F1 news - Nico Rosberg retires

gary · #1 03-12-2016, 07:53 AM

Story here -
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/motorspo...02-gt369u.html

glend (Glen) · #2 03-12-2016, 08:13 AM

Smart move, he seems to be a nice guy with his head on straight, not like many of the F1 circus drivers. The rule/car changes for 2017 will likely erode or destroy Mercedes advantage that got him the championship this year. And he does not have to see Lewis Hamilton again.

astroron (Ron) · #3 03-12-2016, 11:07 AM

Nothing is better than leaving on your own terms.
Bon Voyage.

Cheers

clive milne · #4 03-12-2016, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glend

Smart move, he seems to be a nice guy with his head on straight, not like many of the F1 circus drivers. The rule/car changes for 2017 will likely erode or destroy Mercedes advantage that got him the championship this year. And he does not have to see Lewis Hamilton again.

Yep... he got out in the Nic-o time.

torana68 (Roger) · #5 03-12-2016, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glend

................And he does not have to see Lewis Hamilton again.

probably a big part of it .....hes beaten him and won the Championship, time to relax.

astroron (Ron) · #6 03-12-2016, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by torana68

probably a big part of it .....hes beaten him and won the Championship, time to relax.

Yes it must just peeve you of being beaten by your team mate for the last eighteen years.

(That's how long they have been racing together),and the first time Rosberg has beaten him in a championship of any sort.
He is getting out while the going is good.

Don't blame either.

Cheers

OzEclipse (Joe Cali) · #7 04-12-2016, 09:59 AM

Echoes of the past. James Hunt retired immediately after the end of the 1976 season in which he won his first and only F1 drivers championship against rival Niki Lauda. Good on him for going out on his own terms.
Joe

glend (Glen) · #8 04-12-2016, 10:33 AM

It did not take Lewis Hamilton long to "put the boot in" to Rosberg, apparently implying in interviews that it was Nico's only chance to beat him this year because of the "car issues" he (Hamilton) faced, which he has previously discussed as some sort of conspiracy to denigh him the championship.

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/242...a-1personality.

Interestingly Vettel also had a big attitude problem several years ago, and a period in the wildness of a lower powered car seems to have worked wonders on his personality. Perhaps Hamilton needs to find himself in a Sauba or a lower ranked car to really get some sort of benchmark on his performance, and ulimately his status as a champion. Having the best car for years on end does not give you an objective view of your skills. Perhaps Verstappen is the guy to put Hamilton in his place, another brash egocentric personality.

Hamilton's racing style, and Vertappen's, relies heavily on use of all the wide runoff areas, effectively racing off the track. Penalites for using it are pretty weak. The best leveler might be to go back to just a couple of rows of Armco barrier right next to the track surface; that would stop that off track racing pretty quick.

gary · #9 04-12-2016, 11:33 AM

Nico and Lewis both drove phenomenally well this year.

The differences in their qualifying times were often measured only in
hundredths and sometimes only thousandths of a second.

However, Mercedes engine dominance in 2016 was such that I suspect if
Lewis and Nico had swapped their seats with Daniel and Max, that
Mercedes would still have ended-up one-two.

It is a hypothetical we will never know.

There won't be too many drivers that would not covet Nico's seat for the
2017 season.

There will probably be thousands of fans who wish they could swap their
lounge chairs and stadium seats for Nico's seat for the chance of being
a F1 champion as well.

Nico's announcement after the end of the season must have left many
drivers kicking themselves that they are locked into contacts
with other teams.

However, even for a driver with a firm multi-year contact, teams sometimes
are willing to break the contact in lieu of a multi-million dollar
cash settlement.

But the most likely choice for Mercedes will probably be Pascal Wehrlein.

He has been the Mercedes reserve driver who they have had on loan to
Manor. Given the Mercedes car has been so good, the team may well
figure they could still end up one-two next year with a younger,
talented enough driver given a chance at the wheel.

And Werhlein happens to be German.

