Rosberg retires with immediate effect

Ninco! said:
To be fair a classy and sincere way to bow out.
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Hardly classy by any stretch. He left Mercedes with a massive headache. Both Wolff and Lauder have commented that the team didn't take the news well and it's not surprising. His mechanics in particular were not happy with him.

So, sincere, yes. Classy, no, certainly not.
 
We've seen drivers break, or buy themselves out of, contracts before and drivers with subtle get-out clauses. I don't think we should write off the idea of a top driver going to Mercedes entirely. Still, I suspect a promotion for one of Mercedes Test duo - Ocon or Wehrlein - is the most likely.

Personally, I'd be reasonably happy with either. Both have a pretty good record prior to F1 and did everything they could in a dog of a car this season. Wehrlein's qualifying, in particular, has been impressive.

We'll see soon enough, I think.
 
Sliver said:
Hardly classy by any stretch. He left Mercedes with a massive headache. Both Wolff and Lauder have commented that the team didn't take the news well and it's not surprising. His mechanics in particular were not happy with him.

So, sincere, yes. Classy, no, certainly not.
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Teams sack drivers all the time. I really don't see a problem here. He's done it right after the season ended, week before the new season that wouldn't be classy. I also don't get Lauda's comment about mechanics, they're doing the same job no matter who is driving the car.
Yes it left Mercedes with a situation to deal with but they're big enough to deal with it. Us fans always complain that young talented drivers don't get a chance in one of the big teams, well we might get one now.:)
 
bayo000 said:
Teams sack drivers all the time. I really don't see a problem here
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Well It's not my job to state the obvious. I'm just telling the facts. It wasn't classy, it was badly timed, and there is bad feeling between elements of the Merc team and Rosberg. These are all facts. Anyway, it will be forgotten about as soon as they find a replacement. It's a storm in a teacup.
 
I don't think Merc will struggle anywhere near as much as perhaps other (smaller) teams would have, best car on the track, a list of willing drivers and an immense budget should they want to throw it around to buy out contracts... It's not ideal but could have been a lot worse.
 
CBA to read the thread. Who do people reckon will take his seat now then?

Some guys at work reckon Button :confused:

Personally I wish it could be Alonso. I guess Vettel is the sure thing though?
 
Sliver said:
Well It's not my job to state the obvious. I'm just telling the facts. It wasn't classy, it was badly timed, and there is bad feeling between elements of the Merc team and Rosberg. These are all facts. Anyway, it will be forgotten about as soon as they find a replacement. It's a storm in a teacup.
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We'll just have to disagree on this. :) By acting this way they're making their position weaker. They should have said they have young driver programme or contingency plan in place and move on. Crying about it to media is not a way to move forward and resolve the situation.
 
It would be funny if Mercedes have been pulling some strings behind the scenes to sabotage Hamilton a little this season, you can certainly see why Mercedes would want Rosberg as champion for their German marketing.
 
Mr Jack said:
They've worked hard as a team to support Rosberg and get him the WDC. I can see why they'd be annoyed.
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I'm sure he's already thanked them and probably even got them something for it. Mitst likely he will do so again as well. I don't see how it would make it better for them if he told them months ago.
Sure for Toto and management it would have been better to know months ago.
 
mmj_uk said:
It would be funny if Mercedes have been pulling some strings behind the scenes to sabotage Hamilton a little this season, you can certainly see why Mercedes would want Rosberg as champion for their German marketing.
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Engines blowing up doesn't help Mercedes marketing. Especially as their German champion is going to be sitting at home with his feet up, not marketing anything to anyone.
 
Steampunk said:
Engines blowing up doesn't help Mercedes marketing. Especially as their German champion is going to be sitting at home with his feet up, not marketing anything to anyone.
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How much of the German population actually watches F1? it's something like 7% of the population and even then anyone watching a race would come away seeing how utterly dominant Mercedes are and forgive a blow up or two.

With a TV advertising campaign you can reach out to 100% of the population and who better to front it than newly world champion German pretty boy Nico Rosberg? he signed a new 2 year contract extension only 5 months ago so how were Mercedes to know he'd retire?

You've got to admit it's a bit funny that they swapped mechanics and stuff, even Hamilton highlighted it as if to say his new team are letting him down.
 
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mmj_uk said:
How much of the German population actually watches F1? it's something like 7% of the population and even then anyone watching a race would come away seeing how utterly dominant Mercedes are and forgive a blow up or two.

You've got to admit it's a bit funny that they swapped mechanics and stuff, even Hamilton highlighted it as if to say his new team are letting him down.
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They swapped to prevent polarisation from one side of the pit to the other, their employees, they do as they like, a divisive pit doesn't help the business at all.
 
RoboCod said:
CBA to read the thread. Who do people reckon will take his seat now then?

Some guys at work reckon Button :confused:

Personally I wish it could be Alonso. I guess Vettel is the sure thing though?
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Alonso has somewhat toxic and has gained a reputation in the paddock for being rather difficult to work with. Not sure Mercedes can cope with two dominant drivers either, just look at the problems over the last couple of years.

They need a decent No.2 to bring in the points and a proper No.1 to win the drivers championship. Things are likely to be closer next year with new aero rules and Renault, at least, starting with a new engine, and Merc won't be able to afford to have their drivers taking points off each other.
 
Alibaba99 said:
Alonso has somewhat toxic and has gained a reputation in the paddock for being rather difficult to work with. Not sure Mercedes can cope with two dominant drivers either, just look at the problems over the last couple of years.

They need a decent No.2 to bring in the points and a proper No.1 to win the drivers championship. Things are likely to be closer next year with new aero rules and Renault, at least, starting with a new engine, and Merc won't be able to afford to have their drivers taking points off each other.
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Nor will they be able to afford having a No2 driver that isn't fast enough to win them the constructors championship. So if they went that route there would be a balancing act to play.
 
Duke said:
Even if they appear with the 2nd/3rd quickest car they have some serious wedge to out develop their rivals.
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Mercedes have some outstanding resources that they can tap into but Red Bull have Newey and as the next chapter in F1 falls back into aero, I can see Newey coming up with something alien like in design which will send those Red Bulls way out front. Goodness knows how long he has been working on the 17 car and Renault will make huge leaps forward with there power unit thanks to the silly restricting token system being binned.
 
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