F1

Is Rosberg faster than Hamilton?

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  • #133180
    magon4
    Participant

    Overall I think most will agree that Hamilton is the better driver, if you put all the skills together.
    I actually have always though Rosberg and Hamilton are more equally matched than it seemed to most, but his form in training sessions and qualifying sessions seems to show that he might just be the faster driver.
    I not saying Nico is better or more complete, but it comes as a surprise to me that Hamilton, a known one-fast-lapper and fantastic qualifier, seems to come in second more often than he would like, in direct comparison to his team mate.
    What do you think, would you go as far as saying that Rosberg is the faster driver, or is it just the advantage of knowing the team longer? It was also easily dismissed when he beat Schumacher almost every session, because of other factors, but I believe it might be time to start giving Nico some credit, at least concerning pure pace.

    #236991
    matt90
    Participant

    He’s qualified ahead more often than Rosberg. They do seem closer than expected, but there’s definitely nothing suggesting Rosberg is generally faster yet.

    #236992
    safeeuropeanhome
    Participant

    He’s running Hamilton closer than Button ever did at Mclaren on outright pace for sure. I think its too early to compare yet, Hamilton is unlikely to have the car as he wants after only 5 races whereas Nico has been with the team a long time. Ask this question at the end of the season an we’l have a better idea.

    #236993
    tmekt
    Participant

    Obviously too early to tell, only five races into the season. They do seem be pretty much equally matched so far but we’ll see.

    Hamilton has always been a tad overrated (and Rosberg underrated for that matter) in my eyes. He’s amazing driver, of course, as any of the current champions on the grid but not the Golden God which some seem to find him. He’s had cars that suit his driving style in expense of his team-mates (especially Kovalainen) and the first season of his being what it was probably gave people a wrong picture in relation to what every other rookie has to begin with. I’m almost certain that if you had given the McLaren 2007 car to Vettel, Alonso, Räikkönen, and let’s say Kubica they all most likely would’ve been able to start winning races straight away the same way Hamilton did. (I’m not trying to undermine Hamilton’s achievements in any way but this is what I think…take my opinion as what it is: just an opinion)

    Like I said though: way too early to say anything about the big picture

    #236994
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    2 years ago- no!!
    Now- YES he is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    #236995
    Cristian
    Participant

    A bit difficult to tell at the moment, but I believe so. I’ve always liked Rosberg more than Hamilton, so i might be a little subjective here, but Nico just seems so be more of a racing driver than Lewis is…I mean, I look to Hamilton and a I see a brand and I look to Rosberg and I see just a driver, a really fast one. Still, Lewis has a title and a lot of wins and podiums and poles and Nico dosen’t (yet). I guess we’ll see…

    #236996
    safeeuropeanhome
    Participant

    I also have to say if Rosberg keeps this pace up in comparison to Lewis then it will revise a lot of people’s opinions about how well Schumacher did in his comeback. Particularly last year on raw pace.

    #236997
    Nick
    Participant

    Agree, in 2012, it was equal in qualifying between MS and Rosberg – 10:10 and where both finished there was 7:3 in MS favour.

    MS from year to year had raised his game and now it could turn out that MS of 43’s years is equal of LH=27 :)

    #236998
    Thomas Shelley
    Participant

    One would imagine that it takes a little time to become completely used to a new car, such that you can drive truly on the limit. Lewis hasn’t quite looked as sharp as he always used to but I do think that soon enough he will start getting the measure of Nico more often than not. I am prepared to be proven wrong though! :)

    #236999
    Michael
    Participant

    It’s hard to tell – Rosberg seems to thrive in the Merc if we look at his stint with Schumacher who probably would have liked to have taken a hammer to the Mercs;-) The last few races have shown that the Merc is having issues because all of a sudden for Hamilton it gets faster and other times it’s slow even though Hamilton seems to be flooring it and the car should be flying by Ferraris and Renaults alike. It’s possible it has setup flaws that are preventing Hamilton from even correcting issues. You fix here, you lose there. 3 years into this, Rosberg may know what to do.

    We’ll see if Hamilton can bring speed out of the car – if not, then the car’s got fundamental performance problems and Merc should probably sit out a season and build a new car or two given the size of their team. I don’t think it would make sense to blame Schumacher and Hamilton. It also would not say anything about Rosberg other than he could drive a F1 car that behaved erratically.

    #237000
    Kingshark
    Participant

    If there’s one driver on the current grid who deserves at least one season in a championship winning car, it’s Rosberg. He’s clearly proven that he is a top driver, but has never had the machinery to fulfill his obvious potential.

    I hope that for 2014, Brawn does another 2009 with Mercedes. Nico deserves that opportunity so much more than any other driver on the grid.

    #237001
    Akin Aslan
    Participant

    No I think that hamilton is the faster one but he hasnt really got the hang if the merc. He is often not too happy with the setup and when you watch the onboard vids from when he was at mclaren he had a car which was always pointy, almost no understeer. When you watch this years onboard you can see that he is putting much more lock. He just needs time

    #237002
    Force Maikel
    Participant

    I would like to say that I think that in qualifying they are evenly matched but when it comes to race pedigree I think Hamilton is the clear winner. That doesn’t mean nico isn’t a good racer; he’s just not like the hamiltons or alonsos of this world.

    #237003
    George
    Participant

    Like several people have said, I think it’s more down to the car/tyres than anything else. I’m guessing Hamilton is having to drive at less than 100% to preserve the tyres, even over a single lap, something he’s obviously not very good at considering his ‘I cant go any slower’ comments on the radio. It could also be that Hamilton is concentrating more on fixing his tyre problems too, trying different lines etc while Rosberg goes for outright speed.

    Having said that, it is a surprise that Rosberg is beating Hamilton, considering Hamilton’s record against Button in the last couple years. I always considered Rosberg to be a Button-like driver, I guess on this evidence his one-lap speed is greater though, more like a Raikkonen.

    #237004
    Kingshark
    Participant

    Any opinions still shifting after today’s qualifying?

    It’s a disgrace how underrated Rosberg’s speed has been throughout his career. People were actually considering Button to be faster than him. At this point last year Jenson was out-qualified by Lewis 6-0. Nico is currently 3-3, and has taken 3 pole positions compared to Lewis’ one.

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