Source: bbc sportnews
It was Rosberg who staked his claim to the team’s no.1 status. Nico prevailed the intense driving but was nearly driven off the track by Michael approaching turn 8 at the end of the long straight. Nico went on to finish 23 seconds ahead of the seven times World Champion. It would have been a closer finish had there not been a slow puncture for Schumacher that exaggerated the time difference.
Abu Dhabi was the reverse of two weeks previous in India where Schumacher dogged Nico most of the race and went ahead to stay in front for final in the final stops.
In August Jock Clear became Michael’s performance engineer with race engineer Peter Bonnigton who replaced Mike Slade. Since then Michael’s performance has steadily improved.
Even though Nico’s qualifying has been consistently faster, Michael’s race pace has been stronger. Michael’s ability to improve on grid positions on the first lap has helped him match his younger team mate much more than last year.
The Shumi-Clear-Bonnigton partnership has become a team within a team determined to beat the team across the garage, by finding the sweet spot in the cars set up and tire management.
It was MS’s gentler tire usage that allowed him the edge in India.
The reversal of positions in the delay of 2 seconds in Nico’s final pit stop might suggest a
MS conspiracy rather than a healthy rivalry, but the team insists the team mate competition is on the up and up.
If there are things that Shumi does better it’s up to Nico to understand them and incorporate them into his own game plan.
Because of Mercedes GP’s isolation of being slower than Ferrari but a lot faster than Force India and Renault the qualifying difference should hurt the older man more than it actually has. In an example such as in Abu Dhabi Schumacher was 0.9 seconds slower than Nico, yet that translated into only one grid spot. But the colossus Schumacher bestrode to F1 prior to his first retirement has not yet appeared this time around.
So, the stage is set in Brazil for internal team supremacy. Let’s just hope both combatants finish strongly without Mercedes GP experiencing any misfortune resulting from over aggressiveness of our drivers. So it’s time to buckle up and enjoy the season’s closing race.
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