Rosberg denies holding up Hamilton

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Nico Rosberg says he didn’t delay Hamilton in a significant way in qualifying as they were not on hot laps at the time.

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Hamilton and Rosberg's spiky exchange (The Telegraph)

"It is not even a relevant discussion because we were both on slow-down laps at that point in time. And that was very, very clear."

CVC 'Don't Need And Don't Want' To Sell F1 Says Ecclestone (Forbes)

"The term of the (CVC) fund is 10 years with three one year extensions if consent is given by the majority of the investors. It appears that this has been given as Mr Ecclestone says 'I think they have got out of the window that they need to sell.'"

Q&A with Bernie Ecclestone (F1)

"(F1 is) sick for a start. We have lost audience and I want to know why. There are so many options people have these days for entertainment."

Ricciardo: RBR 'night and day' better (Autosport)

"It's still not perfect but we've made the best step we can ask for in a two-week period."

Vettel looking back to his best with Ferrari (Reuters)

"The nature of the track suits our car well and I expect nothing else than to be very strong tomorrow, but you never know about the conditions."

Honda halfway up a 'high mountain' (ESPN)

"When you down-tune your performance to achieve laps you can make easy and fast gains after in terms of lap time and this is why 1.6s (was found on Saturday)"

Verstappen: Rain offset brake issue (F1i)

"We still have to discover what the problem is because if we have this in the race tomorrow it will be very hard to manage."

Ayrton Senna Wins In Interlagos - 1993 Brazilian GP Highlights (F1 via YouTube)

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Comment of the day

Does Red Bull’s performance in qualifying bear out their complaints about Renault – or have they also solved some of their power unit problems this weekend?

Shows that Red Bull have a good chassis this year if they are within a second of the Mercedes in the wet. Looks like the majority of issues are indeed to do with Renault.
Thomas (@Tthwaite)

From the forum

Snapshot

Not content with competing in GP2, Formula Renault 3.5, Formula Three and GP3, Carlin has added an Indy Lights squad to its roster. They’re off to a successful start too, as Ed Jones won from pole position on their debut at St Petersburg yesterday.

He shared the front row of the grid with team mate Max Chilton but the former Marussia racer crashed out on the first lap. Carlin are expected to move up into IndyCar next season – this year’s championship begins at the track today and we’ll be following it on F1 Fanatic Live from 8pm UK time.

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On this day in F1

Former F1 driver Marc Gene, who now drives for Nissan’s World Endurance Championship team, turns 41 today.

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49 comments on “Rosberg denies holding up Hamilton”

  1. HAM caught ROS in sector 2 after going purple in sector 1, as I recall. Anyone else confirm that?

    1. Yes..he’s the only one on slow lap, not Hamilton.

    2. I suspect that if HAM was deliberately blocked, Mercedes will not take it lightly – could easily have cost them the podium.

      1. Sorry, I meant cost pole position

    3. Yes – Lewis explained to Brundle that he was using his recovery lap to explore the grip and test for the best line.

  2. He shared the front row of the grid with team mate Max Chilton but the former Marussia racer crashed out on the first lap.

    I guess he was too used to starting at the back at every race

    1. Easier to crash from the back than the front…

      Plus he set a pretty amazing record of consecutive finishes that lasted almost two years I believe.

      He’s not a great driver but don’t spout drivel.

      1. @julianwins
        I guess you were one of those voting for him in DotW every race? :D

  3. The faster CVC sell F1, the better. Formula One shouldn’t be run by people who don’t understand motor racing. If an extremely rich someone bought it who does understand racing, then it would be far better off.

  4. I still pretty irritated about how well things have worked out for Chilton after his utterly bland F1 performance. So many drivers I’d love to have an Indy Lights or LMP1 seat…

    1. pastaman (@)
      29th March 2015, 2:15

      Indy Lights is a pretty big step backward from F1…

      1. yea but the team plans to run indycar next year and Chilton will almost certainly be running in that car

  5. I hope these three make up the podium again. The last two press conferences with them in have been entertaining.

  6. “We have lost audience and I want to know why. There are so many options people have these days for entertainment.”

