 World Champion [&o].

Well since he carries a Finnish passport as well, I'll just add: Congrats Nico Rosberg [:)]
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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by Crossroads »

ORIGINAL: Crossroads

Well since he carries a Finnish passport as well, I'll just add: Congrats Nico Rosberg [:)]

I don't do much flag waving' myself, but this certainly calls for a little song

Nico Rosberg,Nico Rosberg!
Nico Rosberg,Nico Rosberg!
Nico Rosberg, Nico Rosberg!
Nico Rosberg, Nico Rosberg!
Nico Rosberg,Nico Rosberg!
Nico Rosberg,Nico Rosberg!

[8D]
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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by warspite1 »

ORIGINAL: Crossroads

ORIGINAL: Crossroads

Well since he carries a Finnish passport as well, I'll just add: Congrats Nico Rosberg [:)]

I don't do much flag waving' myself, but this certainly calls for a little song

Nico Rosberg,Nico Rosberg!
Nico Rosberg,Nico Rosberg!
Nico Rosberg, Nico Rosberg!
Nico Rosberg, Nico Rosberg!
Nico Rosberg,Nico Rosberg!
Nico Rosberg,Nico Rosberg!

[8D]
warspite1

Great song! - but I am struggling to learn the words! [;)]
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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by Crossroads »

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Great song! - but I am struggling to learn the words! [;)]


I know! But when you actually finally have them memorized, they sort of grow on you [:D]
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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by Gilmer »

Warspite, the other side of that coin was I saw a BBC online article that asked "Does Rosberg deserve the F1 championship?" and went into why he probably didn't deserve it.

The argument is not exactly opposite, but it does show how ludicrous people can be.
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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by warspite1 »

ORIGINAL: H Gilmer

Warspite, the other side of that coin was I saw a BBC online article that asked "Does Rosberg deserve the F1 championship?" and went into why he probably didn't deserve it.

The argument is not exactly opposite, but it does show how ludicrous people can be.
warspite1

Maybe there were two articles – there have been so many on the title decider, but the article I read on the BBC was entitled:

“Nico Rosberg is the 2016 Formula 1 world champion, but does he deserve it?”

This came to a different conclusion from the one you mention. There was:

- One “tough call, you could argue about it all night long”
- One “no, he’s not at the top level”
- One “yes, he’s proven his worth”

So having neatly given one of each, they then asked five more people, two ex-World Champions, one current driver and two commentators. ALL FIVE said yes, he deserved the title.

So the “professional” view (at least according to the BBC) is yes. The view of the general public is, as you would expect, more mixed. And yes, people can be ludicrous. These sorts of questions are designed to polarise opinion aren’t they and they simply invite the usual unthinking block-heads to spout their nonsense.

In their minds it’s quite simple; if you support Lewis you must hate Nico (and of course Nico does not deserve the championship), and if you hate Lewis then you support anyone but him (and the joy at Lewis’ failure this year is met with joy unbridled and bile spewed in equal measure). The merits of the debate of course get left behind in the morass of mindless, toxic filth and nonsense that spouts forth from both 'sides'.

It was the same in Nigel Mansell’s day. The number of people that hate Lewis (just as they did Nigel) is breathtaking. I thought it was something peculiar to this country but I always remember Alain Prost saying something similar about the French. Rene Arnoux, not half the driver Prost was, was popular, while the successful Prost was treated like a mad axe murderer in the eyes of the French public.

Nico is most definitely a worthy champ. There have been plenty of champions far less worthy than Nico Rosberg. Yes, we know he is not as good as Lewis, we know he struggles in the wet, we know that he won by 5 points when Lewis was robbed of at least 40 through no fault of his own, but that is not the point. That is not how the championship is determined. The World Championship is a marathon not a sprint.

With a few notable exceptions, Nico did what he had to do all season. He was under the most intense pressure - ridiculous amounts of pressure – knowing that against Lewis there would be no let up. The fact that he didn’t buckle under that pressure – when the easy thing to do would have been to chuck it into the wall – has to be applauded and seen for what it is. Some of his drives were superb – top drawer - and he was very consistent in qualifying to ensure he never had to do things the hard way on Sunday. To lose the lead he did in the middle of the season would have caused a lesser man to crumble – but Nico determinedly got on with his own job and delivered.


