Should Mercedes have used team orders on Hamilton?

2014 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Mercedes took a controversial decision to impose team orders on their championship-leading drivers during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton was instructed to let Nico Rosberg past during the second half of the race.

Mercedes have used team orders on the pair in the past – notably in Malaysia and Germany last year. But with Rosbreg and Hamilton clear ahead in the fight for the championship the interference in their battle this year has taken on added significance.

The two drivers were running on different strategies at the time. Hamilton was on the harder tyre and expecting to make it to the end of the race without a pit stop. Rosberg, however, was intending to make a further stop for another set of softs.

Hamilton was told “Rosberg has one more stop so don’t hold him up”. Another message later gave a more specific order, “let Nico past on the main start/finish straight”, to which Hamilton replied, “I’m not slowing down for Nico”. Meanwhile Rosberg was asking why Hamilton hadn’t let him past, as he’d been advised would happen.

Hamilton’s explanation for not letting Rosberg past was that if he had done so Rosberg would have finished ahead of him and extended his championship lead.

From Mercedes’ point of view, having Hamilton let Rosberg could have given their second car the chance to attack Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso for victory later in the race – though of course, he would have had to pass Hamilton a second time to do that, by which time Hamilton’s tyres would have left him less able to defend.

Were Mercedes right to try to impose team orders on their drivers? Does their strong position in the constructors’ championship mean the time has passed for this type of order to be necessary?

Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments.

Should Mercees have ordered Hamilton to let Rosberg past?

  • No opinion (1%)
  • Strongly disagree (68%)
  • Slightly disagree (11%)
  • Neither agree nor disagree (5%)
  • Slightly agree (8%)
  • Strongly agree (7%)

Total Voters: 665

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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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195 comments on “Should Mercedes have used team orders on Hamilton?”

  1. No, once I saw Rosberg behind Hamilton, I was thinking that team orders would be imposed. However, once Rosberg didn’t stay on Hamilton’s rear, I said: “There’s no need, Hamilton isn’t holding him up”. Otherwise, Nico would have been staying at his tail. Even though his laptimes dropped from the 1.27’s to the 1.28’s while being behind Lewis. Lewis made the correct decision, and this is not compared to what happened at the Nurburgring last year where Hamilton was a lot closer to Nico.

    1. I agree with what you said. NR never really acted like he wanted to pass, but seemed more like he expected the position to be given to him.
      That’s not racing!

      1. Almost as though NR was hoping he could get LH to slow down and lose a crucial couple of seconds, NR is no slouch at tactics.

      2. Yeah Nico can’t complain. If he was all over Hamilton’s rear it would be a different story. Nico wasn’t even fast enough to do a quick switch of places, he was too far back.

        Nico was not on the podium not because of Hamilton’s wouldn’t slow down and let him past, he wasn’t on the podium because he couldn’t get passed the Torro Rosso. That for me was the decisive moment. Hamilton earned his podium place, if team orders allowed Nico past , I don’t think you could say the same.

    2. I feel they did the best they could for the team. Had Rosberg gone past the team would have certainly had a better result. However they also didn’t push the issue with Lewis, leaving him to fight his own race. At that point they should have brought Rosberg in to pit rather than waiting another 5 laps.

      Lewis had a great drive, and perhaps had he come in after Rosburg he may have had a chance at victory too, but it was such a fine call to make. Splitting it (one to come in, one to stay out) was probably the best decision at the time.

      1. Agree with both comments above.

      2. Had Rosberg gone past the team would have certainly had a better result.

        They would have (at the expense of Hamilton). But they didn’t know that- they never expected that Rosberg would catch back up to the leaders. They just thought they might give him the best possible shot at best of the rest behind the lead group.

    3. Chris Harrison
      27th July 2014, 19:55

      “Rosberg has one more stop so don’t hold him up” is, in my mind, the main radio point here, and lewis never held him up. The later comment telling Lewis to slow was stupid and I think everyone can agree that it would have been stupid for them to do that, as at this point Nico wasn’t even within DRS range.

      1. The DRS ranges is what makes me think HAM was right to do what he did. And I like ROS more than HAM. But you can’t be radioing in to let you have a pass when you’re that far away.

        1. Agreed. My version of today orders:
          1. Mercedes thought before the race that Rosberg as poll seater is the only man with a chance to win today, (which is totaly normal with Hamilton qualy position )
          2. Hamilton would be lucky if he got a point,
          3. They focused on that strategy with Rosberg visiting box one more time than Lewis.
          4. When the situation changed completaly, courtesy of safety car and Hamilton good driving, Germans didn’t improvise, instead they stick to the original plan, which meant that all the hard work would go away for Lewis while Rosberg would get a chance to atack for higher position.
          5. If Rosberg did press Hamilton like he did at the end of the race, team orders would have some sense, all though I’m against it, but if Nico was faster he would fought his way with Lewis as we saw in Bahrain that they can have a real fight which is the only thing that is important in this sport.
          6.I’m sure that Germans will scrach their heads because of Lewis’s disobeing orders,
          7. I’m really satisfied with Lewis’s decision to follow his gutes for the sake of racing and of course for his chance to win WDC,
          8. At the end he was faster than Nico. Period
          Great drive from Ricciardo (poor Vettel) and of course from Alonso.
          P.S. It’s strange to me that Mercedes didn’t bring both cars for new rubber thus giving them eqaul chance for the final laps when they were separated by 1+ second.

          1. “P.S. It’s strange to me that Mercedes didn’t bring both cars for new rubber thus giving them eqaul chance for the final laps when they were separated by 1+ second.”

            Now, you’ve struck at the center of the issue….Why exactly did Merc decide to put Lewis on a different strategy when he was nearly 30 seconds and 8 spots in front of Nico when coming in for his second stop?
            Go check the tape…that is EXACTLY the situation when they decided to put Lewis on the harder options. AND they ignored the poor results the two Williams had gotten over the last 10 laps when they went the same strategy.

            I’m not saying conspiracy, I’m saying truly horrible tactical decisions bordering on questionable for various reasons. How would the race have ended with Lewis making that charge instead of Nico with a much better starting position???

          2. @daved: what if they had put Rosberg on the same strategy as Hamilton? He would have had track position and Hamilton likely would never even have gotten in front of Rosberg in the first place.

            Track position at the Hungaroring is key. Sure you can overtake some slower cars with that W05, but another W05? That’s why I thought it was weird to put Rosberg on a strategy that depended on passing Hamilton. They could have done the same for both.

            This is also the only thing that makes me hesitant in my judgement of the team orders. Hamilton had track position due to being put on that particular strategy, thanks to Mercedes (having also been very lucky with the SC as compared to Rosberg). So when Mercedes asked him to move over, I think that was fair enough. The only problem of course is that Nico apparently couldn’t break DRS – or worse: Hamilton even escaped DRS range. You can’t ask a driver to deliberately drive slower in order to let the other driver by.

          3. MattDS, you should register so we can tag you and let you know when we respond to your comments.
            But anyway, NO, I totally disagree with you. Nico lost track position because he was unlucky in the timing of the safety car when Ericsson crashed. Had he not already been past pitlane entry when the SC was deployed, he could have dove in as well. RIC probably won the race at that point because he was the first driver to be able to hit the lane once they realized the SC had been deployed. By the time ROS came back around and hit the pit lanes, he came back out and was WAY down the order and had to contend with all kinds of traffic. Look at the replay…around lap 37 (when the bloody American feed went to commercial) Nico was in 10th place and Lewis was in 2nd. When it came back, they had Lewis on the prime tires. Had they put him on the options, he would have been on the same strategy as Nico with much newer tires and he came out a number of places in front of Nico (again, I can’t see where exactly because the damn US TV commercials were running then).
            But think of what would have been like for Lewis had he been put on the same strat as Nico at that point with newer tires AND ahead of him in the race by a good margin!

