Should Mercedes have pitted Rosberg as well? Was it all a conspiracy? And how much less fuel do the new engines use?
Here’s the latest batch of answers to questions from F1 Fanatic readers.
What’s good for the goose…
Why did only one Mercedes make a second pit stop in Monaco?
So I was wondering, if Mercedes were “covering Vettel” why they didn’t pit Rosberg as well as Hamilton?
After all he was running in second and would have potentially been under more threat from Vettel than Hamilton, if he had pitted? At first I thought the gap between Hamilton and Rosberg might not have been big enough to get one away in time for the other to be serviced, but I’m sure that the 21 seconds Mercedes believed they had would have been an adequate gap. Even the 19 seconds would have been enough time.
Richard Anderson
Actually, Mercedes needed quite a bit less time than that for Hamilton to make a pit stop and get out in front of Rosberg.
At Monaco teams need around 20 seconds for a pit stop in race conditions – this is the ‘pit window’ they refer to on the radio. But when the Safety Car is out they need less time because the cars are passing by more slowly. Toto Wolff said last week that the ‘Safety Car pit window’ time at Monaco was only 12 seconds.
However in the case of Rosberg before the Safety Car appeared he had Vettel 1.7 seconds behind him, who in turn was 11.5 seconds ahead of Daniil Kvyat. Neither Rosberg nor Vettel had a ‘Safety Car window’ over the next driver behind them.
Moreover, had Rosberg entered the pits, Vettel would have seen him do so and could have chosen to stay out, inherit Rosberg’s track position, and hope his tyres would hold out until the end. This would surely have been a far more attractive option for Vettel than pitting in the expectation he would fall behind Kvyat.
Note that the introduction of the Virtual Safety Car means teams also now have a ‘Virtual Safety Car window’ to keep an eye on, which Daniel Ricciardo received a message about during the race.
Mercedes’ Monaco mishap has attracted more questions than any other recently, several of which have been addressed in earlier articles:
- Why Mercedes gave Hamilton that fateful pit stop – and why it cost him victory
- Mercedes answers fans on Hamilton’s Monaco strategy error and rubbishes conspiracy claims
- ‘Are you sure it’s best to stay out?’ Radio call which cost Hamilton victory revealed
- How tyre confusion influenced Hamilton’s pit call
- 2015 Monaco Grand Prix review: “I’ve lost this race, haven’t I?” Mercedes blunder hands Hamilton’s win to Rosberg
Reptilian overlords
Was there a nefarious purpose behind Hamilton’s pit stop?
Do you believe that Mercedes are favouring Rosberg?
Paul Weatherley
No. Mercedes has just signed Hamilton to a new three-year deal which some estimate costs them as much as £100 million. What possible business case could there be for doing that and then sabotaging him?
The conspiracy theories are tired and predictable. Last year a hue and cry went up whenever some people believed Hamilton had been disadvantaged by Mercedes: a fractionally slower pit stop than Rosberg, a slightly less reliable car. Hamilton’s decision to re-sign for them is the best proof you could ask for that nothing underhand is going on.
A team of that quality and professionalism do not make errors of judgement as they did or do they?
Paul Weatherley
Yes they do. They’ve explained as much, all the data corroborates it, the radio messages show Hamilton contributed to the decision and it’s not as if they haven’t made other mistakes before.
Mercedes want a German in a German car to win this time round, don’t they?
Paul Weatherley
That’s a considerable oversimplification. Mercedes may be German-owned but the team including the chassis and engine operation is based in Britain, they are run by an Austrian (Toto Wolff), a Briton (Paddy Lowe) and another Austrian (Niki Lauda), and their chief strategist is British (James Vowles). Nico Rosberg grew up in Monaco, has a Finnish father and a German mother, and only exchanged his Finnish racing licence for a German one in the hope it would get him more sponsors.
And none of that really matters.
