Re: 2015 Mexican F1 Grand Prix
What you have misunderstood is that you think Mercedes has to run both cars on the same strategy. They don't necessarily have to. Each driver is a 'separate' entity within the team and they can pick choose differently, didn't happened all the time but the option is there. Not unheard of for 2 very capable drivers within a team to run separate strategies. Witness Senna/Prost Hamilton/Alonso etc before.
Initially both drivers were to run a 1 stop race. But Rosberg needed an extra stop for tires for whatever reasons, but that also happened to dropped him to behind Hamilton. Hamilton was trying to stick to the initial Plan A.
If Mercedes was actually trying to treat both drivers equally, then they wouldn't need to MAKE Hamilton stop a second time, as his tires were in good shape as he was saying on the radio. Hamilton felt like his tires were good enough to finish the race. That fact doesn't stand well with Rosberg camp.
So it turned out they needed to handicap Hamilton by making him stop an extra time just so he stays behind Rosberg.
Hamilton wasn't the fastest in Mexico, he knows his best chance to win is to nurse the tires and finish the race doing only 1 stop. He may or may not succeed in the end but it's a chance he is willing to take. But if he DID win that way, Rosberg is going to blow up big time because of his performance in Mexico,
The condition of Hamilton's prime tires were never released to the public, why? They were in good shape to finish the race. IF that knowledge is public then Mercedes will have a major PR disaster about fairness, cause they did in fact handicapped Hamilton to ensure Rosberg takes the win. It will also tainted Rosberg's victory, which he deserved to win as he was the fastest. it would have been a crushing blow to Rosberg's ego had Hamilton won that way. Can you imagine the fallout? What we saw at COTA in the drivers lounge from Rosberg is nothing compared to what will happen in Mexico.
In any case, Mercedes has kind of turned into McLaren during the Hamilton/Alonso era, where Alonso(Rosberg) whines and needed the team's help in order to beat Hamilton. Alonso at least got a couple Championships to back his case, Rosberg doesn't. It will get even harder down the road, as Hamilton is now a 3 times world champion and earned the rights to the throne.
David Coulthard said it best, Rosberg needed to move to get away from Hamilton, he has become the de facto 'support driver' in Mercedes. Too bad there isn't another competitive seat open for him and Rosberg is stuck in Mercedes now.
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