Abu Dhabi GP Debrief: Rosberg Withstands Hamilton Chicanery to Take the Title

[stbreaker]

It's a little funny how offended some people are that Lewis tried everything in his power to win the championship. Lewis really couldn't count on Nico breaking down (like so many of Hamilton's MGU units this season) so he had to try to use the only tool he had left available - the other cars.

Prost is always praised for knowing exactly what he needed to accomplish. Lewis knew he needed Nico to finish off the podium to have a shot, so backing him up to the field was rather "professorial" if you will. Honestly, the days of "go full out all the time" have been over for quite a while now and have largely been replaced with "go as slowly as you can while still winning the race." Lewis did just that. I expect any other driver in a similar situation would have tried to do the same - and if they didn't we would be sitting here criticizing them for not doing everything in their power to win.

 

[JoeAMGC63]

"One thing i really don't understand is why people were complaining about the fact the Hamilton was slowing Rosberg down, has no one heard of the concept 'overtaking' or is it just me? In my eyes Rosberg was using his own inability to pass as an excuse to whine to the team about the fact that Hamilton was slow"

Nico didn't need to overtake Hamilton so why take the risk?

It wasn't about overtaking. It was about being fed to the wolves on Rosberg's tail. That was Hamilton's only desire, besides to get another win.

 

[Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham]

It wasn't about overtaking. It was about being fed to the wolves on Rosberg's tail. That was Hamilton's only desire, besides to get another win.

Eh, I don't think he was too bothered in the end. You could hear it on the radio

 

[Benutzername]

Why are we comparing what Hamilton and Senna would have done?

Hamilton is not Senna.

Ah, be glad you never visited the german mst-forum. Its always the same there, sometimes i think its funny, more and more often its sad.

There is one guy who always makes dozens of comparisons to different eras and drivers in discussions. Endless postings.
Fun but annoying at the same time.

Germans might can confirm

 

[Andrew Harper]

Nice write up @Ben Stevens great stuff and the piece on Massa and Button was perfect.

I'm not against what Lewis did on track (he's a superb racing driver) but I get a bit tired of his rubbish off it. The sign of a true champion is he/she is ecstatic in victory but also gracious in defeat. I know it's not a popularity contest but stop behaving like a ten year old. Nico deserved the championship, he fought hard for it all year and he made a pass on one of the hardest racers in Verstappen to make sure he got that second place.

Good luck to Massa and Button, all the best for the future. I think Felipe may have possibly done one season too many but I think the desire in Jenson was still there. His frustration in being in a tough car for the last few years maybe just destroyed his desire to carry on and I can understand that. Will be interesting to see what Alonso does if next years car is awful as well. Wishing the best of luck to the both of them

 

[Boby Kim]

Okay..here is the truth: after the race i called Hamilton and asked him why he was so slow. He just answered: "to piss off RD peeps"

 

[kmanitou81]

Lewis looked super lame, but if it had worked somehow, or if Nico had tried to overtake and Lewis had punted him off, he'd have one more championship in his bag, which is all that matters. I was not going to be his fan either way, so might as well take that 1% chance that driving like a cuck would give him another title. Not to mention his attitude after the race.

A bum with bling is still a bum. It's easy to be classy when everything goes your way. That's not the real test, though.

Gotta laugh at all the F1 fans who were so happy to have an "exciting" finish. Maybe FOM should introduce rubberbanding next year. If you're ahead by more than 10 seconds at one point during the race, you lose 100HP.

 

[ionONE1]

Even with Hamilton slowing down so much, the other guys were still unable to follow/overtake and its going to be worse next year?!
The last 5-6 races were boring altogether (besides some Verstappen action, drama - rain in Brasil)

Someone on reddit analysed each period of f1 and the merc team is the most dominant force in f1 history (if you thought Schumacher was bad ... this is a new level)

If we compare the GP in Melbourne to Abu Dhabi, the gap between between Merc and Ferrari/RedBull didnt close at all sadly.
___
I had the chance to watch some GP2 action over the past weekend on sky, its much more exciting.
List of all feederseries + replay www.reddit.com/r/F1FeederSeries/wiki/2016racereplays

 

[Knoxstar]

@k_badam & Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham

It's a matter of being fair or not, you are racing to go fast...
In Interlagos Lewis was wearing "The Senna Colors" on his Helmet, does Ayrton would have done something like this...?

Stan.

In a word? "Yes"

 

[Chris]

I hope I'm not the only one who recognises the biggest achievement that took place on Sunday was Force India getting fourth in the WCC.

For £ spent per point, they are far and away the best team in Formula One. Unbelievable effort from them! I love that team

As for Hamilton tactics, I've already given my thoughts on that.

 

[Stanislas]

@ Those who agrees on Lewis behavior

In F1,"winning" is the fact of being the best, the fastest... and not of giving troubles to the others!
If they were playing Tennis, you would have been applauding/hoping a double fault of Nico...

