Mechanics swap not related to car trouble – Hamilton

2016 Russian Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton says an exchange of mechanics between his and Nico Rosberg’s garages at Mercedes is not related to his technical problems in the last two races.

The Mercedes driver said some team members have moved between the two camps since last season but does not believe it is connected to his recent power unit problems.

“My side of the garage, the mechanics are definitely having a hard time,” Hamilton told Sky after the Russian Grand Prix. “I have absolutely every bit of confidence and faith in them.”

“It’s an unusual situation for them, the majority of them were on Nico’s car last year. Nico’s guys were with me for the last three years since I joined the team and all of a sudden they’re swapped for no apparent reason.”

“That is not the reason that we’re having these issues, it’s somewhere else. I don’t know where all these little issues are coming from but for sure the team, the guys in the background, they need to work hard to try and rectify these. We’re doing 800 kilometres in testing, the car was almost seen as bulletproof and all of a sudden we have all these problems.”

Hamilton rejected any suggestion of ‘conspiracy thoeries’ at his team. “I don’t believe that that’s happened,” he said, “it’s not happened in the last three years and I don’t have any reason to believe that would happen now.”

Mercedes sent new parts from their factory to Sochi overnight in order to give Hamilton a working power unit for the race.

“I’d like to thanks the guys who flew over last night from the factory,” said Hamilton. “My mechanics worked so hard from like 2am in the morning to get my car ready. Without them I obviously wouldn’t even have got to this point so I was grateful for that.”

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    Keith Collantine
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    70 comments on “Mechanics swap not related to car trouble – Hamilton”

    1. – “It’s an unusual situation for them, the majority of them were on Nico’s car last year. Nico’s guys were with me for the last three years since I joined the team and all of a sudden they’re swapped for no apparent reason.”

      That is all that matters in his cooperate and PC talk.
      Disrupting a perfectly working condition has its consequences. Question is were the consequences intended or just a perfectly natural outcome of such disruptions?

      1. I must add also that I find it weird that the team of a 3 time world champion is pulled/tampered with and then moved over to the guy who has never won a championship and then some of those working with the non-championship winning driver are moved to the 3 time world champion.
        Where is the wisdom in that?

        1. I Think it stinks of Favoritism towards Rosberg, Why on earth would they want to change engineers who have done
          an excellent job on Lewis’s car over the last 3 years, then change them for Nicos Engineers and everything on Lewis’s car goes to pot!!! Something is not right, and Lewis can not say on TV exactly what he would like to say. Lewis should ask for his original engineers back. then we will see if it is the parts that are faulty or just that they want Rosberg to win this year.

        2. I can’t help but find it odd that since this Rosberg has had 4 race wins and Hamilton has only come second, twice.

        3. Mercedes themselves said yesterday on Twitter that “changes happen every year as people join/leave/rotate into new roles. It’s not unusual but it’s not usually talked about.”

          I do not know about F1 but it is a common belief in business that it is not good to have the same people in the same positions for a long time. I rather agree with the principle ‘never change a winning team’ but many managers indeed believe that some kind of rotation is the best way to ensure that the winning team keeps winning.

      2. In essence their job hasn’t changed, so let’s just all be real and call it what is it is, bad luck. Nothing more nothing less, it could’ve happened to everyone (cfr. Sainz, 2015). Just because Hamilton his fans are the most vocal when it comes to these kind of conspiracies does not make it any more true.

        1. I always find people who like throwing out the word “conspiracy” are the ones who tend to believe in such things. Perfectly legitimate questions don’t “conspiracies” make.
          From what I have seen, no one has mentioned “conspiracies” apart from people like you. If you have answers, lay them out and stop using “conspiracies” which I don’t believe in.

          1. You completely misunderstood my comment I think…

        2. Rubbish. You cant changed member of teams with out consequence. Lewis had a team he had work with and built an understanding relationship with. Yanking that away will have negative consequences.

          The Merc management are not stupid, and had to know this. So, people are simply asking why do it? Asking a legit question is NOT a declaration of conspiracy.

      3. I’m intrigued to know if these type of mechanic swaps took place at Red Bull when Vettel was world champion or when Alonso was at Ferrari challenging for the world title?

        Am I right in saying what Mercedes have done here is the same as what Maclaren did when Hamilton was partnered with Button?

        Why do the teams that Hamilton is in feel the need to do this? Ferrari and Red Bull to my knowledge never did this, therefore allowing their strongest drivers side of the garage to dominate and fight for the world title.