I don’t understand the eagerness to reduce other people’s motivations to simplistic nationalism when F1 is replete with example of multinational teams achieving great success. What about the Brazilian winning championships in a British car with a Japanese engine designed by a South African? Or the German who enjoyed even greater success with Italy’s greatest team on Japanese tyres masterminded by a Briton? And that just scratches the surface.
15 urban, 21 highway
That’s enough about Monaco. Let’s talk engines:
it would be interesting to know the difference in fuel usage In comparison of the normal V8’s and the hybrids. In terms of quantity used.
Jeff Silva
As of last year teams are limited to using no more than 100kg of fuel per race, which is around 133 litres. Although the figure will vary from team to team, this is approximately 30% less than what they used during the V8 era, so a reduction of around 42kg/56l.
However even last year some teams were not using the maximum 100kg allowed at some races, such as Monaco where the race distance is shorter and drivers are at full throttle so little. The following data from Williams gives an indication how much more frugal the current engines are:
[chartboot version= ‘3.0’ code= ‘A0B9’ border= ‘0’ width= ‘800’ height= ‘400’ attribution= ‘0’ jsondesc= ‘{“containerId”:”visualizationA0B9″,”dataTable”:{“cols”:xxx00xxx{“id”:””,”label”:”Circuit”,”pattern”:””,”type”:”string”,”p”:{}},{“id”:””,”label”:”2013″,”pattern”:””,”type”:”number”,”p”:{}},{“id”:””,”label”:”2015″,”pattern”:””,”type”:”number”}xxx01xxx,”rows”:xxx00xxx{“c”:xxx00xxx{“v”:”Albert Park, Melbourne”},{“v”:2.5},{“v”:1.66}xxx01xxx},{“c”:xxx00xxx{“v”:”Sepang”},{“v”:2.4},{“v”:1.71}xxx01xxx},{“c”:xxx00xxx{“v”:”Shanghai”},{“v”:2.5},{“v”:1.71}xxx01xxx},{“c”:xxx00xxx{“v”:”Bahrain”},{“v”:2.5},{“v”:1.7}xxx01xxx},{“c”:xxx00xxx{“v”:”Circuit de Catalunya”},{“v”:2.5},{“v”:1.46}xxx01xxx}xxx01xxx},”options”:{“legend”:”bottom”,”title”:”F1 car fuel consumption”,”isStacked”:false,”vAxes”:xxx00xxx{“title”:null,”minValue”:null,”maxValue”:null,”viewWindow”:{“max”:null,”min”:null},”useFormatFromData”:true},{“viewWindow”:{“max”:null,”min”:null},”minValue”:null,”maxValue”:null,”useFormatFromData”:true}xxx01xxx,”animation”:{“duration”:500},”booleanRole”:”certainty”,”hAxis”:{“minValue”:null,”maxValue”:null,”viewWindow”:null,”viewWindowMode”:null,”useFormatFromData”:true,”title”:”kg per lap”},”height”:371,”width”:600,”series”:{“0”:{“color”:”#1155cc”},”1″:{“color”:”#38761d”}},”fontName”:”Tahoma”},”state”:{},”isDefaultVisualization”:true,”chartType”:”ColumnChart”}’ ]
The data above shows the current engines now use around 33% less fuel than the V8s.
No U-turn ahead
The new engines may be more frugal, but is there any chance of going back to the old ones?
There’s a lot of talks of the V8 engines returning, but will they return? If so when would this happen?
Lewis Stevenson
At present there is no plan to replace the current V6 turbos with the old V8, despite the likes of Bernie Ecclestone and Christian Horner lobbying for such a move.
The last meeting of F1’s Strategy Group agreed that, regarding engines, the “stability of the rules should prevail in consideration of the investments of the manufacturers involved in the sport and to give visibility to potential new entrants”.
Points decision
The F1 Fanatic Points Calculator is a popular feature of the site and here’s a suggestion to make it even better:
Can we see a Points Calculator add-on, which would allow us to compare the driver’s championship results from previous years, too?
