CarLando, Bound By The Red String - The String May Stress Or Tangle, But It Never Breaks 🥹

Let me tell u the difference between Max Verstappen, a WDC, and an alleged championship worthy driver.

Max Verstappen will tell you what he say or want to say in front of u, in the car, through the radio, behind u. A certain championship worthy driver says things at the radio, on the media, and then, once everyone is on it, sweep it under the rug, make it seem like it didn’t happen, or if it did, then it’s out of his hands, that it wasn’t what he meant.

Max disregards team orders when he deems them to be wrong and any result he gets from it is his alone. A certain someone disregards team orders, when he does well, it’s because he had every right to act for himself, when he mess up, it’s the team’s fault. When he follows team orders, and got good results, fine; when he follows and he doesn’t get what he wants, he’s this poor, wronged, loyal driver. God forbid if his teammate does it, he was apparently being favored!

Max is a teammate killer. He outshines them so much to the point that they don’t last on the team, some even going to other motosports. A certain someone is an alleged dominant teammate, so dominant he prevailed against stronger teammates, he’s unbeatable, he’s the future, he’s perfect. And yet, one race of getting outshone, and he’s crying, he’s tattling, he’s a victim.

Max is the devil, he’s dangerous, he pulls of moves that endangers others. Well, better than the beatific saint who can do no wrong, right? The one who lets out disparaging remarks and once the hate piles on, wash his hands off of it.

Lastly, Max is a WDC who built the team he’s in. The certain someone was being built by his team who only ever lives off of their team legacy, off the accolades, off the achievements long gone. A team who derives its confidence from all the WDC’s they hire only to give them with nothing afterwards. WDC’s long past their primes, beaten by their golden boy in points, and suddenly they’re worthless, suddenly they don’t live up to the team’s standards. And their golden boy? He’s good, fantastic, marvelous, a WDC in a making. 😌

Think what u want of the other’s identity, but never ever disparage any other driver as unworthy especially if your standards is a certain someone.

@raikkoberg, for our research purpose 💅🏻

If this ain’t brocedes, then I don’t know what better to call them 🥹

this excerpt means everything to me you don’t understand

from The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano, 2008

Oh Nico, the man that u are 🥹🫶🏻

Formula BMW engineer in interview: What makes Nico Rosberg tick

By Christian Nimmervoll, originally written 27 June 2015 for motorsport-total.com (x)

Between VIVA and Keke: Peter Sieber worked with Nico Rosberg when he wasn't yet a Formula 1 star and remembers the 2002 season in Formula BMW.

Many people have the wrong impression of Nico Rosberg. He comes across as effeminate, pseudo-intellectual, aloof. But envy is something you have to fight for - and level only looks like arrogance from below (to quote some Facebook wisdom). In fact, the Wiesbaden native, who grew up as the son of Finnish Formula 1 champion Keke Rosberg and a German mother, is a well-bred, smart young man who speaks five languages, happens to be an excellent racer, and earns millions doing it.

What's still missing is the world championship title. With his victory at the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend, Rosberg proved that he shouldn't be written off even when his back is supposedly against the wall - there's life in the old dog yet. And in doing so, he gave himself an early birthday present: Today, June 27, the Mercedes driver turns 30 - and is presumably in the prime of his Formula 1 career.

Reason enough for us to talk to a man who not only knows the superstar Nico Rosberg, but also worked with the up-and-coming driver Nico Rosberg when he first came to Formula BMW from karting - and won it outright, as the very first champion of the then new series in 2002. Peter Sieber was hired as race engineer for the world champion's son - and taught him the basics of racing.

Getting to know about Arno Zensen

Question: "Mr. Sieber, how did you meet Keke and Nico Rosberg?"

Peter Sieber: "That went through Arno Zensen, now head of the Rosberg team in the DTM. Arno used to work for Walter Lechner, and we've known each other ever since. Franz Tost was also involved at the time, who is now the boss of Toro Rosso. At the time, they had a South African race engineer at Team Rosberg in Formula BMW who had to go back home. So they asked me if I would like to be Nico's race engineer."