    It’s really exasperating to see people who are supposedly on their game in the business world fail to realise that the Internet age has splayed peoples attentions across an incredibly wide range of interests and that F1 has to compete for wallet share with all of them. There are not enough affluent upper middle class race fans in the world to sustain the sport and one more economic crisis could wipe it out entirely.

    As popular as F1 may be it does not have the cultural penetration of other sports and pastimes. It is first on the chopping block when money is tight and is easily dropped when its entertainment value begins to flag. This was the case for me and it’s coming up on 3 years since I’ve been to a race with Le Mans looking like my best option of going to see top level motor sport again.

    The premium pricing model has got to go. Offer better value for money and go for high volume both in ticket sales and viewing figures. Many of us have had to endure “structural reform” over the last half decade, it’s about time F1 did the same.

    1. @spawinte

      I have to agree 100%

      Today I will not get to watch the Malaysian F1GP on TV

      First time that’s happened to me ,

      I’ve been watching F1 since I can remember , heck Rene Arnoux was lapping in those days :)

      Now F1 in Australia will be 10 races on TV and the rest on Foxtel ,

      Foxtel here for me is $75 a month and $150 hardware and install.

      That’s a lot of coin for 10 races , I don’t watch other sports and very few other motorsports , ( a few V8 races , Bathurst etc)

      $900 for my first Foxtel year is not going to happen in my household ,

      That’s a lot of school shoes ,

      So unless someone helps me stream the race Then this is the first of half a season I will not be able to watch ,

      I have 4 kids , I can’t go hang at a pub with Foxtel

      I guess I was not a fanatic after all this time , I was just an F1 fan

      1. Couldn’t agree more! It’s pretty straight forward really. If you reduce free-to-air availability you reduce the number of people watching. That equals reduced popularity. Simple. And incredibly obvious. Why teams and sponsors think this is a good thing is a complete and utter mystery to me. I am an F1 fanatic and have watched every single race since the early 80’s on TV until yesterday, when I watched it on a free (low quality but stable) stream. I will not, under any circumstance, pay Foxtel a single cent to watch F1. For Channel TEN, “the (funeral) home of big event Motorsport”, to rip the guts out of free-to-air Motorsports coverage in Australia like this is absolutely disgraceful.

  7. petebaldwin (@)
    29th March 2015, 0:48

    Why are people talking about Rosberg holding up Hamilton? Hamilton was asked if he was held up and looked confused as to what was they meant…

    1. See below. According to the Independent report and elsewhere, it was Rosberg insisting on the topic.

    2. He gave the diplomatic answer. Last year he came under a lot of flack for crying to the press after events like Monaco and Spa, he’s probably just learned to keep his mouth shut. He knows the team see’s the data and he knows everyone is watching on TV, he’s probably learned he hasn’t anything to gain crying fowl and will earn a lot more respect not making a big deal out of it.

    3. He’s not a very good liar.

    4. When there isn’t much action of interest on track, people are prone to invent drama off it. See, for instance, the ludicrous tinfoil-hattery surrounding Alonso’s crash in testing.

  8. Just read a fuller report on Rosberg’s post-qualifying ‘interview’ of Hamilton. After Hamilton had played down the journalists probing about Rosberg blocking him, we get this:

    With the session winding down, Rosberg then appeared at the back of the room and resurrected the matter as he said: “Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG Petronas. “There are a lot of comments on Twitter saying Nico blocked you. Is that true, he blocked you on your second timed lap?”

    Again makes a defusing joke but, according to the report, Rosberg keeps insisting on discussing the subject.

    So basically: what is he on? It’s really bizarre behaviour. You can only presume it’s a desperate attempt to wind up Hamilton. But he seems this time to have missed the point that this time – unlike Monaco and Spa last year – he didn’t come out with an advantage. So why should Hamilton be bothered? Thinking about it, he’s been having a similar go at winding up Vettel over the garage visit this week. End result? Vettel in front of him on the grid and probably very eager to show Rosberg he’s in no position to patronise him this season.

