The Official 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**
Discussion
paulw123 said:
Disagree, the championship will have been decided on one engine failure whilst heading for a win. If Lewis wins the final race he will have had more poles and more wins. if both cars had similar reliability he would have walked this championship.
You don't think that Lewis' string of poor starts has affected the championship more than his single engine failure?I agree Rosberg has had better reliability, but these days the drivers have little influence over that. Lewis' starts are under his control and he has fluffed enough of them to lose the championship.
paulw123 said:
ClockworkCupcake said:
HustleRussell said:
I have spent most of the season wanting Hamilton to take it but I have come to terms with the idea of a Rosberg championship. If he wins I'd say he deserves it.
I agree. Championships are won and lost on reliability, and worse, (for example James Hunt's WDC). I think Rosberg has done quite a lot to be deserving of this WDC if he gets it. In 2008 Lewis won the title with better reliability than Massa. It generally evens itself out in the end.
HardtopManual said:
paulw123 said:
Disagree, the championship will have been decided on one engine failure whilst heading for a win. If Lewis wins the final race he will have had more poles and more wins. if both cars had similar reliability he would have walked this championship.
You don't think that Lewis' string of poor starts has affected the championship more than his single engine failure?I agree Rosberg has had better reliability, but these days the drivers have little influence over that. Lewis' starts are under his control and he has fluffed enough of them to lose the championship.
So Hamilton 'errors' this season has been having 2 more poor starts than Nico & a major f
k up in Baku Quali & thats about it.Reliability wise, he's missed 3 Q3's & obviously the DNF at Malaysia.
"if" Lewis out-qualifies & wins against Nico in Abu Dhabi, that will be 12-9 in qualifying & 10-9 race wins. Still think it's down to his poor starts?
angrymoby said:
So Hamilton 'errors' this season has been having 2 more poor starts than Nico & a major fk up in Baku Quali & thats about it.
Which will add up to him losing the championship by a couple of points, which seems reasonable given the above.k up in Baku Quali & thats about it.angrymoby said:
"if" Lewis out-qualifies & wins against Nico in Abu Dhabi, that will be 12-9 in qualifying & 10-9 race wins. Still think it's down to his poor starts?
Had he stayed ahead in, say, Monza, he'd currently be leading the championship by 2 points, so yes. I'm not arguing that Rosberg is a better driver than Hamilton; I don't think he is. Hamilton has indeed suffered worse reliability *this season*. But he is equally responsible for his points deficit as the blokes who bolt his crankshaft in.Hamilton is going into the last race still able to win the title. He has a sporting chance. All the what ifs are really pointless.
If only Renault had 50 more horsepower .... if only Honda were as good as they thought they were..... if only Hammy could engage the bloody clutch....
It is what it is a week on Sunday and I cannot wait.
If only Renault had 50 more horsepower .... if only Honda were as good as they thought they were..... if only Hammy could engage the bloody clutch....
It is what it is a week on Sunday and I cannot wait.
Barring a mechanical DNF for NR (which would be unfortunate) Hamilton's biggest chance to win the WDC was when Rosberg spun coming up the hill in Brazil last weekend.
Almost everyone other than Rosberg and Max who spun went out, that he regained the track and kept going may have secured the championship.
Have to give Lewis kudos for the 3 wins on a trot to catch up as much as he has.
Such a shame the final race couldn't be at a good track...
Almost everyone other than Rosberg and Max who spun went out, that he regained the track and kept going may have secured the championship.
Have to give Lewis kudos for the 3 wins on a trot to catch up as much as he has.
Such a shame the final race couldn't be at a good track...
HardtopManual said:
You don't think that Lewis' string of poor starts has affected the championship more than his single engine failure?
I agree Rosberg has had better reliability, but these days the drivers have little influence over that. Lewis' starts are under his control and he has fluffed enough of them to lose the championship.
What 'single' engine failure? Hamilton went through multiple engines in the first handful of races. Rosberg has only had one problem and that only cost him a single place overall. So, no, on balance the string of mechanical issues has cost Hamilton the championship, rather than 2 poor weekends (Baku and Singapore). Mercedes have admitted to clutch problems at the starts so we cannot blame Hamilton for all the poor starts.I agree Rosberg has had better reliability, but these days the drivers have little influence over that. Lewis' starts are under his control and he has fluffed enough of them to lose the championship.
scubadude said:
Barring a mechanical DNF for NR (which would be unfortunate) Hamilton's biggest chance to win the WDC was when Rosberg spun coming up the hill in Brazil last weekend.
Almost everyone other than Rosberg and Max who spun went out, that he regained the track and kept going may have secured the championship.
Have to give Lewis kudos for the 3 wins on a trot to catch up as much as he has.
Such a shame the final race couldn't be at a good track...
Agree with all of it. I also think that Rosberg has been less inclined to fight Max these past few races especially. He really seems to be in risk management mode. I'd loved to have heard his radio as he lost/caught it in Brazil. Almost everyone other than Rosberg and Max who spun went out, that he regained the track and kept going may have secured the championship.
Have to give Lewis kudos for the 3 wins on a trot to catch up as much as he has.