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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by Gilmer »

Good post. The what if games are prevalent in all sports. "What if so and so wasn't injured?" Well, he was and you lost. And guess what, we lost when another so and so was injured. It happens.

You saw the same article I saw. I guess I got wrapped up in how they measured everything. More wins. More this. More that. More breakdowns, obviously not Hamilton's fault.

In Nascar, which I don't watch (much), but there are a lot more wrecks and really good drivers get taken out regularly. It's an attrition game, more than anything else. 40 or so races and you're hoping you're not taken out in the ones where you aren't in front.

The rules are the rules, and you accept them before you go in. So, if you lose by the rules, it makes no sense to argue it. Of course, Hamilton never made these arguments. He understood as well as anyone he didn't win as the rules were stated.
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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by Poopyhead »

F1 as a business is about the Constructor's Championship. The viewers are about the Driver's Championship. The points' leader gets the title and he doesn't make one penny for this. The F1 drivers are like a squadron of Ace fighter pilots. Each would probably laugh at something as comparatively easy as say Astronaut training. So, once a year, someone gets to be Number One and the fans love it or not. I have immense respect for each of them. What happened to Bianchi should remind everyone that the sport is an incredible act of daring and bravery on every lap. At the risk of sounding like a Participation Award, I know that all the drivers are winners.
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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by Jagdtiger14 »

The points' leader gets the title and he doesn't make one penny for this.

Ahh...incorrect! It might very well be that Nico will not get one penny from the F1 organization itself, which frankly would be a pittance to what he will get now with endorsements, etc...

Becoming an F1 champ makes you rich...besides the incredible salary....which in Nico's case I'm sure will increase with his next contract coming up soon.












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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by british exil »

Becoming an F1 champ makes you rich...besides the incredible salary....which in Nico's case I'm sure will increase with his next contract coming up soon.


Not quite true, most F1 drivers in the top teams are already rich. Becoming the F1 champ is a bonus and makes one even more richer or makes the team richer as new sponsors become available.
How much money/sponsors can a driver bring to the team, is often a reason for earning a contract with a team.
Nico signed his new contract in the middle of the season, 22th July, for a £34 million two year contract (till 2018). http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1 ... ew-8469752
Nico was then leading the championship with 168 points and Hamilton was trailing with 167 points. 1 point behind.

There was no way the contact being signed as Nico already declared the 2016 F1 champion. And I doubt that Mercedes will be offering a new contract after the season, just to give Nico more money. Nico signed the deal and worked his way to the title.

BTW. just here a few numbers in the earnings. http://www.totalsportek.com/f1/formula- ... -salaries/

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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by Gilmer »

That news was shocking to me as I read it this morning, but he makes sense.
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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by Hotschi »

What a bombshell! Rosberg also mentioned his wive and young daughter as reason to quit F1 racing. Makes sense to me. For the fans or for anyone interested in Formula 1 racing, Rosberg is but one of many racers; for his daughter, Mum and Dad are the whole universe. Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats that.

Already speculations began all over the usual places who's going to replace him. Pascal Wehrlein, Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas are mentioned. But also Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso, which - I think - will be very very unlikely in both cases. Too expensive to get them out of their contracts.

And IF it will be Alonso, it would be bad news for Mercedes - Alonso has a reputation to always join the wrong team at the wrong time...
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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by warspite1 »

No idea why it took Wolff so long to come out and say this. From such an experienced management team - Wolff/Lauda/Lowe - the decision on how to manage the race was inexplicable and shockingly naive.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formul ... ently.html
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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by Crossroads »

ORIGINAL: warspite1

No idea why it took Wolff so long to come out and say this. From such an experienced management team - Wolff/Lauda/Lowe - the decision on how to manage the race was inexplicable and shockingly naive.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formul ... ently.html

Or maybe he just realised they are now left with Hamilton [:D]

Seriously though, agree with the fact it was stupid to not allow them to race, as Merc already had the championships both nailed.
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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by warspite1 »

Probably speaking too soon [this sort of comment can always come back to bit one on the bum] but I can't help thinking that Mercedes are making a mistake with Bottas.... and as for Massa's return
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RE: New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

Post by Gilmer »

Hi Warspite, I'm looking for these two news bits. I am not questioning you, just would like to read more about them.
"Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit" John III Sobieski as he entered Vienna on 9/12/1683. "I came, I saw, God conquered."
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