            That is why I question it.

          4. @daved: well, actually I’ve been registered for quite some time but for some reason the login system doesn’t play nice with my browser (telling me I need to enable cookies when my browser is cookie-enabled). So most of the time I don’t even try logging in anymore. But it worked now after a few tries :)

            And you’re right, I must have mixed some stuff up. Rosberg indeed never had track position after that first SC.

          5. @mattds
            LOL I totally understand the finicky browsers and cookies. I get strange things when I try to login half the time. But I love the F1Fanatic site so I just keep trying till it gets happy. :)

    4. I feel like the team confused both the drivers… they led ROS to believe HAM was letting his past, but that’s not what the situation was, they led HAM to believe that he only needed to let ROS through if he attempted to pass…

      So the team were NOT clear, unambiguous and explicit in their messages.. It would have been better if they had just told both drivers to race, said nothing or they should have been totally explicit and clear in their instructions.

      1. I think that this is one of the better analyses of the situation that I’ve seen as of now, I think that if they told Nico that he needed to pass Lewis, he would have done so, but they told him that Lewis would let him through, so no need to push and waste the tyres behind Lewis.

  2. The constructors is secured.

    Just let them fight.

    1. Not necessarily, a few more races like this and Red Bull will be threatening them enough for Mercedes to be more strict on team orders.

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        27th July 2014, 17:33

        @williamstuart – A few more? Mercedes are 174 points clear. Red Bull closed the gap today by 4 points today. At that rate, it would take them 45 races to take the lead of the Constructors’!

        If both Mercedes had DNFs for the next 4 races and Red Bull got a 1-2 at both, they still wouldn’t take the lead of the constructors!

        1. petebaldwin (@)
          27th July 2014, 17:37

          @williamstuart – On top of that, if Red Bull come 1st and 2nd in every single one of the remaining races, Mercedes would only have to finish 4th and 5th in order to secure the title!

          1. Also @williamstuart this was a track that was expected to play to red bull’s strengths. Other races are likely to be different, especially the next 2, spa and monza

    2. “The constructors is secured” maybe, the drivers not as much as you think. lets not forget that Mercedes only DWC challenger and only none Mercedes driver to win races (yes race’s with an S) gained today instead of Nico pulling away. did Lewis learn nothing in 2007? if Dan win’s the title with some luck and DNF’s with the crazy double points in the last race it would have started here. because the next time the merc’s are fighting with Dan don’t be surprised if Nico doesn’t mind destroying Lewis race to let dan win as long as lewis doesn’t beat him.

      1. Ricardo winning WDC? you can’t seriously believe that…

        1. i didn’t believe Kimi will be the champion in 2007…

          1. Raikkonen was at least in a car which was clear 1st or 2nd fastest, with there being minimal difference between the 1st and 2nd fastest cars. This was in a season where those 4 cars were so superior to the rest that there was never a worry about the others taking points from them- there were only 5 podium positions taken by other drivers that year.

      2. @crazycarts
        RIC winning the WDC??? Even with the double explosion extravaganza sparks flying grand finale… Remember to stretch before you reach that far.

      3. Hasn’t Nico already this year run Lewis off the track at the 1st. corner a la Vettel on Webber, clearly MB-AMG can afford the occassional race without both drivers on the podium.

      4. “If Dan win’s the title with some luck and DNF’s with the crazy double points in the last race it would have started here”

        No. It started in Monaco

    3. @calum
      As a Ferrari fan I totally agree with this. Every time I see the two of them together I’m thinking “maybe one will crash the other one out and we’ll gain a place”

    4. Paul (@frankjaeger)
      28th July 2014, 12:57

      Exactly. I thought it was downright rude to ask Ham to move. Unreal. Blatant preference to Rosberg

  3. No way. Hamilton was right to defend his position given that they are both title contenders and we are now in the second part of the season. Strongly disagree that he should have let Rosbert pass.

  4. They should have told him not to hold him up, but Rosberg didn’t get close enough to him for Hamilton to let him past without losing a considerable amount of time. Telling him to slow down and let him by was wrong.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      27th July 2014, 18:43

      +1

      I just thought it was ridiculous – Hamilton started in pit lane and was fighting for a potential win. Nico wasn’t close to Lewis at all so Lewis would have had to slow down and in the end would have lost 3 pts (6 pts actually) to Nico and a podium.

      To hear Nico crying that Lewis is not letting him through was pathetic when he was 1.5 seconds behind. Perhaps he should have asked JEV, Ricciardo and Alonso to slow down so he can pass them too and win the gran prix.

    2. Team orders was a bad idea. If Hamilton had acquiesced there would have been an even bigger controversy at the end of the race because Rosberg would have caught up to him earlier. If that scenario had played out would Rosberg have been happy if the team ordered him to stand down? Or would Hamilton have been happy if the team ordered him to let Rosberg by a second time?

      The answer to both is NO and that’s why they should have let them race.

      1. I think if they had literally waited just a few more laps they would not have imposed the order because they would have seen that NR was not in fact noticeably faster such that letting him go, given the extra stop he was going to have to make, would have made more sense. This is not nearly the first time a team has had two drivers on different strategies have one let the other go due to him having to make an extra stop. What is somewhat new is that the WDC is between the two drivers in the top car, and of course it’s going to be contentious and debatable as a result. I don’t think NR would have behaved any differently than LH did, situation reversed.

    3. Couldnt agree more. At the time i knew Mercedes would say something. HAd Rosberg been all over the back of him, maybe. He never was close enough and to go over the radio and say ‘Why isnt he letting me past?’ Cmon Rosberg, thought you were better tha that. Mercedes and Rosberg are in the wrong for this and should never of mentioned anything to Lewis. No-wonder Lewis was all stroppy on the podium.

  5. Nothing wrong with the it at all. They would’ve seen that a win was on the cards or even a potential one-two and wanted the best result for the team. Whether Lewis should’ve obeyed them or not is another issue.

    1. Agree with this. I think it is fine for the team to ask HAM to let ROS pass, and given how far back ROS was, for HAM to refuse. After the race, HAM, ROS and Toto all seemed to take a balanced view on it (at least publicly).

      1. pretty much that, yeah.

    2. petebaldwin (@)
      27th July 2014, 17:39

      The fact is that it was a tactically poor decision. They said for Hamilton to let Rosberg past because it wouldn’t affect Hamilton’s race. As it turns out, it would have cost Hamilton a position and would have offered more points to his only title rival. Mercedes got it wrong. Hamilton said that he didn’t think his tyres would last till the end and Mercedes said he’d be fine. By the end, Hamilton was really struggling so they got that wrong too.

      Luckily, Hamilton felt he knew better than his team and it turns out that he did.

      1. Spot on @petebaldwin. I would further add…if Mercedes brought Lewis to pit at the same time as Riciardo, he could have won the race with his speed advantage. I think Mercedes failed to work out that Lewis was racing Riciardo for the pole and not racing Alonso or Rosberg. Mercedes was occupied with Rosberg for too long.

        1. Very true

      2. @petebaldwin Dead on. The crux of this whole issue is the teams’ awful decision making and race awareness.

      3. From Mercedes’ point of view it was a good call as with Rosberg clearing Hamilton quickly would have had a chance at Alonso (not sure would they be able to beat Ricciardo) and they would collect more points as a team.

        From Hamilton’s point of view it was not a good call as it would have cost him a place and would extend Rosberg’s lead so he decided not to play the game.

