Ericsson ignored team orders twice last year – Nasr

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In the round-up: Felipe Nasr claims his Sauber team mate MArcus Ericsson ignored more than one instruction to let him past last year following the row over their collision in Monaco.

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Was Nico Rosberg wrong to let Lewis Hamilton by?

I think it was a highly admirable but rather silly decision by Rosberg, assuming the ultimate goal is the championship. Hamilton is, if not the best in F1 right now then damn close to it. Rosberg, really can not afford to give anything away.

Will Hamilton return the favour later in the season? I think, honestly, probably not. Rosberg needs to nurse his points lead for all it’s worth. It’s a very, very long season and winning Monaco just gave Hamilton the jolt in motivation that he’s arguably been lacking up till now. Which might be worth even more to him than the points.
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100 comments on “Ericsson ignored team orders twice last year – Nasr”

  1. The death of the Sauber F1 team is not a matter of if, but a matter of when. They can’t even hire decent drivers anymore!

    1. It’s sad, because I remember the good old days when this team was BMW Sauber, and it had two very good drivers and a good car which allowed the team to finish in the top 3 twice in the constructors championship in 2007 and 2008. What a huge difference a few years make. It will be sad to see this team go, but not as sad with Monisha at the helm.

      1. It is ironic that you glorify the BMW days, but conveniently forgot that BMW put them in this position they are in now. BMW pulled out and even left Sauber without a race licence. Sauber and Kalthenborn have been work like crazy to ensure the team is running. The reality is, there is very little sponsorship money available, and costs have risen to unbelievable levels. There is no magic anyone can do in such a situation. The easiest thing for anyone to do is just give up and go home.

    2. It died the day Monisha took the reigns. Remember when they were scoring podiums with Perez just one season before? RIP

      1. Agreed. She’s clearly out of her league and may have done better at the helm of a well funded team. To run a team like Sauber I think the team principle needs to be part salesperson and part showperson along the lines of a Briatore or Jordan.

        1. Or have one of the best F1 engineers in the world, like Adrian Newey, James Allison or Paddy Lowe as Technical Director. That’s usually how F1 teams have become successful- particularly in Williams’s case- WilliamsF1 became successful thanks to Patrick Head leading the design for the FW06 and FW07 in ’78 and ’79; or Colin Chapman with Lotus, John Barnard with McLaren, Gordon Murray with Brabham, Mauro Forghieri with Ferrari and Rudolf Uhlenhaut with Mercedes.

          1. Yeah, itd be cool if they could get their cars dsigned by someone like toro rosso’s james key… Oh, wait!

      2. Last year Peter Sauber said that without Kaltenborn the Sauber F1 team would have folded by now.
        http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sauber-defends-kaltenborn-amid-legal-row/

      3. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        1st June 2016, 9:39

        I’m massively surprised that Monisha hasn’t been sacked earlier. She’s incredibly intelligent, but I just don’t think she makes a good team principal. The team has been in utter shambles for the past 3 years.

        They just need a fresh start with new personal, and IMO Monisha should be the first to get the chop.

        1. She owns large part of Sauber, cannot just sack her.

    3. @ultimateuzair Or decent drivers, as Monaco showed. It must be so embarrassing running a team where the drivers publicly squabble in a manner similar to children arguing who took more sweets.

      1. What driver with any other option would sign with them after she clearly showed that a contract with Sauber wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on last year.

    4. @ultimateuzair We all know they go for quantity rather than quality…

    5. The problem with depending on your pay drivers is that you can’t even scold them really. They pay for the team to keep going so they can say “What right to you have scolding me, without me you can’t even race”.

  2. Every time I see the current Sauber cars, I always think of IKEA. I guess it’s the colors on the outside of their store buildings…

    1. Banco de Brasil colors

  3. People slag Ferrari for how they do things but I think it’s the best model. They make no bones about the fact that the drivers are employees and will do as they’re told. I think an additional piece could be added where you let the drivers know that if they are told to yield, if they can stick with their team mate the positions will be swapped back.

    1. @velocityboy Nasr was told exactly that.

    2. That’s actually a pretty good policy for team orders. Give the beneficiary 5 laps to build a lead of 2 seconds or the positions get swapped back. Neither driver can complain about that…. Although not sure how traffic could figure into it but I’m sure it could be made to work.

