Rosberg disappointed he “messed up”

2014 Russian Grand Prix

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Nico Rosberg said he was disappointed in himself for spoiling his race at the first corner in Russia.

Rosberg locked his tyres heavily and ran wide at the first corner, forcing him to pit for tyres at the end of the first lap. But he was able to regain second place having completed the rest of the race without a further pit stop – and helped Mercedes secure the constructors’ championship.

“It was a great strategy from the team,” said Rosberg. “The thing is that our car is just unbelievable, it’s so good.”

“Everybody has done such a good job building this car and that’s why half of me is extremely disappointed that I messed up, but the other half I’m really happy because team deserves it so much and that’s, for them, this is the most important title of the year, the constructors’ championship. So that’s why I can even smile a bit because I’m happy for everybody to have achieved that.”

Race winner Lewis Hamilton added he was proud to drive for the newly-crowned champions.

“Obviously Nico did a great job to recover from his mistake earlier on today,” he said. “But the car was performing really well, we did a great job as a team.”

“It’s history for us, I feel very proud to be a part of it. Me, Nico and all the team members to get the first constructors’ championship for Mercedes-Benz is amazing and so it’s a beautiful day.”

2014 Russian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    45 comments on “Rosberg disappointed he “messed up””

    1. Why, it’s not like he would’ve finished any higher?

      1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
        12th October 2014, 14:28

        @xtwl this

      2. I think this was very important race. 14 points is crucial mark because in last race beyond that point you depend on another driver beating your teammate.

        So far this season Mercedes have held 4 reliability issues in race. 2 for each. Hamilton also had crash related retirement at Spa. 2 qualifying reliability issues for Hamilton.

        But whenever they have got error free qualifying and technical issues in race they got 1-2.

        So probability of 1-2 finish in last 3 races is high.

        If Hamilton beats Rosberg even in one of three races. Rosberg depends on 3rd driver to beat Hamilton if he wants title.

        1. ‘no’ technical isssues.

          And also if Hamilton gets DNF in one of next 2 races he will still be in striking distance but ot could be disaster for Rosberg

          BTW if Hamilton gets 9 points in last 3 races Ricciardo is out. Not much surprise there

      3. @xtwl
        Rosberg had plenty of pace in this race. Had he made the move stick, good chance that he would’ve won.

        1. @kingshark I think a) Hamilton cruised almost the entire second stint and b) that would be a first time this season, so all the more unlikely to happen I think.

          1. @xtwl
            Rosberg beat Hamilton on merit in Austria and kept him behind for some 30 laps in the final stint. No reason to believe why he wouldn’t be able to do it here.

      4. I agree. In my opinion, Rossberg made the same mistake in the race that Bottas made in Q3: He outdrove the car. Had either braked a bit earlier, they would have remained on the track but not been fast enough to accomplish the desired result.

    2. You are an average driver at best Ms.Britney.

    3. If this guy is world champion because of another Lewis’ retirement…I’m going to cry.

    4. “The thing is that our car is just unbelievable, it’s so good.”

      you can say that again. Very much true.

      A bit of a shame that move went wrong and from there on it was never a doubt Hamilton would win. But kudos for having a go at it, and actually we might have had more fun watching if all the action with Rosberg and Massa passing cars would have been actually shown by FOM instead of panning shots of the track.

      1. They showed pretty much all of the drive-by’s from Rosberg and Massa. Think you don’t remember them because there just wasn’t anything memorable in them. Looked pretty much like them driving past a backmarker. Even when they came up to the midfielders these were told not to fight them.

        Only Perez decided he’d rather risk messing up his own race and not let Massa past. He let Rosberg just simply drive past him though.

      2. Yes, but Nico also passed a lot of the top drivers when they were in the pits.

      3. @bascb “But kudos for having a go at it”

        I don’t agree. He threw a race out of the window and was lucky to get back to second so easily. He did what Lewis did at Fuji 2008… outbraked himself, outbraked his emotions, his reasoning, and lost it. With so few rounds left in the calendar, he might have just lost the world championship with that… he had the chance to put on a fight, and he gave Lewis the victory seconds after the start.

        (Not to mention that if we had real tracks, not what we have these days, he’d have left the track on turn 1, lap 1, and retired with his car stuck on the gravel. But that’s another rant :) )

        1. I think Rosberg knew fully well, that he wouldn’t have much of a chance once the race got going. Lewis was as fast or rather a bit faster most of the weekend, and Mercedes would be unlikely to allow him to have a try on strategy, as first pick goes to the guy in front.
          Just look how most of the races where we had such a situation fell out – even if the team told one of them to have a go at the end, it didn’t work, apart from what Hamilton pulled off in Japan, passing Rosberg right after the pitstops, but then Hamilton was clearly the faster man on track.
          I agree on having real and challenging tracks with a nice flow to them @fer-no65

      4. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
        12th October 2014, 18:35

        @bascb – I can’t think Williams would have been too chuffed with that result. Bottas was not able to close on Rosberg despite having infinitely newer tyres, tyres unquestionably stressed by Nico having to chase and pass the lower placed drivers in the opening stages. Valtteri might have found himself 0.077 up on Hamilton’s pole lap, but he didn’t stand a chance against the Mercedes’ high fuel pace, which is where they extend their advantage to well over a second a lap at most tracks.

