High time Mercedes allowed their F1 drivers to just get on with racing

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/jul/28/mercedes-nicki-lauda-lewis-hamilton-nico-rosberg

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Mercedes’ mistake in the Hungarian Grand Prix was not in giving Lewis Hamilton a duff call but in making any call at all.

It is difficult to be too critical of a team who have totally dominated the 2014 Formula One season and will continue to do so, winning both the constructors’ and drivers’ championships. But another satisfying day for them, in which they took third and fourth places in very difficult circumstances at the Hungaroring, should not have been dominated by their hand-wringing attempts to explain exactly why they asked Hamilton to make way for Nico Rosberg.

Afterwards we should have been talking about Hamilton’s sensational pitlane to podium drive – which started in the wet and with cold brakes and tyres – and about Daniel Ricciardo, who actually won the race.

The call was made by the race engineer Peter Bonnington, who was under instructions from the technical chief Paddy Lowe, though as their non-executive chairman Niki Lauda talked about panic on the pitwall it can be assumed that it was a collective decision. That was on the 51st of the 70-lap race as Rosberg, on faster, softer tyres, was gaining ground on Hamilton. But the Englishman, an experienced former world champion, was entitled to question a clearly flawed call as Rosberg was not within DRS range of Hamilton at the time.

Mercedes are 174 points ahead of Red Bull in the constructors’ championship – the more important of the two titles as far as teams, if not the media and race fans, are concerned. In other words, they have already got it in the bag. They have by far the best car and still will have at the end of the year.

Early in the season, Lauda told me that once the constructors’ championship was in the bag they would release Hamilton and Rosberg to race as they pleased. Well, that moment has arrived, and the two should have been let off the leash well before Hungary. There will be meetings before the next race in Belgium in a month’s time. But we can assume that the gloves will be off from now on (not that relations have been anything less than feisty thus far). Even if the two drivers take themselves out in wheel to wheel action sometime between now and the last race in Abu Dhabi in November it is hardly the end of the world.

Meanwhile, Hamilton is in no mood to back down 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.

“I have already given away too much and at the end of the year I could be looking back saying: ‘If only the car did not catch on fire, or if only the brakes didn’t fail. If only I didn’t make a mistake in qualifying or if only the engine had not stopped in the race’ … all these things.

“Today was just a case of not giving a single point away. I tried my hardest to be ahead. I don’t think I was being ruthless. I was not even being bloody-minded. I was doing my job and got to the top.

“I have no doubt the call was for the right reasons. The team want to get the most points from both drivers and I guess at that point they thought that Nico could get more points maybe. I don’t know. But I will sit and speak with Paddy. I have known him for a long time and we have a great relationship.

“I will sit with [head of motorsport] Toto [Wolff] and we will grow from this weekend but as Toto said, we might have to look at things to see if we can improve.”

He denied that he had cost Rosberg a win, saying: “I was racing against him. Why would I be concerned for him? I was racing against Fernando [Alonso] and if I dropped any ground then it would stop me overtaking later on, so it was a case of not being able to lose any time.” When asked if the gloves were now off he replied: “It’s going to be great.”

Rosberg did not say a lot but his drooping body language suggested an entire library of disappointment. “Sorry, I don’t want to give you my thoughts, opinions on that,” he said when asked about the team orders issue. “We have to discuss internally. That’s the best way forward for us as a team. The thing I’m most gutted about was the last lap, because that was in my control.”

From now on, the drivers should be given total control of their own races.