    3. i slag Ferrari for being the biggest cheats in Formula 1 history ever. The biggest fraud in F1, only able to win if can if they can cheat, steal or block competittors.

      Also their policy of having 1 main driver and sacrificial lamb ruins the spetacle, but in true Ferrari fashion they dont care, a win is win.

      1. There is no good way to win, there is only winning!

        1. That’s true for Ferrari.
          For everyone else, the good way to win is like Brawn did it, or like RedBull did it, or like Mercedes does it.
          That’s the good way to win.

    4. Ferrari can afford to do that because they have the financial might to tell the objecting driver “if you don’t like it the door is there and don’t let it hit you as you are leaving”
      Sauber is funded by this drivers. They can’t do that. They have to try and play politics with them.

  4. Winning Monaco gives the team a big prize bonus end of the year, and sponsor credibility. That’s why Mercedes had to make that decision to win the race at all cost. A win/cash bonus for the team members.

    But it was very costly for Rosberg.

  5. I’d assume that driving an F1 car on a wet Monaco track takes every ounce of skill and concentration, and having a feisty teammate inches behind who you know is desperate to get past might be that extra distraction that you just don’t want. I wonder whether Nico felt it wasn’t the best time to be mirror driving, particularly after the events of Spain and knowing that it may be of little consequence given the chance of a race-resetting safety car was about as high as it could be (even though it didn’t happen in the end). So perhaps Nico yielded to Hamilton for his own benefit as much as the team’s…

    1. +1. If you can’t drive in the wet (and Nico must have a special drawer somewhere in the garage where he keeps his balls in rainy days) and your teammate (whom you crashed out of the previous race with) is all over you with a clear shot at a win, that’s the only logical thing to do. Any other decision by Rosberg would be out of touch with reality. I just hope he’s still feeling confident about the WDC.

      As a side note, Hamilton’s comments about his new crew don’t seem the smartest move to me… “They were nervous” “coming to the world champions’ side is not easy” “they probably felt like they weren’t delivering”… One win, because his teammate is pathetic in the wet (and probably had a crappy setup) and a rival squad had a major screw up that barely got him ahead, is not enough for that kinda talk.

      1. It was a team order… Lol, last thing Nico would so is simply let anyone pass in Monaco. But.when teams orders… He is obliged to respect it.

        1. Well, as Nasr showed during that same race, you don’t really have to. A lot of people seem to think Hamilton wouldn’t follow such orders, for example. So it is (at least partly) his decision.

          1. @flig not when you’re negotiating a contract.

          2. Exactly, doea not have to. And Mercedes doea not have to extend their contract either. Or give him a nice bonus, or anything.

            Pretty sure following team orders is part of contract.

            But if you are a pay driver, then its harder. Then team is dependant on you, and cannot boss you around.

    2. petebaldwin (@)
      1st June 2016, 12:38

      Nico’s season is him vs Hamilton. Letting him past helps the team but not himself. Both of them finishing lower down is better for Nico than Lewis winning and him finishing 7th!

      As others have said though, if he’s still negotiating a contract, he probably felt he had to make the sacrifice.

      1. I doubt Nico was thinking of his contract when he complied with the order. It was simply the right thing to do.

      2. Finishing 7th is better than not finishing at all… What I mean is, I seriously doubt Nico would have obliged the team order if he felt like he had everything under control.

      3. @petebaldwin Maybe Nico thought he would be able to hold 3rd and Hamilton only 2nd.

      4. He still collected some points. 7th’s a better effort than the guy who started the race second in the championship: Kimi Raikkonen.
        But Nico let the other Nico get past him at the last corner, and so Lewis is less than one win behind him.
        And there are plenty of things to hit at Montreal, that lead could be wiped out in no time.

