The German recalled an element of Hamilton’s time at Mercedes which could help him at Ferrari
Nico Rosberg has weighed in on former teammate Lewis Hamilton’s situation at Ferrari, with the seven-time champion struggling since his blockbuster move to the racing giant.
Rosberg was a natural understudy to Michael Schumacher, who he partnered for three years at Mercedes before the latter retired, but the arrival of Hamilton to the team rocked the boat somewhat.
Rosberg, speaking on the Sky F1 podcast, suggested that Hamilton could call on that experience to settle him at Ferrari.
The Briton has endured his worst-ever season so far, recently describing himself as “hopeless” after being knocked out in Q2 before a 12th-place finish in Hungary last weekend. He has yet to finish on the podium this season.
“Unfortunately, there’s a whole load of lobbying you can do as a driver, which would benefit you,” Rosberg said. “That was one of Lewis’ greatest strengths when I was fighting him at Mercedes.
“He was really good at building strong relationships with all the leadership. Suddenly, I would find out ‘Lewis last night went for dinner in Stuttgart with Dieter Zetsche’, who was the CEO of Daimler.
“It was like a dagger in the heart just to hear that, because who knows what they were talking about? He was very good at doing that, and he will need to be using those skills now at Ferrari, because it never hurts to get more and more support from the team.”
Rosberg’s pointed advice comes with Hamilton markedly behind his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc by nearly every measure.
The Monegasque took pole at the Hungaroring before finishing fourth, and is one place and 42 points above the Brit in the overall standings, in fifth. He has five podiums this season to Hamilton’s none.
Leclerc also leads his teammate 10-4 in the qualifying stakes, with Hamilton at an average deficit of 0.2 seconds to his teammate over the season so far. His poor qualifying lap times have put him on the back foot when it comes to picking up race day results - and perhaps too in the Ferrari pecking order.
Category: General Sports