The controversial thing - that would never happen - would be to punish Lewis
for ignoring the team, sack him, pay-out Red Bull for Ricciardo and
Verstappen and put them in the Mercedes next year. Now that would
make for an even bigger shock.

glend (Glen) · #10 04-12-2016, 11:46 AM

I believe Mercedes would try to buy out Vettel before the rookie. Mercedes has the money to payout Vettel's Ferarri contract, and he is German. Odds of a champion coming out of those two (Hamilton and Vettel), would be pretty good, assuming their new car still has an advantage.

clive milne · #11 04-12-2016, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gary

The controversial thing - that would never happen - would be to punish Lewis
for ignoring the team, sack him, pay-out Red Bull for Ricciardo and
Verstappen and put them in the Mercedes next year. Now that would
make for an even bigger shock.

I could quite easily see Merc doing a swapsy ...Hamilton for Alonso or Vettel... then trying to poach Verstappen as a bit of a payback for the psychological arrows Horner has fired at Toto over the season.

Irrespective of his talent, Lewis has not behaved (neither on nor off the track) with much grace of late,
to the extent that he might now be viewed as toxic to Merc's brand image.
At the end of the day, their purpose being on the grid is to help the parent company sell cars and not to enable prima-donnas to spray Moet every other week.

I think if it has crossed Ricciardo's mind (to move to Merc) it will be to avoid being "Webbered" by Helmet Marco, et al) The Red Bull seat is otherwise going to be just as sought after as Nico's seat in 2017, I suspect.

My money is on Max to win the WDC next year, not because he is better than RIC... But it is pretty clear which driver the team (and parent company) are more emotionally invested in.

At any rate, I suspect that 2017 is going to see a change for the better in F1.

gary · #12 04-12-2016, 12:14 PM

Certainly Mercedes will be weighing up its options very carefully on
who should replace Nico.

The moment that Nico resigned, they did not automatically promote
Wehrlein.

Alonso would no doubt be hoping for the spot.

Vettel had the childhood dream of driving and winning with Ferrari.
Whether just having driven for them is enough to get that out of his
system and the lure of being on top again is enough to make him switch,
time will tell.

Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda will be deliberating hard.

Do you buy-out, say, Bottas, by offering Williams a stack of cash and
putting Wehrlein into the William's seat?

Do you get Vettel, Raikkonen or Alonso?

Or will they end up doing the rounds and still gamble on Wehrlein
being up to the job?

Time will tell.

gary · #13 04-12-2016, 12:19 PM

Ricciardo and Verstappen interview each other about F1 2016 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__v4hFpUUgA

Nice collection of trophies!

astroron (Ron) · #14 04-12-2016, 02:13 PM

People don't watch F1 to watch drivers just drive of into the distance,aka with Vettal for four years with Red Bull, and previously Ferrari with Shoemaker.
At least with Hamilton and Rosberg they did race each other, even if they collided now and again,it made for exciting racing to watch.
Rosberg just wanted an easy ride to the championship,which he was given by Mercedes,then he still only just scraped in.
In the last race there was no way in the world that once Vettal had passed Verstappen he was going to pass Rosberg,he wanted Rosberg to win the championship over Hamilton,he was happy with a podium finish.
His season has been anything stirling, so was happy for what he got.
Mercedes are not going to punish Hamilton as he is their biggest draw card who wants to win races,not just have it handed to him on plate.
Next year is a new car,new tyres and new rules, so it should be a new ball game.
I just hope that what ever team comes up with the best package under the rules,doesn't have to put up with what Mercedes had to put up with for the
first two years of it's winning design.
Red Bull was a bloody disgrace,whinging and moaning because they had a crook car and wanted the rules changed to suit them.
In the years of Red Bull domination, that they won many races at the height of their success with highly questionable modifications to their cars,which eventually where banned.
Plus their chicanery in making sure Daniel stayed behind Vettal.
I bet they are peeved of that now they have a chance of a winning car the rules are changing again.

One question,what has Hamilton done off track that has brought Formula 1 into disrepute.?