Question: "Can you still remember the very first time you met Nico?"

Sieber: "I had seen him at tests before, when we hadn't worked together yet. My first impression was of a very likeable and well-mannered young guy. In all my years in motorsport, I've noticed one thing: Drivers who have what it takes, who have the potential to make it to the top, don't say anything loud, don't argue, but are professional even at a young age. That was the case with Nico from the very first moment."

"I was a bit scared with him: father Keke Rosberg, Formula 1 world champion, enough money. There are always these father-son stories when the father wants the career more than the son. But that wasn't the case. In terms of people skills, I learned a lot from Keke, namely from the way he dealt with his own son. Nico was always very interested, especially in technology. That's where he always wanted to know what was going on, everywhere."

Question: "They say that Nico was an intelligent student who, if racing hadn't worked out, would have studied aerodynamics or mechanical engineering. When they worked with him, he was still at school."

Sieber: "That's true. The others always said: 'Sure, that's Rosberg's boy, he can test the most and has the best material'. But in truth that wasn't quite the case, because dear Nico had just graduated from high school. So he skipped some tests, which I then had to drive with Kimmo Liimatainen, now team manager at the Rosberg team in the DTM. Because Nico didn't have time."

"Nico didn't have it easy. When he was good, everyone said, 'Sure, I can do it with these prerequisites. And when he wasn't good, they said: 'He's just Rosberg's son, he doesn't have his dad's talent. But Nico didn't want anything as a gift, he wanted to fight for everything. He worked his ass off to achieve that. I was captivated by him right from the start. I always tried to create the best conditions for him."

Spoiled millionaire's son my ass

Question: "Lewis Hamilton said in the 2014 World Championship battle that Nico has always been a spoiled millionaire's boy, while he himself had to work hard for everything. If I'm interpreting you correctly, you don't agree with that at all?"

Sieber: "No. Keke and Nico's mother, Sina, have a very special attitude; they're not aloof people. When we had stopped working together, and Nico later won his first Formula 3 race, Sina still came up to me afterwards and gave me a hug."

"I say to her, 'Sina, I had nothing to do with that, it was Erich.' Erich Baumgärtner, a friend of mine who was Nico's race engineer in Formula 3. But Sina to me: 'No, Peter, I mean it, because you did the dirty work.' That was a statement for me! The first year is always the most difficult - that's when you have to teach a driver style, technique, work ethic. It wasn't easy, but with Nico it was really fun."

Question: "What does learning style and technique mean? You're hardly going to have ridden in front of Nico like an instructor…"

Sieber: "A young driver makes his first statements at the beginning, and as a race engineer I have to filter out the most important ones right away. Many say eight to ten problems at once, from which I then filter out the main problem. Because when the main problem is solved, the smaller problems usually dissolve as well. Then I see on the data: 'You need to brake earlier, but come out of the curve with more momentum.' Those are the first fundamentals you work on with a young driver."

"A young driver can only tell you about the car if you explain to him beforehand what's important. Nico soaked it all up like a sponge, he fought every second. From home he had the opportunity to race, car, engine, team - others may not be able to afford that. But his driving skills and assertiveness, he fought hard for all of that. Whether it was dry or wet, he was always really good."

Like Father, Like Son

Question: "Nico's former kart team boss Dino Chiesa once said that Nico didn't get a PlayStation game from Keke that he really wanted, and that he also got relatively little pocket money. Which suggests that he felt relatively little of his family's wealth at the time, and was also just a young racer like any other."

Sieber: "I've known Keke for a long time. I can still remember that back then, as a junior driver, he always came to the race track with a trailer and bus. Keke learned to work his way up from the bottom. And he passed that on to Nico for his development."

