F1 Finale
 

Congrats to Nico!
Plus Hamilton did not disappoint with demonstrating his total lack of character.

Congrats to Rosberg. I am happy to see him win this year.

Now here's hoping 2017 brings in a new era of more competitive racing between more than just two drivers on the grid. Rumor has it that Red Bull will be good and with two talented and hungry drivers, they could just challenge the Mercs. Plus can Ferrari also challenge and can McLaren ever crawl back up near the front where they once won races? Only time will tell. Probably getting ahead of myself with wondering if McLaren can find their way back to the front. They seem to be taking a similar path that Williams (another former dominate team) has taken in the sport.

I am not anti-Mercedes. I am just tired of seeing one team dominate the way they have these last three years. Yes Red Bull also dominated the sport between 2010 and 2013. But not as much as the Mercs dominated these last few years.

Congrats to Nico - he deserved it!

I have mixed feelings about Hamilton's actions. You have to be a bit selfish to become a WC and his actions were the only strategy available to him which might yield the championship for him. He did nothing illegal except maybe to ignore team orders.

If Hammy and Nico were not team mates would it have been a problem? I don't think so.

Let the Hammy Fan-boy conspiracy theorists commence their bitching!

+1,000,000

Agreed, 100%

Nearly every driver at the upper levels of racing (and more than a few in our ranks) can get distracted from doing their best and turn their focus towards screwing the other guy. Nice to see that in this case, justice was served.

I am not a Rosberg fanboi or a Hami-hater, but I see racing ethics lapses as either isolated, individual actions that the driver feels bad later for, or systemic/endemic to the driver's character and decision making process...

I'll just leave it at that... ;)

Yeah congrats to Nico! He deserved it. It was nice to see him not relent to the pressure from Max and Seb. I'm glad he didn't race with the mentality that he just had to finish third. He might have lost it if he took that approach.

Did you see the post race interview with him? He said that was just indescribable pressure at the end of the race. One mistake and it would have been lost. He hated it! But that should make it sweeter than just cruising to the championship.

Vettel had a great race. I would have loved to see him get the victory. His tires were gone by the end and couldn't challenge. I'm sure Hamster would have turned it up if Vettel got by Nico. Good way to finish the season though.

Agreed.

I'm not a huge Rosberg fan, but he needed to get a WC under his belt and I'm happy for him.

Hamilton's attempting to win WC by deliberately and transparently undermining his own teammate, against team orders, looked desperate and very unsportsmanlike.

At least Massa and Button showed class ...

I disagree. If HAM is backing ROS up, get in DRS range and pass him. If you're going to be content to sit in second place then you don't get to complain about the leader's pace. Last I heard the rules allowed ROS to pass HAM any time he was able. Why is HAM obligated to help ROS win the title? ROS isn't obligated to slide down to fourth so HAM can win.

Not a consideration of the efficacy of the pass, rather manipulation of the race by Hami is the crux.

It was clear from before the weekend that this retrograde strategy of Hami's was to deny the podium position, at all costs, to Rosberg, that's all.

I get that, but the defense to the pace being manipulated is to either out qualify him, out start him, or out race him.

Having done none of those, well....

If you pull a Senna and smack into someone to decide the WC that is just wrong and unsportsmanlike.

That being said, the more I think about it, the more I realize I really don't have a problem with what Hamilton did. He managed his race the best way possible to see if he could get the WC.

It did have a slightly douchey feel to it because if he pulled it off it wasn't so much a win by merit but rather a win through manipulation. Its a fine line.

Would Rosberg have done what Hammy did? No. And perhaps that it why he was denied the WC the past two years. Think about it.

In the end karma won the day and the right guy, in my opinion, became WC.

:thumbsup:

At the top, it's always a finer balance...

Congrats to Nico for a well deserved title.

Looking forward to the 2017 cars - just hope they figure out a way to let them run and not spend the race conserving everything.

Yep, it's crazy. They tell Hami that his target time is 1:45.3 and the next lap he goes... 1:45.3

Let them RACE, haul ass, be on the ragged edge. THAT'S racing...

I think 4X champ Vettel was the class act today. He could have challenged NR but did not. NR knew 3rd would win the title and Vettel could have taken 2nd. Vettel made a 80% attempt and NR wanted that position and Vettel let him keep it. I think Vettel wanted it to be NR's time and did not want to risk being the bozo who had nothing to gain and take NR out. Hammy wanted to force NR to race him. NR clearly hasn't wanted to race the last 4 races. NR wanted to survive like a boxer ahead on points. Vettel took verstapen out of the picture provided a buffer of maturity and solidified NR's win. NR owes Vettel a beer tonight.