Rosberg admits he “got lucky” with Monaco win

2015 Monaco Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Nico Rosberg said his Monaco Grand Prix win involved “a lot of luck” after taking the lead when team mate Lewis Hamilton made an unnecessary pit stop.

“I know that I got lucky today so I’ll just enjoy the moment now,” said Rosberg. “But I need to work hard because Lewis was a little bit stronger this weekend, need to work hard for the next race, for sure.”

“Lewis drove brilliantly and he also would have deserved the win, for sure,” he added. “But that’s the way it is in racing. I’m definitely extremely happy and going to make the most of it.”

Rosberg said he had “no idea” whether Mercedes considered bringing him in for a pit stop as they did with Hamilton. “As always we’re in the car and it’s very difficult to judge what decisions are being made and things like that.”

Rosberg’s victory was his second in a row this year and moves him within ten points of Hamilton in the championship.

2015 Monaco Grand Prix

    Browse all 2015 Monaco Grand Prix articles

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    27 comments on “Rosberg admits he “got lucky” with Monaco win”

    1. Rosberg did get lucky, but I don’t think he deserves the hate for this. Mercedes are entirely to blame for the stupid call. I’m worried that Rosberg will get some hate from the Hamilton fans. I also am a fan of Hamilton

      1. LOL!!!!

    2. He was absolutely entitled to show his emotions. He won it, it wasn’t his fault. And both showed great maturity. Nico admitting it was just luck. And I wasn’t expecting Lewis to act that way, but he handled it as good as he could consideirng how annoyed he must be.

      1. Totally agree with you on both counts. Hamilton handled it very maturely given the circumstances; didn’t expect it either.

      2. Rick Bonamassa
        24th May 2015, 18:07

        Oh yes, Lewis showed such maturity….

        1 – stopped his car just before the tunnel util the team finally talked him into coming to the podium

        2- Deliberately running over the 3rd place marker at the podium (BTW, there’s a guy right behind that thing so it’s a stupid move safety-wise)

        3- Acting like a poor sport at the ceremony

        Funny, when RIC won at Montreal last year because ROS and HAM had brake issues, nobody went all nutso on him for being happy as hell after being gifted a victory, why can’t HAM fans look at this incident the same way? Whether it’s a mechanical issue or a team strategy mess up, the winner is still allowed to celebrate even if it was gifted. All this hate is frankly taxing the non HAM fans and bringing the atmosphere of the sport down. Yet Vettel was a bad guy for dominating and was chased around Europe and heckled on the podium relentlessly. Like school on a Saturday….no class.

        1. I agree people tend to measure each driver differently. Everything Kimi says on team radio is gold, for instance, and for others it’s just whining or whatever.

          But I don’t think Hamilton’s actions are bad. He was frustrated, entitled to show his emotions. But he showed maturity saying it was a team effort and they win or lose together. In the old days he said: “the team made a mistake”.

        2. 1 – stopped his car just before the tunnel util the team finally talked him into coming to the podium

          Source?

    3. It happens and it’s not his fault that the other side had a massive brain fade but I didn’t like the way he celebrated especially given how much better Hamilton was today.

      Anyway, the season needed some controversy, just like last year it involves Hamilton and it is at Monaco!

      1. pastaman (@)
        26th May 2015, 3:47

        And you wouldn’t celebrate if you just won the Monaco GP whatever the circumstances?

    4. Also lucky with the German gp last year where a safety car was not deployed even though there was a burning race car on track.

    5. Nico actually is in the hardest position of this awkwardness. He is the official race winner, and won because his team, especially the other side of the garage make the blunder. In one side, he must show the public that his happy as winner and maybe someone in FOM told him to do that. A winner that looks doesn’t want to win is really bad PR for Formula 1. On the other side, everyone that follow the race knew Lewis is much more deserving to be the winner, and added with the drama last year will just make Nico looks more like the villain here, even though he is innocence this time. I think he just trying to handle this situation as best as he could.

      1. There’s no ‘other side of the garage’ in this case – Mercedes have a centralised strategy team that makes the calls for both drivers. Everyone on both ‘sides of the garage’ did everything perfectly – it was a failure of the management portion of the team to read the race correctly, given the rapidly changing situation and the unique facets of Monaco.

    6. I do not see why Rosberg should not celebrate. He just got an unexpected present, Christmas came a few months early for him. When I get a present, I am happy, too!
      He gave the credit where it was due and that’s good enough for me.

      1. @ph More like Christmas came almost half a year late :P

      2. agree with you @PH, dont know why it hurts people to see him celebrate. A win is a win, and there is nothing wrong he did. So absolutely deserves to celebrate…

    7. Mercedes makes more boneheaded mistakes than just about any other team on the grid. They should just sew patches stating “We’re sorry, Lewis” into the racing suits and official team shirts…what a complete joke.

    8. a win is a win… look at lotteries and casinos, racing is more predictable, but if you are in the business of trying to win, and you finish first, surely you must celebrate! that is what Rosberg did today.

    9. Love the way Vettel tried to lighten up the tension on the podium after Brundle tried to get HAM and ROS to point fingers and create drama, videobombing at the end with “I’m happy! I’m happy!” that mischievous, little-boy expression on his face. I think he is revelling in this season at Ferrari– he looks like he is having the time of his life.

      1. @slowhands loved that part…

        Maybe Rosberg will send Seb a gift, looks like he really help him here:

        Q: Why take that gamble to call him in when real information was so limited? Lewis had a sound lead on track, so why bring him in?

        TW: The potential risk could have been Sebastian (Vettel) switching to supersoft tyres and coming up behind Nico. Now in hindsight I have to confess that the data was wrong.