"I remember the Formula BMW race at the Sachsenring. Officially, testing was banned, but others tested anyway. Our weekend went really poorly. The engineer was not good, the car was not good, the driver was not good. It was a pitch-black weekend, with spins and everything."

"Then Keke arrives, with a cigar in his mouth - and grins at me, who has such a blood pressure you can see my carotid artery: 'Peter, it's going to be all right.' And I: 'Were you in the wrong movie? What I saw was a disaster.' And Keke: 'What I saw is going to be fine.' Because you two are determined to make it together, and it's going to bear fruit.' At first I couldn't do anything with that, but then we improved from race to race."

"At the beginning, it was difficult to work together because I hadn't done all the official tests and first had to get to know the car and Nico. But then we worked our way up and became champions in the end. That season we had a test day at the Nürburgring before the race. I changed the gear ratio then, which is normally done by the mechanic. But there was no time for that because of the rain. And I mistakenly swapped fifth and sixth gear. In other words, where fifth gear should have been, sixth was - and vice versa."

"Nico drove out, came back to the pits very slowly and said with a smile on his face - with a smile, not kind of angry like others would be: 'Master, how do you actually count? One, two, three, four, five, six.' And I said to him: 'But you're doing your school-leaving exams right now, you'll manage that!' So he had to change gears stupidly, skip a gear with the clutch in the sequential gearbox, but he didn't care. The next morning I found a note on the transmission: 'Love from Nico, please put the gears in the right order!' That was Nico. That's the kind of person you live motorsport for."

Criticism always constructive

Question: "Were there also situations in which Nico could get loud?"

Sieber: "No, and that was the nice thing about working with him. If something wasn't okay, it was discussed, but not loudly or in an argument, but positively. He asked questions, contributed good ideas, and the collaboration got better and better. He worked hard for his success."

Question: "Nico already had the sponsor VIVA in 2002, in Formula BMW - and therefore had a lot of media presence earlier than other drivers. Was that an advantage or a disadvantage?"

Sieber: "People were already very attentive: son of Keke Rosberg, VIVA, very well-known among the youth. The hype was sometimes too much."

Question: "Girls, too?"

Sieber: "The girls raved about him anyway. But he didn't care. Nico did his stuff."

Question: "You can't tell me that Nico didn't have a girl at the start now and then…"

Sieber: "No, not at all, really! He wasn't the typical girl hero. Sometimes they are, and then they usually forget that racing should be the most important thing. That wasn't the case with Nico. He was focused and really never had a girl with him. It wasn't until the end of 2002 that I remember there being one - and I think that was his current wife Vivian."

Question: "In 2003, Nico met Lewis Hamilton again in Formula 3. Was it already foreseeable for you back then that this duel would continue into Formula 1?"

Sieber: "In Formula 3, Nico had a different race engineer, but that was a good acquaintance of mine, so I always knew what was going on with him. When we met at the race track, we always chatted. By the way, the contact hasn't completely broken off to this day."

"And yes, for me it was already foreseeable that this could go into Formula 1, because Nico simply has a very special way. He didn't have it as easy as Hamilton claims, as a spoiled boy who gets everything dumped in his lap. Our last race in Formula BMW in 2002 was at Hockenheim. Nico won, both races, in the rain and in the dry. Afterwards, there was the award ceremony for ADAC and BMW. Keke didn't go at all, but his mom, a few mechanics and I did."

Tears at Formula BMW victory ceremony 2002

"Nico had a knitted cap on, I remember it like yesterday. Then they called him up and said they had another 'little' present for him. I wonder what that will be? A Formula 1 test drive at Williams! That's when he really broke down, sat down, put his hands in front of his eyes and cried. He was so happy at that moment because he was so disciplined, he did without so much. That's very difficult for a young lad."

"And: He himself had done it - not because he was Keke Rosberg's son, but because he was the first Formula BMW champion. That's when I realized what racing meant to him. I still remember that day today as if it were yesterday - it has stuck in my heart. He said: 'It was always my dream to drive Formula 1 one day. That's what I've worked for.' That was an honest moment. As honest as Nico is."

