June 22, 2015

Mercedes also won Social Media at the Austrian GP



Many Lewis Hamilton fans, in the public and the media,  are upset today.
A sizable segment actually feels the British driver was shortchanged by Mercedes who betray their preference for German driver Nico Rosberg.

First the Monaco debacle now Austria.

Hamilton was intentionally, in their view, kept out on old tires one lap too long, to allow Rosberg to keep his lead, a lead Nico had only gained because Mercedes switched Lewis' clutch to one supposedly not of his liking.

This would be funny of it were just random internet forum banter but when you get members of the media pushing the view it escalates to a new level.

NBC's Will Buxton, who happens to have as low an opinion of Rosberg and as he has a very high one of Hamilton,  tweeted those "accusations" after the race.

Normally one might attribute  Buxton's hyperbole to his having spent too much time chugging free Red Bulls in Dieter's hospitality suite and dismiss it but Mercedes did something different and quite new for F1:

They replied.

Not only did Mercedes politely but firmly shut down Buxton's conspiracy theories, they also engaged with fans following the thread, responding courteously,  with facts and figures when appropriate.

No, it wasn't a different clutch, it was the same one they used all year.   No, Lewis did not have the gap because even if Nico had a mediocre in lap, he has a blistering out lap.

This is fantastic,  more teams should take this approach and engage with commentators and fans, share and shed light.

Another way Mercedes is leading the F1 field.

Expand the tweets below to see the full conversations.











6 comments:

  1. Technically correct. Same clutch... Different springs.

    "The team changed the clutch springs back to the specification they used
    in 2014 because they gave more reliably consistent starts than the type
    used in the first four races of this season"

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/33217913

    ReplyDelete
  2. ...which Mercedes point out, is the same setup Lewis had in Abu Dhabi last year, when he had a rocket start.

    ReplyDelete
  3. But I don't understand, it was cleared for all HAM fans that Mercerdes will always favorite HAM as he has the new contract and we should not be surprised that they are helping him like they did on the last race in Canada...


    Oh well.. looks like the fans are more schizophrenic than Hamilton itself.


    BTW did you guys catch the words that Nikki said toTotto when ROS went off in the last corner in the qualy?


    If not I would suggest to look at Sky sports.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "This is good"


    BTW did you guys saw this:


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kTxc6K3vs8

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is definitely a win... with all the BS theories that are circulated ad nauseum, it's refreshing to see the team engage the fece brokers. Now, let's see some telemetry screenshots to back it up! Nice work MB.

    ReplyDelete

nRelate Posts Only