Gobsmacked at the announcement but respect to him for putting his family 1st

Wherlein. Button? Perez?

Edited 2 December, 20169 yr by camelspyyder

Won't Ecclestone, the promoters and Liberty Media all be livid.

Bernie had been saying for years that he saw no value in Rosberg as champ.

Andrew Benson thinks Bottas or Vettel most likely for Mercedes.

http://m.bbc.com/sport/formula1/38185491

Edited 2 December, 20169 yr by camelspyyder

Would I be correct in thinking that Mercedes 'engineered' Rosberg the title with a deal that he retired afterwards?

That's a conspiracy and a half. I don't buy it.

Hamilton swaggers about, but he didnt have the mindset of a champion this year to utilise his skills.

Love him or hate him Rosberg knuckled down and had the focus, along with the machinery to make it all come together.

I'm not convinced Hamilton will do it next year either.

Very easy to put your family first when you are a multi-millionaire from a privileged background and have just won a World Championship; I doubt it was a tough decision to make. I expect he has been a right pain in the arse to live with this year as he put absolutely everything into his racing and perhaps his wife told him that she was not prepared to do that any longer now he had achieved his ambition. We all know that anything less than 100% would see him well behind Hamilton.

 

So Runaway Rosberg has gone; who will step into the dream seat? As mentioned in one of the posts above, the rule changes could throw up a surprise, a bit like Brawn a few years ago. I don't think it would be Verstappen (there would be fireworks but what would happen to Verstappen if Hamilton beat him?) but someone who can develop as a number 2 to Hamilton. I would have thought Pascal Wehrlein fitted the bill but it seems his personality is quite a lot like Hamilton, so may cause issues. I would love to see Ricciardo next to Hamilton but if I was a betting man I would put a fiver on Bottas.

Gadget man, what are you on about? But for the Sepang blowup Hamilton would have won the title easily.

That's a conspiracy and a half. I don't buy it.

Hamilton swaggers about, but he didnt have the mindset of a champion this year to utilise his skills.

Love him or hate him Rosberg knuckled down and had the focus, along with the machinery to make it all come together.

I'm not convinced Hamilton will do it next year either.

You're having a laugh surely. To get anywhere near as close as he did to the title given the issues he's had shows how well he 'utilised his skills', the vast majority of the rest of the grid wouldn't have had a chance by Brazil.

Edited 2 December, 20169 yr by matt1chelski

Everyone focuses on that one engine failure Lewis had as the key to losing it. But these people forget how many bad starts Lewis had this year. You could argue if he hadn't then he would have made the 5 point deficit that way instead. When you look at it he's given away quite a few opportunities by coming 3rd a few times, a 7th, a 5th. Surely these are just as much of a reason for him not winning it this year as much as one engine failure.
 

The driver who scored the most points won the championship, he did and I'm happy he did and I'm happy he went out on top, Easy to say he's running away but his goal was to match his dad which he's done. He had a nice family life to get to, millions in the bank, why would he still race in F1? Takes courage to walk away and respectful to Mercedes to do it early so they have chance to get someone else. This is coming from someone who is a Lewis fan, went to Suzuka, bought the T-Shirt, saw him win there last year. He really needs to have a look at himself if he wants to win a title again. Next year will be harder, more competitive and while he did start improving towards the end and his focus went up it was too late. Needs to carry that into next year.



This now means the driver market is wide open, leading to some great Alonso memes, great tweets between Verstappen and Mercedes https://twitter.com/MercedesAMGF1/status/804713093410541568/photo/1

Wehrlein is most likely, given he's driver program. I could also see Bottas who Wolff and Hakkinen manage and he's familiar with Merc engines (imagine the conspiracy theories then!), they do a deal with Williams to take on Wehrlein and a bit of discount on engines. Forget Vettel and the Fernando as those are quite locked in unless money was exchanged and I don't think Mercedes would think it's cost effective. The only one who must be feeling sick is Hulkenburg. Jumps ship to Renault at the wrong time. But who knows it could be a great move. Apparently Lauda has already try to get him off Renault and they've told him no.
 