Question: "Do you think it sometimes hurt Nico to be reduced to Keke Rosberg's son? Did that get to him?"

Sieber: "I think it was close to him. As I said before, if he was good, then it was the good material, but if not, then he's just Rosberg's son, but not as good as Keke. But Keke always stood behind him and told him: 'Nico, you have the greatest job in the world, you are a racing driver. People are all coming here to see your race. Enjoy it and have fun.'"

"And so he took all the pressure off the kid. That was awesome. That was Keke. People were brutal to Nico sometimes. When all he ever wanted was for them to just respect that he was doing his job, that he was doing everything he could to get into Formula One, and that he had talent. The Rosberg name was very positive for Nico, but on the other hand it didn't make it easy for him either.

Question: "It doesn't sound like Keke interfered much with Nico.

Sieber: "No. He left us alone. If he saw something that the competition was doing, for example, he told me, but without interfering. He would say, 'You can worry about that.' That was it, but then he was gone again."

Always looked up to father Keke

Question: "Nico's former karting team boss Dino Chiesa says that it was always important for Nico to once be as good as or better than Keke. Is that true in your opinion?"

Sieber: "He always looked up to his father, because Keke achieved a lot and was a driving force for Nico. But Nico was self-motivated enough to go this way and achieve something himself. He was looking in the right direction, he fought for it. Nico was an intelligent young man for his age. Of course, he sometimes took his cue from his father."

Question: "Were there ever moments when Nico cried to you about Keke?"

Sieber: "No, never. I admire the way Keke handled his boy. Keke always managed to motivate us all. In a positive sense, he was a gangster! It's okay to write that, I mean it in a positive way. Once he came to see me at the Nürburgring, Formula 1 weekend, and Nico had finished third in Formula BMW on Saturday. The conditions were difficult, race started in the rain, then it dried up."

"Keke comes up to me afterwards and is really happy about third place, but in the same breath says, 'We're not good enough, the others are better!' Inside I was boiling. That's when he lit a spark in me, so that even in the hotel I was still thinking about the car. And then we won on Sunday. Grins Keke: 'Oh, did it work?' Motivating his people, Keke always understood that."

Question: "Mr. Sieber, is there anything else you would like to add?"

Sieber: "Yes, two things. First, my son has a problem with his spine. I told Nico about it once in passing, and he said to me, 'Hey, my physio Daniel, he also had a back operation. I'll put you in touch with him, I'm sure he can recommend a good specialist. And that's what he did. He wouldn't have to do something like that - others don't."

"And another story: For the 2002 championship title, he got the Formula 1 test that Keke and Nico wanted to take me to. Unfortunately, my son was ill and I had to stay at home with a heavy heart. So they sent me a video after the test and talked to me live on the phone during the test. And Nico gave me his helmet, with which he became Formula BMW champion and tested Formula 1 for the first time, as a small consolation. That's just the way Nico is.

Question: "Will you wish him a happy 30th birthday?"

Sieber: "Yes, for sure. I'll think of something! We still see each other from time to time. Last year, for example, he invited me to the German Grand Prix."

what do you MEAN lando is out to dinner with carlos’s friends and family to celebrate his win and their 1-2 wHAT DO YOU MEEEEAN

source: carlossainz55 (instagram)

@/42bennett: Pre event training done 💪

thats not how you use tags

how do u suggest I use them then? :)

At this point, according to some braindead fans, even breathing is a crime when you're Carlos Sainz. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to change my career path to a lawyer because as a CS55 fan, defending Carlos has become an hourly job.

"He is not a team player"/"He is selfish"- you go sit in an F1 car, try to compete at 300kmph+, do your best to make up places, all while racing for your fucking career, and then come lecture me about being a team player. Like what the fuck is he supposed to do? Just let others pass him? Are we even watching the same sport?

