[motorworks]

Originally Posted by ChiragM

The WDC is as good as gone from Vettel. The issue here is that he reportedly does not trust the strategy at Ferrari. He finds the need to get involved with everything that happens behind the scene. During his Red Bull days, all he had to do was drive the car. Now, it looks like he even gets involved with the work that is done to the car, which is supposedly not going down well with the mechanics at Ferrari.

I just think Vettel and Ferrari are both under immense pressure and it is taking a toll on them. Plus this whole conundrum of Kimi moving out has been a distraction. Ferrari should have implemented team orders earlier in the season and made it clear that they are backing Seb. Didnt Mercedes make that clear much earlier by placing Bottas as the wingman most of the time in the 2nd half?

Originally Posted by ChiragM

Lewis on the other hand trusts the strategy Mercedes employs and the mechanics. He is always praising the work done by the team over radio. This definitely boosts the team's morale.

Secondly, all this that Lewis trusts his engineers and team strategies is more circumstance led. Take Lewis out of the top 2 positions and you will see in most races he too would have been complaining about one thing or the other. Its purely the situation.

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by motorworks

I just think Vettel and Ferrari are both under immense pressure and it is taking a toll on them. Plus this whole conundrum of Kimi moving out has been a distraction. Ferrari should have implemented team orders earlier in the season and made it clear that they are backing Seb. Didnt Mercedes make that clear much earlier by placing Bottas as the wingman most of the time in the 2nd half?

Real turning point was the German GP, where Ferrari/Vettel started to lose the plot. Seb crashed from the lead while he was leading in Germany on his own (may be he was a little flustered after the delay in getting by Kimi). After that race, Lewis has never finished a race below P2.

There haven't been much races where team orders where required. Only Austria is where they could have used, but the difference wouldn't have been much. It's not like Kimi was out of contention in WDC at the time. He was within 45 points of the WDC lead after Austrian GP. Kimi's contract situation also played its part, with a part of the management wanting to keep Kimi for the next year - same group which would have had to enforce any team orders.

[nair]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

Real turning point was the German GP, where Ferrari/Vettel started to lose the plot. Seb crashed from the lead while he was leading in Germany on his own (may be he was a little flustered after the delay in getting by Kimi). After that race, Lewis has never finished a race below P2.

I think it is slightly more complicated than that. Yes, Vettel did make mistakes but Lewis was also aided by Bottas's misfortune. Bottas should have won in Shanghai (SC helped Ricciardo) and Baku (the puncture while leading with just 3 laps away). He also had a DNF in Austria while second and where he had been strong all weekend (had pole in qualifying). What this meant was an increased points advantage to Lewis, and subsequently Mercedes favouring Lewis over Bottas to secure the WDC and using Bottas as a roadblock. Else, I think Bottas would have been in title contention along with Lewis which ultimately would have helped Ferrari and Vettel.

And as you rightly pointed out, it hasn't helped that Lewis has been in prime form starting from German GP.