Although Nico Rosberg had a mathematical lead in the World Drivers’ Championship battle with his teammate, it’s a bit of a stretch to see that he was ever really leading the championship. There is a big difference between mathematically leading the championship and actually leading the championship.
With Lewis Hamilton now taking over the top spot in the race for the World Drivers’ Championship title, it’s difficult to believe that there was a time this season when 43 points separated Rosberg and Hamilton. As we get ready to return to racing in a week’s time, it has become clear that Hamilton has the momentum, having won four consecutive races just prior to the start of the Formula One summer break. It shouldn’t really be a shock though, considering that Rosberg has never really led the championship this season.
Sure, he had more points than his teammate and had won the first four races, but that was largely by default. As we all know by now, Ferrari isn’t really in the powerful position which they thought that they would be in, so they haven’t really been able to challenge Mercedes like they would have hoped. With no other team really close to competing with the Silver Arrows, this really only leaves the duo to battle amongst themselves. Unfortunately, since Hamilton started the season plagued with performance and reliability issues, he hasn’t really been able to put up a serious fight with Rosberg. This left Rosberg to get some uncontested race victories and, in turn, build up a sizable championship lead.
In Bahrain, Hamilton made early contact with Valtteri Bottas and lost many positions that he would have to make up. This hindered his race result and limited the number of points that he collected. The Chinese Grand Prix was an up-hill battle for Hamilton as well, as an engine failure prevented him from even setting a qualifying time and left him at the rear of the grid. The Russia was also difficult for the Brit, as a repeat engine failure prevented him from setting a time in Q3 and limited him to tenth position on the grid.
It wasn’t until the duo’s race-ending collision in Spain that the team finally ironed out the issues on Hamilton’s side of the garage. With Hamilton returning to his successful form, which we saw much of 2015, Rosberg hasn’t been able to win the races because he was never really performing well enough to have earned the top of the championship table. Hamilton has won six of the seven races that took place after the Spanish Grand Prix and Nico Rosberg hasn’t even been able to score a podium position in more than half of those races.
Of course, there will be people that will say that the whole season is a conspiracy within Mercedes and that the team has been favouring Hamilton because they are angry at Rosberg for the Spain incident. And that’s a very reasonable theory to believe, based on everything that’s happened this season. Since all of the team operations are done behind closed doors, it’s really impossible to know what’s really going on within Mercedes, or any team for that matter, so it will all just be speculation.
Truthfully, it seems like a really risky thing that Mercedes wouldn’t try to do, especially since Ferrari were a big threat when the momentum shifted to Hamilton. At the end of the year, the team shouldn’t really care which driver wins the World Drivers’ Championship, as long as the team wins the World Constructors’ Championship and locks out the top two positions of the World Drivers’ Championship table with as many 1-2 victories as possible.
However, if you’re a Rosberg fan, there may still be some hope. Hamilton still has at least one grid penalty in the future, possibly two, because he has run out of power units to use, so he will need to go above the FIA’s limit on the number of power units that may be used per season. It’s likely that those penalties will be taken soon, as we head to tracks that are more dependent on pure performance, such as Belgium or Italy. Mercedes will likely take any penalties there in order to minimize the points damage. If Hamilton doesn’t score enough points in the race or races where he takes a penalty, there may still be a chance for Rosberg to come through with his first World Drivers’ Championship victory.
We’ll just have to wait and see how the remaining nine races in the season pan out.
3 Drivers/Teams That Need Summer Break
Grid Penalties Cloud Hamilton’s Future Races
Mercedes Teammates Collide In Spain
Hamilton: “please trust in my team”
Reliability A Growing Concern In The Mercedes Garage
More Troubles For Hamilton In Russia
Disaster For Hamilton In Qualifying
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. Assumptions made in any analysis contained within this article are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author.