        Q: Is it correct that the whole situation came about because you were afraid that Sebastian would switch to the supersofts? He probably would have fallen behind the two Red Bulls…

        TW: …no he would have been in P3…

        1. @celeste Yes, it’s just what he was asking for at the beginning of the season, wanting Seb and Ferrari to catch up … ;)

          thanks for the link. Very revealing interview. Especially this part:

          Q: When you saw all that wouldn’t it have been common sense to not call him in? Do you really rely only on data?

          TW: We we’re in a situation of waging common sense against data. Common sense is okay, but it doesn’t win races in the long run. You have to rely on data – and now we have to find out why we got it wrong today.

          Q: Why take that gamble to call him in when real information was so limited? Lewis had a sound lead on track, so why bring him in?

          TW: The potential risk could have been Sebastian (Vettel) switching to supersoft tyres and coming up behind Nico. Now in hindsight I have to confess that the data was wrong.

          Q: …behind Nico! So why was there fear for Lewis’s position?

          TW: That is probably the common sense I was talking about – even if you run new supersofts in P3 it is very difficult to overtake one car, let alone two! Probably the result would have been a one and three for us – with a different order. Very likely it would have ended in that way.

          Sport is a balance between “common sense” (which to me means gut instinct based on experience, plus knowing when there are overarching priorities such as track position that can outweigh all but the most convincing data analysis) and data. The key is to know when to use one and when the other. In the heat of the moment, when time is tight, when quick decision making is needed, you MUST go with common sense rather than analysis. Otherwise leave sport to computers.l

          1. Agree with this one. Don’t underestimate common sense: everybody knows track position is king at Monaco.

          2. @slowhands Common sense is not at *all* like gut instinct – it’s basically the opposite…

            The former is weighing up all options and making a decision on which is the most sensible solution, be it the safest or one that is the least likely to cost you dearly. Gut instinct, on the other hand, is taking a chance on something despite all indicators to the contrary.

            Sometimes, they mesh up, especially when analysed in retrospect…

            1. You are right, “gut instinct” is not the right word. However, your definition is the Cartesian argument for considered analysis, including available mathematics, and that’s not it either. Mercedes’ “algorithms” were busy “weighing up their options” mathematically. But such a process requires perfect information and sufficient time to do calmly. The excitement of sport arises in situations that require complex decisions to be made quickly, under multiple stressors such as time, emotion, high risk-reward stakes, confined by rules which cannot be violated. Cartesian “weighing of the options” analysis degrades severely under these pressured conditions due to stress and lack of time. Our minds have other powerful tools that have evolved for these types of calculations: rapid-assessment methods that utilize right-brain integrative analysis that while operating “instinctively” in the moment due to years of practice actually grow out of a Baconian process of years of incremental experience of evidence-based trial and error in multiple situations. Some prior events may have involved “weighing of options,” but those results are now internalized as individual points of data. In the “heat of the moment” with little time for “weighing”, this rapid yet robust method is essential. Common sense, the pragmatic everyday form of this applied to normal life situations, is part of this toolset, and I think this is what Toto himself was referring to, the “common sense” notion that despite all the weighing of options and calculations, in Monaco, “in P3 it is very difficult to overtake one car, let alone two!” This commonsense knowledge is based not on weighing, but the evidence from years of races where over and over a slow car has been able to hold off a much faster car due only to track position and defensive driving. It is the arrogance of the supremely intelligent and talented analytical left brain that makes it think it is the best tool for all situations. A pragmatic, common sense man such as Maurizio Arrivabene sees it clearly:

              “We thought they were doing a bit of theatre or something but this was an ‘arroganti’. But when you think you are intelligent, people forget to be smart,”

              Mercedes’ Cartesian thinkers out-thought and out-algorithm’d themselves, when they should have followed simple, practical knowledge of Monaco. What common sense ends up sharing with “gut instinct” is what Thomas Reid called “certain principles, which the constitution of our nature leads us to believe, and which we are under a necessity to take for granted in the common concerns of life, without being able to give a reason for them — these are what we call the principles of common sense; and what is manifestly contrary to them, is what we call absurd.” It was absurd to take Lewis out of P1 with so few laps remaining on a track where passing is so difficult. But that absurdity was based not in the weighing or the maths, but on past experience at Monaco.

              Expert gut instinct is finely honed over years of experience and trial and error, that’s why experts trust it even in dire circumstances when it looks to others that “all indicators” are “to the contrary.” In the heat of the moment, you have to “go with your gut” (which for experts is far from uneducated, but which yes, does involve taking a chance) and tip your cap to those who beat you if you fail. But that is a much easier failure to return from than one where you overthink yourself to defeat — your body subconsciously knows that you didn’t trust your own tools, which in Lewis’ case, it is is his steely will and driving skills: I would take Lewis with 40 lap cold tires with 8 laps to go around Monaco against anyone with the best new set every day of the week. And he and Mercedes should have, too.

    10. Somehow I think vettel did that because he is also a WDC and he can understand better than nico how Lewis was in that moment. Only a champion can know another champion. Nico will never know this kind of things unless he won a WDC.

      1. This is hardly anything on the scale of losing a championship… You might well say that Nico perfectly understands having lost out to Lewis several times last year. He also knows just as well as Lewis having legitimately lost the championship to him last year.

        Secondly, you might well say that Vettel has never actually ‘lost’ a championship since 2010. It’s not that he was even really part of it in 2014..

    11. Sour losers, arent they?
      Pace car sometimes is your best friend, other times your enemy. Same for everyone, get over it.
      Also, luck is part of racing (and life for that matter).
      If any, the HAM fans should know that, having seen how he lucked his way to first title…poor Massa.

    Comments are closed.