        1. Indeed. I fear that had Hamilton seen the need to go faster, he could easily have lapped all but the top 3 today and still done it in a 1 stopper @william-brierty

          1. Indeed @bascb, much like the Singapore GP where he pulled out a 26sec gap when required.

    5. His pace was good, it could have a much more exciting GP if he’d been there all the way.

      1. Maybe. He had been faster on the prime tyre in practice, Lewis was faster on the option. But given Lewis was 20 s ahead he wasn’t really pushing anymore.

    6. At the start of the season I was feeling for Rosberg and I preferred him for a champion (mildly, not that I care much). He was with the team through trying times, stood up to the PR sensation Schumacher, and now, when the fruits of long development are within his reach, the team hires another PR wonder (and a great driver when he is on it) Hamilton.
      However, as the season progressed I started to feel that Hamilton does truly deserve the title. He ended up on the top most of the time they went head-to-head and Rosberg (supposedly the brain in the partnership) seems to lose it when it counts most.
      I think Rosberg is among the best of the current generation (he is not far behind Hamilton, and matches him on a good day), which throws a new light on his years with Schumacher. But still there is a visible difference in level.

    7. Rosberg did already recover from a long streak in the season where Lewis had a clear upper hand on results and pace and focus.
      For that reason I don’t see why He couldn’t do that again, but He surely is running out of time. I hope it’s the last mistake of his, because I want this championship really down to the wire (<14 point gap at Abu Double).

      1. I’m a bit of the opposite. At the start of the season I thought Rosberg would be like Barrichello, than he started delivering when it mattered, took the lead for a lot of races; but recently he has been pretty slow and making mistakes, so, for me, he’s back in Barrichello-class.

        1. That’s precisely my point. Average drivers can’t react at all, it’s a bit of a constant when it comes to them. They can find themselves in a strong position out of the blue, like Barrichello or Webber or even Irvine have been, and enjoy that for a while, but fail to deliver when the pressure rises up.

          I think Rosberg has already overcome that kind of a turning point once, so clearly He has it in him. Doesn’t mean it’ll happen ofc.

          1. Agree with this analysis 100%

      2. I don’t remember him having a run ? What races do you mean ?

        1. Sorry I thought you meant Rosberg had the run and didn’t remember him winning any races in a row.

        2. @f190
          Monaco until Germany. He had a run of good races.

      3. Rosberg has only won 4 races this season and of those only the one in Austria was really on merit.

        That hardly qualifies as overcoming a turning point. Sounds more like the odd scraps that were left by Hamilton. Mostly when Hamilton wasn’t even competing.

    8. Matthew Coyne
      12th October 2014, 15:08

      I’d class this as equal to one of the two bad qualifyings Lewis has had which were due to reliability issues rather than driver error but still – Rosberg just needs another DNF and another back of the grid / pit lane start to equal things out in the reliability stakes with Lewis now.

      When you put that into perspective it shows just how well Lewis has done this season to be 17 points ahead after the extra DNF (likely 25 or 18 points lost) and the back of the grid start (likely 25 or 18 points lost) – if reliability was equal then the gap would be much bigger.

      The only way Rosberg will win is through reliability issues on Lewis’s side, I hope it does not come down to that. I think he had a chance up until Spa, after that Lewis has kicked up a few gears and Rosberg appears to have no answer to him.

      Even if he had not made the mistake today I would have been surprised if he had won in the end, Lewis has had the measure of him all weekend bar 1 practice session which is normally how the weekends go at the moment and overtaking into T2 was very possible.

    9. Well at least this could put an end to calling Rosberg the cooler and more rational driver! Not that it will of course, some preconceptions stay put whatever the evidence. Fact is he was impetuous. And actually I quite admired the attempt, just a bit less heavy on the pace and braking and he might have done it. But still, it also suggested a lack of confidence in being quicker than Hamilton over the course of the race.

      1. “And actually I quite admired the attempt, just a bit less heavy on the pace and braking and he might have done it. But still, it also suggested a lack of confidence in being quicker than Hamilton over the course of the race.”

        I think you’re perfectly right and, also, it just shows how much he needs for himself to pass Lewis on track, to “unblock that achievement”.
        He nearly done that in BAH, HUN and now in RUS, but now it must feel frustrating not to have that confidence boost in the bag. I think it’s a about that when it comes to its own comparison to Lewis, way more than it’s about pace.

      2. Not really sure what you mean. It wasn’t a reckless lunge, it was a mistake by Rosberg you can see from onboard he has both hands off the wheel changing settings, and completely missed the breaking point. It just lucky he wasn’t directly behind Hamiltion ruining both the races.