    1. [EDIT] *Hamilton again makes a defusing joke…

    2. pastaman (@)
      29th March 2015, 2:19

      He probably wants to make sure the issue is crystal clear before the internet firestorm happens. Just look at a lot of the comments on this very site spewing hatred at Rosberg

    3. Interesting presser. Funny how Nico kept insisting that Lewis’ defusing joke was “not funny”, according to the article.

      Rosberg is providing some spice in pressers, even if it is through strange actions, responses, questions. I for one am enjoying the break from normal routine.

      Vettel and Rosberg in Australia were hilarious. Thinly veiled barbs overlayed with smiling humour, good to see and shows their passion I thought.

  9. Imagine the following:

    You know the owners of your place of work want to sell the company. Suddenly, your boss starts not only talking about your bosses selling, rumours appear about a potential buyer and on the same day an article on your company website appears where your boss explicitly states the core business of the company is in sad state.

    Bernie is at least losing his sense for shady business, as this is the most obvious attempt to lower the price of a ‘company’ in a long time.

  10. Rosberg is still spiralling out off control. He’s clueless, he tries too hard with sponsors and TV, this time he started answering the follow up before the main question, clearly sensitive subject. I would love that Nico would stop asking for coaching, stop trying to make people like him and just face that he’s alone in his corner, but at the moment he can only blame himself. Lewis on the other hand feels even more confortable with this car than the 2014 which is the right way to go as clearly cars have gotten better even if the scorching temps of Malaysia made the 2015 slower.

    1. I’ve just been surprised by Rosberg. I thought his best tactic this year would be to go quiet, just keep taking second place while Hamilton is on his roll from the end of last season, learn to cultivate silence and a bit of mystery, and wait for Hamilton to have some bad luck or get complacent, then maybe try a surprise wind up. Instead he seems to have decided on some kind of ‘joker with a cunning edge’ persona that’s clearly destined to complete failure.

  11. ColdFly F1 (@)
    29th March 2015, 2:10

    We have lost audience and I want to know why.

    glad you asked!
    1) racing in boring places (we want to see full grand stands, nostalgia, and racing awe);
    2) small grids (see 3)
    3) hard working teams forced into bankruptcy or take on pay drivers (F1 earnings should go to teams, not suits);
    4) FIA too busy creating rules which are ridiculous (helmet changes, double points), unclear (engine token stuff), changing (too many examples) and ‘loopholable’ (all off the above);
    5) no social media/internet presence – In this day and age we should have access to 100’s of video feeds, and GB’s of data (even if we have to pay for some of it).

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      29th March 2015, 2:22

      @coldfly I agree with you… so fresh from Bernie to even wonder…

    2. pastaman (@)
      29th March 2015, 2:23

      +1 Please forward this comment to mister BE

      Could not have said it better myself.

    3. it’s quite frightening that your boss tell you “i don’t know how to run the business i’ve invented” i doesn’t show a bright future..

  12. “We have lost audience and I want to know why”
    It’s because of you Bernie.

  13. Bernie you want to know why viewing numbers are falling, I might be able to give you a clue, this weekend I cannot watch the race on TV and if I were not an ardent fan and reader of this and other blogs on the subject I would not know why it is not being broadcast live on the channel I normally watch it on, in fact I might not even know there was a GP on this weekend, I have heard no news of the event on radio or TV, doubtless I will hear who won and where Dan R finishes before the highlights coverage is broadcast at 9-30pm Monday so there will be no mystery, no tension and no excitement and quite probably no me watching. Watching a race when you already know the winner is like reading a “whodunnit” after someone has told you who did it.

    1. Duncan Idaho (@)
      29th March 2015, 3:58

      +2

    2. Wow! You think so? Degrading and reducing access to and availability of free-to-air coverage impacts negatively on the overall popularity of the sport? Really? Who’d have thunk it… Somebody should tell Bernie about this secret and amazingly complex equation. No wonder his stumped.

  14. It’s hard to believe how poorly Renault are doing compared to Ferrari, when going backwards is a massive improvement you really are in trouble. In fact Renault are beginning to replicate the downward spiral of recent Ferrari history, surely knowing how MB-AMG made their ICE the best it should not have been hard to improve like Ferrari but instead they are standing still if not going backwards, is it arrogance that has prevented them copying the AMG layout, do they also need a complete re-organisation like Ferrari before they can progress?