      5. Under the race/track circumstances I think it became painfully clear again that Rosberg just isn’t on par with Lewis. The majority of his wins all had to do with bad luck on Lewis side. Tough call for Mercedes to extent his contract, mostly triggered by lack of alternative since other drivers are locked in at their teams

  6. I blame Sauber for the entire debacle, if indeed Ericsson refused team orders twice in the past. The team should have made it clear after that, to both drivers, in no uncertain terms that it’s unacceptable. Clearly they haven’t done this. And if Ericsson thought that Nasr would just let him thru after such previous history, then he’s even more of an idiot that I thought when I watched his stupid divebomb that was never on

    Also I completely disagree with COTD @mike. To win the WDC you have to have the team on your side(at least equal to your team-mate). Had he lost Merc the chance of victory by holding up HAM that would be unforgivable in Merc’s eyes. Did you forget what happened the last time ROS lost the team’s support after Spa 2014? His title challenge completely unraveled after that. He just won 1 out of 8 races. This is not the only example. To give you one more: in 1989 Prost had lost Mclaren’s support by mid-season. He was leading the standings comfortably at the time, yet only had one fluke win in the second half of the season after Senna’s engine expired and only won the WDC courtesy of Balestre’s meddling

    Bottom line: you don’t want to antagonize your team. Ever

    1. It worries me that Sauber can be antagonised precisely because they can’t afford to bench drivers who go out of line. The ability to do so, in itself, tends to reduce the amount of pointless crashing that goes on. I am against enforced position-swapping in most situations, but this does not excuse Ericsson and Nasr colliding out of apparent frustration. Neither does it excuse both of them continuing to throw toys out of the pram after what must have been a very uncomfortable debrief. At that point, it would have been wise to give one or both a “time out” just to allow heads to clear, even if this led to a race with bad results with stand-in drivers. But nobody in the driver market has anything resembling Ericcson and Nasr’s sponsor money, and even if they did they’d step careful due to 2015’s last-ditch survival strategies.

      Also, Monaco is a key place for meeting new sponsors and impressing prospective/current ones. To have the cardinal sin committed there of all places is awful. To have it compounded by accusation and counter-accusation, with no sense of the team having a sanction available to it that its drivers actually respect… …that’s going to make it a lot tougher to get the funds Sauber needs, and make it more likely that those funds will come with a condition that someone else takes the helm. And while Monishia isn’t the best principal on the pitwall right now, I would argue that not only is she not the worst, but that Peter Sauber’s contention that her skill is what’s keeping Sauber afloat is true. A lesser team principal (as any enforced replacement is likely to be) is likely to accidentally sink a team that deserves a better future than the present it currently has.

      Sauber’s situation is quite alarming. Especially as it’s 50% of F1’s best hope of salvaging its governance.

      1. @alianora-la-canta I agree with everything you said. Unfortunately the situation is as it is. Notwithstanding Monisha’s skills, only some good fortune can save Sauber now

        1. Monisha’s skills are all based on short term or better say for the “now”… Doubt she can see past this evening… If she did, she wouldnt cause so much drama and legal fights… She did what she had to, many says, but at what cost? Now they are begging even more, and not sure they will last another season… unless some big pocket without brain come to buy them off

        2. I wish I could dispute that, @montreal95, but I can’t :(

      2. Indeed, very well articulated as always @alianora-la-canta; Sauber has been in trouble for a long while now, and I think it has taken a lot of effort to merely keep it as far afloat as it has (compare Lotus last year). I can only hope that the rumours there is some deal being discussed by Monishia to be true, and to turn out well.

      3. Well, it all steems from financial situation in the sport. Sauber for last 4-5 years is stuck with essentialy pay drivers.

        So what can they do? Fire their disobedient driver? Driver can simply pull his backing and end the team right there.

        We need to recognise Sauber as a true privateer team owned by their gentelmen drivers. They are bosses in the team. Limited talent and resources reduce them to poor results and essentially produce a downward spiral.

        Manor is in similar situation, but nowhere near as bad.

        Only other team without unlimited backing is Force India. Look at them, world class drivers, podiums, sponsorships, constructor points.

        To be fair Williams doesnt have unlimites backing either. But they again raised their game in terms of drivers.

        Look at McLaren an incredibly struggling team. First step get best drivers they can.

        Poor drivers just lead to enevitable poor results.

        Sauber knows this, so they push for fairer FOM money distribution. Extra 30M would allow them to get excellent drivers. But as thing stand they are stuck.

  7. New Tech Regs for 2017, bet ya Mercedes and Red Bull will be ahead of Ferrari.

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      1st June 2016, 12:23

      @foreverred …. and that in 2017, Ferrari will say 2018 will be their year and Toto will spend most of the year saying Ferrari are a threat when they aren’t.

  8. “I’m sure we have a lot of a better package than last year, but other teams have improved and we’re not where we want to be.”

