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Nico Rosberg retires

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NomoneyNohoney
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Nico Rosberg retires

#11243

Postby NomoneyNohoney » December 2nd, 2016, 1:37 pm

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/formula-on ... 5--f1.html

Well, didn't see that coming! The man who became F1 World Champion retires some days later.
I'm pleased for Lewis Hamilton, as it means the team-warfare will be ended and he can concentrate on becoming next year's world champion. I also read it that Rosberg has no appetite for another fight, but that's my own spin on the issue.

Still surprised.

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#11283

Postby Slarti » December 2nd, 2016, 3:08 pm

First reigning champ to retire since Alain Prost in 1993, apparently

https://twitter.com/nico_rosberg/status/804678179017334784
Don't know if that will be available to others, but it's his statement as to why he's quit.


Now the big question, who gets his seat next year?
Pascal Wehrlein?

Daniel Ricciardo?

Interesting
Slarti

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#11290

Postby redsturgeon » December 2nd, 2016, 3:33 pm

Give it to Max Verstappen that would be interesting.

John

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#11299

Postby staffordian » December 2nd, 2016, 3:57 pm

redsturgeon wrote:Give it to Max Verstappen that would be interesting.

John


I guess Red Bull have him tied up with a pretty good contract, but that aside, if it were to happen, I don't think Mercedes would have a cat in hells chance of keeping Hamilton and Verstappen under control :D

I'd love to see it though.

Staffordian

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#11318

Postby NomoneyNohoney » December 2nd, 2016, 4:42 pm

Reddit comment:

"Jenson's already on the phone with his agent. "

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#11335

Postby UncleIan » December 2nd, 2016, 5:40 pm

I'd love to see Alonso in there, see if he's quicker than Hamilton or not. Or maybe Vettel. Or Raikkonen. Basically anyone that'll give Hamilton a run for his money and not just be a second fiddle.

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#11340

Postby NomoneyNohoney » December 2nd, 2016, 5:48 pm

UncleIan wrote:I'd love to see Alonso in there, see if he's quicker than Hamilton or not.


Me too. It would be a great combination, and Lewis pushes himself when challenged. Remember that corner overtake, that took the world championship from Felipe Massa? That's what I'm talking about.

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#11505

Postby bionichamster » December 3rd, 2016, 12:43 pm

On the Rosberg announcement, it really was a surprise, but actually thinking about it there is a fairly obvious logic. Rosberg has had to endure so much of the "oh he isn't as good as Hamilton" comments all year, even up to the point he won the championship (and in the days since). Despite driving well this year he has had to listen to many of his wins dismissed with, "yeah well, if Hamilton hadn't started at the back" etc. It's a little unfair because Rosberg has had some good races where he has outperformed or equalled Hamilton in the quality of his drive, but even he knows he almost certainly owes his world championship win to Hamilton's misfortune, particularly the exploding engine in Malaysia, and each race weekend next year he'd be hearing that constantly.
There is also the chance that with the big car changes next year the Merc may lose its dominance, that could be interesting, if it brings the top team's performance closer together then that would also be potentially bad for Rosberg as the general consensus is that there are quite a few better drivers than him, being in such a dominant car has helped him, perhaps more than it's helped some others.
In a few years everyone will have forgotten the circumstances of the season and the only really memorable statistic will be that Rosberg was World Champ so it'll be fine in the end and those comments will dissapear, as they have for many other racers before him, but while he is still racing and contending they are likely to keep coming. I suspect what he doesn't really want is another year of the exact same undermining sniping comments, it must have taken monumental mental strength to ignore all of that this year and keep focused but there's only so much a man can take. Good luck to him, he deserved the win, even if there was a lot of luck involved, it's frequently been that way in F1. I'd have preferred to see Hamilton win, but that wasnt the way the blew this year.

UncleIan wrote:I'd love to see Alonso in there, see if he's quicker than Hamilton or not.


Been there done that.....Given that Hamilton in his very first season in the same car and team matched Alonso for points (they were both only 1 point behind the eventual World Champ [Kimi]) and that Hamilton 'technically' beat Alonso on 'countback' ( i.e they both had the same number of wins but Hamilton had 6 second places to Alonso's 4), and they both had a single DNF so no advantage there, then I think the question may already have been answered as well as it will ever be. Hamilton is a much more experienced driver now compared to his previous pairing with Alonso who already had six F1 seasons prior to pairing up with the rookie Hamilton. The usual excuse is that Alonso wasn't getting on with the team, was unhappy etc etc, but if he can't handle the internal politics that's his problem, it'd be daft to assume there wouldn't be similar problems in a future pair up, and as so many drivers acknowledge, winning races is as much about dealing with and controlling all the mental aspects of the competition (both tactically and strategically) as it is the driving skill, which they both undoubtably possess.

BH

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#11510

Postby NomoneyNohoney » December 3rd, 2016, 1:25 pm

Cracking post BH and can't let it go unremarked.

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#11538

Postby robbelg » December 3rd, 2016, 5:13 pm

One option for the seat is Pascal Wehrlein he is Mercedes reserve driver after all but he is probably too inexperienced.

The people they would really like, Vettel,Ricciardo & Verstappen are in contract and absolutely unavailable.

Alonso has a contract but may have a get out if the new car is unimpressive in testing.

I think the most likely is Bottas with Williams getting Wehrlein and a very big discount on next years engines and/or a lump of cash (which they need )

What does everyone think?

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#11552

Postby Slarti » December 3rd, 2016, 5:57 pm

robbelg wrote:One option for the seat is Pascal Wehrlein he is Mercedes reserve driver after all but he is probably too inexperienced.

The people they would really like, Vettel,Ricciardo & Verstappen are in contract and absolutely unavailable.