Rosberg was and is No angel, even though he comes across as "Mr nice guy"
He is quite adept at dirty tricks as the next guy in making sure he has the winning hand, such as Monaco a couple of years ago in running of track to not allow Hamilton a pole position lap.
Anyway here's looking forward to 2017 and some interesting races with the wider tyres etc.
Happy 2017 everyone.

Cheers

astroron (Ron) · #15 04-12-2016, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glend

It did not take Lewis Hamilton long to "put the boot in" to Rosberg, apparently implying in interviews that it was Nico's only chance to beat him this year because of the "car issues" he (Hamilton) faced, which he has previously discussed as some sort of conspiracy to denigh him the championship.

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/242...a-1personality.

Interestingly Vettel also had a big attitude problem several years ago, and a period in the wildness of a lower powered car seems to have worked wonders on his personality. Perhaps Hamilton needs to find himself in a Sauba or a lower ranked car to really get some sort of benchmark on his performance, and ulimately his status as a champion. Having the best car for years on end does not give you an objective view of your skills. Perhaps Verstappen is the guy to put Hamilton in his place, another brash egocentric personality.

Hamilton's racing style, and Vertappen's, relies heavily on use of all the wide runoff areas, effectively racing off the track. Penalites for using it are pretty weak. The best leveler might be to go back to just a couple of rows of Armco barrier right next to the track surface; that would stop that off track racing pretty quick.

You obviously haven't kept up with the latest rules being brought in re going of track?
There will be more severe "Ripple strips" on the places where this is occurring, which I believe are called Sausage strips,they will give the car and the suspension a thorough working over if you transgress, so another barrier to stop of track excursions.
Re Rosberg beating Hamilton, take the four engine failures away,the grid positions loss because of running out of engines,while Nico sailed of into the distance with no one else to challenge him as the other teams just didn't have the pace for nearly the whole of the season.
Hamilton still caught him up and passed him , and eventually only lost by 5 points, says it all.
Rosberg would not beat Hamilton 95% of the time in a fair race.
He has been chasing Hamilton for 18 years and now he has won a championship has called it a day.
Enjoy your retirement Nico.

Cheers

clive milne · #16 04-12-2016, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gary

Ricciardo and Verstappen interview each other about F1 2016 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__v4hFpUUgA

Nice collection of trophies!

What is really interesting about this interview is how well they get on together.

It is in stark contrast to when Carlos and Max were in the same team, which was a bit like trying to mix oil and water with an undercurrent of simmering mutual hostility.

I thought Sainz was good enough to at least earn Verstappen's respect on the track (unlike Kvyat).

Kunama · #17 04-12-2016, 07:03 PM

Rosberg and Hamilton used identical engines, it is hardly Rosberg's fault if Hamilton's driving style destroys engines......

clive milne · #18 04-12-2016, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kunama

Rosberg and Hamilton used identical engines, it is hardly Rosberg's fault if Hamilton's driving style destroys engines......

Seriously Matt...?

clive milne · #19 05-12-2016, 09:37 AM

It's an interesting question though, if Mercedes could wave a magic wand and make all the contracts disappear, who would you choose to partner Hamilton. My pick would be Ricciardo. I can't think of anyone else other than maybe JB that is world champion material and easy going enough to live with Lewis and be happy about it.

Who ever it is, they better be mentally tough. Judging by Hamilton's recent comments, he looks like a heavy weight boxer that has just lost a title fight by means of a cheeky squirrel grip, only to have his nose rubbed in it further by his opponent throwing the belt in to the crowd, to be denied a rematch. Whoever steps in to the ring next year better be under no illusions that a 'Hamilton scorned' will be out to nail his hide to the wall.

And that teases a second question, who would be your dream driver pairing?

Daniel & Alonso?

clive milne · #20 05-12-2016, 09:46 AM

One pairing you probably will never see is Seb & Lewis..

When Seb was winning at Red Bull, Lewis approached Horner (for Webber's seat). Red Bull declined because they knew that Vettel would not tolerate Hamilton being in the same team. Horner was later to reveal that he spent some time trying to convince Lewis to move to Mercedes in order to weaken McLaren.