Rosberg speed test proves too much for Lewis
YOU can cut it anyway you like, but Lewis Hamilton lost the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix because he was not as fast as Nico Rosberg on the night.
It may be an unpopular view among sections of British support, who will say that the world champion’s Mercedes team neutered him when he wanted to push on to the end of the race with wearing tyres.
No, they advised him not to do so only because it became obvious to their strategists that such a tactic would have endangered his race beyond reason and imperilled their new record of 12 one-twos in a season.
In fact, the puppeteers on the pit wall gave Hamilton every reasonable opportunity to find a strategic way to beat Rosberg. They kept him out for a long second stint. That, it was imagined, might allow him to take fresh tyres late on to blast past the German as his own, older rubber slowed him down.
As the race unfolded it became clear to the number crunchers that such a tactic was unlikely to work. They passed on the information to Hamilton. He consequently wondered aloud if he could stay out, hoping his tyres might last all the way.
At this point, while he was leading — Rosberg having taken the extra stop — Hamilton came over the radio to say: ‘If I was to back off and look after these tyres to end, how would we go?’
His race engineer Peter Bonnington told him: ‘Lewis, it wouldn’t work.’
Hamilton replied: ‘Give me the calculation, guys.’
Whatever the maths said, he followed orders and came in on lap 41 of 55. He was put on to the soft rather than the super-soft (superfast, but less durable) tyres.
WHy was he not given the super- softs in a crazy dash to race down and pass Rosberg, who started on pole? Mercedes said they feared the supersofts would grain too badly. It is difficult to gainsay that verdict.
Hamilton went for it, going from 13 seconds to as close as 6.8 seconds behind the German, but it never looked likely to be a rapid enough incursion. It was not: the world champion ended up 8.2sec back as the fireworks lit up the Abu Dhabi night sky.
Kimi Raikkonen was third, a place ahead of his Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel, who drove brilliantly from 15th on the grid.
Mercedes must feel damned if they do and damned if they don’t. What if they had given Hamilton his head and allowed him to persevere on worn tyres, only to see him, and them, lose second place?
Some observers would say, well, let him to do it and to hell with the consequences. As Hamilton said afterwards: ‘I am not sure if I could have taken it to the end, but I would have liked to have given it a go.’
But imagine if it had gone wrong. Mercedes would be conducting an inquest today.
I would go further and say that dreaming up a strategy to impose the team’s slower driver as the race winner by moving strategic chess pieces is intrinsically unfair. Nor does it serve the interests of
mano a mano combat. If Hamilton cannot pass Rosberg on the track — or vice versa — so be it.
On to the next controversy. It surrounded McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, who is so contentious a character he could have been sent by central casting. He drives beautifully but has been wilful at every team he has worked for. So it was again this weekend, on and off the track.
Off it, he refused to rule out taking next year off if the car the team produce is not up to snuff. On it, he threatened to park up in the garage mid-race.
For £25million a year, it surely isn’t enough to do a Paula Radcliffe and pull out before the end. ‘If we don’t get a safety car, I’m going to retire the car,’ he said.
Admittedly, he was a long way back — one lap and 43 seconds — from the car in front of him, the Sauber of Felipe Nasr, but it was still an astonishing statement of non-intent. This shows that Alonso’s friend Mark Webber was about right when he said that Alonso is a ‘ticking bomb’ who will determine whether he stays in the sport on the first few days of testing, next February.
Alonso had a terrible day all round. Starting 16th, he caught Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus on the very first corner. He was given a drive-through penalty. Then, he overshot the pit box on his second tyre stop.
Elsewhere, Williams botched Valtteri Bottas’s release, meaning he was caught by Jenson Button’s McLaren on the way into the pit box. Bottas received a five-second penalty for the oversight.