        1. For some weird reason, each team Hamilton joins feels some desire to “even out” the playing field.
          When it is obvious the guy sets a bar that his team mates sometimes find difficult to ascend. The guy has brought in two championships already for Merc and the notoriety that comes with it so why any one thinks he is not worthy of a little priority is baffling.

          1. RaceProUK (@)
            1st May 2016, 16:52

            Teams want to give both their drivers as much support as possible? How shocking.

          2. Or maybe if hamilton is such a great driver then he should win in the end no matter the engineers he recieves? Surely if anything it is in hamilton’s interest to change up the engineers every so often to show it is him not just his engineers that are winning the races???

            1. Hamilton us the first to acknowledge the great job the team and factory do to produce a winning car. The driver is nothing without a strong team behind him producing a car that canst least make it to the end of a GP.
              Don’t forget Nico had a series of failures last year that enabled Lewis to get back in the lead and win. Seems some issue with the mechanics on that side of the garage has moved with them to Lewis’s side now.

            2. This keeps getting mentioned. It’s like some people forget Lewis Aldo had mechanical issues in 2015 and 2014.

      4. Good question.
        I’ve only ever seen this ‘mechanic swap’ thing happen at McLaren and that was also between Hamilton on Jenson’s first year with the team.
        Its still puzzles me why a team would feel the need to do this.
        Did they think Lewis had a better talent pool of mechanics so they evened it out?
        Did they give Nico the better mechanics and assume Lewis’s talent will even things out?
        Or was it because of the toxic environment building up between both garages?
        Surely the latter would have disrupted Hamilton a little more as he had won the previous 3 years, therefore giving Rosberg a slight advantage?

        1. Or maybe the mechanics had gotten fed up with working with Hamilton and requested the switch

        2. The article seems to imply most of them were switched, but not all.

          While it isn’t clear, I’m wondering if Mercedes wanted to mix the engineers, rather than simply swap them.

          1. Nico was already on a streak last year with his previous (now LH’s) crew. LH has acknowledged it is not the crew that is the issue. So the only thing I find strange is LH’s wording…’for no apparent reason’. I highly doubt they had no reason but did this anyway. I’m sure they had reasons that only have to do with bettering the team overall. I think he has worded this awkwardly, and could have simply said crews were swapped in a normal manner and this is not about the crews anyway. Instead when he uses the words ‘no apparent reason’ it just feeds the conspiracy theorists, and I have to ask why LH would choose that wording.

            1. I believe he chose that wording because he isn’t happy with the change. Even if the mechanics in the races have nothing to do with his reliability problems he still won’t be happy about the change because a driver gets used to work with certain people and do things in a certain way and suddenly has other people and has to re-acclimatize himself with new mechanic team like his changing teams or something.
              I wouldn’t be pleased about it ether, especially if i thought me and my current team where working just fine and got to a nice communication level.

      5. Martin Maxford
        13th May 2016, 21:53

        Let’s just go back to the point of the change and judge for yourself. As the swap happened last year just as the season was ending ….Suddenly Nico started to win. Hamilton started to have little problems with stuff like lack of downforce and tire issues. Then there were the curious changes in strategy…calling him in and changing his tires almost to disrupt his progress. It just all feels and looks suspicious to me.

    2. “It has nothing to do with the problems but I’m mentioning it anyway because it might have something to do with the problems” – In the meantime more food for the conspiracy believers.

      I don’t think swapping mecanics is any big deal and I would think it happens more often in a operation as big as a F1 team..

      1. I too thought it was odd that he would mention this in his answer. It was the first thing off his lips, but then he thought better of it and backtracked, throwing in the disclaimer that this was not the reason. Lewis wears his heart on his sleeve and has to make a big effort to be “corporately correct” when he is frustrated, so this statement to me betrays his true thoughts. I think he was opposed to the change of his team, and feels that it has disrupted how it works. And this is not conspiracy. Breaking up a well functioning team leads to changes in process, which invites process errors, no matter how expert the individual team members are. A cardinal rule in any high skilled, high risk process is to find an error free process and then stick with it unless forced to adapt to extenuating circumstance.