        Cannot blame either party for doing what they thought was right for them at the time.

        Would not be able to blame Rosberg if he responded in kind in the future.

        1. petebaldwin (@)
          28th July 2014, 0:18

          I don’t think Rosberg would either. They are fighting each other for the title! I don’t blame Mercedes for asking but they now have to realise that Hamilton was right to hold onto the position. If they’d have made Hamilton give up the place and it resulted in him finishing behind Rosberg, imagine how Hamilton would have taken that!

      4. That’s why the decision to put hamilton on to the medium tyres instead of the softs still baffles me @petebaldwin @shoponf

    3. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      27th July 2014, 18:48

      No, It is not okay to ask that because Lewis could have been on target for a win. Notwithstanding the historic value a victory from pit lane would have implied for Mercedes and Lewis, you do NOT ask your drivers to let the other driver through when a victory is in the cards and the championship is at play.

      You can’t give 14 points back if Rosberg won and Lewis was 2nd…. And what about the emotional state that Rosberg is in now compared to being in front of Lewis…

      MOST RIDICULOUS TEAM ORDERS EVER! In case it hasn’t been stressed.

      1. @freelittlebirds

        Notwithstanding the historic value a victory from pit lane would have implied for Mercedes and Lewis

        That is a pretty insightful comment. Never thought about that aspect of the team orders until you mentioned it.

        I suppose there are all sorts of ifs and buts involved viz-a-viz strategic possibilities. Nevertheless, the possibility of Mercedes pulling off a win from the pit lane should have been a major motivator for the pit wall: “Yes! A Mercedes started from the pit lane and clinched P1!”.

        It’s not as if Mercedes are scrambling for WCC points, or Nico is far ahead of Lewis in the WDC.

        1. I certainly don’t think it was the worst team order ever. Nico still had to make a stop so that should have alleviated much of the threat for LH. It is a common order when another driver is on a different strategy and is quicker. Problem is Nico wasn’t quicker enough. LH did the right thing, but certainly shouldn’t have been shocked by the order. I would like to think LH was going to cede the position if NR was much faster, as he was in the last handful of laps…wouldn’t LH have actually looked selfish and greedy if it was more obvious to everyone that NR was…like…2.5 to 3 secs faster due to different strategies midrace, and he was trying to keep NR behind him? Moreso at that pace NR would have had him eventually, no choice on LH’s part.

          Let the man through to see his side of the team’s strategy through, and see him near the end and duke it out then. NR just wasn’t hooked up enough at that point. He wasn’t earning the let through and needed to be by without delaying LH, either by LH’s own hand thru sportingly ceding to greater speed for the team’s strategy play, or by NR taking it, but neither scenario was possible without NR being on LH’s gearbox.

          I’m certainly not convinced that this order was meant to do anything other than maximize NR’s chances, like they are there to do, and if that is abhorant, then why is it ok for only LH’s chances to be maximized?

        2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          28th July 2014, 6:24

          @Robbie Actually it did not alleviate the threat – obviously Mercedes got it completely wrong and Lewis got it right while he was driving and trying to catch up with Alonso.

          The team should not be maximizing Nico’s chances at Lewis’ expense. That’s called favoritism.

    4. Indeed.
      They quite cleary gave team orders which were promptly ignored.
      Good for Hamilton, bad for the team (which needs to maximise points).
      Rosberg will be keeping score and retaliate in good time.

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        28th July 2014, 20:23

        @eckcy

        I’m sure he’s looking at every track that’s left in the season and deciding where he can park the car to bring out yellows in Q3:-)

  6. I can see why they did it (to ensure that both cars finished in the best possible positions), but the drivers are fighting each other for the championship. Why should Hamilton give Rosberg any sort of advantage at all?

    1. This.

      It’s not like Hammy has ANY reason to trust that Nico would conduct himself honourably or treat Lewis fairly. Monaco made that very clear…

    2. petebaldwin (@)
      28th July 2014, 14:17

      Do you think if Hamilton had let Rosberg past and he then pitted and caught up to Hamilton with 5 laps left, they’d have given a team order for Rosberg to stay behind Hamilton to protect the points they had so close to the end of the race? Do you think Nico would have followed the order if they had?

      Clearly not.

  7. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    27th July 2014, 17:02

    If these 2 guys are so close in the championship, any team order will be considered as favoring one driver over the other. The only bad side could be if they crashed, but even in that case, Rosberg and Hamiton are far ahead in the championship to hurt them much.
    No team orders. Good if Hamilton disobeyed.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      27th July 2014, 18:54

      +1

      At the time the orders were given, everyone suspected that Hamilton would win this so for Mercedes to ask him to potentially give up a victory (from pitlane no less) while he’s fighting for the championship. It’s also important to note that this is on the heels of the summer break and the outcome will have huge emotional implication on the drivers as well as send a message for the rest of the season.

      Mercedes were essentially ordering Hamilton to give up the Championship. Next time they race and Rosberg is on pole due to mechanical failure on Lewis’ car, they should ask Nico to give up the position on the 1st lap and stay behind for the rest of the race. Sound ridiculous? Well, it’s better than the team order that was issued today.

  8. Mercedes should have pitted Rosberg the second it became clear that he was losing time. They knew he needed another pitstop, and he was well in the window for having the softs last until the end of the race.

    Team orders would have been completely irrelevant at that point.

    1. Completely agree. However, the better option appeared to be for Rosberg to run for few more laps, but for that to work best Hamilton had to give way, which he did not. Once that became clear they switched Rosberg to the option that would normally be taken if he was really racing with Hamilton at the time. But, by then Rosberg lost too much time to make it up for the rest of the laps. A lesson learned for all parties.

    2. Exactly my idea too.

      I guess they saw how Hamilton lost out against Bottas in Germany because that final stint was just a wee bit too long. Still, it’s a pretty big ask of a driver to compromise his own race just to help his team mate get a shot at the win when both of them are actually trying to go for that win in their own way.

  9. If this was the first one, two or three races of the season this would be less contentious, but when these two are the championship fight, team orders of any sort are ridiculous. Different strategies are one thing, but its up to the driver to make that strategy work. If that means by passing on the track, so be it, don’t use that strategy. Today they were in the same race. If one had no chance of the podium, then OK, but both had that chance.
    I can understand the team wanting the best result for either driver (ie: they obviously thought Rosberg had more chance of the win outright), but this isn’t just about the team, otherwise there would be no such thing as a ‘drivers’ championship.
    As a spectator, I’m pleased that the championship points gap has narrowed slightly.

    1. That’s actually a brilliant point, they are responsible for their strategy therefore must also be responsible for making it work.

  10. It would’ve been unfair, and Nico was too far back.

  11. Not a chance. Rosberg wasn’t even faster than Hamilton at that point of the race. The tyre strategy was still unclear (no one knew if Hamilton needed to make another stop, or if the rain was going to show up) and the championship the way it is, are too strong arguments to reject such idea.

    1. Rosberg wasn’t even faster than Hamilton at that point of the race.

      He was actually, Thats why he was able to catch him.

      They showed the lap chart on Sky & Nico was catching Lewis by about a second a lap, Once he got behind Lewis & into the dirty air his lap times dropped off by 1 second.

      1. @PeterG
        Glad to hear somebody echo my sentiments on here.

        This was precisely my thoughts when Nico caught up with Lewis. It would have been stupid for Nico to close up to Lewis if he was getting told that the instruction to let him by has gone out. Why destroy your tyres in the turbulent air? It looked to me like Nico was hanging back saving his tyres expecting Lewis to let him by…because thats what the team told him. Should Lewis have heeded team orders? I believe so. As long as team orders are legal, rightly or wrongly so, it has its place, and needs to be adhered to.

