Nico Rosberg has confirmed that a brake-by-wire problem with his Mercedes contributed to him losing second place to Kimi Raikkonen in the closing stages of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver was under pressure from the Ferrari before running wide at turn one on the penultimate lap, but the team confirmed that both cars suffered with a brake-by-wire issue in the final lap.
“It’s such a pity to have that two laps from the end. Two laps!” said Rosberg after the race.
“If it happens with a bit of warning, then OK, I can drive to it. But it happened in the middle of a braking zone and so I just went straight on.
“Kimi was in my blind spot so I didn’t actually know where he was, otherwise maybe I could’ve defended into turn two, but I had no idea where he was. And so that’s really disappointing after what felt like such an exciting race to me.”
Rosberg had been running second throughout the majority of the race, but had been forced to pass both Ferraris on track multiple times after falling behind at the start and during pit stops.
“Passing the red cars was a very big enjoyment, for sure,” added Rosberg. “I was on full attack mode.”
“After the start I was disappointed to be fourth and I had to fight back because I could see Lewis getting away at the front. I didn’t like that. I had these two red cars in between and just went for it and it worked out, so that was good.”
Rosberg has moved into second place in the championship on 66 points, just one ahead of Sebastian Vettel.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
19th April 2015, 19:13
Team had been warning him ever since lap three over the radio that there were unusual readings…
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
19th April 2015, 19:16
I keep wondering why Mercedes stays the team that has to react rather than provoke. Why didn’ t they call in Rosberg before Vettel, surely the still superiour pace of the Mercedes could’ve made sure Rosberg was then able to make a big enough gap so Vettel would no longer be a problem. Rosberg could have spent so much more time in clean air.
Also leaving out Hamilton was quite dangerous. Had he had a slightly worse pitstop, one we’ve seen from Mercedes all race (3s+), he would’ve been behind the pair. Both teams were probably surprised by the massive undercut.
Patrick (@paeschli)
19th April 2015, 19:21
Hamilton’s first pit stop was super slow: 3.7 seconds while Ferrari needed only 2.5 seconds for Vettel.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
19th April 2015, 19:23
@paeschli Yeah, remembered thinking how Vettel won 1,2s on the pitstops alone. And I believe Rosberg his pitstop was 3,4s too?
Strontium (@strontium)
19th April 2015, 20:36
It’s crazy to think just how fast pit stops are now, comparing it to 5 years ago for example, that this is considered super slow!
Patrickl (@patrickl)
19th April 2015, 19:41
They also want to put on the same tyres. If Vettel had gone for mediums I would assume Mercedes would have done the same. Going for an alternative strategy isn’t a good idea if you’re in the lead.
It’s bad for the strategy too, if you stop too early. That’s what Rosberg was so upset about in the previous race when he had to stop first because he couldn’t keep Vettel behind far enough. This time he couldn’t blame Hamilton, but the same thing happened anyway.
The undercut was massive with these tyres though, but the Mercedes has power enough to even get past a Ferrari.
Marlo Stanfield (@mstanfield)
19th April 2015, 19:18
Meh! How convenient. Rosberg is beginning to comfort himself with an array of excuses. Kimi would have passed him regardless of his brake issue looking at Kimi’s final couple of laps.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
19th April 2015, 19:21
@mstanfield Pace does not warrant a guaranteed pass.
BHJ
19th April 2015, 19:34
With this DRS zone, it does yes. Just look at Rosbergs passes…
Patrickl (@patrickl)
19th April 2015, 19:41
Yeah and look at how Vettel just breezed past Bottas with DRS … oh wait.
evered7 (@evered7)
19th April 2015, 19:48
@patrickl Tires were different. Bottas and Kimi on softs/ Rosberg and Vettel on mediums. Surely a move was on.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
19th April 2015, 21:25
How does that matter? Vettel would be much faster than Bottas regardles of tyres.
The claim was “Pace does not warrant a guaranteed pass” and then that DRS would make it easy to pass. Well, Vettel was a lot faster than Bottas and he had DRS, but no overtake.
RV (@zenren)
20th April 2015, 3:31
Bottas and Vettel were both on Mediums. Only Kimi and Alonso were on softs during the last stint.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
19th April 2015, 19:57
Rosberg’s supposed DRS passes were not actually completed with DRS, merely assisted. He was still behind the Ferrari’s going into the corners, but had abnormal levels of confidence on the brakes into Turn 1.
toiago (@toiago)
19th April 2015, 20:01
He was quite lucky in those occasions… Had it not been an experienced driver like both Vettel and Raikkonen, almost certainly he would’ve made contact.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
19th April 2015, 20:23
“abnormal levels of confidence” in drivers he was overtaking…
Patrickl (@patrickl)
19th April 2015, 21:26
He was side by side going into the breaking point on all occasions though.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
20th April 2015, 7:26
@patrickl Well that is what happens if you miss your braking point by 10m on purpose…
RV (@zenren)
20th April 2015, 3:32
that abnormal level of confidence is what gave up 2 laps before the end. No wonder!
Supremacy (@supremacy)
20th April 2015, 9:14
It’s pressure from Kimi that forced that mistake.
Brakes had overheating for Mercedes throughout the race and they had to manage them.
It’s cheap for Nico to blame that error on car failure.
Edgar
19th April 2015, 20:51
Rosberg talks too much.
But did a very good race today.
His overtakings were the best things of this race. But Kimi deserved a weekend that much better than Vettel’s, so the final result seems fair.
Key (@key75)
19th April 2015, 21:26
Here’s an inside in those brake-by-wire problems! Mercedes needed to change set-up to be competitive enough to beat Ferrari or at least to cover their strategy and pace. Which makes this season a little more interesting.
Key (@key75)
19th April 2015, 21:28
@xtwl They were expecting those unusual readings it seems…
David BR
20th April 2015, 12:32
…on another point: worth everyone (i.e. Rosberg) remembering that, this race, Hamilton had to sacrifice 3-4 seconds by pitting first at the end of the second stint solely to help Rosberg’s race – despite HAM being in the lead (and normally having preference). And almost lost the lead because of that. Just so we’re clear for future reference.