Mercedes: Rosberg wanted Schumacher to let him pass

2011 Spanish GP team review

May 23, 2011 at 3:08 pm by Keith Collantine

Nico Rosberg spent much of the Spanish Grand Prix stuck behind his team mate.

According to reports after the race, Rosberg even urged his team to tell Michael Schumacher to let him pass.

They didn’t, and Rosberg ended the race in Schumacher’s wheel tracks.

	Michael Schumacher	Nico Rosberg
Qualifying position	10	7
Qualifying time comparison (Q2)	1’22.671 (+0.102)	1’22.569
Race position	6	7
Laps	65/66	65/66
Pit stops	3	3

Mercedes drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51	52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59	60	61
Michael Schumacher	98.633	92.839	92.136	92.005	91.738	91.711	91.903	91.809	91.849	94.99	107.184	91.62	91.663	91.267	92.941	91.501	91.25	91.167	90.774	91.274	91.23	91.61	91.139	91.669	92.32	93.631	107.167	90.838	90.804	90.428	90.573	90.241	90.058	89.463	90.197	90.717	90.428	89.923	91.798	90.965	92.641	107.165	89.572	89.818	90.228	90.367	91.74	90.98	89.821	90.272	90.616	90.021	89.953	92.203	90.225	90.065	89.804	90.236	90.661	89.672	89.848
Nico Rosberg	99.139	92.784	92.187	92.434	91.597	91.71	91.829	91.93	91.869	92.404	95.52	108.494	92.882	90.624	91.393	90.355	90.745	90.742	91.017	91.016	91.467	91.839	91.187	91.734	92.333	92.891	95.206	106.678	91.725	89.596	89.705	89.958	89.671	89.155	89.323	89.622	90.433	90.361	91.21	91.556	90.501	92.936	107.254	89.608	89.763	92.848	90.12	89.839	89.797	90.123	90.297	90.591	89.887	92.91	90.652	89.67	89.417	90.549	89.817	89.564	89.923

Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, Barcelona, 2011

Michael Schumacher

Schumacher’s KERS failed during Q3 so the team limited the damage by sending him out on hard tyres as a precaution. He didn’t set a time anyway and started tenth.

He took advantage of Vitaly Petrov edging Rosberg onto the grass at turn three to get ahead of his team mate and stayed there.

He came in one lap before Rosberg at all three pit stops, which gave him the benefit of fresher tyres each time, allowing him to stay ahead.

Michael Schumacher 2011 form guide

Nico Rosberg

Rosberg spent almost all of the race stuck behind Schumacher, hampered by faults with his radio and DRS.

Towards the end of the race he had Nick Heidfeld bearing down on him – the trio were covered by 1.3 seconds at the line.

Nico Rosberg 2011 form guide

2011 Spanish Grand Prix

Browse all 2011 Spanish Grand Prix articles

Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, Barcelona, 2011

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56 comments on Mercedes: Rosberg wanted Schumacher to let him pass

W-K said on 24th May 2011, 11:25

Ummm! Slightly Confused.

All these schumi fans saying isn’t it so good he could stop a faster driver overtaking. I thought the idea of the DRS was to get rid of this. OK Rosberg’s DRS was faulty, but in the interests of the team wouldn’t it have been better to let Rosberg past so that he could try to catch the next car up the road, because it was clear Schumi couldn’t.

Rosberg was stuck behind Schumi from at least lap 22, he would only have needed to go approx 0.2s/lap faster to catch Alonso, and I think he was faster than that.

- Dizzy-A (@david-a) said on 24th May 2011, 12:27
  
  Then they should have done the same at Japan last year.
  
  - TheBrav3 said on 24th May 2011, 14:27
    
    Rosberg was stuck behind schu from lap 2 onwards and it was his own fault for failing to get even a poor start. If he had a bad start he would have still been ahead of his team m8 who started 3 positions behind him on the dirty side of the grid. But he didn’t get a bad start he got a terrible start like he always does and schu taught him a lesson.
    
    - Robbie said on 24th May 2011, 14:48
      
      Actually, NR started just as well as MS but got balked by a Renault after turn 1 which is what allowed MS to get by him…clearly NR had no trouble reeling MS in every time they pitted and/or other traffic cleared out, so if it hadn’t been for NR getting held up in the beginning he likely would have stayed ahead of MS and been faster than him all day, and in hindsight he might have had a shot at FA had he been unencumbered by the Renault from the getgo.
      
      - Dizzy-A (@david-a) said on 24th May 2011, 16:36
        
        Rosberg started 3 places ahead of Schumacher, biut going into turn 1, Schumacher was 1 place behind. Then Petrov (who had a poor Sunday), came into the equation and blocked Rosberg.
      - TheBrav3 said on 24th May 2011, 20:03
        
        Generally the start is defined as the period of the race that takes place after the lights go out and before the cars have all got onto the racing line.
        
        Nico rosberg was shown the grass by michael alongside him (which by the way how was he alongside nico if they had identical starts up untill this point?) and petrov infront of him regardless of the if who where what why and but it translates the same. Nico started ahead and finished the lap behind…he got a bad start.
        
        Also if you take a look at the race start again you’ll see only nico rosbergs front wing on msc’s on car camera. He was already behind michael before petrovs line adjustment.
- Martyn said on 25th May 2011, 10:14
  
  W-K: DRS is supposed (rightly or wrongly) to address the disappointing situation in which a much faster car/driver has extremely little chance to overtake a leading car, no matter how skillful his attempts may be – e.g. Abu Dhabi and Bahrain last year.
  
  If there is minimal opportunity to pass a competitive car on track, it isn’t really “racing”. However, nor is it racing when a faster car/driver inevitably overtakes a slower car within a few laps, due to its being trivially easy – if DRS were to bring about that situation (arguably it, in combination with the Pirelli tyres, did so in Turkey) then it would be a total failure and the “races” would be equally as boring as a procession.
  
  Slower cars holding up faster cars is the essential ingredient of motor racing that differentiates it from time trialling!
  
  But don’t worry, the BBC commentators also made the same misguided comments in Australia and Spain, where (imo) the DRS zones were calibrated perfectly well for exciting racing.
  
Sukoco said on 24th May 2011, 12:04

Form 1st stint rosberg already stuck behind Schu train.. if he can go faster easily can past Scu when pitstop.. He have 3 stop to leap frog but he cant.. look at button

simply rosberg not fast enough.. petrov n massa simply going worse

n like alonso, Schu get better drive at start .. Are Alonso must let pass Vettel?