P.S.: I appriciate Lewis Hamilton a lot, but this comportment is not worthy of him

 

[Deleted member 130869]

I don't understand Red Bull pitting Ricciardo 10-12 laps too early and removing him from contention. It's become quite clear Verstappen is their favorite and it can cement a move from RBR to Ferrari in 2018. Had Ricciardo been in the mix, Nico's situation would have been more complicated.

Has any former F1 driver received such emotional or extensive retirement tributes as Massa? Not just the whole paddock at Interlagos but the continuing greeting and acknowledgment from his peers and other teams. I find it quite amazing and extremely nice to see as well.

 

[Chris]

Oh, one other thing I wanted to mention is this:

People who claim that Rosberg's championship was by fluke, or not that he's not deserving of it because of the reliability problems that Hamilton had is completely wrong. You do not win the championship by fluke. It's designed to reduce the effect of outliers that may influence the result. You have 21 races to determine who is the best.

It's the same in the NBA Playoffs. No team wins a series by fluke. In a best of 7 series, the best team will win. If there were only one race in an F1 season, then sure, you could say that Driver X won by fluke, but over the course of 21, the best wins.

Sure, Hamilton's championship was greatly impacted by reliability issues (you can read a great article about that HERE) but you cannot take that away from Rosberg as he can only perform to what's placed in front of him.

It's absurd to say he doesn't deserve it, and this is coming from a Hamilton fan, so much so that I actively hope for a car failure on Rosberg's side, lol, but those who try to diminish what he's achieved are just insane.

 

[InsaneOzzie]

I'm happy for Rosberg he deserved the WDC after a year of working hard to achieve that goal.

Hamilton on the other hand has dug himself a hole, his accusation that he was being sabotaged by his team has left a bad taste with Mercedes. He is now in deep doodoo due to his actions on Sunday, read about it HERE things could go very bad for the Brit and his 50 Million contract.

Personally I think he has behaved like a pre-madonna all season, sure he's a talented driver, can't take that away from him, but he's not the only one. If the mercs had been BOPed in the interest of parity & a closer contest, things would of been very different.

As others have stated in this thread, and I agree totally, the new regs in 2017 will create even more of a procession than 2016 was, not looking forward to it at all.

Cheers

 

[kmanitou81]

In his pre-Madonna days, Lewis Hamilton was an arrogant and proud F1 competitor, so much so in fact that some would have called him petulant had they dared. With the years came the madness, the growing pain of being misunderstood, and so the idea of undergoing a tragic operation occured.

Now a perfect living reproduction of Madonna after several surgeries and millions of pounds in treatments and various exotic cremes, Lewis "Madonna" Hamilton lives with his latino loverboy far from the commotion of professional racing. He is set to go on tour at the end of the year to support his first album, Lewis: From Pre-Madonna to Prima Donna.

 

[Christian Moreau]

I hope I'm not the only one who recognises the biggest achievement that took place on Sunday was Force India getting fourth in the WCC.

For £ spent per point, they are far and away the best team in Formula One. Unbelievable effort from them! I love that team

As for Hamilton tactics, I've already given my thoughts on that.

They've been my favorite team since McLaren went downhill in 2013. I can't wait to see what they can do with Perez and Ocon next year, if they can get some good improvements going in the off-season.

 

[Boby Kim]

My two cents: advertisement told by the team. Its all about money. Has nothing to do with either Hamilton or Rosberg. Teamorders

 

[fortyfivekev]

I am happy with the outcome and also with the way that Lewis drove.

Nico drove a good season and deserves the title at least as much as many champions from the past (his own dad for one). Lewis coming second is as much to do with his own bad starts and other issues at the beginning of the season as it is any mechanical failures.

Lewis' tactics were perfectly okay. If he had slowed down further and blocked Nico then that would be unacceptable. Interesting to see Jorge Lorenzo interviewed after the race as he had tried the same tactic in 2013 in MotoGP also without success. There is nothing new in doing that.
Lewis wouldn't have driven like that if a driver from another team had a shot at the title but Mercedes were always going to win so why not give it a try.

It was certainly the most tense race I can remember in 40 years of watching F1 which can only be good for the sport. The only one that comes close is Senna vs. Prost at Suzuka in 1989.

 

[Stanislas]

@fortyfivekev
On the last laps, Martin Brundle reported that Lewis was 9 seconds slower than his own pole pace... unacceptable

 

[Jozsusz]

What Lewis Hamilton did was disgraceful. That was not racing. Period. And just to be clear I couldn't care less about Rosberg or any of those drivers to be perfectly honest.

One has to be a pretty biased not to see how wrong this sort of tactic is.

Additionally, don't they have any kind of leadership in that team?

I can't imagine anyone ignoring team orders - on a constant basis at that - from Todd, Brawn, Dennis, Head, Ligier and so on. Toto Wolff strikes me as a spineless type who pretends to talk a big game but is the first one out of the door if the opposition is not intimidated by his facade.

Dennis? Remember 2007? or 89?