Poll: Russian Grand Prix 2018, Sochi - Race 16/21

[timmeh]

Because this isn't a charity event. This is to win the title obviously. Bottas has had all season to try and win a race and still hasn't. If they were allowed to race Hamilton would probably still have won anyway.

It’s not a charity event but they gifted the win to another driver. Hamilton was already in front of Vettel, he was already going to increase his 40 point lead. The swap was completely unnecessary.

Bottas isn’t ever going to win a race if the team keep taking them away from him and using him as Hamilton’s rear gunner.

 

[Stumble Bum]

It’s not a charity event but they gifted the win to another driver. Hamilton was already in front of Vettel, he was already going to increase his 40 point lead. The swap was completely unnecessary.

Bottas isn’t ever going to win a race if the team keep taking them away from him and using him as Hamilton’s rear gunner.

lol, there are no prizes for being nice. Welcome to competitive sport.

 

[mmj_uk]

You think race control are listening to one of the many commentary teams during the race?

The commentators generally tend to employ common sense which, oddly enough, often lines up with the race directors.

I'd imagine they have access to TV's with race coverage yes.

Common sense? No they don't, they employ whatever is best for the 'show', both commentators and race control tend to go with whatever they see as will provide the most entertainment in the race which a Vettel penalty wouldn't.

 

[Usel]

Nice of Hamilton to offer to swap cups with Bottas

 

[Psycho Ned]

Bottas will get the chance for race wins in the last 2 or 3 races when Hamiltons won the title and mentally checked out like every year

 

[mmj_uk]

It’s not a charity event but they gifted the win to another driver. Hamilton was already in front of Vettel, he was already going to increase his 40 point lead. The swap was completely unnecessary.

Bottas isn’t ever going to win a race if the team keep taking them away from him and using him as Hamilton’s rear gunner.

Whatever happened to this?

The Mercedes team boss then reiterated his dislike for team orders.

“I don’t really like team orders, they are not cool, not good for the sport or for either driver, " Wolff continued.

"Lewis doesn’t want to have anything gifted and Valtteri doesn’t want to give anything up. We are looking at it from race-to-race. We discussed it this morning, various scenarios and there was no necessity today. We will see what happens in Singapore. I want to push that moment back as far as possible.”

 

[drunkenmaster]

I feel sorry for Bottas, it would have been nice PR for Hamilton to have given the place back and a poke in the eye for Ferrari if he had said that he doesn't want to win the Championship being given handouts from the team. Bottas deserved to win the race from qualifying onwards.

Good PR today sure, but if someone hits Ham out in one race and an engine failure in another they'll be a laughing stock for giving the 7 points away and criticising them for not being clever enough to win. THe past month has been non stop criticising Ferrari for not favouring Vettel or making Kimi work for him properly even though the fans have been completely wrong, imagine the crap they'd get for actually being at fault of choosing to give up those 7 points then seeing Vettel win the championship.

 

[Moley]

It's not a charity event unless you are Lewis and your team mate gives you the win.

 

[Junglist]

I do feel bad for Bottas as he deserved the win but I can completely get why Mercedes did what they did. Bottas just needs to start beating Hamilton more often than not next season and I'm sure he'd get the support come the end of the season.

Boring race but a good result in terms of the WDC

 

[Irish_Tom]

I didn’t watch the race, just caught up with the result on 5 Live during the final couple of laps.

I’m not a fan of team orders, even if they benefit the driver I support. Bit of a hollow victory today for Lewis.

 

[timmeh]

lol, there are no prizes for being nice. Welcome to competitive sport.

Clearly, maybe he’ll ignore the team orders next time

 

[MooMoo444]

Rosberg wouldn't have been 100+ points behind his team mate with 5 races still to go.

Rosberg was so annoying but at least he put fight in. Bottas is just a filler. It's so bad..

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Clearly, maybe he’ll ignore the team orders next time

Not likely.

 

[Housey]

Rosberg is a great driver, top of the tree, we sometimes don't appreciate that because of the Hamilton thing, but he was a very quick driver. Bottas is not top tier in my view.

 

[Kenai]

"Why not give Bottas the place back?"

Simple - because the championship isn't won yet. People would look back at today and comment about how stupid Mercedes were if Hamilton had a crap run in and lost the title to Vettel by 5 points or something. Whatever nonsense they might say about not liking it, you'd be mental to deliberately deliver less points to your title competing driver just because it was 'fair' to the other guy who is competing for absolutely nothing.

If the title is won with a couple of races left, I suspect then you'll see Hamilton back off and let Bottas take a win or two.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Rosberg is a great driver, top of the tree, we sometimes don't appreciate that because of the Hamilton thing, but he was a very quick driver. Bottas is not top tier in my view.

Meh, if this was 2014-2016 the Mercedes had a dramatically large advantage than everyone in those seasons which means Rosberg even driving much slower, got 2nd most places and Bottas with a far bigger gap to Ferrari would also get 2nd most places. It would also mean any time Hamilton had a failure Bottas would win and just like for Rosberg that meant a 25point gain on multiple occasions that again due to the lack of competition meant taking fully 5 wins to claw back that one DNF.

Rosberg isn't a top driver, he was beaten hands up and down in 95% of on track battles. The only times Ham couldn't pass him was either with a car problem or at a 'non passing' track. Everywhere else he'd catch and pass him.

You also have the other issue, this year if Ham is ahead of bottas but just stays 2 seconds ahead saving the engine, then Ferrari gain and might beat them on strategy. In 2015 Ham stays 2 seconds ahead of Rosberg and Ferrari are 15 seconds back, zero threat. So this year Ham is pushing a lot more which has frequently exposed a large gap to Bottas.

People are way over rating Rosberg because due to lack of competition he got easy seconds and a single issue disproportionately hurt Hamilton.

 

[spudbynight]

I think most people would put money on Lewis to beat Bottas today if they were both allowed to go for it.

The thing is, the chance of them both taking each other out is real.

 

[timmeh]

"Why not give Bottas the place back?"

Simple - because the championship isn't won yet. People would look back at today and comment about how stupid Mercedes were if Hamilton had a crap run in and lost the title to Vettel by 5 points or something. Whatever nonsense they might say about not liking it, you'd be mental to deliberately deliver less points to your title competing driver just because it was 'fair' to the other guy who is competing for absolutely nothing.

If the title is won with a couple of races left, I suspect then you'll see Hamilton back off and let Bottas take a win or two.

They said exactly the same thing last year too when Hamilton gave Bottas the lead back in Hungary. He still went on to easily win the title.

 

[Mr Jack]

I’m not a fan of team orders, even if they benefit the driver I support. Bit of a hollow victory today for Lewis.

F1 is a team sport.

I have no problem with team orders in a situation like this where one driver is fighting for the championship and the other isn't. It's only when teams favour one driver over the other from the start of the season that it gets my goat.

 

[UTmaniac]

Is Bernie Billy Bob Thornton's new stunt double in Goliath? Looks scarily similar with the look in that photo on BBC!