Keisoglou Alexandros
I like this idea a lot and it’s on the ‘to do’ list for an upcoming version of the Points Calculator. In the meantime you can have a play with the current version here:
All around the world
Good news for those of you playing the Predictions Championship:
Do you guys ship the Predictions Championship prizes around the world?
Erik Neary
Yes we do – including the mega first place prize worth over £1,600 – so get your entry for the Canadian Grand Prix in now:
Wanderlust
I’ve never been to a live grand prix before: Does a grandstand ticket include General Admission? In other words, are you able to also walk round the General Admission areas if you want to?
Roger Cowley
The policy varies from track to track but you’ll usually find this is the case. To check what the arrangement is at the race you’re planning to go to you can ask other fans who’ve been before via the forum:
Got a question for F1 Fanatic? Send it in via the contact form and we’ll try to answer it
Your questions answered
- Which F1 drivers will change teams in 2017?
- Why has F1 banned so many innovations?
- 21 ways Hamilton could get a ten-place penalty
- What is ‘size zero’? What counts as a start? More of your questions answered
- When will F1 introduce closed cockpits?
gogo
2nd June 2015, 12:53
Well probably because he didn’t panic unlike his teammate….
AmirAnuar (@amiranuar)
2nd June 2015, 13:57
yes part of the blame is on hamilton. i don’t know why most people only blame merc for the mistake.
Woody (@woodyd91)
2nd June 2015, 14:34
I think it’s because even though Hamilton raised a question about pitting because he believed his teammate had pitted, the team should have a: told his team mate hadn’t pitted and wasn’t going to and b: the team, who have admitted such over and over they made a mistake in timing.
Hamilton didn’t actually say I’m coming in, he queried a call by the team, which happens every single race by somebody on the grid. A driver can only go on what they can see in the car or in Hamilton’s case by the screens. The team we never going to pit Rosberg, that information should have been passed onto Hamilton thus his concerns about being on cold old tyres would have been removed.
For me the only mistake Hamilton made here was being so far ahead of Rosberg during the race, If he had been only 10 seconds ahead they wouldn’t of even considered bringing him in to pit. At the end of the day though, some people will want to put the blame on Hamilton, personal preference I guess.
svianna (@svianna)
2nd June 2015, 17:41
For goodness sake. Is Hamilton infallible? The people in the pits can’t tell how much harder the car is to drive as the tire temperatures were falling. Lewis made it sound that he would be driving on ice like conditions. Further, they had no idea if Ferrari would bring Seb in, or not.
Did the strategist at Mercedes goofed up? No question about it.
Should Lewis have shut up after the team told him to stay out? YES!
So, why can’t Lewis’ fans (as I am one) admit he had part of the blame? He himself said: We win and lose as a team. He IS part of the team.
pxcmerc (@)
2nd June 2015, 18:27
no Lewis should not have shut up, all Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer had to tell Lewis was that the pit was too marginal on time and Nico + Vettel were staying out.
This has nothing to do with Lewis Hamilton, but some people want to hate the dude regardless. The problem is Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer who is not up to par and either needs to up his game or be replaced. Bonnington has been making bad calls for over a year now. If Bonnington can’t get his act together he needs to be sacked. Lewis Hamilton’s brother could be doing a better job as a race engineer. It’s ridiculous how poor some of the calls Bonnington has made.
The irony is Bonnington is weak because Lewis makes up for Bonnington’s lack of value. If Lewis had a more competitive teammate, Bonnington’s performance would be scrutinized far more.
Martin
2nd June 2015, 20:17
@svianna: Ok I’ll bite
1) “Lewis made it sound that he would be driving on ice like conditions” No, no he didn’t. What he actually said was “Are you sure it’s the best thing to stay out? These tyres have lost all their temperature”
2) “Should Lewis have shut up after the team told him to stay out? YES!” … Why? What possible justification do you have for that statement? Where is it written that a driver cannot give feedback or raise concerns with the pit wall?