    That sounds very 2010-2014, Kimi… you’re not supposed to talk like that!

    About Rosberg, I feel the same. I know it was a “gentleman’s move”, as the team put it, but seriously, Nico had a proper chance to win the Hungarian GP in 2014, and Lewis responded to messages by Mercedes telling him to allow Nico through with a clear: I’m not slowing down for Nico. If he can get close and overtake, then he can overtake.”
    https://www.racefans.net/2014/07/30/2014-hungarian-grand-prix-team-radio-transcript-2/

    It’s ridiculous to say that this is too early in the championship and there’s no reason to fight it out at this stage. We all know Mercedes has 9.9 over 10 chances of winning the title, and probably Rosberg’s best chance ever. He benefited from Hamilton’s problems, and kudos to him, he delivered anyway, taking easy wins along the way. But those days will be soon over, and Hamilton will be on full attack mode, proper Hammertime. And those points lost here at Monaco are gonna hurt badly.

    1. Hamilton wasn’t refusing to allow Rosberg to make a clean pass, but Rosberg wasn’t even able to get within DRS range of Hamilton to attempt a pass in that race.

      And Hamilton was in with a chance to win that race.

    2. In 2010-2014 it was “5th is the best we can do”….. “titles don´t matter, what matters is reputation”….. it´s not the same thing.

      By the way, 2010 started with a Ferrari 1-2, and 2012 saw them withn a 50 point advantage mid season that they lost.

    3. I don’t understand how anybody thinks Rosberg had a choice to make, as though he could work out the pros and cons of complying and hmmmm okay on balance tell Toto to spin on it.

      Unless you think ‘career suicide’ was a viable option, bearing in mind he’s trying to negotiate a contract!

  9. Who do Sauber think they are, issuing all these team orders? Who cares whether they’re 14th or 15th!

    1. Yeah you issue orders to subordinates, not people paying for your services. It would be like Dallara telling Haas what to do.

  10. “I’m 27 very soon and I don’t even have anything close to a world title and I believe I should have something like that very soon.”

    Ricciardo shouldn’t be so worried about this. Verstappen is the exception, not the rule. 27 is still fairly young. Next year there are new aero regulations, and he is at a team who are the masters of aero innovation. He has the talent to be a WDC and he is also on a very good team.

    1. It’s young, sure, but he’s probably comparing himself to Schumacher, Villeneuve, Lauda, Vettel, Hamilton and Alonso, who all won titles sub 27 years old. Also, of the last 10 driver’s titles, 6 were won by driver’s sub 27. So I can understand why he’s getting a bit agitated.

      1. Well last years he was beaten by Kvyiat and in 5 years in F1 was beaten 3 times by his team mate…
        He´s living of 2014 when he beated Vettel in very uneven conditions in terms of reliability and team strategies, so i think he doesn´t deserve a title by any means, still has a lot to prove.

        1. I can’t agree with you more. I am not as impressed with him as many others seem to be. He is a well above average driver, probably top 7 of the current field. But his overtaking attempts IMO are nothing to be proud about. He launches from way too far behind, and were he able to make the corner they would be insanely good, but too often he just doesn’t make the corner, usually resulting in damage to both cars involved. He has ruined too many of his own, but also others’ races this way.

          And aside from my opinion about his qualities as a driver, I have trouble with his frustration about lack of success. What did he expect? This is Formula 1, not a ‘one-design’ racing class. From the last 17 championships only around 3 were not won by the undisputed dominant car (you could argue there were a few more, but generally it has been Ferrari, Brawn, Red Bull and now Mercedes). In any case, IMO there are many more drivers in the current field who are way more intitled to be frustrated about lack of success than Ricciardo. First of all, he has actually been one of the most succesfull drivers not driving in a Mercedes. And second, they have actually driven better.

        2. @vvvans and Bultaco85: Argh, I can’t believe how much media (in part me included) failed to get the point across, even in the aftermath of the Kvyat-Verstappen swap, that Ricciardo actually spanked Kvyat in terms of pure one lap pace last year (best sector times), had better race pace more often than not and made less driver errors. It’s invariably clear from looking at the lap time data, race charts, race reports, etc. It really is incredible bad luck that Kvyat somehow got more points than him. Have less proof, but I suspect it was the same with Vergne in 2013.

          (Why do you guys think Red Bull got rid of Kvyat instead of Ricciardo if they didn’t think Ricciardo was the better package overall?)

          That said, I agree that he should not ‘expect’ to fight for the WDC, see Damon Hill’s reaction on Twitter.

          1. @atticus-2 Oh, don’t get me wrong. I am very aware Ricciardo performed a lot better than Kvyat. So in that sense I guess I shouldn’t have said that I couldn’t agree more with Bultaco85. I am less conviced though about his superiority over Vergne, but maybe thats because I didn’t pay too much attention. In my view they performed quite evenly.

            I believe, however, that Ricciardo is a very good driver. Still, not better in my opinion than Alonso, Hamilton, etc.

          2. @atticus-2
            Yep, Ricciardo outscored Vergne in 2013, and in 2012 tended to lose points due to unreliability more than Vergne. And vs. Kyvat, Ricciardo was always the one fighting for better positions (i.e Hungary 15, Singapore 15, USA 15, China 16), which wasn’t always reflected in their points tally.

  11. Ericsson disobeyed team orders twice? That’s the first positive thing I’ve ever heard about him! Maybe there’s a bit of racing driver in him after all.

  12. @Mike : Responding to the CotD; I think Rosberg is now bored of winning without being much fought xD

    He is looking to make it more challenging for himself. Lewis is ofcourse among the best in F1 right now, but Rosberg must be knowing the comparison within the Mercs, and that he can take Hamilton all things considered and his already decent lead.

    To be honest; he was very slow. He couldn’t have done much from the position and would have been overtaken never-the-less. To add to that, he is already hated a bit for what happened at Monaco last year, and wouldn’t have wanted people to be reminded of that if Lewis lost even this race owing to Nico dismissing the team order.

    To further add, given the huge lack of pace, Nico couldn’t have acheived much here other than gaining this small brownie point of being a team player.

    1. I am sure Nico wasn’t worrying about what people say or will say.

      He did talk about Monaco race on his post-race selfie video as he usually does, and answering questions that was posted to him (i think on twitter). I kinda like what he is doing with the post-race selfie video

    2. He wasn’t overtaken for many laps and could have just blocked until the pit stops (similar to how Hamilton blocked Ric when his tyres were cold). He definitely could have been on the podium.

      I think we have to see this in the context of Barcelona. Both drivers simply had to be team players this weekend after a double DNF, otherwise I think he wouldn’t have moved over and I actually think Hamilton would have done the same again due to context.

      So in a way, although Rosberg was not penalised in Barcelona he’s taken the penalty two weeks later.

      1. NR did nothing penalty worthy in Barcelona.

        1. Let’s not go there :)

    3. @square-route I certainly agree that Nico was never going to Challenge Lewis over the race distance, but, I think it’s safe to say, if he had of blocked him, one or two laps more. Who’d have been in front after Red Bulls disastrous pit stop?

      Surely Ric right? So right there we can see, Nico handed Lewis at least 7 points.

      Can Rosberg afford to do that? I think given who his team mate is, no, absolutely not.

      However, I certain admire that Rosberg made the fair decision. And you make a good point about last year I think.

  13. I really like Ricciardo, and don’t think anything negative of him from how he’s reacted over the last two races. That’s how I expect a competitive beast to be. But it’s interesting that I was having a conversation with friends who are fellow F1 fans who were being critical of Hamilton for being so ‘sulky’ over current results just before this latest blow for Ricciardo and they cited him as an example of a driver who doesn’t get down over it.

    Show me a driver who doesn’t have an ego that makes them feel entitled to win, and who doesn’t feel pain at coming 2nd and I’ll show you a driver without a hope of a world championship.

    It’s also interesting hearing the people not willing to praise Hamilton for his Monaco victory because it was just ‘luck’. Just like all 3 of Ricciardo’s wins.

    1. +1000000

    2. petebaldwin (@)
      1st June 2016, 12:32

      If you discount wins because of luck, you can forget about many of the great drives we’ve seen over the years! Luck helped Lewis but it didn’t win the race for him.

      1. Yeah luck often plays into it. LH started third at Monaco which is never good news, but the two guys in front on him both ‘moved over’ for him. Sometimes that’s just the way the cookies crumble. The luck that DR has had for his wins was I’m sure pointed out at the time.