In racing, you either fight or you fall behind. Nobody likes to fall behind without a fight.

Carlos raced, fought, earned those places and got that podium. And he won't be apologizing for that.

#its not even about gender #he’s just so unbelievably beautiful

The fabulous Nico Rosberg, 2003 Macau Grand Prix

HOW DO YOU LOSE 26 PODIUMS!??!!

McLaren: You forget to cherish them

Why don’t people consider that Nico and Lewis’s falling out had to do with events or behavior around the championship competition and not the outcome? “Lewis hates Nico for beating him” just doesn’t seem to fit the way Lewis treats…everyone else who’s beaten him.

It’s not the title, it’s what winning it represents, which is everything you had to do to get there. You have to love someone a whole lot to be that angry with them, and I mean that on both ends. They treated each other like any other competitor, but this isn’t a sport where you make friends easily, and if we treated our friends the way we treat our competitors then none of us would have them.

The way I look at it is, without knowing the exact particulars, which we probably never will, is that things got all fucky around 2014 (I won’t go all the way to the end of Brocedes, there’s nothing additional to add really after that year). The timeline of that looks like this:

Pre-2013 season:

- Lewis moves to Mercedes from McLaren. Everyone except Eddie Jordan, only man to predict it, is completely astounded when this move is announced. Sure Red Bull have won back to back to back championships and Seb’s closest rival is his teammate Mark, but this is nowhere near the Red Bull domination we see today. In those seasons, everyone from McLaren and Ferrari would also take wins, probably multiple, and Nico himself even pulled one out in the Mercedes which was slowly improving. The move to Mercedes makes no sense?

If Lewis were unhappy at McLaren the sensible move would be to attempt to edge out Massa or Webber for their seat. Okay, maybe not Massa given Hamilton’s fairly recent at this point history with Alonso, and maybe Webber is gonna be hard to shift and he doesn’t want to play second driver to Seb at Red Bull, okay aaaaggghhh the best move is probably to stay at McLaren because Jenson, even if they don’t quite get along, is as affable a teammate as you’re ever gonna get at a front running team and who is second driver depends on the day and also there’s no way to tell which of those three teams is gonna produce the best car. It’s a gamble, better the devil you know.

You have to think, well, why does Lewis move to Mercedes? Yes, it’s been slowly improving and shown it can win a race on its day, but so can a Ferrari now. It’s not good enough. Ross Brawn is deeply admired in the paddock as a team principle but he is in the process of retiring and they’re bringing some new guy in. Schumacher’s retiring too, so he doesn’t do it to benefit from being teammates with him. No he does it for Nico, because Nico’s faith in that car is strong enough to sell it to Lewis, because they can have what they promised each other as kids if this gamble pays off. And it’s a risky choice, but Eddie Jordan’s really smart about stuff like this and Eddie Jordan likes it… Better the devil you know? Or better Nico, who you know even better?

2013 season

The gamble pays off! The Mercedes is looking good which means at least Lewis is in as good a position as he was before, maybe better, within a teammate he loves. This season passes mostly without incident and they finish fourth and sixth in the championship (Lewis fourth, Nico sixth). And really what’s the difference between fourth and sixth? Nico even wins two races! Which is one more than Lewis, even if Lewis finishes higher in the standings. Nico’s playing with the big boys now.

However, there is one race where Nico gets a team order. At Malaysia, the second race of the calendar, Mercedes orders him to stay behind Lewis. That’s not fair. They’re only two races in, neither of them has a clear bid for the championship yet. Lewis even says after the race that it wasn’t fair - that Nico deserved that last spot on the podium and not him - see Lewis bas his back!

Nobody really picks up on it because of Multi-21 at Red Bull. So he gets grumpy and at his home race in Monaco (the sport has a horrible history of pulling out team orders at a driver’s home race, the one place it’s supposed to be his race) he leads every lap start to finish so it can’t happen to him there. He wins Silverstone too and gets so many points that everyone can’t help sit up and take notice. Nico’s not a one hit wonder, he’s the real deal.