        I wonder how Ross Brawn would have handled the situation?

        I think Merc should just put their hands up and say they stuffed up.

        1. @jaymenon10
          +1
          I think that if they still had Brawn, he would have
          a) been a bit more forceful with Hamilton, and told him that Nico was a full second a lap faster, and
          b) the second that Hamilton said no, would have told Nico to pass on track, which Merc never did.

          I’m pretty throughly convinced that had they told Nico that he needed to pass on track, and that Lewis wasn’t going to let him through, Nico would have made short work of Hamilton and probably would have won, given his pace at the end of the race

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            28th July 2014, 6:26

            Nico would have made short work of Hamilton

            Lol!!!

          2. Like he did with JEV ;)

  12. Another mistake of Mereceds Team. Lewis make the right move.

  13. Usually, team orders would be used in such situation. But circumstances in this case are different. First, both drivers are fighting only each other in the championship and the battle is really close. Second, Mercedes will surely win constructors’ championship without breaking a sweat, so drivers actually don’t have to drive for the team at the moment.

  14. No he shouldn’t have, unless Nico was closing on him, but he wasn’t. The way I see it Nico lost out by not being brave enough to overtake JEV had he overtaken JEV he would have won the race. At the point Lewis overtook JEV and Nico the focus should have changed for Lewis to challenge for the win. If he went 5 laps more on the soft and pitted for another soft he could have gone to the end of the race. Possibly even won it as I think he could have been 10s ahead of Alonso when Ricardo caught up. This is besides the point but I think Merc made a mistake with the strategy today, I think they were so focused on getting a good strategy for Nico that they forgot to see that they disadvantaged Lewis by changing him to the medium tyre.

    1. Totally agree on the strategy point. I was yelling the same thing at the TV when they pulled Lewis in. I didn’t get that strat decision at all. Much too conservative and hoping the race would somehow “come to them” rather than making it happen.

      1. They had info on the hard tyre by looking at Bottas and Massa, both were slowing after about 10 laps, the strategy would have made sense if those two were about half a second faster, or were able to do 1:28s for more than ten laps.

      2. Completely agree with Manu and @daved. Nico compromised himself by hanging behind JEV and also hanging behind Bottas after the final set of pit stops – in my opinion he did that 2 laps more than he should have instead of executing the strategy. Lewis on the other hand made the most of what chances he got and did not waste any time. For the final 30 laps Merc could have let him stay out 2 more laps and then brought him in for the Med tires – he could have definitely gotten P2 with that. The best situation would have been for Lewis to have been on the same final 2 put stops as Nico – in which case Merc could have had 1-2. Merc was too conservative.

        1. +1 It was like they thought they’d ‘peaked’ with Hamilton getting to 3rd/4th, enough for him for the day. Also he had better tyres available than Rosberg, so it made less sense to put the latter on the aggressive strategy.

        2. I agree with these comments, however I did hear instructions to Lewis to use lower gears and more revs, so it sounded like Lewis had gearbox issues and this may have been a factor in favouring Nico to finish ahead.

          1. @hohum No, just the opposite with the gears. Using lower gears and higher revs means more wear on the gearbox and you use more fuel, but go significantly faster. This is because you can be in the correct gear on the straights (a lot of the time drivers have to short-shift to save fuel) and have the advantage of being able to use the downshifts to ‘pitch’ the car into slow corners (when you downshift and put the engine right near the redline, the gearbox tries to lock the rear wheels, and this allows drivers to carry more speed into slow corners by inducing oversteer)

          2. @zjakobs, Unless you have a degree in mechanical engineerings I’m going to tell you that you have it wrong, it is torque that limits gearboxes not hp/kw, by selecting a lower gear the strain (torque) is reduced, this is why we start in lower gears and why we can drive a car with a slipping clutch in lower gears but not in top gear.

          3. At the moment teams use much lower revs before shifting because they want to prolong the life of the engine, Lewis was told to shift later (past the beeps) meaning that he would be getting more power out of the engine so that he could defend against Ricardo

    2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      27th July 2014, 18:57

      Boy that would have been incredible. To think that Mercedes could have gone from pit lane to P1 is just unbelievable.

      1. It would have indeed, I was hoping Lewis could catch and pass Alonso before Ric did then Alonso would have delayed Ric for a couple of laps and maybe Lewis would have got it, but it wasn’t to be.

  15. No frickin way, he was way too far behind,hamy would have had to go get a cup of coffee and take a leak to do it

  16. No, not in this case. Rosberg was never close enough to pass. It was enough to tell Lewis not to hold up Nico. He didn’t.

    Mercedes has only come to be under such over-analysis by having a superior package of a race car, two world class drivers with near equal talents and letting them race with very few restrictions. No team is perfect, whether looking at a season, any race or any split second decision made at any moment in the heat of the battle. It’s tough to make the right call in a fraction of a second or then have it analyzed for years. I suspect many teams wish they had Mercedes’ problems.

  17. Absolutely not. If Hamilton had let Rosberg through, then Rosberg would’ve been easily able to beat him by the end of the race, assuming Mercedes would let them race to the end. It would’ve been grossly unfair to Hamilton to expect him to help Nico to be in a stronger position than himself.

    I’d only say it were acceptable if Mercedes was in the think of a championship battle in the constructors’ championship and needed to maximise their points total. As they aren’t, then I say no, Mercedes shouldn’t have issued team orders and Lewis was absolutely right to ignore them.

    1. I have to say I honestly expected more from Mercedes team. It begins getting disgusting how much they favor Nico. After Lewis leading (sic!) 4-1 in terms of equipment failure botched up races they still have the nerve to ask him to move away!!! And that little snaky prat: I wanted a fair fight with Lewis! I didn’t ask the team for Lewis to move over! And yes, I am asking for the team meeting over team orders!

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        27th July 2014, 19:00

        +1

        I don’t understand Mercedes – They say they want to help Lewis but then they go and ask him to throw away a potential victory at the time or even 6 pts that could decide the championship at the end. This is the last race before the summer break – Nico is in shambles and hopefully that will affect his next race as it should. It would have been very different if Nico was P2 and Lewis P4… (9 point difference)

  18. As always: no team orders unless there are very specific circumstances. But as shown, Rosberg was actually racing Hamilton at the end, so a team order would have been unfair. From purely a constructors’ points point of view, it might have made sense (possibly Rosberg-Hamilton could have finished 2-3 instead of 3-4) but that boat has long sailed anyway.

  19. petebaldwin (@)
    27th July 2014, 17:15

    Whatever Mercedes thought, Lewis was clearly right to ignore them. If he had let Rosberg past, Rosberg would have caught him earlier towards the end and would have likely passed him.

    The constructors is done now. Mercedes have won it… That means we’re left with a title fight between Hamilton and Rosberg so why the hell would Hamilton do something to help Rosberg!? Nico would have done exactly the same.

  20. When he was cruising up behind him, he should have been told (as he was) not to hold him up (and crucially not to lose time himself defending). The fact Rosberg didn’t (or couldn’t) get into an overtaking position at any point, for me, means he lost the right to demand to get past. Mercedes should have been focused on getting Lewis past Alonso at that point knowing that he was aiming to go to the end.

  21. I despise team orders in general and as many have pointed out there were SO many reasons it was wrong here. I’m glad Lewis had the stones to ignore what was obviously a bad call by the team.

  22. Absolutely NO !
    All races/points are for the Championship! Let pass your greatest rival?
    I am impressed from Mercedes, how Naive….
    Even worst…after all HAM efforts…starting from the pit lane….how do you even dare to ask !