3) Hamilton said he thought that the drivers behind were going to be on supersofts (and by extrapolation, had pitted themselves), Mercedes did not correct him. Had they done so it would have been very doubtful that he would have wanted to pit himself
4) Hamilton was right about the tyres (See Vettel’s remark: “This is like sending swimmers to swim with weights on their legs”)
5) Mercedes knew they weren’t pitting Rosberg. Irregardless of what Vettel did they knew that second place on the track was going to be on worn supersofts, all they had to do was tell Hamilton.
At the end someone responsible for strategy made a mistake. It seems people will just find any way possible to shift blame onto Hamilton.
vtf
2nd June 2015, 20:49
It seems people will just find any way possible to shift blame from Hamilton. Team bears the brunt of the blame. But it was obvious I think he assumed too much, didn’t question enough, and sorta got panicked overall. The fact that team made a mistake doesn’t cover the fact that Hamilton himself should have known better. Did he even ask “should i still come in as i got stuck behind SC during inlap?” I wonder…
pxcmerc (@)
2nd June 2015, 22:44
despite what a lot of Lewis Hamilton’s detractors think, he is not omnipotent nor is he a god. Lewis depends on his team for situational awareness, with in the regulation. The call was bad, it should have never been made, and Lewis urged the pits for a rethink, he did not demand or dictate the call. Some people no matter how much reason slaps them in the face remain resolute in being ignorant. It’s absolutely astonishing.
Woody (@woodyd91)
2nd June 2015, 23:04
Nope he certainly is not, he has made errors before and will make errors again. In fact don’t think I suggested he was.
You mean exactly as both Vettel & Rosberg were doing on the radio at the same time?, in fact it was Nico who said it was like driving on ice and that the tyres were ice cold.
All great drivers question the pit wall when they think they need to. Lewis did it last year, Monza was a great example. He questioned the pitwall and won the race because of this. If the question he asks is wrong the team can advise him so but should he shut up? No…Why should any driver shut up? Are we saying we want our drivers to be little robots who don’t think at all for themselves? Let them question the team, if they are wrong then they are wrong and vice versa, but no they shouldn’t shut up.
I can’t talk for all Hamilton fans, however for me…If Lewis’s message had gone something like this “Rosberg has pitted, my tyres are stone cold and It will be hard to defend so I’m coming in for a pit stop.” Then I would blame him just as much as the team, as it happens his message only questioned a call by the team “Is it smart staying out?”, the team could have come on the radio and said “Yes, Nico isn’t pitting, Stay out.”, but they didn’t do that. They made the decision to come in, Hamilton can’t make that choice, he can advise when he needs to come in but he can’t order the team.
As I said before, in my opinion the only mistake he made in the race was being so far ahead that a pit stop was even an consideration. Maybe that’s something Lewis can learn from in the future.
John
2nd June 2015, 22:37
The mistake Hamilton made was not asking that question himself instead of assuming the answer, it’s not the pits job to read his mind. He had plenty of time to verify his assumption with his crew but didn’t, he just carried on like everyone was on the same page and went on about the tire temps. The same low temps that effected everyone else the hadn’t pitted.
Ultimately it was the team that got the sums wrong but it was lewis’s incorrect assumption that put them under the gun. In all of the poets I’ve seen no one has yet come up with an answer to one simply question. Why didn’t lewis simply ask if nico or seb pitted? How can the team be 100% to blame for a drivers misconception? And why is it hate to point that out?
Samouri (@samouri)
3rd June 2015, 21:59
Lewis said to the pit wall, ” these tires lost all the temperature and everyone else is going to the options now.” At that point when he said that, everyone else is going to options now, why wasn’t he told then, that there wasn’t any plans for Rosberg to stop, and change tires.
chris (@)
4th June 2015, 13:59
When the team told Lewis to stay out they clearly had no idea why, else they would have told him when asked. Instead they quickly checked if he had time to pit and made a bad decision.