        So why was it done? Jock Clear has commented that one of the non-driving assets that made Schumacher, Prost, and Vettel so successful was their ability to develop and continue to motivate the human elements of their team. I think I read somewhere that he felt Hamilton lacked in that. Far from conspiracy, I think the mechanics’ switch may be a result of Nico’s political success behind the scenes in lobbying for the best mechanics. Lewis has every right to spend his time between races as he wants. However, the danger with spending so much time in unrelated pursuits on the red carpet and in the music business is that he is not with the team, and he is allowing Nico to fill the political and managerial space created in his absence. And Nico has grown much since last year and seems to be leveraging this area of his skills. There is much more to being a serial world champion in any sport than superior sport skill. If you ask any of Schumacher’s, Vettel’s, Prost’s, Michael Jordan’s, Magic Johnson’s, Tom Brady’s etc etc teammates, they will tell you that 50% of the reason for their repeated success was related to how they were able to develop, coordinate, and motivate their teams. If Lewis neglects this part of his job, he will undermine the ultimate cumulative success of his career.

        1. I absolutely agree but I do believe that Merc have decided this going to be a Nico year.
          That cannot be good news for Lewis fans

        2. @slowhands Wow, I agree with this comment on so many levels. +1

      2. Again, rubbish. Do you think for one second Senna, Schumacher, Alonso, or any other top driver would have accepted having their mechanics swapped out, after 3 years of building a relationship with them? No, of course not.

        If anything, I blame Lewis for allowing it.

        1. Agree, but Toto has made it clear that his drivers have to do as they are told and who runs the team. You can like this or not, but that’s Merc. If Lewis loses the championship this year because of the team change, he should look elsewhere for 2017.

          1. if Lewis goes elsewhere in 2017…. he will struggle to win…. F1 is about ability and car…Maercedes have the best car by far. If he moves he will struggle.

    3. I feel for those guys working on Hamilton’s car watching the other group of mechanics, again, beating them with ease. They must be feeling like the cause of Hamilton’s troubles, so unfair on them!.

      I think moving around the mechanics, which are all doing the same job but on a different car, can’t be anything other than normal. It’s a matter of keeping the motivation up for all involved.

      1. “It’s a matter of keeping the motivation up for all involved.”

        Very good point, this could be the sole reason indeed!

        1. Agere with You !!!

      2. I think it was also to do with keeping the whole team working as a unit, and not letting camps develop for each side of the garage @fer-no65.

        1. I hope more people see it they way you mentioned.

      3. Exactly. It just seems to give the engineers something new in their job. by working with a different driver. Let’s also not forget that by rotating these engineers with different drivers, they are making them more versatile with regards to driver-engineer relationships. After all, Nico and Lewis will be gone some day, and the engineers should be able to adapt quickly to the next driver that steps in.

        I don’t know what these conspiracy theorists are on about. Heck, he’s had 2 mechanical problems in 2 consecutive race weekends, which has happened to at least a few drivers every year. I don’t remember jumping out of their seats yelling conspiracy when it’s happened to other drivers.

    4. Before the race on Sky Sports Croft asked Toto questions from twitter about the swap and he said that as a team they felt blocks/groups were forming on the different sides of the garage and they thought the swap would allow some members to enjoy the success some more their intention being letting Rosbergs mechanics enjoy the success that Hamilton has brought to the team

      1. But it is a very risky thing to break up a smoothly functioning team in an arena with so little margin for error. Humans are not necessarily swappable. There are human factors that make some humans work better with some people than others. To me this smacks a little of Mercedes arrogance. Yes, they may still win the championship with one of their drivers, but they look bad when the reason the other cannot compete is down to mechanical gremlins that may creep in due to changes in process. Nico may be winning because he’s got guys that work well together from Lewis’ side of the garage.

        1. So what you’re saying is you’re quite happy for Hamilton to have the unfair advantage of good engineers but Rosberg shouldn’t.

          That’s a fair and balanced view.

          1. Nick, Nico didnt have a bad engineers the past seasons! Nico only got 5th bad lucks the past 2 season and hamilton have 4th bad lucks in a row so far! So unfair!

            1. if Nico didnt have bad engineers, then hamilton does not have bad engineers because they have just swapped.

    5. Lewis brings the deficit down to 7.5 seconds and then he is told that his engine has a water pressure problem.
      The only problem Lewis has is that Merc have most probably decided that after Lauda fulfilled his promise to Lewis that they would do whatever is necessary for Rosberg to win a world championship deserving or not.

      The look on the podium says it all. It appears as if he was told not to take on Rosberg
      If this was a fair fight Lewis would be smiling that he had done his best.
      Rather he looks like someone who has been stymied.

