Rosberg has power disadvantage this weekend

2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Nico Rosberg revealed his car doesn’t have as much power as Lewis Hamilton’s this weekend as his engine is older than his team mate’s.

Rosberg suffered an engine failure at the Italian Grand Prix in September and as a result now has to use a higher-mileage unit. Replacing it would mean having to take a grid penalty.

“It’s been a good start here in Abu Dhabi,” said Rosberg after setting the fastest time on Friday, “but it will be a tough weekend for me as I have quite a high mileage engine in my car.”

“After the Monza problem, we have had to stretch the engine life more than we had planned over the 19 races, so I definitely have a small lack of power on the straights and therefore need to make up extra time in the corners.”

“It will be a big battle with Lewis here. He didn’t really bring together his quick laps, so it will be even closer tomorrow I’m sure. I’m looking forward to it and I definitely want to win this race and give the boys in the garage a reason to celebrate at the end of the season.”

2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    23 comments on “Rosberg has power disadvantage this weekend”

    1. Is he trying to lure Lewis ? but it seems that Lewis has lost a big chunk of his mojo, unfortunately he lost the edge, team orders or not.

      1. How can the “greatest ever” lose something?

    2. It shows at the speed trap, to be honest.

      1. Link to a twit, please?

          1. Rosberg is actually 12th with 329.6kph – FOM, for once, displayed the bottom half of the field as well shortly before the session concluded. (Last time they did so in FP2 was Monza.)

          2. I am sure one of the even more loyal fans will correct me but if I am not mistaken this is not the first time Maldonado specifically has shown the highest top speed in the speed traps yet when I some one mentions the faster car in a straight line the commentators always refer to Williams?

    3. It’d be interesting if Rosberg was able to qualify on pole despite the power deficit. As much as I admire Hamilton’s abilities, he needs to come to terms with the fact that things won’t always go his way and he needs to handle that better.

      I think another Rosberg win would set the tone nicely for the new season and hopefully instill the fight in him that seemed to be lacking throughout this season. Given the Mercedes advantage, the team battle is needs to be interesting unless Ferrari have something up their sleeve for next season so Vettel can fight for more victories.

    4. I must say I’m confused how Rosberg is on an older engine unless the updated engine that they both had at Monza but Rosberg ended up not running was never saved?

      Because as far as I understood they both did Monza practice on a new upgraded engine, a vibration problem saw Rosberg revert to the Belgium engine which was an end of life unit anyway. So logically surely as Lewis ran Monza on a new engine Rosberg reverted to an engine they wouldn’t have wanted to use for any more races anyway Lewis would be the one with more miles on his engine?

      1. The ‘Monza’ engine was both drivers third units. Rosberg’s was seemingly irreparably damaged by the cooling leak (at least enough so to worry about running it in anger), so they went back to engine 2, which blew up in the race. He then had to take #4 for the rest of the season.

        Lewis used the Monza engine through Singapore & Japan & switched to #4 during the build-up to the Russian GP, which suggests that even if he has to revert to #3, it’s still got more life on it than whatever Rosberg can run.

        1. Ah, thanks @optimaximal.

          Anyway Merc should do us a favour and change both drivers’ engines.

        2. Ah k. I thought the Monza power unit was salvageable but now it makes sense.

    5. well i’d think that hamilton should be able to take pole considering rosberg’s power deficit, which would be sad to see rosberg robbed of pole like that. But remember the last time rosberg had a power deficit….monza….and what happened their? he qualified fourth! So if Ferrari can edge out rosberg and 2nd/3rd, considering their good race pace shown during FP2, we have a great race on our hands!

      who knows rosberg may not even finish?

      but none the less lets hope for the best possible race! and may the best man win!

      1. @fish123 The higher millage engine isn’t deficit isn’t the same as the one he faced in Monza, that was 2 different specs of engine. Now considering that it’s a high millage engine that means that during the race he will have to limit the engines mode down slightly, It shouldn’t be a problem to run the engine on the highest setting for 1 or 2 laps in Q3, if the engine was that much at risk they would take a new one. So I doubt it will effect qually but rather his performance in the race, where highest engines setting are used around the pit stop but not really used unless a gap is needed. If there is an effect on Rosberg’s performance it will during the race not qually.

        However Mercedes have a rule where one driver cant be in a higher engine mode than his teammate at any point unless they are building a gap to another team. So if that rules follows through the Hamilton & Rosberg will mirror each other and there will be no disadvantage at all. That is assuming of course that Mercedes are far enough ahead of the rest of the field to pull back on the engines.

        1. oh ok i understand @woodyd9191, but i think rosberg will loose out during the race. cuase vettel might be quite close and therefore i dont think mercedes can allow lewis to lower his engine mode?

    6. Why does he have to do this…. why he say all these things…. doesn’t matter if you have slightly less power, an older unit means that the team has to tune down the engine or reduce the number of uses of the MAXIMUM power mode just incase. Even if that’s hindering Rosberg, he doesn’t need to tell the world before hand. IF you lose, you loose, if you win you win, accept it. Saying things like this just make you look weak.

      1. Hamilton says stuff like this all the time. I assume it’s fine when he says it.

    7. Rosberg will take Pole & win the race. Because that’s what the team orders are. Just like they were in Brazil.
      But I really hope I’m wrong and Mercedes thinks F1 Racing is more important than Mercedes is.

      1. @tychop
        Apart from the fact that there were no team orders.

        1. @kingshark I happen to agree with you however it far from a “fact” that there were no team orders.

        2. And what exactly ARE team orders? Being instructed to switch strategies and being ‘ordered’ to comply? I’m sure you and I would be pretty darn surprised at what actually goes on behind closed doors, and what kind of ‘orders’ are given. You do know we can’t believe everything that we are told publicly, right? And before I’m pounced on, yes, this would affect BOTH Lewis and Nico. Hey….. I don’t have an inside scoop, just my objective opinion.

          1. You’re right. Team orders sounds a bit harsh. I meant to say that Mercedes has an interest in ROS finishing before HAM. Now that HAM is champion, It’s in Mercedes’s best interest for having ROS win the most points. I found the complaining on the radio of HAM in Brazil a bit suspicious. HAM was far more on the radio than he’s ever been. Even his attitude was more depressed than normal. And ROS was also not as happy as he normally is after a win. That made me think that it might have been agreed that when it was possible, HAM should let ROS have the win.
            And I think it is happening again this weekend. I don’t claim to have inside knowledge. I am just observing and drawing a line to where the facts could be pointing.

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