Mercedez Prefers Nico over Lewis

[deadslow]

rdjohn said:

Alfa numeric said:

This is a German team whose car is designed and built in a factory about 15 minutes to the west of Silverstone, and whose engine is designed and built about 20 minutes to the north?

Presumably you are unaware of the saying

"He who pays the Piper, calls the tune"

It applies in every other aspect of life, so why not F1?

Because Nicky Lauda says so. End.

[Ahonen]

wombleh said:

The teams are investing something like £50mil/year...

I've nothing to add to this stupid thread, but your underestimation of the F1 budget is very amusing.

The wonderfully simple maths of the OP when deciding the strategy is also greatly entertaining.

[wombleh]

Ahonen said:

I've nothing to add to this stupid thread, but your underestimation of the F1 budget is very amusing.

The wonderfully simple maths of the OP when deciding the strategy is also greatly entertaining.

Ah yes few years out of date, some vast sums being talked about for Merc with the engine development. Whatever the value it's enough you wouldn't risk dropping places in the constructors and losing tens of millions more just to favour a certain driver.

[BigBen]

Mermaid said:

RXED said:

I think people need to get over this crap and accept that for once, a big team has 2 even drivers with no clear No.1!

If you put a gun to the head of Toto Wolff demanding one name, and only one name, it would be......

I ran into Toto Wolff at the Goodwood FoS, whilst I was speaking to him he was being heckled by Crofty (Sky lead commentator for BBC ites) along the lines of 'why do you sabotage Lewis' pitstops' and other such conspiracy nonsense. This suggested to me that Mercedes management and the media think it's a joke, I agree with them.

[tristancliffe]

wombleh said:

Ah yes few years out of date, some vast sums being talked about for Merc with the engine development. Whatever the value it's enough you wouldn't risk dropping places in the constructors and losing tens of millions more just to favour a certain driver.

By "a few years", you mean about 20.

[Ken Sington]

Reportedly LH wants 90 million euros for the pleasure of having him in the team for the next 3 years. Also reportedly, Nico's new contract for the next 3 years is worth in the region of 53 million euros. If you have built the fastest car on the grid for the near future, and are going to clean up the constructor's championship this year, are the few tenths here and there that LH sometimes has over Nico going to be worth 37 million euros more to the MB board who were not so long ago considering withdrawal from F1 iirc?

[P-Jay]

Ken Sington said:

Reportedly LH wants 90 million euros for the pleasure of having him in the team for the next 3 years. Also reportedly, Nico's new contract for the next 3 years is worth in the region of 53 million euros. If you have built the fastest car on the grid for the near future, and are going to clean up the constructor's championship this year, are the few tenths here and there that LH sometimes has over Nico going to be worth 37 million euros more to the MB board who were not so long ago considering withdrawal from F1 iirc?

Lewis sells more t-shirts, watches, trainers, mobile phone, oil and cars then Nico does and is a former WDC winner.

There's more to it than just pace - if you want a yardstick for their respective 'media value' Lewis has 2.23m twitter followers, Nico has 726k.

[Jasandjules]

Let's see if they pay it - or what they pay. I suspect it will be a premium over Nico though.

[gaz1234]

Op has a point as they asked lh to moe over...

[markcoznottz]

Ken Sington said:

Reportedly LH wants 90 million euros for the pleasure of having him in the team for the next 3 years. Also reportedly, Nico's new contract for the next 3 years is worth in the region of 53 million euros. If you have built the fastest car on the grid for the near future, and are going to clean up the constructor's championship this year, are the few tenths here and there that LH sometimes has over Nico going to be worth 37 million euros more to the MB board who were not so long ago considering withdrawal from F1 iirc?

Lewis has brought more to the sport it has to be said, he's a stalwart of the series. Rosberg has always been a bit invisible, if you were being uncharitable you would say he was bland. He can't even decide where he's from.

[Mermaid]

markcoznottz said:

Lewis has brought more to the sport it has to be said, he's a stalwart of the series. Rosberg has always been a bit invisible, if you were being uncharitable you would say he was bland. He can't even decide where he's from.

Lewis human is easy to remember, Nico robot is easy to forget.

[sanf]

In all the recent claims against Merc it shouldn't be forgotten, DR in the Red Bull had built a 12 second lead over Alonso - Were Merc mindful of how on edge Hamilton appeared in the car fretting about brakes, tyres, hot seats etc?

They opted for the least stressful choice - there could have been genuine concern that asking LH to run absolutely flat to the finish chasing DR's 12 second gap in a freshly rebuilt car was a risk that was not necessary, considering where he was in the race. It was a great damage limitation exercise, and in the grand scale of the championship 3rd or 4th at worst was a good save.

[carinaman]

I thought this may be relevant to this thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMdN8-k00AE&li...

[thatguy11]

McClure said:

Who knows. It's possible.

But this weekend has shown Lewis has a great ally in the form of Niki Lauda. I think if Lewis takes the WDC he'll have a lot to thank Niki for.

not least for convincing him to join the team in the first place.

[carinaman]

thatguy11 said:

McClure said:

Who knows. It's possible.

But this weekend has shown Lewis has a great ally in the form of Niki Lauda. I think if Lewis takes the WDC he'll have a lot to thank Niki for.

not least for convincing him to join the team in the first place.

I thought Brawn was involved convincing Hamilton too? I'm sure there's some quote about Ross Brawn having a cup of tea at the kitchen table around his mother's house that helped Lewis to decide to join Mercedes?

[thatguy11]

carinaman said:

I thought Brawn was involved convincing Hamilton too? I'm sure there's some quote about Ross Brawn having a cup of tea at the kitchen table around his mother's house that helped Lewis to decide to join Mercedes?

Yeah that's true, but it was Niki and Lewis sitting in Lewis' hotel room talking for three hours post-2012 Singapore GP that finally convinced Lewis to leave McLaren

[Jasandjules]

carinaman said:

I thought Brawn was involved convincing Hamilton too? I'm sure there's some quote about Ross Brawn having a cup of tea at the kitchen table around his mother's house that helped Lewis to decide to join Mercedes?

Yes, that is what I thought too.

[carinaman]

It's my view that both of those discussions happened with Hamilton, the one with Lauda and the one with Brawn.

It's mildly amusing to see Nico saying the first Safety Car came out at the wrong time on the BBC website.

I rate Lewis, but thought Nico would win the WDC this year. I'll be happy to be proved wrong.

[MGJohn]

I think the multiplicity of CONSPIRACY threads and postings should have a spoiler in the titles.

[Walford]

thatguy11 said:

carinaman said:

I thought Brawn was involved convincing Hamilton too? I'm sure there's some quote about Ross Brawn having a cup of tea at the kitchen table around his mother's house that helped Lewis to decide to join Mercedes?

Yeah that's true, but it was Niki and Lewis sitting in Lewis' hotel room talking for three hours post-2012 Singapore GP that finally convinced Lewis to leave McLaren

yea Ross Brawn said your mum makes i nice cup of tea, I would like to sign her of for our tent at the next grand prix, but she said only if you sign Lewis as well