2014 season

They’re the favourites now! Mercedes looks amazing at testing now turbo-hybrid engines are mandatory and the real question is will it be Lewis or Nico? And Nico wins the first race in Australia. If that isn’t a statement of intent, nothing is. But Lewis gets him back in the next race in Malaysia. They’re just as good as each other really. (Although, Lewis did have to retire in Australia - are they really as good as each other?)

Bahrain and Spain

Bahrain is where it all goes wrong. They’ve been fighting all race and then late in the game a safety car comes out and it benefits Nico. (Happens all the time - sometimes you want a safety car, sometimes you don’t, it’s like rolling the dice… Or is it like getting help?) They race wheel to wheel on the restart, like you can’t do with anyone you don’t trust, and they kept it clean. Lewis wins and they have a silly play fight in park fermé and it’s fine really…

Until Lewis finds out that Nico used a spicy engine setting that Mercedes told him not to for those last couple of laps to give him extra power. Why would you do that? That’s cheating, isn’t it? But if it’s such a clear advantage then why aren’t Mercedes having them both use it? Like it’s not illegal, Mercedes just gets cross when they use it racing each other. But then aren’t you supposed to give it everything you’ve got when you’re really truly racing, like you want to be with your best friend, and Lewis could have used it just as easily. But Lewis still won without it - didn’t need it.

And to make it worse, Mercedes have a study they’re showing Nico about Lewis’ racing - Lewis doesn’t have one on Nico! Cheating! (Well, yes, it is from Malaysia where Lewis finished seventeen seconds ahead and in Australia it didn’t matter how Nico drove because Lewis DNFed and Lewis qualified better anyway - like this is perfectly normal behaviour within a team when you think about it, even the kind of behaviour you would expect if they’d decided already that Nico is second driver, but that’s NOT THE POINT - this is the kind of weird evil shit Fernando would do at McLaren!!!) Lewis gets a document about Nico’s driving too but the suspicion is already there. In the next race in Spain Lewis also uses the spicy engine setting, but he stays ahead. He wins with it.

Monaco

In Monaco, the next race, they’re qualifying and Nico’s got provisional pole with Lewis close behind. On the last chance lap though, he fucks up, runs wide and goes off (it happens when you’re trying to get that perfect lap - and Monaco is his home GP, which he’s defending, he needs this more than any other race) but Lewis is on a fast lap he has to abort and the yellow flags fuck him. And Lewis has always been bitchy right after he gets out of the car when things haven’t gone his way and it’s not him saying well wasn’t that convenient for Nico, it’s some of the less scrupulous pundits. And they’re asking him if he thinks it’s suspicious and he says “Potentially. I should have known that was going to happen.”

But what does that mean really? That Nico really wanted it and the chances of a mistake were sky high? That he will throw everything he has got at it to beat Lewis? Or that Nico’s a dirty cheater like the engine setting he promised he wouldn’t use, even though he could, and the spies he has in the garage. Yeah, it’s just like Alonso, who had his teammate crash at Renault to win him a race (though officially that was all Renault, Alonso knew nothing about it and was appalled) and wasn’t that another good friend of Nico’s? Nelson Piquet Jr. who will never be welcome back? Because he’s a dirty dirty cheater (even if he was pressured into it by the team threatening to end his contract). Or maybe he means that Nico’s just like his idol, Senna, who crashed a car just as on purpose and came away with a championship.

The stewards say Nico did nothing wrong. Toto, is insisting that Nico did nothing wrong. How could that possibly benefit Mercedes? It’s bullshit, it’s a conspiracy theory, it’s paranoia. But it doesn’t matter, Nico ruined his lap, the lap that would definitely have got him pole and he can’t touch him during Monaco, the track Nico knows the best in the the whole world, where overtaking is notoriously difficult without a safety car or a pit-lane leap frog. Nico wins without really giving Lewis a chance to compete. By the time Lewis gets out of the car, they’re not friends anymore in Lewis’ head. And he tells the fucking world, maybe even before he tells Nico.

