Ross Prawn wrote:eytl wrote:I should hasten to add though that I, like mario, am undecided about whether team orders are a good or bad thing, and frankly it doesn't matter because it's been a part of the sport since day dot ...
I thought Lewis on the podium was magnanimous and honest enough. Interesting to hear Brundle's speculation that Hamilton has effective no. 1 status within Mercedes. Not sure whether to believe that or not. Having said that I think Mercedes probably felt they owed Lewis that podium given the tactics they had employed during the race. Yes Nico was proving himself faster at various times but I got the impression Lewis was being sent out as the hare to get in amongst the Red Bulls. Hence the fact he pitted first each time to gain the undercut, and put in blistering lap times earlier in the stint when he could have preserved the tyres and fuel more.
Lewis was very statesmanlike. Good PR. Of course he wouldn't have had to feel so sorry, if he'd just waved Nico past ....................
There is that aspect, and you have to wonder whether Mercedes might have been better off allowing Rosberg through to attack the Red Bull drivers given that both drivers were worried about tyre wear and Hamilton couldn't push because he was so short on fuel.
That said, Hamilton does seem to be handling this in a fairly sensible manner - his comments about Rosberg should help to calm the situation at Mercedes down, so the longer term repercussions are probably going to be more limited by comparison. Vettel's comments that he did not deliberately pass Webber in those closing stages, despite the fact that Horner and Marko have publicly countermanded that and said that Vettel was repeatedly instructed to hold position, is probably only going to make matters worse within the team (both on Mark's side of the garage, since that is likely to only anger him further, and I imagine that the senior management won't appreciate Vettel's comments either).
lgaquino wrote:Didn't break the order, but not for lack of trying.
He went for it, which essentialy is the same. imo
Webber did eventually back down on that issue, but in a way that signalled his displeasure and that he felt he was the faster driver (that moment where he backed off from Vettel by about a second before promptly closing the gap right up again with a very fast lap). He did signal his intentions before the team intervened, and did then continue to pressurise Vettel quite heavily, but just about held back from disobeying.
Whether that was because he chose to obey the order, or simply couldn't pass Vettel (given Silverstone is not the easiest track to make a passing move anyway due to its high speed nature) is a little ambiguous - it's a bit of a grey area to some extent, but I suppose that he just about got away with it because he did ultimately comply with the order, albeit clearly unwillingly.