      1. Look, given the new radio restrictions, it COULD have been a coded message to back off and not risk a challenge and therefore race-ending contact, especially since it looks like Nico also had an issue and may have been vulnerable. Nico has been quite clear that he is no longer going to back off if challenged on the track by Lewis after what Lewis did to him last season, and with a guaranteed 1-2 Toto is not going to allow that chance to come up if he can help it. Or it could indeed have been a legit water problem. Mercedes are going to manage their drivers for the benefit of the team first at all times, especially with a 1-2 in the final stint and no challenge from behind. But please let’s not start the paranoid, conspiracy, “do whatever is necessary for Rosberg to win a world championship” stuff. Please.

        1. In a business like this, when millions are spent to get extra tenth of a sec advantage, with so many attention to details, same part of engine failing two times in a row-just impossible to imagine. There are 8 Mercedes engines on the grid and suddenly Lewis got all the problems? I just don`t believe it.

        2. Again I do agree with all you say but something just does not feel right and ofcourse I could be very wrong!

          1. Unless I’m mistaken, LH was only able to bring down the gap when Nico was having to get by back markers. Once LH met the same back markers the deficit went back up to 12 or 13 seconds again. LH was on slightly older tires, was not actually gaining on NR other than due to traffic, NR was able to conserve his tires so had plenty left in them for the final few laps, and did the fastest lap then to boot. LH was never going to catch NR let alone get by him.

            1. Nope, Hamilton passed quite a few backmarkers when he was told to back off and it was actually 7 seconds behind. The 12 and 13 seconds were a few laps after he was told about water pressure problems.

    6. Well, I hate word “conspiracy” but it started to look like it may be the case here, of course not the “conspiracy” by putting sugar in Lewis’s car`s fuel tank, but rather putting all focus on Nico this year, giving him little bit of edge over Lewis by messing order and not checking extra details. Why? Well maybe Mercedes chiefs got too much criticism in Germany over brit winning over fellow german boy, however Nico is not viewed as a true “german” in the country.
      Or maybe its some other cause, remember that Nico doesn`t have a contract past this year, so maybe part of the management is interested in Nico`s stronger positions for a contract negotiations. Who knows, but in a multi million business like this, such things does not happen “out of the blue”

      1. It’s 2 races in a row. It happens! Jeeez…

        I’d like to see Rosberg have mechanical problems in back to back race weekends and then let’s hear a new set on conspiracy theories altogether.

    7. Nico had same issues. Sure, and the merc team allowed him to set fastes lap after fastest lap. It’d be better if toto didn’t treat us like idiots and believe everything fed to us.

    8. Lewis now has MSC’s mechanics. When he joined Mercedes, they gave him Nico’s mechanics – the better set, and Nico got Schumi’s – the woeful ones. However at the end of last year Nico demanded his old mechanics and he got his desire. It is all about Lewis now gaining the backing from his old rivals.

      1. Really? We was told that the shake up was by toto to stop inter team friction?

    9. really mad about the water issue just seven seconds behind. Britneythen he has a water issue no this was a coded message why else would Lewis look glum and downhearted on the podium he’s the only ne who knew definitely what they were up to wish he had the balls to say how it really was.getting really fed up with all this behind the scene stuff britney didn’t look that happy either because it was not a fair fight. Clear up your act mercedas or lose the best exciting driver on the track.

      1. Obviously not a NR fan, from the choice of nickname vs. the first name basis you are on with LH. LH only got within 7 seconds because NR was in traffic by then. Once LH hit the same traffic the gap went back to where it was. Of course LH looked glum and downhearted. That’s understandable. Of course NR would rather not have people think this is being handed to him…he’d rather win more assuredly…yet this is racing and it is not dishonorable nor NR’s fault how the cards have been dealt. And of course Merc would rather both drivers be on top swapping wins until a WDC is named. They can’t just snap their fingers and make it happen.

    10. Tapiwa Matukutire
      1st May 2016, 19:37

      The way I view this world championship fight right now can be described very much with a boxing analogy-

      -After round 4 of 21 Rosberg is ahead on points
      -His main opponent, Hamilton, is boxing with one hand tied to his back and having to try and limit Rosberg’s attacks
      -His other opponent, Vettel- has one hand tied to his back and is blindfolded.

