Italian Grand Prix 2014, Monza - Race 13/19

It was a 3 year contract. There was talk of there being a 2 year option, but no idea if thats on Hamiltons side or Mercedes.

At the end of the year they will either have 2 WDCs, or a double WDC and Rosberg. I expect that willl have a significant impact on what they decide to do. But given the efforts they went to in order to get Lewis, I can't see dropping him being high on their list of options.

There is always the higly likley, yet far less fun to speculate about option of... keeping both? Just give them the STFU talk and let them fight it out in the fastest car. Given Mercedes investment and performance, its in both drivers best interest to suck it up and get on with it. Neither driver is going to enjoy watching Mercedes beat them if they leave.
 
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The issues might arise next year if other teams catch up though. With the Merc being so dominant, they don't care if they take points from each other, but if the car isn't good enough to do that again, they'll need to favour a driver, and both of them have that #1 driver mentality.
 
steve45 said:
I was under the impression that hamiltons contract runs to the end of 2015?
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bah, my brain was in football mode :p so yes, I guess what I meant is he's under contract to the end of 2015(my brain thinks in 15/16 :p ). So basically he's under contract for next season as well as Nico, so either way would require pushing one of them out.

In terms of other teams being close and taking more points off them things get murky, a second only half decent driver in a dominant car is almost preferable. But as I was getting at, if the RBR, Williams or Ferrari(or if by magic Mclaren make a wonder car out of nothing, which I just don't see happening), if I was Toto/Lauda I'd want Hamilton on my team and Rosberg on another team. That extra speed Hamilton has could be the difference between a very close car that can or can't beat a marginally better car.

Simple fact is, Rosberg in a dominant season has caused all the trouble, literally all of it. If you put any other driver in that seat(anyone remotely competent) then Rosberg will have hissy fits again. If RBR gain a little and had Riccy and Hamilton in the team, then they probably can't afford to have someone intentionally not good enough to challenge Rosberg at all in the second seat. Of course if they maintain this performance gap over the field, it almost wouldn't matter at all who was in the second seat.

It's a big judgement call to make for anyone involved.

Again I'd say marketing, worldwide fans, Hamilton blows Rosberg away.. look at fans at belgium booing Rosberg, the very poor attendance at the German GP and the huge turn out for Silverstone, the huge amount of british fans in Belgium/across europe.

Titles are a good marketing thing but it's fairly obvious to anyone biased or unbiased, who the better driver is. Without the failures not only would Hamilton have a load more points but Rosberg would have a load less points and I'd again point out who has done all the cheating. I'd personally take Hamilton of the two but who for the second seat is a difficult call. Merc could pretty much get anyone. They'd have to make a monumental screw up to not at least be in the running for the titles next year which means all the top drivers and for that matter all the crap ones would love a seat there.
 
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I hope Hamilton takes the win here to start clawing back the deficit to Rosberg again. I would rather see on the track racing then DNF's but it is going to take a mighty end of the season for Hamilton to win the WDC without some bad luck befalling Rosberg.

MooMoo444 said:
The issues might arise next year if other teams catch up though. With the Merc being so dominant, they don't care if they take points from each other, but if the car isn't good enough to do that again, they'll need to favour a driver, and both of them have that #1 driver mentality.
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I would suspect other teams will be closer next year, though unless something drastic I would still think Merc to be the fastest but just by a smaller margin. Though if the other teams do get a lot closer, I would suspect with two drivers like Hamilton and Rosberg then Merc wont want to choose. Neither driver is going to accept being told they are number 2 either so I can only see them letting them fight until one exerts some dominance over the other.
 
MooMoo444 said:
Makes you wonder what Webber could have done if they were allowed to race instead of team obviously favouring one guy.
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Webber should have won it in 2010. He was ahead of Vettel until the very last race. Had he not fractured his shoulder blade mountain biking he might well have done.

After that, Vettel outclassed him and increasingly so. I suspect that Webber was losing his edge as he got older just as Vettel was coming into his prime. That, and the peerless quality of the Red Bull flattered Vettel's ability to an enormous degree.
 