        So sure DR you should have had more reward in the past two races, but otherwise you also need the WCC winning car, and you’ve never had that, and will need it to get your full reward.

        1. And luck played a part in Hamilton starting 3rd on the grid.

          His performance exemplified why Mercedes want him even in a car ‘anyone’ could win in because for the times when things go wrong Hamilton still can. Of all the other drivers on the grid Alonso is the only driver I would say for absolute sure could do the same thing.

    3. “Just like all 3 of Ricciardo’s wins.”
      Maybe he particularly wanted these last two wins on the board to eliminate statements like that.

    4. Ricciardo was lucky only on his first win.

      The other two the guy had to work for it.

      On Spa, EVERY SINGLE PERSON on Red Bull simply couldn’t believe how he could be so quick and consistent to win that race.

      Luck? I don’t think so. But is the same stuff again. Everybody is lucky, bar Hamilton.

      1. I believe he ultimately earned all 3 wins. Yes all three required misfortune for the Mercedes team as their car was still the faster car but he ultimately capitalised on those slip ups just as Hamilton did in Monaco.

        People who dismiss how great Hamilton drove because he was lucky that Red Bull messed up the pit stop must also conclude that Ricciardo was just lucky because Mercedes had an power unit problem, Hamiltons car caught fire and Rosberg punctured Hamiltons rear tyre.

        To not admit either both drivers drove brilliantly or both drivers were just lucky is blatant bias.

  14. I partly agree with the COTD but I think Rosberg’s decision was rather inevitable. Mercedes made the incident in Spain look like nothing special but I am sure that very serious talks were held behind the scenes. I cannot know what exactly was said there but I imagine that another collision between Hamilton and Rosberg could lead to changes in the driver line-up (and Rosberg does not have a contract for 2017 yet or at least it has not been announced). Given that trying to pass someone in Monaco equals asking for trouble, it would be insane to take such a risk.

    Moreover, if Rosberg did not have a technical issue, then he really had no excuse to keep Hamilton behind. If you are so slow that you are preventing your team mate from passing *other* cars, then you are most probably too slow to win the world championship, too.

    1. Rosberg losing position to Hamilton was inevitable. It wasn’t just the best choice for the team, he made the best choice for him as well. Hamilton was miles quicker, and even if he hadn’t found a place to pass on track still have jumped Rosberg through the pit stops. Losing time defending Hamilton was only going to hurt an already less than ideal result for him, risked an incident with Hamilton trying to pass, and during contract negotiations severely hurt his efforts.

    2. Rosberg probably also thought that he was going to finish 3rd, not 7th

  15. Tony Mansell
    1st June 2016, 10:29

    Not really for COTD. He couldn’t even finish 6th so LH would’ve probably done him anyway, the way they did it meant no crash and in any case they have a team rule. IF it does cost Nico the WDC then he will have failed at more races than Monaco

    1. I don’t think you can ever say ‘that one race cost him the championship’. Like when people say Alonso lost it in 2012 because of Grosjean in Spa, well he also got 25 points for free on Vettel in Valencia too… In the end the best car always wins, and the best of the two drivers in that car wins the title.

  16. Even without the crashes this season, I am seriously starting to doubt any other team will look at Kvyat once he is released by Red Bull, because of his attitude. Paul di Resta was a decent driver but apparently his attitude was poor and that isn’t the sort of person you want in your team.

    Kvyat is digging himself a bigger hole every time he opens his mouth. I know it must be heartbreaking to be demoted but he needs to be more circumspect. He isn’t winning any fans with his statements, effectively blaming Toro Rosso for his poor Monaco showing despite playing bumper cars with Magnussen. He’s coming across as deluded.

    1. Fudge Ahmed (@)
      1st June 2016, 12:11

      Agree. He held himself so well in the immediate aftermath but from the ‘I would have won too’ comment regarding the last race it has just gone downhill very quickly.

    2. @deej92 I agree, whenever he opened his mouth since Spain he has been working on his very own demise. He’s acting like he is the new Hamilton or Vettel and teams are knocking on his door day and night to hire him whilst I believe none are.

    3. petebaldwin (@)
      1st June 2016, 12:26

      Yeah I agree. You’d actually look at it and commend RBR for putting the more mature driver in the seat!