Hungary

Lewis gets a team order. The team are on Nico’s side, conspiring against him and this proves it. (Or does it? Lewis had never had a team order from them and Nico had, and Nico had played nice, even if it was last season, and missed out on a podium. There’s a balance that needs to be redressed and he’s on a different strategy, on fresh tyres, and Lewis has a pit still to go, Nico will overtake and they need it to be clean and to do as little wear on either car as possible).

But Lewis isn’t moving. Says Nico can have it if he overtakes. Lewis is not even racing for first, it’s third place, just like last time. Not enough points to change who leads the WDC. And Nico’s racing for the win, for fuck’s sake. Lewis holds position, they finish third and fourth and Lewis gets a dressing down afterwards because Toto and the team think Nico could have won. (Why don’t they think Lewis could have won, even on completely the wrong strategy? Look, Niki Lauda has his back, even if he’s an old mad and a racer too who knows a true racer never yields). There’s no disciplinary action, not with Niki backing Lewis, it’ll look too much like fighting in the ranks and Toto has to stay in control.

Belgium

They touch. The greatest sin you can commit on the track is crashing with your teammate. Sure, you can crash with anyone else, especially if they’re you’re rival, but not him. It doesn’t matter if you’re racing hard for a championship. What’s worse - they’ve never done this before. They’ve always trusted each other racing wheel to wheel - that’s how you keep it clean. But they don’t anymore. Nico leaves his nose in, insists he won’t be bullied (and that should be fine, Lewis isn’t a bully on the track, not like Schumacher, or Max is now, not really, he’s a good, clean driver who knows when to back off). Except Lewis doesn’t back off heading into Les Combes and he breaks his front wing and punctures a tyre and he spends the rest of the race limping round the track. Nico comes off better and finishes second but Daniel Ricciardo wins, taking advantage of the chaos. And Lewis is insisting he did it on purpose but that’s how Lewis gets when he’s losing and he’s mean (he’s done it with every other driver who’s crossed him on the track, with the FIA when they give him penalties. He grows of it eventually, sort of, but he’s a real mean loser and even the pundits have noticed.)

Nico’s booed on the podium. By now the world is certain that he’s a dirty dirty cheater, even if the FIA doesn’t think he is and the team doesn’t think he is and the other drivers don’t think he is - Lewis thinks he is and the world is on Lewis’ side. To make things worse, Toto makes him apologise (yes he should have left some room, but wouldn’t that be more disrespectful, to let Lewis have it without fighting back? And he was sure that Lewis would back off, would know when it was Nico’s corner fair and square) and then he disciplines him anyway. He disciplines him for a racing incident when he wouldn’t discipline Lewis for calling him a cheater in front of the whole world. The team has never had Nico’s back, has never wanted him to be anything other than a second driver, a performing monkey to do what they want. And after all that Lewis still won’t forgive him for the thing he never even did.

Abu Dhabi

The rest of the season passes without incident. Lewis wins some, Nico wins some, everything’s clean and they’re not talking. They’re changing the scoring system here, from 12 points for a win to 25. Double, in every position and points for ninth and tenth now. Kinda silly to introduce it in the last race, surely they could have waited for next season? It’s a real unfair advantage in the championship if you do better than your rival here.

Nico qualifies on pole, but Lewis gets that perfect start and passes him. And he wins, because Nico’s car has a problem and he gets stuck in fourteenth. Toto’s telling him to retire but Nico refuses, says he wants to finish this, limps the car home to score nothing. Lewis won fair and square and that’s that. He goes into the cool-down room to congratulate him, even though he’s not on the podium. And later Lewis says that at least Nico is gracious in defeat. Doesn’t that hurt?

Lewis takes the title early next year. Nico spends 2015 planning 2016.