In the last "comparing teammates"-post I promised to compare the Mercedes drivers. These drivers are the first ones that have already been teammates for a season. The previous posts have all been about teammates that haven't driven together yet. They were drivers from Ferrari, Lotus, Red Bull and Force India.
The previous posts if you haven't read them already:
http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2013/11/comparing-2014-teammates-scuderia.html
http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2013/12/comparing-2014-teammates-red-bull-racing.html
http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2013/12/comparing-2014-teammates-lotus.html
http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2013/12/comparing-2014-teammates-force-india.html
They used to be teammates also when they were teenagers but I only know a little about that so I'll focus on F1.
I'll do this the same way as I've always done. So first the year, then the teammate and how the season went.
I'm gonna start with Nico Rosberg because he got to Formula One first.
2006 - Mark Webber. Nico started his career in Formula One with a bang. He set the fastest lap in his first ever race, got points and was 3rd in his second qualifying session. Nice start but his teammate was tuff! All of the races where they both finished Webber was always better. In the end of the season he also got more points (7-4).
2007 - Alexander Wurz and Kazuki Nakajima. This time Nico got more points than these two got combined. His "training" season was over and he really showed who was boss when he managed to beat his much more experienced teammate (Wurz). Later Wurz decided to retire from Formula One and the test driver Nakajima replaced him. He wasn't nearly as good as either one of the original drivers of 2007.
2008 - Kazuki Nakajima. Now Nakajima had a new chance to show what he was made of but lost by 8 points to Rosberg (17-9). Williams wasn't that good at the time but Nico managed to get his first ever podium in F1 at Melbourne.
2009 - Kazuki Nakajima. This season Nico was even better than the previous season. You could clearly see that Rosberg was the better driver and Nakajima had to leave the series after this season. Nico got 34,5 points and Nakajima didn't get a single point that season.
2010 - Michael Schumacher. The 7 time world champion came back as a Mercedes driver and became Rosberg's teammate. People said that Rosberg has a lot to learn from Michael but in the end he was better than Schumacher! It was probably because Michael had been away from the sport for a few years but still. Rosberg got 142 points and Schumacher only 72. That's almost twice the amount of points! Rosberg also got three podiums and Schumacher got none.
2011 - Michael Schumacher. Same thing continues in 2011, Rosberg is getting better results than Schumi but now the score is only 89-76. The car wasn't as good in 2011 than it was in 2010. They didn't get a single podium that year.
2012 - Michael Schumacher. Schumi's last year in F1 was worse than the seasons before. Rosberg got 93 points and Schumi only 49. Rosberg won his first race in China that year. It was also the first for the Mercedes GP team.
2013 - Lewis Hamilton. I will compare these two after I have first listed Hamilton's teammates.
Lewis Hamilton on the other hand started a year later than Rosberg and got a chance right away in a better car (McLaren of course). He was 3rd in his first race.
2007 - Fernando Alonso. Probably the worst possible teammate to beat that year. Alonso had just won the last two championships and was planning to win his third in a row. He could probably have done it that year but he focused too much on the young rookie Hamilton when he should have been keeping an eye on Räikkönen. Hamilton and Alonso got exactly the same amount of points and Kimi won them with one single point. That was the tightest fight in Formula One history! Because Hamilton had more 2nd places than Alonso he was higher up in the standings. In a way you can say that he was "better than Alonso".
2008 - Heikki Kovalainen. He got 53 points and won a race. Lewis on the other hand got 98 points and won the championship! You can't beat that!
2009 - Heikki Kovalainen. This was a very bad season for Heikki and McLaren as well so it was easy to beat him. Lewis got 49 points and Heikki only 22. McLaren didn't wanna continue Heikki's contract any further.
2010 - Jenson Button. The 2009 world champion joined McLaren as the 2008 world champion's teammate. People were sure that Jenson had no chance against Lewis but made everybody shut up by winning a race before him. In the end the score was 240-214 between the two of them which ment that Lewis was better (as the press had predicted).
2011 - Jenson Button. This time Jenson was hungry to beat his teammate and did just that with a score of 270-227. Button was runner up in the championship and Hamilton was 5th.
2012 - Jenson Button. Hamilton's last year with McLaren and also the deciding year; who was better Hamilton or Button? Hamilton won 4 races and Button 3. If we look at the points it was 190-188 between them. Very close but Hamilton won with two points.
The last thing is to compare Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg with each other!
This will give us a pretty good picture what might happen this season. The points were 189-171 between Hamilton and Rosberg in 2013. Very close!
We also have to remember that in the same race where everybody were focusing on multi21, Ross Brawn told Rosberg to back off and keep his position. He had more speed than Hamilton but the Mercedes team didn't want them to fight and perhaps take each other out of the race.
Rosberg also retired 3 times in 2013 when Lewis only once.
Lewis won one single race and Nico two (one of them was in Monaco!). The points say that Hamilton is better but if you look at the whole picture it looks like Rosberg was better than Hamilton. Believe it or not!
That was it for today and tomorrow I shall compare the Sauber drivers Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez.
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