The great Michael Jordan once said, “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”
Makes sense, doesn’t it? However, what the great Jordan failed to comprehend is
that there will come a time when a certain Formula 1 team would prove that his
quote was incomplete and undone. Mercedes has cleverly transformed Jordan’s
quote as “Exploit talent intelligently to win championships
and then term it as teamwork.”
I’ve been a firm believer of the fact that F1 is not and
will never ever be a team sport. Those who think differently either do not understand
the sport or quite frankly don’t give a damn about what is happening on the
tracks. Time and again there have been numerous instances that prove this hypothesis
and recently conspired events at the Hungary Grand Prix substantiate the statistic
more.
The mistake that Mercedes made at the Hungaroring was not
in giving Lewis Hamilton a lousy call but in making any call at all. Although I
have no reason whatsoever to challenge Mercedes’ or any team’s orders during a
race, but for Christ’s sake stop pretending all the time that both drivers mean
the world to the team. Even If I take into consideration that Nico Rosberg was
on faster tyres, he would have eventually pitted that would have jeopardized both
his and Hamilton’s chances to get on the podium.
I’ll be honest, it is indeed an improbable task to be too
critical of a team who with their immaculate cars and faultless strategies have
totally dominated the 2014 Formula One season; but when a time comes that
people talk more about why a team did what it did instead of appreciating and
admiring a driver’s phenomenal exploits of a car and the circuit, the criticism
is bound to flow.
Hamilton drove one of the most gruesome and impeccable
races of his career at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Anyone watching would agree in
a breath of a moment that the Brit executed a quintessential balance between
ruthless grit and unblemished talent in his pitlane to podium drive. Not to
forget he started on a wet track that was marred with crashes almost as soon as
the race began as the drivers clearly failed to alter the strategies that were
put in place during the scorching practice runs.
And that is where the idiosyncrasies come into play.
With the constructors’ and drivers’ championships pretty
much in the bag for the Silver Arrows, a race in which they should have been
taking pride courtesy Hamilton’s bustling performance was instead tainted due
to their controversial call in asking Hamilton to make way for teammate Rosberg.
Now one can never clearly understand the logic behind any
team order. Some say they are given to benefit a team, while others bring in a
more ticklish angle into play that says a driver is being favoured. The call
that Mercedes made was actually one of the most devious and at the same time clever
in its execution. It was clearly a well thought-off move and was implemented in
such a manner that anyone scrutinizing the decision at a later stage would be in
a quandary about the motive behind the call. I know I am! But years of experience,
and witnessing some of the dirtiest F1 moves in history, has made me quite
cynical whenever a driver is asked to forego his position and let a ‘rival’ pass
through.
If one was to take Mercedes’ side in this whole fiasco,
one would say that the team wanted to cement its championship chances by trying
to get both Rosberg and Hamilton on the podium. The German-based outfit
obviously thought that Rosberg had a better chance at winning the race as he
was on faster tyres and were confident enough that Hamilton would be competent enough
to steal the podium from either Fernando Alonso or Daniel Ricciardo.
All right! Time to burst the bubble.
Mercedes, at the time of the race, were 174 points ahead of
Red Bull, their closest competitor, in the constructors’ championship.
Considering that they had the best car at the starting of the season and bearing
in mind that they still have the best car after the mid-season Silverstone
tests, only a fool would be falling for the lame excuse that ‘the championship
race is still open’.
Secondly, even if Hamilton had allowed Rosberg to pass
through, there was no chance whatsoever for the German-born Monaco resident to
be spraying the champagne when the smoke cleared out. Why? Because considering that
circumstances that the race was being raced in, he would have eventually
pitted. Just for the record, Mercedes’ “team order” came on the 51st lap with a
good 19 laps still left and did I mention that it was raining?
Thirdly, ignoring the blasphemous fact Mercedes’ flawed
order was given to Hamilton at a time when his teammate was not even within DRS
range, had Hamilton allowed Rosberg to pass through then Hamilton would have
dropped to 5th on the grid and there was a next to impossible chance that
either Ricciardo or Alonso would have ‘not’ ended on the podium. Hence, at the
end of the whole stratagem we would still have had just one Mercedes driver on
the podium.
Mercedes’ non-executive chairman Niki Lauda had gone off
the record earlier in the season and mentioned that the Silver Arrows would let
their dynamic duo ‘loose’ and ‘fight it out’ once the team title hopes are
secured. Well, at present, if there’s anything that is secure it is the
constructors’ championship. The drivers’ race is still open and therefore one
cannot blame Hamilton on any way for doing what he did.
If anything, that Mercedes strategy should have been
implemented before the Hungary Grand Prix.
Meanwhile, Hamilton is undeterred by the happenings in
Hungary and is standing firm on his decision not to move aside for Rosberg. “It is not questioning authority,” he
said. “I am hired to race and bring in
points for the team. I am also hired to be me, and race my heart out. I did not
start at the front of the pack. I started from the pitlane, so in my mind I
cannot afford to lose anything else.”
Well said Lewis! You started from the pits on a track
what was not meant to see a wet race with a car that was built overnight due to
a qualifying fire attack. To top it all off you barged your way up and at one
stage were even leading the race. No one had the authority to question your audacity.
Yet in the end, people are still talking about Mercedes,
people are still questioning your ‘irrationality’, people are still wondering
whether Nico could have actually ended up winning the race, and I am writing
about it all.
Sorry Lewis! It’s a cruel world indeed
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