Brundle: "Rosberg has turned into a winning machine"
- Published on 19 May 2016 08:50
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- By: Rob Veenstra
The sensational clash of Mercedes' teammates and championship foes in Barcelona made clear a "new Nico" Rosberg will no longer be pushed around. That is the view of three former F1 drivers, commentating on the controversial crash between the German championship leader and Lewis Hamilton.
Niki Lauda is steadfast in his view that the reigning triple world champion was to blame. "I am annoyed at the question of who has what percentage of blame -- 70 per cent here and 30 per cent there," the Mercedes team chairman told Auto Motor und Sport.
"It is clear that Lewis tried to overtake on the wrong side. Why wrong? Because any professional driver at the front and suddenly feeling a power loss will try to defend his position, logically on the inside. In 2015, Lewis' attack would have worked but those days are gone and the new Nico drives like Lewis or Vettel. Therefore, the collision occurred," Lauda said.
Christian Danner, a former German F1 driver, agrees that Sunday was a sign of a "new Nico". "I am glad that Nico didn't wave Lewis past, demonstrating the new Rosberg," he said. "Lewis must understand he can no longer intimidate his teammate with such manoeuvres of 'Here I come, make room for me!' As for who is to blame, I would say it's 50-50 -- Nico a bit too hard, Lewis too trusting," Danner added.
Martin Brundle, now a respected British commentator, thinks Rosberg should have left Hamilton some room, but he also thinks the champion was in a hurry to re-pass him. "Lewis was shocked that he lost the lead at the first corner, which is why he wanted to get it back at the first opportunity. Nico was distracted by being in the wrong engine mode, which is why his defense was so hard. But maybe that's the new Nico," Brundle added. "Two years ago he would have settled for second place. Now he's turned into a winning machine." (GMM)
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Replies (5)
Login to replyNOTHINGBUTTHETRUTH
Posts: 13,929
A winning machine wouldn't need to fool around with the buttons on his steering wheel!
mclarenfan1968
Posts: 1,027
Nico sees a problem in the mode and tries to change it, what else would expect someone with common sense to do? Simply sit there and go "Oh thats odd, hmm let me just sit and do nothing about it because that totally fixes it"?!
Lauda has a point, butthurt boy should have overtaken on the outside or atleast try to sell a dummy down the inside and jink to the outside. Simple. Though for that you need some thinking capacity which lewis has abundantly shown he has none.
NOTHINGBUTTHETRUTH
Posts: 13,929
Of course he has to fix it. But doing so, he also has to realize he's slower than the cars behind him. Than pushing a car that tries to overtake onto the grass is just not the thing to do!
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
He didnt really push him though, the track mashalls referred to his defensive move as justified, as they did with Hamilton's offensive move.
mclarenfan1968
Posts: 1,027
Nope cars having problems or someone crashing in front of you is your job to be vigilant. As a driver you have eyes and a brain to think. Hamilton was a total moron plan and simple. A kid would show better presence of mind than what lewis showed. It looked a retard got behind the wheel at that moment. An obvious spot not to try go for an overtake.