        1. a former driver said that he could be tightening his seatbelts during that overtaking. if you can see from his other onboard races, his seems to be checking his seatbelts quite a lot. could be a habit

      3. Indeed, they keep saying how Hamilton has poor results mixed with good results while Rosberg is Mr consistency, but Rosberg really made a ton of mistakes all through the season.

        It started with poor qualifying in Australia and Malaysia (which he blamed on the weather), a poor start in Bahrain, a spin in qualifying for China, poor qualifying (for both this time) in Austria, a “spin” during qualifying in Monaco, a tyre strategy blunder in Silverstone (masked by a DNF), a whole slew of mistakes in Hungary, ramming his team mate in Spa, completely missing the chicane in Monza twice and now he missed the first corner again.

        There is barely a race where he didn’t make some (significant) mistake.

        Hamilton had a spin in Austria qualifying and a stupidly aborted qualy lap in Silverstone (which he quickly corrected for on track anyway). That’s it. The 3 DNF’s weren’t his fault and the Germany and Hungary technical issues in qualifying neither.

    10. Got out of jail free. If Pirelli had brought the right tyres he’d have been properly punished and might have been a bit more interesting to watch. Lucky boy, Nico.

    11. Rosberg seems to be getting more & more desperate… ever since Hungary, after being unable to catch Hamilton. He tried a desperate (& quite ridiculous, IMO) overtake at Spa that cost the team a sure 1-2, tried desperately to keep a hard charging Hamilton behind at Monza and outbraked himself on two occasions, squandering a decent lead. He sounded quite rattled after losing out on pole in Singapore, but sadly his electrical issues & subsequent DNF robbed him of a chance to put up any kind of fight. Suzuka saw him fight back with an emphatic pole, but his wet weather prowess was nowhere near Hamilton’s on a day he himself admits they had similar setups. Today he had a good chance to claw some points back, but looked quite confused pawing at his steering wheel instead of braking in time to make the turn & take the position. He’s showing that he’s not an instinctive racer. He’s thinking too much, & now he’s in his own head. There was no need to throw everything at Hamilton at the first real corner of the race… unless you’re desperate… & sadly, it appears he is. Desperation isn’t doing him any favors though. It must suck to watch Hamilton slowly disappearing into the distance, but there are three races left. Let’s hope he puts up a good fight & stops cracking under pressure.

      1. Yesterday he said he don’t have the pace to beat Hamilton and would go for it at the start.
        That’s exactly what he did today.

        He thought it right but did it wrong.
        If hadn’t tried it, he would be 2nd, thinking that he should had tried at the start.
        At least this doubt he won’t have.

    12. From the onboard camera in NR’s car, at the start, as he was side by side with Lewis, we can see he making adjustments in the steering wheel, as the pair approaches the first corner. A fraction of a second before he has the massive lock up, it looks like he made a mental mistake and tries to up shift and immediately uses the left hand to downshift. Too late, as he could not scrub speed fast enough. There goes his chances of putting a fight.

      When the feud between the two Mercedes drivers was at its peak, we heard from the Hamilton camp that they would no longer share setup data. Don’t know if true or not, but, in Suzuka, it looked like Lewis had a much better setup than Nico. From the pictures, it looks like Lewis had a tad more rear wing.

      So, all in all, in my view, not only Lewis is a much better driver than Nico, especially under high pressure, but he does a better job of setting up the car, as well. Lack of access to Lewis setup data seems to be hurting Nico, if true.

      1. Matthew Coyne
        12th October 2014, 16:30

        That isn’t true – They still have their open policy on setup and telemetry data share, That is a Mercedes policy and not a driver choice.

        What was hinted at in interviews though with Lewis after Spa is that they would not be showing all their cards in practice, all the data that is shown is shared but If for example Lewis has a line that he knows will give him 0.1s through T3 or he has a specific element of his setup that he knows is really valuable he doesn’t use that until Q3 when it is too late for Nico to pick up on it and use that to his advantage.

        1. I think Toto said they would not accept behavior like that, because it hurts the team.

          Rosberg started aborting flying laps to mask any performance gains he’d found and then Hamilton started doing the same. Toto put a stop to that.

      2. Hamilton and Rosberg had same set up in Suzuka.

      3. “Lewis is a much better driver than Nico”
        Bold statement…

        1. @overwatch
          Not really. It’s a clear fact to be honest.

          1. Matthew Coyne
            13th October 2014, 16:14

            Totally agree.

            9 wins to 4 says it all and Rosberg has converted only 2 of his 8 pole positions into a race victory, one of which was Monaco. 2 of them you can put down to reliability issues (Canada and Silverstone) but even then his conversion is dire.

            Compare that to Lewis has converted every pole but Australia which was a car failure and it really shows the difference.

            I strongly believe Lewis would have this championship all but wrapped up by now if it wasn’t for the reliability woes he has suffered compared to Rosberg. Rosberg still has 1 less DNF and 1 less back of the grid/pit lane start than Lewis if you count Russia as 1.

            The ONLY way Rosberg will win is through luck with reliability and if it comes down to something ridiculous like a no fault breakdown for Lewis in Abu Dhabi it will really be a disgrace to the sport.

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