Edited 3 December, 20169 yr by MartynVRS

Everyone focuses on that one engine failure Lewis had as the key to losing it. But these people forget how many bad starts Lewis had this year. You could argue if he hadn't then he would have made the 5 point deficit that way instead. When you look at it he's given away quite a few opportunities by coming 3rd a few times, a 7th, a 5th. Surely these are just as much of a reason for him not winning it this year as much as one engine failure.

I've not read anyone focusing on that one failure.

ERS failure in China, dropped to 22nd on the grid, finished 7th

ERS in Russia, qualified 10th finished 2nd

Engine mode issues in EU GP, finished 5th

Hydraulic failure in Singapore loosing him setup time, Qualified and finished 3rd.

Malaysia engine giving up, DNF

I think the last is most talked about, since it's recent and clear cut, the Lewis haters can't argue that he was cruising for a win but to be honest, when you go through that lot, the couple of rough starts pale into insignificance.

I do not knock Lewis's talent he's up there with the best , it's the Mansel antics ( blaming the team and thinking img there's a conspiracy when things don't go his way ) as well as his sulking that I dislike . Massa who lost out to Lewis and was world champ for 30 seconds showed a true sportsman in defeat

A lot of F1 champs have been Prima Donna's, it's not a Hamilton exclusive. Vettel, Schumacher,Senna Alonso...all either threw their teddies, refused to have fast teammates, ignored the rules or had contracts written to ensure their success at the number two's expense.

Some of those were so bad it beggars belief that they got rehired at all. Alonso cost McLaren 100 million, then was involved in Renault getting chucked out of F1 as well.

Senna deliberately crashed at 160mph in front of the entire field. Schuey twice tried to crash his title challenger in the deciding race. Hamilton is an angel in comparison with that lot.

...but the very fact that he is a council house kid done good seems to **** people off a lot more than if he was a millionaires son.

Going off topic a bit here but we are on our 2nd bottle of red so indulge me.

 

People touting Schumacher as the best driver ever because he has won more races than anyone else (and by some margin) really annoy me. Senna (for me) is the greatest F1 World Champion, and in his McLaren years he was up against Prost with no team orders. Similarly, Hamilton has raced in the best F1 car for the last 3 years with a competitive team mate; imagine how many race wins he would have now with an obedient Number 2? And the thing that really annoys me? Schumacher didn't need it; he would have won a bunch because he was a very good race driver. Unfortunately, he was also a nasty cheating scumbag (especially in the Benetton years) so will never ever be a worthy champion in my eyes.

 

Which brings me to Lewis. The poor lad that made good with a hugely supportive family putting everything on the line to enable that lad to succeed. Good on them I say. OK, Lewis has started to enjoy the celebrity lifestyle a little too much of late (end of 2015 early 2016 in particular) but h really turned it on at the end of 2016 and I expect that losing the World Championship to Rosberg this year will have hurt Lewis and I anticipate that he will continue in 2017 where he left off this year and (assuming Mercedes give him the car) annihilate everyone else on the grid.

 

Anyway, need to sleep now - work tomorrow.

Senna deliberately crashed at 160mph in front of the entire field. Schuey twice tried to crash his title challenger in the deciding race. Hamilton is an angel in comparison with that lot.

 

As retribution for the farce the year before. Balestre was (and probably still is) an idiot.

Senna was the fastest but should have been banned for Suzuka 90.

Retribution at 160mph? 24 other drivers behind?

He was naive to let Post chop him at the chicane in 89 but in 90 he should have been jailed

And he is still my all-time F1 hero

Retribution at 160mph? 24 other drivers behind?

But he told everyone beforehand that is what would happen if they didn't move pole position back to the clean side of the track. Balestre thought he was bigger than the sport and could manipulate matters when in fact he was just a very large ****.

Senna should have been prevented from starting having announced that intent. J-MB was a ****. But at least he never sold F1 into slavery for 100 years like his slimy successor Max did.

Mercedes have advertised the job to replace Rosberg if anyone's interested.

Mercedes have advertised the job to replace Rosberg if anyone's interested.

 

Maldonado's seen it: