Mercedes Rivalry

Bonjourno!

With many drivers finding themselves at new teams with new team mates I can't help but feel intrigued by the prospect of a titanic battle in the middle of the grid at Mercedes.

In case you have been on holiday on Jupiter for the last 8 months, Mercedes now have a driver pairing of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. Arguably their careers haven't quite worked out quite as well as they would have liked, but at the same time both are very talented drivers and to their credit have had some moments that will be woven into the historic Formula One tapestry.

Nico Rosbergs CV highlights include beating a 7 time World Drivers Champion 2 seasons in a row, thus confirming that he is in fact up there on merit with the more established drivers on the grid. He is an excellent qualifier and has very good race pace. He is not afraid to fight for positions and is willing to take a risk and make overtakes outside of DRS zones and pitlanes. He was famed earlier in his career for having the look of Britney Spears thanks to Mark Webber. He has since been for a trip to the Epidermis Engineers where he had his head sharpened and with it the reputation of being F1s Queen of Pop was obliterated. He has had his questionable moments on the track such as crossing the pit lane white line when leaving the pits in Singapore when on the verge of something great with Williams back in 2009. He apologised to his team immediately over the radio.

Then there is Lewis Hamiltons career and this has some 'interesting' points to it but they are for another day. In summary, he is a one time WDC who may feel that with his widely reported talent/hype, may feel he should of added to that tally by now. He has won multiple races during his time on the F1 circuit and been involved in much drama during his 6 years. His lows involve crash-gate, choke-gate, lie-gate, twitter-gate and arrested at autrallianGPfordrivinglikeadrunk-gate. Just to name a few off the top of my head!

Hamilton will have something to prove now as he joins his new team. During his time when you add up all the points from the head to heads with his team mates from his time of being number one at Mclaren, he has only taken more points in total than Heikki Kovalainen. Is this acceptable from a driver whom so much is expected of these days?

Now he is at a new team with a team mate that is no push over and after watching the Barcelona testing on Saturday, people started to believe that Hamilton was going to steam roller his way to victory over the ‘average at best’ Rosberg. Then Sunday came and wow, what a lap from Nico 'Nos'berg! When the geeks took into account projected fuel co-efficient and weight and these numbers were entered into the equation of speed, it turns out that Rosberg was actually 0.125 seconds quicker than Hamilton. Some may say that’s close. However, engineers will tell you that is light years. How many thousands of Euro’s do they have to spend to make a tenth of a second in the factory?

I am just saying that while there is a fight at the front of the grid for the WDC between Alonso, Kimi, Vettel and Jenson Button MBE, that the middle of the grid show down between these 2 drivers is going to be epic.

My question to the fabulous voters here is this. Who will win the Mid-Card battle Royal... Rosberg or Hamilton?

I am voting for Nico Rosberg. Hamilton is joining a German team and is up against a German driver who is actually very good at what he does. Hamilton will have to review how Jenson Button MBE was able to infiltrate the Lions Den he built around him at McLaren and come out as number 1 driver. Learning from the Frome Fox’s wisdom and experience is the only way he will beat Rosberg in my own expert opinion.

Your thoughts?

Alessandro Ciambella wrote:Nico Rosbergs CV highlights include beating a 7 time World Drivers Champion 2 seasons in a row, thus confirming that he is in fact up there on merit with the more established drivers on the grid. He is an excellent qualifier and has very good race pace.

I am just saying that while there is a fight at the front of the grid for the WDC between Alonso, Kimi, Vettel and Jenson Button MBE, that the middle of the grid show down between these 2 drivers is going to be epic.

My question to the fabulous voters here is this. Who will win the Mid-Card battle Royal... Rosberg or Hamilton?

I am voting for Nico Rosberg.

Your thoughts?

Mr. Embarrasing comments is back, hardly surprising. Nico beat an already past it Schumacher, well if it hadn't been for his horrific reliability you will actually find that Schumacher was at an equal with Nico, however Nico's win in China seems to cloud everyone's judgement. Also Hamilton is a far superior qualifier compared to Rosberg and was the only driver last season to make Q3 at every weekend. How do you know that the title fight is going to be between Alonso, Kimi, Vettel & JB? If anything, from testing the Mercedes has been superior in the timing screens and showing more competitiveness than both the traction limited Ferrari and the unpredictable McLaren. Finally, it's no surprise that you've opted for Rosberg ahead of Hamilton in this duel. Everyone knows your dislike against Hamilton, we don't need it put all over these forums for another season.

My thoughts are that your an embarrassment and hopefully the less we hear from you and your comments aimed at winding people up the better.

Alessandro, the more laps you do on a track, the more rubber you put down and the faster everyone else goes. This is something so basic that people who truly follow motorsport understand. We know your mission though and it's fine.

Hamilton will beat Rosberg the same way he beat all of his other team mates, making millions of pounds on the way whilst cavorting with the lovely Nicole, whilst you will be on here crying into your bitter.

To hate someone for so long who you do not know or have interacted with is unhealthy

Alessandro Ciabatta wrote:
Bonjourno!

With many drivers finding themselves at new teams with new team mates I can't help but feel intrigued by the prospect of a titanic battle near the front of the grid at Mercedes.

Fixed that for you Alessandro, my crusty old bread roll.

Now how about we move on to a more interesting topic...like who will win the inter-team battle at Ferrari?

Being serious again, from what I've seen of the test sessions (not that much TBH) Hamilton seems to have a pretty good grip on the Mercedes, posting times comparable to, or better than anyone else.

Based solely on this, I'd expect him to outperform Rosberg by a fair margin, so I've gone for option 1. Hope Nico is at least able to give him a run for his money though.

Interesting article by Gary Anderson who looked at the lap times set by the drivers over the various test sessions and produced a predicted grid for Australia, adjusting the drivers' best times to take into account the number of laps (and hence estimated fuel load):

1 Rosberg 1:19.730

2 Button 1:19.764 (MBE )

3 Vettel 1:19.797

4 Hamilton 1:19.886 (MBE )

5 Raikkonen 1:19.968

6 Alonso 1:20.004

7 Webber 1:20.113

8 Perez 1:20.348

9 Grosjean 1:20.498

10 Massa 1:20.576

11 Maldonado 1:20.705

12 Bottas 1:20.868

13 Sutil 1:21.247

14 Hulkenberg 1:21.341

15 Di Resta 1:21.464

16 Gutierrez 1:22.353

17 Vergne 1:22.823

18 Pic 1:22.915

19 Bianchi 1:22.967

20 Ricardo 1:23.138

21 Chilton 1:23.903

22 Van Der Garde 1:24.035

You can read the full article here: Mercedes finish with a flourish

So much for Alessandro's predictions regarding the title battle.

Although probably not far off - not reading too much into GA's grid as each team ran their own programme. However, as far as intra team programmes go it's noticible that most - if not all (can't be bothered to check) Sunday drivers are above their Saturday counterparts. As Belgarion stated its the rubber that's put down. Saturday drivers were running more or less on a green track after Thur/Fri downpours.

Yeah. I doubt it'll translate into anything like the grid at Adelaide, but its as good an indicator as any we have right now, as to where the cars/drivers are regarding ultimate performance.

Plus, Barcelona is a dedicated track, whereas Adelaide is a street circuit, with very different set-up / aero requirements.

I just thought it was particularly noteworthy, given how Mercedes themselves have been playing down their chances...along with one or two people on here. If these times are any reflection of their true capabilities, theres a good chance the Silver Arrows will be competing for podiums and maybe even the odd win.

I wouldn't read much into that GA grid. Basically the majority of team's drivers are split by around four or five tenths and I can't see Button outqualifying Perez by six tenths and Hamilton is quicker than Rosberg, no doubt.

Fully expect Vettel to be front row with Webber possibly second row. I don't think Mercedes will be front row material come Melbourne (not Adelaide). Of course, I hope they are but I'm being more realistic in my predictions.

GRID

Vettel - Red Bull
Raikkonen - Lotus
Webber - Red Bull
Button - McLaren
Hamilton - Mercedes
Alonso - Ferrari
Rosberg - Mercedes
Grosjean - Lotus
Perez - McLaren
Massa - Ferrari
Maldonado - Williams

Personally from testing i reckon it'll look like....

1) Raikkonen
2) Webber
3) Vettel
4) Hamilton
5) Perez
6)Button
7) Alonso
8) Rosberg
9) Massa
10) Bottas

Who's actually going to watch qualifying live? I might do, depending on how close FP3 is, if the top four or five teams are say within two or three tenths of each other it could be fascinating and it's only a 6am start, so not too early.

@Fernando - Think I'm going to have to disagree with your grid. Webber out-qualifying Vettel, not happening. I think McLaren will come with a different package to Melbourne and would of sorted some issues out, like they usually do before Australia. I'm not convinced on Mercedes, as of yet, to be challenging front two rows. Button will out-qualify Perez and I'm going for Maldonado to out-do Bottas. Pastor has some serious pace, just his racing let's him down. Interesting to see how Bottas does this season, if he gets blown away by Pastor then alot of people claiming him to be the next big thing could be embarrased.

I know it's early but has anyone actually seen the weather forecast for the race weekend? I've heard there could be some slight rain on saturday.

Rosberg for me tbh

There was a few rumors that the RB is more suited to Webber's driving style this year hence why Vettel hasn't been too happy in practice that's why i went with him ahead don't think he'd stay there in the race though.

My prediction is (Bottas) he'll replace Button when he retires at Mclaren

Fernando wrote:There was a few rumors that the RB is more suited to Webber's driving style this year hence why Vettel hasn't been too happy in practice

Also seem to recall the very same scenario last year with Vettel struggling against Webber at the very start and everyone saying that the car suited Webber better - but it didnt last long!

I'd like to watch qualifying live, but a lot will depend on whether I can be bothered getting up early enough.

Still expecting a Red Bull on pole. Even if Vettel has problems, I reckon Webber will be highly motivated for his home race.

As to the rest of the top 10, it'll be a pick 'n' mix of the usual suspects. Expect at least 1 each from Ferrari, McLaren, Lotus and Mercedes. Think Williams, Force India and Sauber will also feature, knocking a couple of the big guns off their perches in the process.

@Steve - glad there's someone who remembered last year and the time before that and again. Vettel has Webber in his pocket, I'm actually dreading seeing mark embarrassed for another season at red bull. I keep hearing people saying its his last shot and this is his year........don't think so. Lacks the speed, consistency, qualifying magic and the teams support. Shame but its the truth and its played out that way for everyone to see over recent years.

Maybe it's the pessimist in me but I do not believe Mercedes will be at the front of the grid for a while.

They also have the tyre wear issue to deal with as the car seems to chew up its tyres.

In any event, I hope it's an interesting season but if it's like 2011 with Vettel racing himself, I'll just stick with motogp

Belgarion of Riva wrote:Maybe it's the pessimist in me but I do not believe Mercedes will be at the front of the grid for a while.

I'm with you to an extent on this one. I think all this media stuff about Vettel/Horner being worried about Mercedes & Button talking about how impressed with Mercedes' pace is all just a smokescreen, in trying to avoid any focus on their own teams ahead of the new season. All the calculations from testing point to Red Bull being topdogs and I'm sure by Q3 they will just turn the wick up and be gone by three or four tenths. I think Mercedes will be their or thereabouts come Australia, I've said all along that i'm predicting a third row grid start for Hamilton. Look, if they generally are this good then great but I just feel the step up from last season cannot be this good in comparison to Newey and his design evolution.

By the sounds of it prepare to only see 20 cars next weekend Marussia still haven't signed a tv deal with Bernie so won't be shown at all unless an agreement happens between now and then