When they told Lewis to stay out, they should have known one way or the other if it was possible to pit, if it was necessary to pit and what risks there where for pitting. They didn’t know any of that. With the lead Lewis had, pitting would have been an obvious option to give him the best possible restart yet they had already decided against pitting but didn’t know why.
All the while they knew not to pit Nico.
Mercedes raceing strategy is flawed. Non of it was Lewis’s fault.
pastaman (@)
2nd June 2015, 12:57
I’m surprised you took the time to give this Paul Weatherley guy answers. Cool idea for an article though, thanks Keith
Sven (@crammond)
2nd June 2015, 15:12
Fun thing is, when you visit german language motorsport forums you will typically see a small but vocal minority believing in conspiracy-theories about Merc (and mostly, Lauda) favouring Hamilton and disadvantaging Rosberg (the lesser marketable driver). After Monaco they said: “If it was Rosberg, the team wouldn´t have taken the blame and called it their own fault. They are only protecting Hamilton.” Victim-mentality is a widespread thing nearly everywhere.
vtf
2nd June 2015, 21:03
Well… as a non-German non-British non-fan Formula One fan, if I were to believe any conspiracy whatsoever between the two, I would believe Mercedes favoring Hamilton over Rosberg. And Lauda favoring Hamilton is not a conspiracy, it’s more like a fact really. Last weekend in Monaco after the qualifying he said something along the lines of “We were racing Nico”. But then, I don’t think he has much power on the team really, so he can keep playing favorites.
antifia (@antifia)
2nd June 2015, 13:09
I have a conspiracy theory for you. I think Mercedes only miscalculed (just) about where Lewis would return in relation to Vettel. I think they knew all too well that he would come behind Nico. The idea would be telling Nico to swap positions after the safety car was out – pretty much like Mclaren did with Coultard and Hakkinen in the Australian 1998 Grand Prix (if my memory serves well). Then they would have the best of all worlds: Lewis in front with brand new tyres.
I find it pretty ludicrous when people suggest that Mercedes would manipulate things to favor Rosberg over Hamilton. Anybody watching F1 interviews in these last 2 years would certainly grasp that both Wolf and Lauda prefer Lewis to Nico (by a lot). I don’t blame them – in their position my preferrence would be the same – although I would try to make it less obvious.
Jimbo (@jimbo)
2nd June 2015, 13:54
It’s an interesting theory, but adds complexity. Occam’s Razor favours that they simply made a timing error in the heat of the moment.
Quite subtle for a conspiracy theory though. If they had considered such an approach you would expect it is something they and the drivers would agree to before the race.
petebaldwin (@)
2nd June 2015, 15:10
I honestly think it’s just a case of everything happening too quickly for them to react and make the right decision. My question would be at what point they realised they had made a mistake. Surely it was clear they had got it wrong before Lewis actually stopped to change his tyres – wouldn’t it have been worth him continuing and coming out still in first place?
pxcmerc (@)
2nd June 2015, 18:32
Occam’s razor is predicated on “among competing hypotheses that predict equally well”. So you see, you can’t just use Occam’s razor when ever there is a dispute among competing theories, you actually have to examine them and make sure they fit the bill before claiming Occam’s razor.
In this case, the answer is obvious, there is no conspiracy, just a race engineer who blew it big time. A race engineer who overreacted, didn’t think about what his driver said, and made a bad and unnecessarily risky call.
CeeVee (@)
2nd June 2015, 20:14
There is another saying, I don’t remember where it came from, that goes along the lines:
‘Never ascribe to conspiracy that which can equally be explained by stupidity’.
I think this is a better fit in these circumstances.
pxcmerc (@)
2nd June 2015, 22:52
it’s not stupidity, the term is interest. As in aggregate interest, interests ‘from above’, etc… Lewis does have real issues with his team, he has a great car, but 4 races this year have been jeopardized by bad teamwork.