  15. Michael Brown
    29th March 2015, 2:41

    I heard from one of the Speed commentators a few years ago that F1 should have more road shows. Let people experience F1 in their city.
    Do you think that this is a good idea to promote F1?

    1. I would definately go to see that! although i am also one of those suckers that pays $500 to go to a gp so i might be a little bias! although back in 2011 red bull brought their rb7 to wanneroo raceway in perth with mark webber and dan ric, the buzz was huge and i had friends that dont care about f1 wanting to go see how much it beat the lap record by.

      1. whoops i mean rb6

  16. “(F1 is) sick for a start. We have lost audience and I want to know why. There are so many options people have these days for entertainment.”

    PEOPLE PASSIONATE ABOUT MOTORSPORTS DOESN’T, you old man ! We have very few options, and none of the calibre of F1 (appart from WEC maybe). So get your act together and stop trying to reach to the casual viewer… start taking care of the proper fans, so they can watch F1 on the telly without paying extras, they can go to the race tracks without being ripped off, they can focus on the racing and not the politics involved and they can get free of your crazy ideas !

  17. The question now is….. Why Toro Rosso is very competitive ??

  18. Ros has been absoloute cringeworthy. He posed as a jouranlist and said did you think Nico blocked you? Lewis “I don’t know ask him” then something else was said and Nico was shaking is head and said that is not funny shaking his head. Is this guy for real, any fan of his should be ahsamed.

  19. From the comment of the day:

    Shows that Red Bull have a good chassis this year if they are within a second of the Mercedes in the wet.

    RIC was 1.7 sec behind Hamilton in the Wet – sort of nullifies the QOD. The results of Qualy shows how poor the chassis of the Williams is though. I think with the ability to develop and James Allison, Ferrari will be a solid #2 for the first part of the season.

    1. I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s a poor chassis on the Williams. They’ve gone down a low drag philosophy for development, and given their budget it’s proven a very efficient means of developing a competitive car. A small percentage of races and qualifying sessions are wet and they effectively demote themselves to the midfield for them. But for the rest of the races it seems to work great.

      They have fuel efficiency and straight line speed, two things which are very advantageous on a Sunday. Williams just don’t have the budget to beat Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren in the outright downforce battle, so they’ve been clever and set their target strictly on efficient downforce and last year and this year have shown it’s paid off.

      No they aren’t going to win a championship like this, but it’s part of their recovery from all those years of poor form, they need results to bring more money in and they’ve shown the other teams a thing or two about efficiency.

  20. Sergey Martyn
    29th March 2015, 6:02

    Something jammed in the brain of Mr. Ecuckoostone – interviewer keeps saying: F1 racing, F1 racing while Bernie with senile persistency replies: entertainment, entertainment…

    1. Sergey Martyn
      29th March 2015, 6:09

      Plesase someone lobotomy this entettainer and install little sprinklers inside his head that switch on automatically every time when a patient thinks about entertainment.

  21. Uninspiring cars, you have to be joking! Compared to what? The homologated sewing machine V8’s we all hated since 2006? The old turbos of the 80’s that could only produce about 800bhp in race trim and then be put in the bin? (Yes they could do 1400 bhp in quali, but only for one lap.) People need to have their heads examined.

    The technical complexity of these cars is stunning. They get 950bhp, way more than the old V8, (from Merc anyway if Renault’s performance figures and deficit are to be believed) from 1.6 litres and it can run for 5 races, 15 parts of quali and 15 free practice sessions… that is amazing. F1 fans are their own worst enemy. Yes there are problems with the sport, but there are positives. The racing was good last season, the cars can actually claim to be the most technically advanced in the world. We have to just stick with it, it’ll get there. You don’t see a football fan saying the sport is broken after watching a 0-0 draw between Stoke City and Leicester City do you…

  22. Of all the excuses Rosberg could have made, like spray, team didn’t tell me, didn’t realise he was on a hot lap etc etc, he picks one that everyone and his dog could see was flagrantly untrue.

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