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      27th July 2014, 19:05

      +1

  23. The team cost Hamilton a shot at the win and Rosberg a podium, Lewis was on the radio saying the tyres wouldn’t last so why didn’t they pit Hamilton for a new set of softs?

  24. Mercedes ordering Hamilton to let Rosberg through was beyond ridiculous. Rosberg was not being held up to the degree where that order should have even been relayed to Hamilton. Does the team not understand exactly what these drivers are fighting for? And considering how badly the team have let Lewis down this year, both in the pits with inferior pit stops and with lack of reliability on Hamilton’s side of the garage, they should have kept their mouths shut. Good on Lewis for not exploding on the radio over that order. He would have been well within his rights to ask the team what the hell they were talking about.

  25. It seemed to me that this was a completely unfair team order… At the relevant point in the race it seemed that Hamilton and Rosberg both had a shot at victory (admittedly ROS better) but HAM’s involved beating ROS by slowing him down a touch without giving ground to Ricciardo. They were directly racing each other; this is not how you treat equal teammates.

  26. No way, how insulting.
    ‘why isn’t Lewis letting me by’!!
    Was Lewis supposed to pull over on a strait, have a cup of tea, and wait to wave him by… at that point Nikkums was never close.. I’m beginning to really dislike Rosberg’s sense of entitlement, as I suspect is Lewis….

    1. To be clear, NR only asked that because he had been told that LH had been told to let him go. No sense of entitlement by NR at all, since it was the team that was wanting it that way. LH was right because NR was not right up his gearbox, but NR was probably just more confused than anything, having been told LH was to let him go since he still had anther stop to make. I think people are not trying hard enough to look at the situation as it was happening, not in hindsight.

      1. Still, even if the team told him that Lewis was going to let him threw he should have realized is a little too much to expect him to let him threw by slowing down a lot so he can pass from so much distance. So what was Rosberg playing there? Did he thought Hamilton should lose seconds just so he can stay in safe distance and not harm his tyres more?
        The guy seriously lost the plot there.

  27. Absurd ask a race driver to yield his position to one that is not even the fighting, well done Lewis!

  28. maarten.f1 (@)
    27th July 2014, 17:41

    You have to wonder how much of an order it really was though. The request was ignored, and they didn’t really push the issue as far as we know. On hindsight it’s easy to have an opinion about it, but apparently the team thought it was necessary at the time. I have no problem with Hamilton ignoring the team order (or request, whichever you want to call it), but he must realize that when the roles are reversed, it might come back to haunt him.

    I’m sure there will be plenty to talk about behind closed doors though.

  29. Well they did use team orders. They told Lewis not to hold Nico up. As it turns out Lewis didn’t hold Nico up. Tick.
    Whether they should have given the order in the first place is a no-brainer. Nico was on a different strategy and was stopping 1 more time than Lewis. The order was appropriate. We’ve seen it dozens of times before across all teams. Nothing new here today. Had they told Lewis to move over then that would have been different, a-la Massa-Alonso at Ferrari. By (Mercedes) not giving that order they may have cost themselves the race win in retrospect. OK, assuming Nico could have pulled a genuine gap on Lewis at the time which seems unlikely.

    1. They told Lewis to let Nico pass on the straight. Lewis said he would not slow for Nico but would let him past.

  30. Well if you wonder why Lewis car fail so much compared to Nico’s is easy to see.
    One is a team player the other a hard head that only cares about himself.

    1. @ausuma

      Rosberg would have done the same.

      Alonso would have done the same, Ricciardo would have done the same, Button would have done the same.
      Hell, my grandmother would have done the same.

      But then, she was one tough cookie.

    2. @ausuma
      You have a very skewed view compared to everyone else on here. It seems your dislike of Lewis is overriding your view of what was actually going on in the race.

  31. Seeing as I’m always against teamorders this case is no different.
    I’m against teamorders when Red Bull want to gift a grumpy australian a victory, I’m against teamorders when Ferrari ask a Brazilian to move out of the way exactly one year after the guy almost died so of course I’m against it when the driver who was supposed to let through wasn’t even close enough to get DRS.

  32. ONCE , Ferrari was criticized big time for team orders as if no other team does… NOW?. It’s Team sport and hence Team order is unavoidable!

    1. Ferrari were criticised for using team orders while they were banned. Very different situation.

  33. Lewis made two crucial calls of his own during the race:

    1. When Alonso pitted, Lewis told his engineer he wanted to stay out for two extra laps to run in free air
    2. He told his team that letting Nico past (over 1 second behind him) would hurt his race, and thinking about his own race he did not obey the order.

    Too bad he did not make the final call to go out on softs for his last stint and maybe 2nd or even win would be possible because Fernando made 31 laps on those softs… with quicker softs he would have the chance the get past Alonso and eventually build a bigger gap to fend of Daniel Ricciardo…

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      27th July 2014, 19:07

      Amazing it makes you wonder what the strategists were thinking – as someone else brought up had he stayed on the old softs for a few more laps and switched to softs, Lewis and Merc might have done the impossible today.

      1. potato potato
        28th July 2014, 5:37

        I have no doubt that those strategists try to do their best and probably are thrown when drivers decide to stay out for a few laps – changing the cusp point.
        Merc and Redbull were conservative with Rosberg and Ricciardo at the end, holding them both on the old tyres even considering ‘new’ softs were scrubbed.

  34. Definately, no team orders for me. Unless it is for the sake of the Drivers Championship of course, if one driver is far beyond the reach of the second. But when it is so close at the top let them fight it out.
    KEITH: maybe you have an opinion, I was of the impression that the F1 World Championship was a drivers competition with the Constructors championship taking second stage. So why the heck are the team able to make team orders to benefit the team. I think it’s about time F1 stood back, looked at it’s basic aim in life and had a rethink about the “rules”.

  35. No opinion. Mercedes DID use team orders on Hamilton but they DID NOT WORK. I know. Interesting concept.

  36. Well, it’s one of those situations where I can’t really decide if I agree or disagree.
    We want to see good racing and team orders don’t allow that. Furthermore, Rosberg and Hamilton are the only drivers capable of winning the championship, so a team order may not be the wisest thing to do.

    But Rosberg had a very different strategy and he had the chance to win the race. It was not going to be easy, but letting Rosberg through wouldn’t have affected Hamilton’s race too much, he could have attacked Alonso anyway. If I see it from a team principal point of view I prefer to have two drivers on two different strategies that can potentially win the race, rather than only one.

    When I heard the team radio I was quite indifferent, to be honest. It made sense for Mercedes, but it was not very nice to Lewis. So, yeah, I vote the third option.

    1. How the hell did he have the chance to win? Hamilton had track position! Mercedes cost Hamilton a shot at the win by not pitting Lewis for the soft tyres.

      1. Exactly what I was going to write

        1. Still not sure I see that. Mercedes own info was that the softs were good for 23 laps, and I suppose some stretched that but what were they like in the end. Are you suggesting LH should have pitted on lap 41 but took on softs and expected to be able to fight for the win in the end on such old tires? Or pit another time for new softs just as NR did, in which case aren’t they both going to be coming from way behind DR and FA, like NR did? I don’t see how either driver were a shoe in for the win either way.

  37. strategy point,…. well this is what you have when you only have one guy doing strategy for the whole team it should be like mclarun have one for each driver that way both sides win and best of all Mercedes have the strongest team

  38. Neil (@neilosjames)
    27th July 2014, 18:09

    Definitely not. You don’t use team orders if they’re both going to be fighting for the same piece of track at the end of the race… absurd they even considered it.