Monaco – bad strategy/race engineering
Barcelona – poor pit stops (almost cost him 2nd, and definitely cost him a chance to challenge for 1st)
Malaysia – cost him race setup, cost the team useful setup data
Bahrain – poor brakes, almost cost Lewis position and the race.
that many races out of the number that have been run point to a serious issue which Merc really need to address. Look how many races/Qualifying sessions Lewis car broke down last year? It’s all about interests, and who signs whose check.
jok
3rd June 2015, 1:18
Unbelievable… Just because Hamilton and Mercedes is in our faces every race weekend doesn’t mean they have the monopoly on team mistakes. Raikkonen had twice the issues. If Hamilton was sent out to the middle of traffic for his outlap every race like they’ve been doing with Vettel, we wouldn’t be hearing the end of it. Massa is chronically the victim of his own team’s mistakes. And his team is criticizing Kvyat for what really? It looks like both RBR drivers got Vettel’s&Webber’s cursed cars. Why do you care Lewis’s 0.5 sec slower pit stops when there’s been loads of more serious things going on all over the grid. Don’t get obsessed people….
pxcmerc (@)
3rd June 2015, 11:13
Both Massa and Kimi are #2 drivers, just like Mark Webber was, reliability seems to follow #2 drivers harder :( the scope of my argument was with in team Mercedes and their performance with respect to Lewis Hamilton, which has been fairly paltry, IMO.
beneboy (@beneboy)
2nd June 2015, 13:11
Is my math wrong or does 133 litres for a 200 mile race work out at around 7 miles per gallon ?
If that’s right, that’s not bad going, when I did a sportscar track day experience most of the cars were only getting about 5-10 mpg when you were pushing them and none of those cars got close to the speeds we see in F1. Sportscars are obviously a lot heavier than an F1 car but I was still expecting a bigger difference in consumption.
Miguel Bento (@miguelbento)
2nd June 2015, 13:36
It’s 133 litres for 305 km, which gives about 5.4 MPG, still impressive!
JungleMartin
2nd June 2015, 14:58
133 litres / 4.546 = 29.26 gallons (to two decimal places)
305 kms / 1.609 = 189.56 miles (to two decimal places)
189.56 miles / 29.26 gallons = 6.5 MPG (to one decimal place)
Agreed though, very impressive considering the performance.
JungleMartin
2nd June 2015, 15:01
Clarification: my figures are imperial gallons. I presume Miguel’s are US gallons.
(An ‘edit post’ facility would be handy!)
SteveR
2nd June 2015, 15:39
Yes, thanks for your clarification; 3.785 L/US gallon so 35.1 US gallons and, as Miguel noted, 5.4 miles/US gallon. Really pretty amazing, especially as they didn’t actually use all 100 kg at Monaco so got even better mileage!
JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
2nd June 2015, 17:38
Monaco race distance is less than other Grand Prix.
Miguel Bento (@miguelbento)
3rd June 2015, 9:04
Is it just me that immediately thinks “Galactic Empire” when I see “Imperial units” written somewhere? :-)
Jethro (@jethro)
2nd June 2015, 23:06
@beneboy, @miguelbento Based on the fuel data from Williams above, and lap lengths from Wikipedia, they were achieving a high of 6.88 MPG in Malaysia and a low of 6.43 MPG in Australia. This is in Imperial Gallons. In terms of improvement from 2013, the Williams used 42% less fuel around Circuit de Catalunya.
@HoHum (@hohum)
3rd June 2015, 0:03
In the deepest recesses of my mind I had a figure of 3mpg. for F1 cars last century, no doubt somebody has the facts at hand.
