After five consecutive race wins for his teammate, Nico Rosberg was in desperate need of a great performance in Brazil, and boy did he deliver.
It was only fitting that in a race where Mercedes locked-up the record for most points ever in a season, Rosberg turned in arguably the most dominant performance in a Mercedes AMG car all year. Topping the timesheets across every session of the weekend -- practice, qualifying and the race -- Rosberg not only reiterated just how far ahead of the other teams Mercedes are, he also provided a timely reminder that he personally has what it takes to bring the fight to Lewis Hamilton.
With that said, Mercedes weren't the only ones grabbing headlines in Interlagos, so read on for a round-up of all the big talking points to come from the 2014 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Hamilton spins, Rosberg wins to keep title hopes in sight
For a man who has had little go his way in recent times, Interlagos provided a significant boost for Nico Rosberg.
Besides his chart-topping pace throughout the weekend, it was his teammate who made a costly error for once. On lap 28 Hamilton lost control of his car trying to push a set of used mediums to the absolute limit, taking to the run-off of turn 4 -- a mistake that cost the Brit 7.9 seconds, and a very good chance to undercut Rosberg in his next pit-stop. With the pressure off, Rosberg was able to settle into race management mode and dictate the race, which he did superbly.
It really is a testament to just how 'on it' Hamilton is right now that he could lose nearly eight seconds to Rosberg, and still catch all the way up, as he nearly took the lead coming out of the pits on lap 52. Having said that, those lost seconds didn't necessarily constitute a lost win for the Brit. Rosberg didn't get a chance to really respond before Hamilton's spin led to him backing off, and the Pirellis clearly didn't have the life for the sustained pushing Hamilton needed. Furthermore, assuming the lost time would have brought Hamilton onto Rosberg's tail easier, the former would have had to deal with the increased tyre-wear resulting from sitting in Rosberg's turbulent air for even longer -- a problem exacerbated by the winding nature of the Autodromo Carlos Pace.
So in my book Rosberg deserves full credit for this race victory. Did Hamilton have a great shot at the win? Certainly, but as we saw in the latter stages where they were within one second of each other, Rosberg was up to the task of matching Hamilton's times. He made no mistakes, pushed when he needed to and adequately took care of his tyres. Hamilton was always up against it to secure the pass, and for once, he just couldn't find a solution.
Another race, another podium for Williams -- a fascinating case-study in the current financial landscape of Formula 1.
For all intents and purposes, Williams is a 'big team' in name only. Despite its storied history, it has never been a financial heavyweight on the same level as teams like Red Bull and Ferrari -- by F1 standards its budget of ~£105 million is quite middling, and yet despite this colossal disadvantage, what they have achieved this year has been nothing short of remarkable.
With one race to go in the 2014 season, Williams have a pole position and seven podiums to their name – that’s more of the former than Red Bull, and more of the latter than Ferrari and McLaren combined. In the constructor’s championship, they sit third on 254 points, 44 clear of Ferrari. Compare this to 2013, the team finished ninth in the constructor's championship, with a best result of eighth at the penultimate race in Austin – one of two points-scoring finishes all year.
Extrapolating F1Times' calculations from October to the present date, their budget has wrought them £413,386 per point, the cheapest of anyone save the record-breaking Mercedes AMG. In contrast McLaren -- another Mercedes customer whose budget is almost double Williams', has had to pay £1.18 million for each of theirs.
Full credit for this achievement has to go to Sir Frank Williams, Deputy-Principal Claire Williams, Technical Director Pat Symonds and the whole team back at the factory in Grove. It goes to show that spending exorbitantly is not a necessity to succeed in F1, and it gives us an idea of what everyone should reasonably expect for every team on the grid – the issue is to make sure that the reward matches the commitment, because right now, it requires an inordinate amount of risk.
Williams has built a highly sustainable business outside F1, but even they would feel the difference between third and say, sixth (a realistic possibility if teams like Ferrari, McLaren, Lotus and Force India improve), if that was where they ended up in 2015 -- teams with less favourable contracts (Lotus, Force India) even more so, and yet they are spending at a similar rate. Finding a way to share revenues so teams can attempt to compete, but don’t have to fear bankruptcy if they fail to do so should be the goal of F1’s power brokers, the problem is, will they find a solution before it’s too late?
Forget the Osbournes, when it comes to dysfunction, the F1 family takes the cake.
You get the sense the F1 team principals wouldn't be able to agree on what pizzas to order, let alone how to solve the sport's woes. Whether it’s the engine freeze, cost caps, revenue distribution or even the smaller teams’ very existence, each party seems to have a different take on the matter, and possesses an indifference to any viewpoint that does not fit theirs.
Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn alleged on Monday that teams like hers were the target of an attempt by F1’s kingpins to oust them from the sport, something she attributed to their proposed solutions to the smaller teams’ financial problems, such as running year-old chassis or engines.
As Jordan Adcock detailed over the weekend, it’s evident that F1 has reached a crisis point, and Kaltenborn's remarks certainly back that up. Clearly there has been a breakdown of trust between the teams, and they can’t be counted on to fix this themselves. Bernie Ecclestone should take it upon himself to set up independent arbitration, or allow the FIA to step in. To continue as we are now would be to slowly watch the life drain from the sport, because as it stands, a mere five teams starting on the 2015 grid is a very real possibility.
Does Rosberg have a chance in Abu Dhabi? Can Williams take their success into next year? How do we solve these inter-team squabbles? Sound off below.
