Mercedes Could Drop One Of Its Drivers

[radical-one 0]

Toto Wolf should be the one to be dropped ! Why blame the drivers?

When you have two dogs who always fights each other, the one to blame is the master/owner.

Similar thing works here.

Toto is Spineless manager.

http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view/499298/Mercedes_could_drop_one_of_its_drivers/

[Emmcee 0]

Yeah it's poor management indeed, but it's always going to be hard to tame two front running drivers. That's why Schumi always persisted in having a "slower" teammate so these things would be such an issue.

[radical-one 0]

True.

Still Toto's responsibility covers these kind of issues. He should expect this to happen when they hired both these two drivers.

Perhaps Crisis management is NOT included in Toto's job description. He's Useless !

[Emmcee 0]

I think it all boils down to how quick nico has been. Because everyone expected lewis to be the clear number one.

[Insider 0]

I think Suzie would make a better job of it, to be fair. I have never heard anything like this before though it was clear that Dennis didn't like Nando upsetting his protege [and Nando didn't like not being No.1] and Nando had to go. It would throw the driver market wide open too. Hamilton back to Woking but where would Rosberg end up? If you asked around, I don't think there is another top 5 team who would sign him. There again, Hamilton's only choice is probably McLaren.

[Emmcee 0]

Rosberg has already just signed a new multi year deal. Mercedes just haven't done anything with lewis ATM, which is causing all the speculation i Beleive. Fernando said he will stay at Ferrari and hasn't been approached by Mclaren. But I have heard this before, didnt Schumi flatout deny that he signed for Ferrari in 96 during late 95? It's hard because like you said "Insider" it was alonso that had to go as I remember he and Dennis wernt to fond of each other.

[KoolMonkey 0]

Alonso flat out denied signing for Ferrari whilst at McLaren. He also denied knowing about the stolen blueprints, but busted when it was revealed he tried to blackmail Ron, and was discussing and going over the stolen info with PDLR. He also claimed to know nuuthinnnng about Singapore ahead of time. The answer is of course BS. He's a proven liar, and whilst not all these incidences have been proven to all be true, that doesn't negate the fact he has lied in the past.

Alonso is always looking out for Alonso. So if he plans to head to McLaren he will, Ferrari contract be damned. Alonso at the end of the day, cannot be trusted on his word.

As for Merc, it's most definitely Wolff, Paddy AND Lauda's faults. This would not have happened under Brawn, and it didn't happen when he was in charge. Nico has always pretty much done what he's been told to, but I get the feeling he's basically had enough of Hamilton not doing the same... and then playing the usual song and dance "I'm the victim" card he usually does.

I cannot see Nico being asked to leave Merc. If it comes to that, Wolff and Lauda I imagine will be shown the door first. And Lewis will more than likely go elsewhere, and proclaim the corny "I need a new challenge in my life" as the reason why.

[Emmcee 0]

Lol, good post.

[Caesar 0]

Who ever speaks truth in world of Formula1 ?

[Jem of the Shire 0]

I agree with everyone who's posted so far. Wolff says they may have to change the driver line-up if they can't manage the drivers together. So he's effectively saying, "if I can't do my own job I will change the driver line up".

Personally I don't even see how changing drivers would help. The problem isn't that you've got Lewis and Nico, the problem is you've got 2 equally matched drivers in by far the best car, so this was bound to happen.

Let's say they ditch Lewis and sign, say, Vettel. They'll have the same situation again.

Or, they think let's make Nico undisputed number 1, and they sign Bianchi as number 2. But Bianchi then turns out to be very fast and they have the ame problem again. Or, Bianchi is slow and they lose the WCC to Red Bull.

Basically, Merc have 2 very very good drivers and should keep them both, but FFS just do their job as managers and manage them.

[Emmcee 0]

I think it comes down to the change in formula one over say 10yrs. Back then like I mentioned about Schumi, there was most of the time a clear lead number 1 driver and a number 2. Now it's gone full circle again, reminiscent of the early to late 80s, not only with turbo engines but with trying to grab two of the best drivers in the championship and deal with the drama later on. It's like teams don't learn from prior mistakes. Like Prost and senna for example. But I think the reason behind that is, people don't really know how good a driver was until they retire and we sit back and look at records. And say they should have done this and that, hindsight.

[Caesar 0]

Ross Brawn would fix this easily. No stupid moves, clean overtakes, last few races of season he would pick No1 driver if one of driver wouldn't have realistic chances to win WDC.

[Jem of the Shire 0]

It sounds like if Ross Brawn was still boss of Mercedes, we would've had a very boring season!

[Emmcee 0]

I doubt it, wasn't the reason brawn left was because he couldn't run things the way he thought fit? As the other clowns thought they knew better.

[Caesar 0]

It sounds like if Ross Brawn was still boss of Mercedes, we would've had a very boring season!

yes

[KoolMonkey 0]

Luca to resign, Ross to Ferrari.

