CarlosFerreira wrote:redbulljack14 wrote:Cynon wrote:I think most would expect Hamilton to thrash Rosberg like it's nobody's business, but what about if the reverse happens? If Rosberg legitimately destroys Hamilton?
Most people said the Hamilton would thrash Button like it's nobody's business when he joined McLaren, but look what happened? Lewis did win 2 out of 3 seasons, but nowhere near as much as people thought he would.
True, but the last two years have convinced me Rosberg is not Championship-winning material.
It has to be said that, whilst the results between Hamilton and Button were much closer than expected over the previous three years, the results from 2012 are somewhat misleading.
Although Button finished the season two points behind Hamilton, it is worth considering that Hamilton had two additional DNF's in 2012 and retired from the lead of a race three times (in Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Brazil). If you consider that Hamilton could have probably picked up an additional 50-60 points, the comparison between himself and Button looks a little less flattering, although it would still be a good deal more flattering than the comparisons between the other driver pairings in the top three teams.
Phoenix wrote:Sadly, it looks like that. Now if Mercedes had signed Hülkenberg alongside Hamilton they would have one hell of a driver pairing to work with. Add a car as fast as this year's model was with constant in-season development and Mercedes would be where it should have been all along.
I would agree that, whilst Rosberg will probably beat Hamilton on occasion, the expectation seems to be that Hamilton should have the measure of Rosberg based on their respective forms in various junior series. Having Hamilton as a team mate may force Rosberg to up his game - perhaps he was a little complacent because Schumacher, for various reasons, struggled to pose a serious challenge over the full course of a season - but I would probably go with the majority view and be surprised if he managed to consistently beat Hamilton through sheer pace alone.
As for a Hamilton-Hülkenberg pairing, that could be an interesting combination if Hülkenberg could maintain a consistent, strong run of form over an entire season (since he hasn't completed two back to back seasons, it remains to be seen whether he can start a season as strongly as he finishes them). Two combative drivers backed up with a consistent rate of development could see the Mercedes team, if not battling it out with the front of the field too often, at least stand a chance of beating Lotus (and possibly Ferrari, seeing that Ferrari have been consistently struggling with wind tunnel calibration problems for the past few years and are now using Toyota's wind tunnel exclusively for 2013).
That said, I can see the logic in Mercedes's decision, though, to pair Hamilton against Rosberg rather than Hülkenberg - Hamilton and Hülkenberg would probably just drive the wheels off a car whatever its deficiencies (and there were quite a few of those on the W03 by the sounds of things), whereas Rosberg is supposed to be a more analytical driver. In that instance Hamilton, whilst potentially the more volatile driver, also has the longer proven track record and would therefore appear to be the safer bet at this particular point of time, so that would probably explain the logic behind Mercedes's current line up.