  17. So just because Ricciardo beat Vettel one year with considerably less Gremlins under the bonnet he believes he should be the WDC.

    How about he starts by complementing his team.
    Putting in fast times and saying it’s 99.9% down to him is not very motivating for the guys that work their butts off to get his car to be as good as it is. Maybe that’s why they ‘miscommunicated’ before his pitstop and maybe that’s why so far he’s only gotten 3 wins and 1 pole in 3 years with a top team.

    1. To be fair Red Bull are a top team in attitude and chassis but have lacked engine power in the past two seasons. You need all three to really call yourself a top team. Mercedes has been the only one to have all three since day one of the 2014 season, hence they won everything.

    2. “Putting in fast times and saying it’s 99.9% down to him is not very motivating for the guys that work their butts off to get his car to be as good as it is.”

      Having seen the interview where he made that statement I don’t think it can be held against him. It was very tongue in cheek.

      1. Yes that was completely tongue in cheek, however, having just read the full comments from DR, and while I completely get his frustration about the last two races, I lose a tiny little bit of respect when he says ‘I don’t know what to do from here. Where to go’.

        Answer: you put it behind you as there’s nothing you can do now, and you continue to work with Max and progress the team and do everything in your power to help with the 2017 effort. You do what all drivers will be doing now. Thinking about Canada and being prepared to give 100%. What else is there?

        And I think you do know what to do and where to go from here. Or else you’re done before you’ve even really begun.

  18. Fudge Ahmed (@)
    1st June 2016, 11:55

    Re: COTD, I agree to some extent but you must also bear in mind Nico is in the midst of or about to embark upon contract renewal talks and you have to assume he WANTS to stay with Mercedes, I can only see them being challenged by Red Bull for the next few years and there is no seat available there. The Ferrari rumours are just for leverage I would hazard.

  19. petebaldwin (@)
    1st June 2016, 12:28

    Fair play to Nico but simply put, Lewis wouldn’t have done the same. Nor would Vettel or Alonso or most other World Champions.

    1. Disagree. Or, perhaps situations reversed if LH had refused the order they would have allowed NR to crank his settings to get by. This was a no-brainer, WDC or not. Or, at a minimum, it would have been highly unpopular within the team and without.

    2. The argument is not valid because Nico never had the pace to keep Hamilton or the others behind.

      Nico finished the race 7th, overtaken by a Force India in the final laps, that shows how slow his car was. He knew fighting or defending was not an option and that it would lead to a similar situation as Spain, so naturally he obeyed what the team told him.

      If Nico was slightly off pace and he finished second then I would consider this a valid never ending argument, but right now I feel it is pointless.

  20. Fudge Ahmed (@)
    1st June 2016, 16:04

    Ricciardo needs to remember that Mercedes gifted the opportunity to either Red Bull car for the win by taking itself out of contention in Spain. In Monaco, Red Bull returned that favour when the chips were in their favour. Team Karma if not driver karma unfortunately for Dan.

    1. Im pretty sure Ricciardo remembers what happened in spain.

  21. I found that milk drinking tradition funny , Rossi didn’t know what to do.

    I really hope Haas takes notice of him and replaces maybe Gutierrez ? This will also improve their image in the US having an American team with an American driver who also won the Indy500.

  22. Re COTD I thnk Nico made a sensible choice in the circumstances for the following reasons – 1.He knew he had a problem with his car, 2. he could tell Hamilton was faster, 3. he knew it would be a good idea to curry favour with the team following the Spain incident and 4. he is in the midst of contract negotiations. No more reasons required.

    If Lewis had been in front I like to think that he would have done the same thing. I think he might have been more resistant though but eventually would have given in after the team had asked him more than once and if he could tell a train was building behind his team mate.

  23. People talk about Ericsson and Nasr being pay drivers, poor drivers. I don’t think anyone woud do much better on that car. The truth is that the main reason of all problems is a slow car and a bad team management. Both of them have a strong pre-F1 career. And Nasr had an excellent season last year, even matching Verstappen as a rookie.

    1. We can’t know how fast Sauber could go with different drivers. It would probably still be hard to get any points but i bet someone like Alonso or Hamilton will be getting near there while this guys aren’t even close.

  24. Stop blaming Kalternborn, if there’s a guilty party here it’s the commercial rights owners.

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