Quick calculation, working on the assumption if Merc finish they will 1 2 the races, if they don’t then DNF over the next 7 races if;

They finish every race and Rosberg wins 1, Hamilton wins 6 (with 1 being double points) - Hamilton takes it 384 to Rosbergs 371.
They finish every race and Rosberg wins double points, Hamilton wins 6 - Rosberg takes is 378 to Hamiltons 377.
If Rosberg DNF’s 1 race and wins 3, Hamilton wins 4 – Hamilton takes it 370 to Rosbergs 367.
If Rosberg DNF’s 1 race win 2 (with 1 being double points), Hamilton win 5 – Hamilton takes it 370 to Rosbergs 367.
If Rosberg DNF’s double points race and wins 4, Hamilton wins 3 – Hamilton takes it 363 to Rosbergs 356.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Looked by far the fastest car in fp1 and looked like he'd have been quite a bit up in fp2, he did a fast lap while others were doing race sims and he got blocked a lot all the way around really and still put in a very very good lap.
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His fastest lap in FP1 was still faster than Rosberg's in FP2 so he just has to keep up that pace.
 
I think they have sabotaged Rosbergs car on the quiet on give him a proper punishment and give Hamilton points back. I think they have people with the flu keep coughing round Rosberg to make him ill to affect his performance. I think Rosberg has been given a lower fuel grade in this race to make sure he's behind. I think they have recalibrated the dials on rosbergs steering wheel so when he selects performance level 4 on the steering wheel it's really only level 3. I think they have added extra ballast to Rosbergs car this race so his car is a few kilos over weight to make sure he's behind. I think the Germans are so embrassed by Rosberg they have nobbled him in this race to apologise to Hamilton and for their conduct during the war.
 
dannyjo22 said:
I think they have sabotaged Rosbergs car on the quiet on give him a proper punishment and give Hamilton points back. I think they have people with the flu keep coughing round Rosberg to make him ill to affect his performance. I think Rosberg has been given a lower fuel grade in this race to make sure he's behind. I think they have recalibrated the dials on rosbergs steering wheel so when he selects performance level 4 on the steering wheel it's really only level 3. I think they have added extra ballast to Rosbergs car this race so his car is a few kilos over weight to make sure he's behind. I think the Germans are so embrassed by Rosberg they have nobbled him in this race to apologise to Hamilton and for their conduct during the war.
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The funny part is, if you replace "Rosberg" with "Hamilton" in this paragraph, it's almost believable.
 
what happened to merc's reliability, start of the season they were indestructable, now out of any team to have reliability problems you'd put all your money on them.
 
smr said:
what happened to merc's reliability, start of the season they were indestructable, now out of any team to have reliability problems you'd put all your money on them.
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The engine that Hamilton is using for todays Free Practice sessions is the one that got flambéd so it's not surprising that it's got issues.
 
smr said:
what happened to merc's reliability, start of the season they were indestructable, now out of any team to have reliability problems you'd put all your money on them.
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They were only going to get more unreliable as the season went on down to lack of time testing and the stricter rules on amount of time parts had to last. I expect it to get much worse too before it gets better. That's why I don't expect much from Mclaren next year even if the engine is great. The extra year of real world testing might hurt them next year.
 
Greboth said:
Quick calculation, working on the assumption if Merc finish they will 1 2 the races, if they don’t then DNF over the next 7 races if;

They finish every race and Rosberg wins 1, Hamilton wins 6 (with 1 being double points) - Hamilton takes it 384 to Rosbergs 371.
They finish every race and Rosberg wins double points, Hamilton wins 6 - Rosberg takes is 378 to Hamiltons 377.
If Rosberg DNF’s 1 race and wins 3, Hamilton wins 4 – Hamilton takes it 370 to Rosbergs 367.
If Rosberg DNF’s 1 race win 2 (with 1 being double points), Hamilton win 5 – Hamilton takes it 370 to Rosbergs 367.
If Rosberg DNF’s double points race and wins 4, Hamilton wins 3 – Hamilton takes it 363 to Rosbergs 356.
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Its going to be an uphil struggle for Lewis if Merc follow form and every Hamilton win means a Rosberg 2nd. Hamilton needs Rosberg to finish significantly behind him a few times.
 
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