  39. Fair play Mercedes that it will happen now, already is broke the gearbox twice, brake disc, is fire car, always a second more slow in the pit stop, missing front axle break or perhaps forget to load enough fuel in the car of Hamilton. Luckily is the best and even if you start from boxes arriving at points. For that it brought a world champion Mr Wolff? I hope that the policy has nothing to do with that does not exit the safety car at Hockenheimring when there is a car in the middle of the main straight. fair play fair play mercedes

  40. My voice is that Mercedes should have ordered Hamilton to let Rosberg past, but Lewis was absolutely right in ignoring it

    1. Agreed. And I think had they waited just a few more laps they would have seen that in fact NR was not right on LH’s gearbox, so couldn’t reasonably have asked LH to literaly slow to let NR catch up and past, so wouldn’t have even issued the order.

  41. SennaNmbr1 (@)
    27th July 2014, 18:10

    Team orders were used and Lewis ignored them. I don’t think saying “that is a team order…” after it would have made any difference.

  42. They showed the lap chart on Sky & Nico had been catching Lewis at just under 1 second a lap. When he caught Lewis & got into the dirty air his lap times dropped off by nearly a second.

    To be honest Im not sure the team really expected Nico to be as fast as he was later in the race, Afterall others had put on the soft’s in the laps prior (Raikkonen for instance) & not found 2-3 seconds advantage on them as Nico ended up doing.

    They worked through the lap times on Sky & believe that had Lewis let Nico past with the pace Nico had at the end he’d have finished 2nd with a shot at the win depending on how quickly he was able to pass cars.

    1. I also think that Mercedes were expecting Lewis to catch & pass Alonso pretty quickly given how old Alonso’s tyres were & how quickly he had been catching him at that point & I don’t think they necessarily expected Lewis’s tyres to drop off as much as they did in the closing laps.

      I think they pushed for Lewis to let Nico past believing that Lewis woudl pass Alonso & take the lead when Daniel pitted & wanted Nico to be given the opportunity to gain as much time as possible before his stop to try & get both cars on the podium.

  43. If Rosberg was closer, yes.

    As he couldn’t catch up, no.

  44. IIRC Rosberg closed the gap pretty well, so Mercedes must have assumed Hamilton would just hold him up. In hindsight, Rosberg barely got close to Hamilton.

  45. There is the argument that Rosberg lost time, which makes sense, but realistically it didn’t cost him the 10s that was claimed, and Hamilton was in contention to overtake Alonso at that stage. So no is the short answer, sticking with my general dislike for team orders.

    1. Also, he failed to close the gap – so I don’t see how you could argue Hamilton was costing him that much time.

  46. I’m my opinion, it shouldn’t have been an order. It should have been a comment along the lines of:

    “If Nico closes up, don’t hold him up.”

    As it was, Nico wasn’t able to close up successfully, so Lewis had every right to stand his ground.
    Had Nico been that bit faster and threatening a fight at that point, then I think letting him through would be justified.

    1. Well said.

    2. potato potato
      28th July 2014, 5:43

      I’m sure the mercs were running different aero trim – Hamilton’s might have been radically different – they knew he needed to overtake at all costs when they rebuilt the car.
      Rosberg had what he qualified on pole with – overtaking not required.

  47. Mercedes were within their rights to make the request. However, Lewis was perfectly entitled to ignore it.

    The maths that Ted Kravitz did after the race suggested that Nico could have been fighting for 2nd and almost certainly 3rd. Had Lewis allowed him through, he would have lost ground in the driver’s championship but Mercedes would have gained more in the Constructor’s.

    Lewis was completely right to ignore the order. He needs every point he can get to beat Rosberg in the WDC. Mercedes should get the WCC comfortably without orders.

  48. The concept of asking a driver to move over to allow a strategy to work isn’t a bad thing.

    Nico wasn’t close enough for the request to have come in when it did though.

  49. “Slightly agree” – the guy on softer or newer tyres should be allowed through to get on with it, or there’s no point having strategies at all – but the geeky voice from the pitwall shouldn’t be telling a driver when and where to do it, and it sounds like Nico wasn’t all over the back of him.

    1. potato potato
      28th July 2014, 5:44

      Redbull did the previous 4 years by pitting one or the other rather than posting the stupid question on worldwide media.

  50. They shouldn’t ordered him to let rosberg past for the same reason last year in malaysia red bull shouldn’t told vettel to stay behind webber.
    Anyone who has a different view on those two subjects in a hypocrite.

  51. Why the hell should Hamilton let Rosberg through? Another point nobody as made is how dark the skies, it definitely looked liked it could rain. If there was a downpour Hamilton would have been shafted.

    Mercedes cost Hamilton a shot at the win, he mentioned on the radio that the tyres wouldn’t last, why they didn’t pit him first for Softs I’ll never know!

    1. Because then he would have had to pit again. Softs would not have gotten him to the end of the race so he would have ended up pitting the same number of times as NR.

      1. He would have still being infront of Rosberg though, so maybe that was the point.

      2. Yes and if he did pit the same number of times of Rosberg he would have had a better shot at the win!

  52. Mercedes are all at sea with their thinking. Obviously Lewis wanted every car possible to be between him and Nico! And vice-versa.

    Now they’ve alienated Lewis and have that to repair, on top of Niki’s idiot talk about wanting Vettel.

    1. If anything this incident gave Nico the upper hand, he can do the same next time and nobody would blame him.

      And that wasn’t an order, it was a recommendation he chose to ignore. Nobody is making a big deal out of this except the press and some hotheads. At least the press are doing it for money. :)

      1. It was a flat instruction to let him by. It gives Rosberg nothing, because the time for TO is long gone – the wcc isn’t at stake any more. They’ll think about it now and there won’t be any more team orders this season. As to it being a big deal – why are you posting about it? :)

    2. @lockup fyi Lauda is Ham’s biggest fan he said yday in qually he was gutted they went for tea last night and Lauda said Ham was perfectly right to keep pos. If they are sabotaging him it is a mechanic, Lauda i think is the one person along with Lowe who have no alleigance, but no one can deny Wolff would rather have Nico win the WC, i think that is obvious.

      1. @Dan yeah I don’t think there is bias, myself, from Toto either. I’m guessing it was just their single team strategist being zoned in on the team result with tunnel vision, not thinking about the driver side of things at all.

        I wouldn’t be surprised if over the break they switch to separate strategists for each side of the garage. Hope so, anyway.

  53. Putting Hamilton on the prime seemed quite dodgy in the first place.

  54. There was absolutely no reason why he should have let Rosberg through.
    Hamilton did say that Nico should come up closer, so he was prepared to let him through, and he never was that close, but once Nico pitted, the circumstances were no longer the same and it should have been a fair fight to the end.
    Hamilton was even very accommodating and now after the race, I am starting to believe that Hamilton’s issues were beyond just bad luck, as he was quoted as saying.
    I smell something very odious here.
    Well done Hamilton, no matter what they may be up to, you have clearly demonstrated you are a better driver and getting results purely from your skill and determination, while Nico is more and more depending on outside factors and powers of manupilation. in fact, its starting to look desparate

  55. A great race for Hamilton, I don’t support neither of Mercedes’s drivers , but that was outstanding race for Hamilton.

  56. I strongly disagree not because of a moralistic sportsmanship, which I usually rely on anyhow, but this time especially because Rosberg wasn’t clearly faster, was going to have to pit again anyhow and had nowhere to go further ahead. Also, why would you impose team orders possibly affecting the championship outcome when the standings say everything is still possible within the two, such that three points are crucial right now? Team orders imposed early on such as Germany 2010 or Austria 2002 are useless and cruel.

