Niki Lauda says he is urging Nico Rosberg to refuse to give up his fight to beat teammate Lewis Hamilton.
The F1 legend, who is also Mercedes’ team chairman, claims the German camp has the “best driver lineup” in F1 today, even though Briton Hamilton has beaten Rosberg to the world championship two years on the trot. “This year Lewis has improved his approach a lot,” Lauda told Italy’s Autosprint.
“With Nico it is the same – we can see it in the data – just much less. “That’s why the gap has become bigger,” he said. “But I have spent a lot of time with Nico to keep up his fighting spirit and not give up. “As for the wheel-to-wheel battles between them, Nico always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He has to think about why Lewis is always in the better position at the first corner,” added Lauda.
German Rosberg appeared to demonstrate his intention to hit back at Hamilton by dominating from pole in Mexico. But if 2016 turns out like 2014 and 2015 did, with Hamilton getting the better of him yet again, will it be time for Rosberg to consider a change of team?
“No I think that Nico is going to tackle next year full steam ahead,” team boss Toto Wolff told the Telegraph. “If it doesn’t go as he thinks it could go, maybe he is going to have that thought, but he is not there yet. And hopefully he never will be.”