[Emmcee 0]

Luca to resign, Ross to Ferrari.

Ahhhh yes, is the writing in the wall? I saw a

Story mentioning brawn and Ferrari the other day and I thought it was so random, then this happens.

[KoolMonkey 0]

It's just rumour. But I don't think Luca will ever leave Ferrari. Certainly not the board at Fiat. He might take on less of a role, but Ferrari is in his blood and where his passion lies. The rumour's of him leaving to go run Alitalia don't make sense to me. If he ever did move on, it would be to politics and most likely a run for El Presidente.

Luca hiring Mattiacci however intrigues me. I think he brought him in like a struggling firm brings in the accountants to try and save the company from going under. Thus the firings of personnel make sense. Mattiacci might not know a whole lot about F1, but he's a brilliant businessman and manager, and that's what Ferrari has been missing when Stefano was in charge. It's easy to manage a team when you have a fast car, unless you have 2 top drivers lol. But when it's tough, that's when it really matters.

Mattiacci was the one saying he and Ferrari would love to have Brawn back and even mentioned he's been in contact with Brawn. Thus I can totally see either Mattiacci taking over Luca's role, or running the financial, personnel side of things, and Brawn being in charge of design, who he wants on his team and the driver managements. It would work because we know for a fact Brawn is happy to work in that way.

Him leaving Merc wasn't about this, it was because they could not even define his position, and were bringing in other people to take over his role. Accept they hadn't said that yet. Thus I imagine it would have been weird for him there. He was happy to continue in F1, but in a role he defined and was happy with. Not some figurehead, who was going to be marginalized by the inexperienced whips who then were more than happy to take all the credit. Brawn was never a glory hog anyway, but he obviously wasn't going to stick around under this circumstances.

Brawn knows how to run a team, manage his drivers and be successful at long term rebuilding and moving the team forward. I still very much hope he comes back to F1 just as I hope Newey will again, once the FIA and Bernie and the others in charge realize this has more truth to it than they care to acknowledge...

[Emmcee 0]

Lol, he still paid for the ticket to get in there to display his banner.

[Smu3l3y 0]

If mercades ditch lewis hamilton they can kiss good bye to future championships and they will be saying hello to the mid field again. With Ferrari and Renault seemingly talking about changing and improving their engines for next year. It is difficult to imagine merc producing majorly dominant car again. In a year or 2 merc will need a lewis caliber driver to keep mercades at or near the front.

Nico is by no means a bad driver ( although his sporting ethics are somewhat unethical) but in my opinion hamilton, alonso, ricciardo, bottas, bianchi , kobayshi , hulkenburg, and maybe vettel, Perez and grojean are certainly faster and probably better drivers then nico rosberg. If this year had been like 2012 in terms of car performance variation ( meaning mercades performing like rbr that year ) it would be hard to imagine mercades having the same number of 1,2 finishes

Nico rosberg is a solid bagging points kinda guy but he is not really in the A* top drivers bracket . In theory mercades could stick one of the above as rosbergs new team mate but in a situation like this year . Nico would probably show his spoilt prince side again and make more enemies on the grid

[Emmcee 0]

They would be leading the drivers title this year without lewis, would they not? What enemies has Rosberg made? I read Button and Alonso were in support of Rosberg. Nico has done nothing this year compared to lewis in terms of whinging, so I don't know where this spoilt prince has come from, he's like a robot, it's Hamilton who runs to the media to basically "dob" Rosberg in.

[Smu3l3y 0]

They would be leading the drivers title this year without lewis, would they not? What enemies has Rosberg made? I read Button and Alonso were in support of Rosberg. Nico has done nothing this year compared to lewis in terms of whinging, so I don't know where this spoilt prince has come from, he's like a robot, it's Hamilton who runs to the media to basically "dob" Rosberg in.

Well ok then yes rosberg would win this year because there merc has the advantage but see the italian Grand Prix hamilton got close and nico cracked. Imagine if this was 2012 you'd see a more of rosberg missing chicanes

[Insider 0]

It won't happen, if anything they may have three cars running according to paddock reports. Ferrari and McLaren too. Caterham and Renault are finished and probably Marussia as well. As Tony Fenandez said, the economics of F1 are completely wrong. Small teams are doomed. Sauber had been bought and will continue but Force India may be sold eventually. Gene Haas will definitely be able to grab a cheap Silverstone base anyway but how long will he last?

[Caesar 0]

Nico regrets the day when Mercedes brought Hamilton! If it was some rookie driver instead he would take this championship easily!

[Emmcee 0]

Well ok then yes rosberg would win this year because there merc has the advantage but see the italian Grand Prix hamilton got close and nico cracked. Imagine if this was 2012 you'd see a more of rosberg missing chicanes

Yeah but that was nico's first "proper" error of the whole season, lewis has had several and it's defended like his first.