Alonso has a contract but may have a get out if the new car is unimpressive in testing.

I think the most likely is Bottas with Williams getting Wehrlein and a very big discount on next years engines and/or a lump of cash (which they need )

What does everyone think?


Bottas has also been suggested by a couple of the F1 commentators and would be interesting, but I wonder if they might well pull in a rising star from F2, just to mix things up a bit.

Slarti

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#11614

Postby bionichamster » December 3rd, 2016, 9:51 pm

There can't be many drivers who wouldn't seriously consider the move to Merc if they can get free of their contract, and Mercedes have the money to pretty much pay off any penalty clause for that driver if they want them badly enough. If this had happened last year Toto Wolff would have been beating them off with a stick, but next year's car changes and development rules could mean that the Merc might not be the hot ticket to front of grid that it has been for the last three years, so a few of the drivers might calculate they are better staying put (particularly the Red Bulls). Also Mercedes are surely going to think very carefully about the interplay between drivers, bringing in one of the other top drivers could make for a situation similar or worse than the last two years. In terms of winning the constructors championship arguably what they need is a good young driver who can reliably sqeeze a podium performance out of the car but perhaps isn't going to get in Hamilton's way for a year or two but can quickly grow to take his place. That might be the best route for them if they can identify the right guy, but it won't make for the best spectacle, most of the public will want to see Alonso, Vettel, Ricciardo or perhaps even Verstappen sitting in the other silver car, but that seems unlikely (unfortunately!)

Bottas seems like a plausible option, I'd also suggest Perez as a possibility. But frankly anything could happen.

Meanwhile....

Rumours are doing the rounds that the French Grand Prix is coming back, and it will be at Paul Ricard. Fantastic circuit with the Mistral straight being one of the longest in F1, which makes for some interesting full on racing overtakes although it puts lower powered cars at a serious disadvantage (as opposed to twisty circuits without long straights that help to even things out for the underpowered vehicles with good chassis and downforce), it'll be interesting to see how the DRS system interacts with such a long fast run. Mind you that was 20 odd years ago so they've maybe put a kink in the straight now, as seems to be the fashion.

With everything that's changing, the 2017 season has plenty of potential to be interesting, it's probably the last season I'll watch most of the races, and certainly the last season I'll watch many live, thanks to the Sky exculsive deal.

BH

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#11645

Postby UncleIan » December 4th, 2016, 12:25 am

Good post BH, I'd forgotten Alonso and Hamilton were on the same team.

Looks like Suzi Wolff retired a year or two early. ;-)

Ian

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#11838

Postby Slarti » December 4th, 2016, 6:37 pm

UncleIan wrote:Good post BH, I'd forgotten Alonso and Hamilton were on the same team.

Looks like Suzi Wolff retired a year or two early. ;-)

Ian


The extra passenger would make things a little cramped in the cockpit. :o

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#11841

Postby Slarti » December 4th, 2016, 6:41 pm

bionichamster wrote:Meanwhile....

Rumours are doing the rounds that the French Grand Prix is coming back, and it will be at Paul Ricard. Fantastic circuit with the Mistral straight being one of the longest in F1, which makes for some interesting full on racing overtakes although it puts lower powered cars at a serious disadvantage (as opposed to twisty circuits without long straights that help to even things out for the underpowered vehicles with good chassis and downforce), it'll be interesting to see how the DRS system interacts with such a long fast run. Mind you that was 20 odd years ago so they've maybe put a kink in the straight now, as seems to be the fashion.

With everything that's changing, the 2017 season has plenty of potential to be interesting, it's probably the last season I'll watch most of the races, and certainly the last season I'll watch many live, thanks to the Sky exculsive deal.

BH


It is no rumour, it is back in 2018, says the poison dwarf.

And they have put a kink about 2/3 along the Mistral


Slarti

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#12326

Postby NomoneyNohoney » December 5th, 2016, 11:37 pm

Slarti wrote:
robbelg wrote:One option for the seat is Pascal Wehrlein he is Mercedes reserve driver after all but he is probably too inexperienced.

The people they would really like, Vettel,Ricciardo & Verstappen are in contract and absolutely unavailable.

Alonso has a contract but may have a get out if the new car is unimpressive in testing.

I think the most likely is Bottas with Williams getting Wehrlein and a very big discount on next years engines and/or a lump of cash (which they need )

What does everyone think?




Here's a delicious-but-unlikely-to-come-true headline from a Reddit post:

"Valentino Rossi says Wolff 'has my number'"

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#12437

Postby NomoneyNohoney » December 6th, 2016, 11:45 am

And today's rumour-mill - it's Fernando they're thinking of.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/38219533

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#13418

Postby DrFfybes » December 8th, 2016, 4:59 pm

NomoneyNohoney wrote:And today's rumour-mill - it's Fernando they're thinking of.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/38219533


Well, he'll have to apply....
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce ... rt-857669/

Paul

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#19541

Postby bionichamster » January 2nd, 2017, 5:54 pm

Seems a done deal, Bottas was rumoured to be visiting the Merc factory pre christmas to get measured up ( http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/18386782/valtteri-bottas-visited-mercedes-factory-christmas) and just to underline it Wehrlein has now been announced for Sauber (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127604).

So Massa back at Williams, Any vacant seats left?

BH

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Re: Nico Rosberg retires

#19608

Postby NomoneyNohoney » January 2nd, 2017, 10:30 pm

bionichamster wrote:Seems a done deal, Bottas was rumoured to be visiting the Merc factory pre christmas to get measured up ( http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/18386782/valtteri-bottas-visited-mercedes-factory-christmas) and just to underline it Wehrlein has now been announced for Sauber (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127604).

So Massa back at Williams, Any vacant seats left?

BH


I think the only answer is Manor, who are currently trying to get new owners .


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