    1. I think they simply thought that at that stage LH should have been holding NR up, but within a few laps they all soon realized NR did not have the pace such that he would have been held up. It seemed once he was within a second of LH he could never get on LH’s gearbox and that was probably something they didn’t expect. They probably thought it was going to be more like it was for NR in his last stint…hauling LH in by the boatload. Bottom line, if at the time of the order NR was hauling LH in rapidly, and riding his gearbox, do you think it would have been fair to have LH hold him back? Knowing NR had another stop to make?

  57. I just couldn’t believe that Mercedes were making the call and I’m yet to find out who did that. That was one of those calls that belong to the “Lewis, Nico is faster than you”.
    No way Lewis should have fallen into that trap. He owes nothing to Mercedes who need to think much more wisely because they bet on the wrong horse and their PR is a disaster.
    On top of that Mercedes have made a series or professional errors on Lewis’ car, they clearly advantage Nico during the pitstops.

    They really need to give Lewis a break if I may say.

  58. I went slightly disagree. That’s because at the time there was a little bit of merit in the idea. Given what we know now, of course they shouldn’t have given the order. But at the time, the idea that Rosberg would catch back up was ludicrous, although only really because they waved off Hamilton’s correct instinct that the tyres wouldn’t hold together. Given what Mercedes though they knew, it was entirely sensible that Hamilton didn’t hold Rosberg up much, and in that sense the order had some merit. However, it should have only ever been a case of letting him through if all he needed was a slight lift. Rosberg never got anywhere near Hamilton so that could happen. At his closest, Hamilton would have still lost a lot of time in what was a tight race against the others. He was being directly asked to lose a couple of seconds to those he was racing, and to do that to help his only championship rival. This at a time when both the drivers and constructors titles are assured for Mercedes anyway. That is foolish.

    1. Scratch that actually. The more I think about it the more idiotic it seems. I still see where they were coming from (of course they got the strategy wrong for Hamilton in the first place, as Hamilton being on the slower tyre which was always unlikely to hold up- as recognised by Hamilton himself- made little sense), but there wasn’t enough merit and it was too poorly handled to be anything other than a ‘strongly disagree’.

      (although I still don’t quite understand how the question is posed- how can I agree or disagree with a question rather than a statement?)

  59. If Nico had been all over the gearbox of Lewis then it would be case for team orders. However, given that at the closest point he was at least 6 tenths away at best and not losing laptime then the oders seem a little odd. If one car had the clear advantage and was gunning for the title then yes, move him aside but both are fighting.

    This is one of the things that really is annoying me about F1 this season, the moaning and the inter team orders. For all extent and purposes if you can’t pass them under your own steam then you shouldn’t be allowed to be in front because clearly you aren’t the faster car.

  60. There are no team orders at Mercedes, just team recommendations. If it was an order, it would have carried a penalty. Drivers are free to follow or disregard them as they see fit.

    I can understand both the team’s POV and the driver POV. From the team POV, when a driver hurts a team points tally for his own interest he should be made to pay the team for at least half the points he squandered. What’s a F1 championship point worth these days? Can a driver afford to pay half of it? :)

    From the driver POV it’s easy. As long as you keep your drive and don’t break you contract or get penalised by the marshalls, you can do pretty much anything. Nice guy or winner – is there a choice here?

  61. they were right to tell him to let him past, but i can understand that hamilton didn’t do it.

    the team might’ve gotten a better result if hamilton complied, but like i said, i can understand that he didn’t let him past.

    1. @Rigi
      That’s basically it. Here we have an unfortunately unaviodable dissonance between what is (percieved to be) the best for Mercedes GP and what is the best for Lewis Hamilton.

    2. Do you actually watch the races?

      Hamilton had track position, why in the hell should Rosberg be allowed to pass?

      The team should have pitted Lewis first and then Nico the next lap, Hamilton was robbed of a chance at victory!

    3. At best, Mercedes would have gained 6 points, with Rosberg in 2nd and Hamilton in 4th. They are ahead in the constructors championship by 174 points. They don’t really NEED 6. Even if Nico had WON (I don’t think he would have), we’re talking 37 points, versus the 27 points they got. 10 points. So they were asking Hamilton to sacrifice his race, his podium finish, all the work he did to pass almost the entire field, and his dignity as a racer, all after having apologized to him for the car problems he’s had and after promising to let the two men race — just for 10 points? Any manager should see that as a losing situation and a DETRIMENT to the team in the long run.

      1. a team will always go for the most points they can have.
        don’t forget, at the last race a team could get a maximum of 86 (!!!) points. admittedly, mercedes are leading by a huge amount of points, but anything can happen.

  62. Would have been interesting to see if Hamilton would have let Rosberg past if Rosberg actually did try to pass him instead of just lingering back a bit.

    Now it looked like Rosberg had already used the best of his tyres to close the gap to Hamilton and wasn;t actually faster anymore. Rosberg didn’t seem to be able to get close enough to be able to overtake and a few laps later he wasn’t even able to maintain the DRS range.

  63. Mark in Florida
    27th July 2014, 21:14

    Lewis didn’t ruin Nicos race the safety car did. The way the safety car was deployed trapped Nico and allowed others to hit the pits first and it completely eliminated his lead. The only thing Lewis did wrong was run Nico off the corner wide to keep from being passed. I’m sure pay back will be in order at some point.

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      28th July 2014, 11:44

      Althought to be fair, even Rosberg said there was nothing wrong with Hamilton’s move. He said the driver on the inside has the corner and it’s your job when trying to overtake around the outside to get past so that you can’t be run off the track.

      That was just good solid defensive driving from Lewis.

  64. DISAGREE WITH IT 1000%

  65. HOWARD SCAIFE
    27th July 2014, 21:52

    What is it with Mercedes ? First they shout how De German driver ( never lived there) ist given a new long term contract.
    Then they humiliate Hamilton by saying that talks are underway !! whilst also not refuting the claims that they are wanting to replace him with Zee other German driver Sebastian Vettel.
    Check out pit stop times of Hamilton and Rosberg and it gets ever more interesting ,why does Hamilton always have longer pit stops. ?? Time to move on Lewis…

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      28th July 2014, 11:46

      Where to though? The only possible moves are back to McLaren when Button retires or to Red Bull in a swap for Vettel.

      Swapping the Merc for a McLaren would be a dumb move unless they know something we don’t about the new Honda engines. I suppose a move to Red Bull but it would be a risky move without guarantees about next year’s Renault engine.

  66. What happened to “No Team Orders” Tonto?

  67. Sorry, Toto

    1. Hah, I think I prefer Tonto

  68. Cloudy issue for me even though I am a NicoR fan. BUT telling Lewis to slow down was not right they should of told Nico to get it on and pass Lewis, but knowing Lewis he may of crashed NicoR and the team would of really lost out. So the team having a 3rd and 4th probably did about as good as possible considering the treacherous track conditions being safe at that stage of the race was probably wise…. Thanks, RnR

  69. Typical teutonic attitude, the correct call by Mercedes but not taking emotion into account. Asking Hamilton to do that after what he’s been through in the past 2 races just totally heartless and glad he didn’t comply.

  70. Jody R McLeod (@)
    28th July 2014, 2:24

    I think they should just let them race. Whomever is faster will win in the end. Not a fan of team orders, takes the spirit of competition away from the sport.