AmbroseRPM (@ambroserpm)
2nd June 2015, 13:17
To answer this question I went to Melbourne, and during FP2 I decided to sit out at T11-12 to get a different view of the cars and some high speed photos too. A grandstand ticket will get you to the ‘lower’ echelons of viewing. As long as you are in the complex the track don’t care unless you want to get into the grandstand- then you’ll need the pass.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
2nd June 2015, 19:37
@ambroserpm – I’m just wondering then, are there tracks where you can’t walk around when you have grandstand tickets? I have mine for Silverstone but as an very active walker I like to walk around a track on the weekend and keep track (punintentional) of how much laps I do. And as a first time on Silverstne I sure want to see cars at every corner and not only Stowe…
Last WEC race at Spa I did 8 laps on foot.
AmbroseRPM (@ambroserpm)
2nd June 2015, 23:52
@xtwl– I’d assume you’d have to be able to walk around. You have to get to the grandstand somehow. You’d have to ask each track.
Well done for walking Spa! Mammoth effort! I should really do that…
nmsi (@nmsi)
2nd June 2015, 13:24
The fuel consumption graph is a bit misleading. If the usage would start from 0kg/lap, it would be visually obvious that 2015 is ~30% less than 2013. Right now when starting from 1kg/lap 2015 Spanish GP consumption looks like 60% less.
Otherwise a great article.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
2nd June 2015, 14:33
Ah, statistics can tell you everything in the world – including the opposite of all things, haha. :)
@nmsi
alanore
3rd June 2015, 11:55
Congratulations, 8/5th of people don’t understand statistics enough to have noticed that
Tyler (@tdog)
2nd June 2015, 21:40
+1
The use of the truncated bar graph is one of the oldest visual tricks in the book.
The very point of presenting numerical data in a graph, such as a bar graph, is to present numerical data in graphical form. Otherwise, you’d use a table to present the data.
By truncating the graph and starting at 1.0 litre per lap on the y axis, the Williams graph visually exaggerates the relative fuel savings achieved by the new era engines as compared to the previous V8s.
And of course, I’m sure the use of green bars for the fuel consumption of the current engines is complete coincidence :-)
Nase (@)
2nd June 2015, 13:39
Good answers. Will they have any effect on tinfoil hat wearers? I’m afraid the answer is no.
MarkM
2nd June 2015, 13:56
when you think about it, Rosberg COULD have saved Hamilton’s disastrous late pit call that nudged him just behind Vettel into 3rd place.
He could have either done 2 other things had he wanted too.
1. Because he was behind the safety car he was technically controlling the pace of the other cars to a point. Rosberg just beat out Hamilton to the line by a cars length give or take. But Vettel barely saw Hamilton coming around the corner and hit the gas to snug up behind Rosberg to give him that second place spot at the last second.
So Rosberg could have slowed down enough not to get penalized for not following the safety car, and could have helped Hamilton get into second place by letting him come up beside him over the line. But he didn’t.
2. He could have been told on the radio once Mercedes found out they weren’t gong to make it out of the pits back in first place, and he could have slowed enough to let Hamilton back into first (mind you this is team orders and probably would not happen, but technically could. We’re talking a couple of car lengths from first to third at the line so he could have played a roll in helping Hamilton. But as we all know team mates don’t care about each other, which is completely understandable from what Rosberg did. Hamilton would have done the exact same in my opinion.
Eric Morman (@lethalnz)
2nd June 2015, 17:41
the radio call to Rosb was close the gap to the safety car and as he did the caller added “YEAH” as if knowing Ham had just been locked out of first place because of his call to Rosb,
that seriously got up my goat because i believed they all ran as a Team and Lost as a Team,
but that doesn’t count when Rosb radio man he is there only to put Rosb in front of Ham…
@HoHum (@hohum)
3rd June 2015, 0:10
Yes, and no doubt Vettel had a radioman give him the good news too.
Equinox
2nd June 2015, 13:56
We have seen time and time again that Hamilton can’t handle pressure in a crucial moment and has to rely on his pit wall on what to do next.