Such a shame the final race couldn't be at a good track...
Had he binned it, we'd have been in for a re-run of 2014's final race, which I wouldn't have minded, but I'm happy with what we have this year.
ClockworkCupcake said:
Well I'm looking forward to the race starting and all the speculation ending. Maybe I will stay away from the thread till then.
To be fair, with the exception of a mech failure or a bad start, I really can't see it being anything other than a procession of Ham winning and Ros winning the WDC....... Still going to watch it though.
I worked it out that Hamilton has lost around 50 points to mechanical reliability and around 30 points to bad starts. He also got gifted around 13 points due to team orders and mechanical misfortune/bad starts of teammate. Don't have the time to construct a post detailing the rationale for it, but it's an interesting point that was made above that, if Hamilton had made equal good starts as his teammate, he'd likely be in a better position going into this last race. Who was it that said F1 is If spelled backwards? 
I would like to see Toto's face if Rosberg's engine blows up in this race and Hamilton takes the Championship. /Schadenfreude
I would like to see Toto's face if Rosberg's engine blows up in this race and Hamilton takes the Championship. /Schadenfreude
It is now Nico's to lose, which is great as he has shown that he cannot handle pressure very well. All it takes is him being overly cautious off the line... Lewis on the other hand has absolutely nothing to lose.
If he comes back to win it, it will be Lewis' hardest fought and most deserved title - to come back from such a massive deficit where a lot of people had mentally all but engraved rosberg's name on the trophy, and then to then come back from another deficit in the closing rounds is superb.
Fingers crossed for an exciting race.
If he comes back to win it, it will be Lewis' hardest fought and most deserved title - to come back from such a massive deficit where a lot of people had mentally all but engraved rosberg's name on the trophy, and then to then come back from another deficit in the closing rounds is superb.
Fingers crossed for an exciting race.
Dr Z said:
I worked it out that Hamilton has lost around 50 points to mechanical reliability and around 30 points to bad starts. He also got gifted around 13 points due to team orders and mechanical misfortune/bad starts of teammate. Don't have the time to construct a post detailing the rationale for it, but it's an interesting point that was made above that, if Hamilton had made equal good starts as his teammate, he'd likely be in a better position going into this last race. Who was it that said F1 is If spelled backwards?
I would like to see Toto's face if Rosberg's engine blows up in this race and Hamilton takes the Championship. /Schadenfreude
Thanks for running the numbers Dr Z. Looking forward to Max and Danny Ric's overtakes on Rosberg in the last ten laps of the race :-)I would like to see Toto's face if Rosberg's engine blows up in this race and Hamilton takes the Championship. /Schadenfreude
I would like to see Rosberg suffer a heartbreaking DNF on the last lap of the race that crushes his soul which he never really recovers from - I think it would balance the season out nicely.
Short of that I think the only hope Lewis has is to win the race at the slowest speed possible to try and back Rosberg into the bulls however unfortunately Abu Dhabi is a track that the Merc's will likely have a big advantage on so it's going to be really difficult to do that - I also don't think Toto would approve of this tactic.
Short of that I think the only hope Lewis has is to win the race at the slowest speed possible to try and back Rosberg into the bulls however unfortunately Abu Dhabi is a track that the Merc's will likely have a big advantage on so it's going to be really difficult to do that - I also don't think Toto would approve of this tactic.
GCH said:
If he comes back to win it, it will be Lewis' hardest fought and most deserved title - to come back from such a massive deficit
...twice!tyranical said:
I would like to see Rosberg suffer a heartbreaking DNF on the last lap of the race that crushes his soul which he never really recovers from - I think it would balance the season out nicely.
Harsh!Dr Z said:
I worked it out that Hamilton has lost around 50 points to mechanical reliability and around 30 points to bad starts. He also got gifted around 13 points due to team orders and mechanical misfortune/bad starts of teammate. Don't have the time to construct a post detailing the rationale for it, but it's an interesting point that was made above that, if Hamilton had made equal good starts as his teammate, he'd likely be in a better position going into this last race. Who was it that said F1 is If spelled backwards?
I would like to see Toto's face if Rosberg's engine blows up in this race and Hamilton takes the Championship. /Schadenfreude
Interesting data. What are Nicos lost points due to reliability?I would like to see Toto's face if Rosberg's engine blows up in this race and Hamilton takes the Championship. /Schadenfreude
I think it reasonable to conclude that reliability has been a major factor in Nico holding the lead in the title at the moment. Yes, Lewis could have taken more points, but he has already taken more points than Nico when you take the reliability factor in so it seems odd that people want to keep going back to 'yeah but his starts' etc etc. I also think the 'engine mode' coming together hurt Lewis, and looking at Sebs penalty for squeezing in the braking zone (and accepting it's a different situation and different rules), Nico was very lucky with that dive all the way from left to right.
But, and it's a big but, Nico has driven well and has exploited the opportunity. I have no problem with Nico taking the title this year and he will be as credible as most champions. I think you can accept Nico's credentials AND understand that reliability has been a major factor in denying Lewis - more so than his own performance..... Both are true in my opinion.
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