  71. @Keith Collantine.
    Hi Keith, just a suggestion: It would be great if you could introduce another couple of ‘click’ boxes titled ‘Like’ & ‘Dislike’ adjacent to the ‘Reply’ & ‘Report User’ boxes in the comments thread . This would provide more statistics as to how many more people actually read the comments without having to write/repeat a comment. You may be surprised to see how many more people read the various comments on your blog.
    Best Regards,
    Gerry

  72. Any connection to NR having signed a two year contract?

  73. From a team’s point of view, Rosberg getting by Lewis would have resulted in a higher points haul for Mercedes –

    1) Rosberg – 2nd (18pts) + Lewis 4th (12pts) -> 30 points probably

    But instead they ended up with 3 points Lesser -> 27 points

    I can understand why they made the call, but they should have realised earlier that both drivers are fighting for the WDC and 3 points lesser in a race for the team will not do as much damage as lack of harmony among their drivers.

    It was silly for them to ask Lewis to let Nico by, it added a false expectation on Nico regarding the preference a leading driver would be given, and it must have angered Lewis as he does have to make up ground on his biggest rival.

    If they were just told to race, the situation would be more stress free in the Mercedes briefing room

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      28th July 2014, 11:56

      @todfod – Yeah I agree. Mercedes need to just admit that the drivers are now fighting each other for a title. It will be great publicity for Mercedes and the team and they need to get behind it.

      There is no use in trying to get drivers who are battling for the title to help each other out because it isn’t going to happen. I don’t think there is a driver on the grid currently that Lewis would fight harder to keep behind him!

      Having run the stats in the Constructors championship yesterday, it’s almost impossible now for Mercedes to fail. If Red Bull finished 1st and 2nd in every remaining race (which they wont), Mercedes would still comfortably win the title before Abu Dhabi by finishing 3rd and 4th! Even when Mercedes do slip up, there are Williams and Ferrari waiting to capitalise so a 1-2 for Red Bull is very unlikey anyway!

      Mercedes simply need to wake up and realise that there is a huge battle going on for the drivers’ championship and it’s between their two guys. The gloves are off and they need to accept that for the remaining 8 races, they will do whatever it takes to come out on top even if that means ruining the others’ strategy!

  74. Definitely the correct decision from Lewis. Too many times, Mercedes have been caught with their pants down, absurd favoritism for the wrong driver. I’d understand if Nico was the better driver of the day or if he was close enough to overtake his team-mate. He was nowhere near close enough to beat Lewis on the track today. Anyways, Mercedes’ PR team has a lot of head scratching to do.

    Nico Rosberg was never underrated, this guy just doesn’t know how to overtake quite like the top 5 drivers. He had no answer to a Toro Rosso, considering his car is almost 1.5 seconds faster, if not more. His teammate showed how it’s done.

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      28th July 2014, 12:02

      At this stage, there is no need for favouritism regardless of which driver is better!

      One of Nico or Lewis will win the drivers’ championship and Mercedes will win the constructor’s. That is a given. How Mercedes can be in that situation and still be doing their reputation damage is fairly spectacular!

      Let them race and you’ll end the season with both Championships and a lot of congratulations. Create un-needed controversy and friction within the team and you’re setting yourself up for a big problem.

  75. Given that team orders are legal, obviously the team has the right to use them, and Lewis probably should have followed them as he is part of the team. However this situation shows that team orders are ridiculous and should once more be banned. I also believe that as well as the team strategist each driver should have their own strategist, as the current format leaves too little flexibility. I would have brought Lewis in when Nico caught up with him and given him the sorfts at that point. That way he would not have held Nico up. and would have been on the faster tyres. Then we would have had a race for a 1/2 again. If we do have to have team orders they should only be applied once one driver is realistically out of running for the drivers championship, and/or the team are at risk of losing the drivers championship. Neither of these scenarios applied at Hungaroring. Great race though :)

  76. From mercedes point of view as a team I would say that giving the order was justified. As it would give one of their drivers who was on a different strategy a chance for the win (nico). and as a team you want to maximise your chances of one of your cars winning the race, regardless of who is driving it.

    From the drivers point of view, I totally agree with Hamilton not to let Rosberg pass, because they are racing eachother for the cahmpionship, and Rosberg really wasn’t that much faster, so not giving your main rival a chance to usurp you later in the race is a no brainer.

    I do however feel that Lewis’s choice might affect his future at Mercedes. Nico already has a contract extension. And, like last year when he held position behinfd Lewis when told so, has shown he will follow team orders. Lewis has had a lot of bad luck this year, but making statements like “this is beyond bad luck”and thus implying that Mercedes are doing it on purpose can not have endeared him to the team. Added to that the fact that the team has to pay big money for Lewis, whereas Rosberg has shown to be his euqual in many aspects if maybe not outright speed (though I feel he is not far off) might mean Lewis will lose his seat at mercedes for next year. Especially if ither drivers start will be shuffeled around and become available.

    1. Not just “sabotage” , but also “incompetence” is “beyond bad luck”. Lauda and even Toto seem to agree on that one.

    2. petebaldwin (@)
      28th July 2014, 12:04

      @melkurion – Nico did hold station last year but it has to be pointed out this didn’t happen with 8 races to go with one of him or Lewis guaranteed to win the WDC….

      If that request had come yesterday, I’m fairly sure Nico would have made the move anyway!

      1. @petebaldwin

        I agree that the situation last year was completly different of course. And yes I agree about Nico to. but the way it played out I still think it is one more little thing that will count against Lewis when his contract is reallyup for renewal, especially if they can get someone as good, or almost as good for 30 million less. Not saying that is whatw ill happen, but sometimes the little things add up.

        1. petebaldwin (@)
          29th July 2014, 11:12

          @melkurion – Lewis will end up at a top top team though. The only change I could imagine would possibly be Vettel moving to Mercedes to complete an all German driver lineup which would leave a huge fight for that Red Bull seat. Hamilton and Ricciardo would be a great lineup though!

  77. Mercedes seems to be favouring Rosberg. First, they put Lewis on the slower tyre, when he had more new tyres than anyone else. Had they pitted both cars and put them on the faster tyre, they would’ve had another 1-2.

  78. MERC really need to stay out of it and act objectively!! If NICO wants to be champion, HE HAS TO EARN IT! He shouldn´t expect the team to gift wrap it for him! YOU GO LEWIS!! Give Britney hell!!

  79. Do you notice how hard Mercedes seem to be going to favour Rosberg.I totally understand they want a German Champion to win for a German Company.
    Asking Hamilton to move over so that Rosberg can get ahead of him is well out of order and blatantly unfair, given both drivers are going for the Championship.Hamilton’s drive from the pit lane to 3rd is quite amazingly brilliant , given the Hungarian track is difficult to pass car at.
    I fear more Mechanical failure and very slow PIT STOPS will affect Hamilton before the season is out.How else do you think a CHIPMUNK like Rosberg is going to beat Hamilton?

  80. I’m still of the view that team orders should be banned. I understand the money sponsorship team etc arguments, but without exciting wheel to wheel racing, none of that would exist as fans would go elsewhere

  81. I defiantly did not agree with the Mercedes team orders for Hamilton to let Rosberg through.

    Given the situation that it is almost certain that Mercedes will win the Constructors Championship and either Hamilton or Rosberg will win the Drivers Championship you can’t issue team orders to maximise the team result if you want to let your drivers have a fair fight for the title, as I thought Mercedes had already stated previously.

    I don’t know if it was actually the case but from the BBC highlight footage it did not appear that Rosberg was ever even close enough during that period of the race whereby Hamilton could easily let him by anyway.

    As Hamilton stated after the race if he had let Rosberg by, then Rosberg would have closed up to Hamilton sooner in his final stint and would have overtaken him then.

    The only way it may have worked would have been if Mercedes had told Hamilton to let Rosberg by when they did but then also try and guarantee him that Rosberg would stay behind him in the final stint.

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