Kgn11
2nd June 2015, 16:51
He handled it quite well in Hungary, Germany, Monza and in Abu Dhabi, didn’t see him relying on the pitwall then.
But which driver doesn’t rely on the pitwall during pressure situations given they’re the ones with all the data?
Alex W
3rd June 2015, 10:48
Ham in Monaco 2011 showed genius, for once.
Keisoglou Alexandros (@)
2nd June 2015, 14:23
Great answers @keithcollantine and thank you about the Points Calculator, as well !
Eric Morman (@lethalnz)
2nd June 2015, 17:48
fuel seams to have come into play in a huge way since teams have swapped over to V6 engines,
they are now saying Merc are getting 50hp more from the new fuel mixture they have con cocked,
now that is a statement which will not go away in a hurry,
they are saying these new V6s operate combustion wise similar to a diesel engine, hence new technology in fuel is a great benefit to those that have a fuel company sponsorship.
@HoHum (@hohum)
3rd June 2015, 0:22
Yes apparently I missed another rule change somewhere down the line because I am absolutely positive that once upon a time the cars had to run the same fuel every Tom, Dick and Harry could buy at their local service station, and I remember a scandal when after race scrutineering found illegal fuel in one of the podium getters cars, possibly Total and maybe Renault. One wonders why there has to be a sample for analysis at race end if exotic fuels are allowed. A new question ?
@HoHum (@hohum)
3rd June 2015, 0:24
Sorry, should have said ; Tom, Richard and Harry.
Alex W
3rd June 2015, 10:53
They do all run fuel that is similar to pump, but there are parameters they can play with, just as there is variance in pump fuel. James Allen had a piece where they ran the Ferrari on Shell Optimax pump fuel, it actually had a higher top speed than the race fuel, but the lap time was 2 seconds slower!
Apex Assassin
2nd June 2015, 17:58
Here’s my questions (and answers):
Who in the world cares about fuel economy in a sprint racing series? (go watch WEC)
and:
Why would anyone what F1 to become a “spec series”? (go watch Indycar)
pxcmerc (@)
2nd June 2015, 18:20
no conspiracy, just a race engineer who failed his driver.
Becken Lima
2nd June 2015, 19:58
Canada next weekend and we´re still discussing Monaco… Lets move on?
@HoHum (@hohum)
3rd June 2015, 0:26
I know what you mean but, for Monaco it’s factual, for Canada we can only speculate.
focu
3rd June 2015, 1:21
I think I’d rather speculate about Canada than speculate about Monaco, which is what everybody’s been doing.
bull mello (@bullmello)
2nd June 2015, 20:09
Sometimes I like to answer a question with a question.
IF that were the case, why didn’t they sign Rosberg to the £100 million contract?
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
2nd June 2015, 20:16
@bullmello Or Vettel last year, because Rosberg is as German as his father. Or if Vettel was not available another rookie that could not match Rosberg so they’d be sure he won the title…
focu
2nd June 2015, 21:21
I’d heard before they signed with Hamilton that they’d wanted Vettel actually. But I’m curious if they had a similar talk again last year before the contract renewal with Rosberg.
Foosa
3rd June 2015, 14:02
@bullmello: Are we really determining who is pure German and who is not. Kind of reminds me of Harry Potter and the pure blood thing.
NinjaBadger (@ninjabadger)
2nd June 2015, 20:15
Speaking of fuel consumption between the old and current engines: I’d be interested to see a, side-by-side, on track comparison between the race pace of the 2015 and 2013 cars, with both cars adhering to the current fuel limits.
Foosa
3rd June 2015, 14:02
@ninjabadger: Can you throw in the sound as well, would love to hear the comparison.
Martin
3rd June 2015, 0:39
he was asking
Should read
he was asked
Does having a registered account allow you to edit comments? Might be worth it :)
Foosa
3rd June 2015, 14:03
I am curious to know the radio communication from pitwall to Rosberg, just before, during and after Hamilton’s call..