      Realistically- Nico needs to have AT LEAST ONE RETIREMENT with Hamilton and Vettel scoring big to cut the large
      deficit. Because all things being equal Lewis has the beating of Rosberg more often than not- and that’s the key. Nico has always had a purple patch over the past 3 seasons they have been team mates where Ham struggles to get on top of him so assuming the same is true, I cannot see Ham beating Nico unless Merc unties Lewis’ hands and gives him free hands to box Nico in a fair fight.

      43 points isn’t really insurmountable- I read a report that Lewis cumulatively made up 83 points in 2014. Also Vettel came back from a similar deficit in to Alonso so I don’t think Lewis should throw in the towel just yet. But Merc just have to get their act together.

      Seb as well needs better reliability and he needs to avoid incidents- but today there is absolutely nothing he could do about Lyvat ploughing into the back of him- TWICE. Ferrari I’m still not sure about whether or not they are as close as last season however if Seb can get a clean run and we have a few issues for Rosberg that should make the championship more interesting.

      As it is Nico is riding a wave of good luck, fortune and form- sure his competitors are having issues but that’s not his fault. I just hope he can be under a bit of pressure and have to fight for it a bit- otherwise so long as Ham and Vettel keep having problems he may as well just pitch up for a Sunday stroll as a formality to the 25 points.

    11. Lewis made in clear in his Sky interview that the mechanics he had for 3yrs were rotated to the other side of the garage. The question is why? We have been given a reason, but it still makes no sense. This also contradicts Toto’s assertion that these changes “happen” every year.

      Sure, some personnel may be swapped as roles change, but NOT a whole team of mechanics. Even if it has nothing to do with the failures, (i personally don’t think it does), i cannot see any major benefit it would deliver. To disrupt perfectly good working conditions for the benefit of parity or political correctness may have unforeseen consequences.

      If indeed the mechanics on Lewis side were better than those on Nico’s side (as some have postulated), then it makes the swap even more ludicrous.

      1. Why does it make the swap ludicrous?? Why exactly do you think Hamilton deserves the advantage of the ‘best’ mechanics and not Rosberg?

        And if they are the ‘best’ mechanics, then you are all but admitting that Hamilton has had an unfair advantage the last 3 years.

        Also, these ‘best’ mechanics were Rosbergs mechanics before Hamilton arrived in the team. They were swapped and given to Hamilton and Schumachers mechanics were given to Rosberg. So swapping them back is only fair.

        1. I dont think its about best or worst. However…. Working with a driver for 3 years you must get to know how he drives, how he treats the car, the effect hid driving has on the car etc etc and so what you are doing by swapping is making evetyone start from point 0 again where they have to get to know the driver, their style, how they like the car set up etc etc all over again. It doesnt necessarily give anyone an advantage but it does disrupt. ROS is just taking advantage of lewis misfortune at the moment and kudos to him for doing that. Its not over by a long shot though.

          1. The only thing I find a bit ‘unfair’ is LH’s wording that they did this ‘for no apparent reason’ and I a) highly doubt they did this for no reason and I b) highly doubt LH doesn’t know the reasons and I’m sure that said reasons are reasonable and innocent. I’m sure this is for the betterment of the team overall and for the sake of fairness.

        2. Nick and Robbie, you forgot that Rosberg chose his team on his own whereas Hamilton trusted Mercedes and let them choose. Now, Mercedes gives Hamilton the team Rosberg has chosen. That’s obviously not fair.
          Hamilton says “for no apparent reason” because he’s not allowed to tell how it is. Mercedes tries to force a Rosberg year.

    12. LOL.)

      I was noticing during SkyF1 coverage… this notion somehow Mercedes is spoiling Hamilton races. Mercedes is a corporation with more than 100 year tradition, they have incredible financial stakes at getting this done. Right now they have a hot consecutive world champion celebrity dewd that is amazing for their brand.

      Ferrari is close at hand, they are paid from constructor championship wins. Loosing points through sabotage seems …. so far fetched.

      They have motive not to do it in short. Financial incentive not to do it and sporting incentive to not do it. Maybe there ever was a case where #2 driver was sabotaged in favour of #1… but is there ever a case in F1 history when #1 driver was purposefully sabotaged? I don’t buy it.

      Even worse… could we also say Ferrari is sabotaging Vettel? :D He has similar luck this year and awesome reliability.

      And really Mercedes AMG F1 with 1100 employees cannot get together two sets of good mechanics?

    13. Looks like people really think that Mercedes don’t have enough personnel to run two cars properly?

    14. Drivers can do as they please regarding engine mode settings because radio coaching is forbidden. Hamilton obviously turned his engine all the way up towards the end when he was closing on Rosberg. That mode either meant he was going to run out of fuel or it was hurting his engine hence the call telling him he had a serious water pressure problem. The way to deal with the pressure problem was to turn the engine mode down and consolidate his second place. Water pressure problem covers “turn your mode down or else”. Had he carried on he may have caught NR but run out of fuel or damaged the engine before race end. I fuel or engine damage hadn’t happened by then NR would have had the option of turning up his engine too.

      1. I kind of doubt that. Not that LH is incapable of cranking his settings on his own like he did last year until they simply told him that if he didn’t crank it down they would just give NR permission to crank his up to match LH anyway.

        I think all we saw was LH closing the gap because NR had hit back markers that were slowing him. Once LH hit the same back markers the gap went back up to where it was. NR was always going to be on 4 lap newer tires, had not had to stress his tires much so had plenty in hand in the closing laps as indicated by his late fastest race lap, and so LH was never going to catch NR let alone get by him.

    15. Race team employees also develop themselves, progress and/or are promoted to senior positions compared to where they were the year before, etc. Much like workers do in other industries. As a matter of fact, the group of race engineers for each driver is flushed out every year to some degree. Some new arriving to the team, some advancing in their roles and responsibilities and will no longer do what they did in the prior year, some leave to take a job in another team, some outright retire. There is nothing special in that, it happens in all teams! And the swap from one side of the garage to the other also happens in all teams. Not all staff members swap, just a subset of all. And this is always to the overall good of the team and the individuals. Exactly as also done in all other industries of scale in this world. So no, the guy handling the tyre warmers for Hamilton is unfortunately not the same guy as did it back in 2013. Guess you can understand he wanted to move on. Same of course for most of the mechanics.

    16. Rosberg won the last 3 races of 2015.
      He won these races with the same blokes that are now with Hamilton’s side of the garage.
      I don’t think the mechanics abilities are in question.

      The question I keep asking myself is:
      Will Lewis Hamilton win a race in 2016.

      1. Of course LH will win races this year.

        1. I know, right?
          I expected him to win at the end of last season. I keep thinking he is going to win, but Rosberg keeps pulling it off.

    17. Very disappointed by Sky to give voice to the crazy conspiracy theories by Hamilton fans and present them as real issues. And this is not the first time they’ve done this. It’s outrageous.

      Both times (that I’ve seen, could have been more) Wolf respects the questions and answers them when he really should just walk away. I really hope he does next time. Enough is enough.

      First Hamilton fans booed Rosberg publically based on another conspiracy theory, now they are doing it to the mechanics. And then Sky has the ******* to give credence to the boos by asking Hamilton if there’s something to it..

    18. Julian Chapman
      4th May 2016, 2:27

      Mercedes have obviously guaranteed Lewis his x2 championships allowing him to emulate Senna’s 3 in total something he has always said in his goal. Toward the end of last year’s championship he mentioned in a intervire that they have changed a setting in the car and since then it has not felt the same. Since that time he has not won a race. You may also see that he spending more and more time jet setting it around the world (I don’t blame him). All of the above points to the fact that he has accepted that Mercedes have facilitated his life dream and continue to facilitate his lifestyle nothing more nothing less. It would not surprise me if he walks away from the sport in the near future and I personally don’t blame him. If you don’t feel anything unterward has occurred ask yourself why does the whole podium appear flat. Finally Lewis has largely been lambasted in the past for not working behind the scenes enough and his driving brain questioned on the earlier days. Nevertheless he comes to teams sets the car up the way HE likes smashes the races and wins championships. When that is altered or tampered with he looks elsewhere. Jens on button at Mcclaren being a prime example. I truly feel he’s there on body and will assist Mercedes to a championship but his soul for racing is elsewhere as he has achieved his objectives.

    19. It is so obvious, german pride, german driver. I think they can choose to make him world champion this year and he will be this year. Next years new rules might risk german chances of being the ruling team so well done niko!

    20. Guys in the comment section tend to forget, that Rosberg CHOSE his team on his own whereas Hamilton trusted Mercedes and was happy with what they gave him. Why would you swap now?
      Mercedes tries to force a Rosberg year and I have no respect for that.

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