Theres only one 7 x WDC and he's only ever had one team mate beat him in a full season, and that team mate beat him 3 out of 3 times. Not bad for your CV!
Rosberg entered F1 in 2006 with Williams alongside Webber who was entering his 5th season and his second season with Williams. Rosberg more than held his own with a average finishing position of 9.9, more or less one behind Webber (8.7).
From then on he has beaten every team mate he's been pared with, including the comical 2009 season when Rosberg got 34.5pts and his team mate got zero
Season's 2010-2012 are well known where Rosberg was able to outscore Schumacher by a considerable amount with MSC only getting 60.8% of Rosbergs points for those 3 years.
Going into 2013 Rosberg already has 2 wins and was looking like he was matching the undoubtedly fast Hamilton until very recently. Whether Hamilton was just adjusting to the car at the start or if Rosberg is going through a rough patch now only time will tell.
With Rosberg (and Hamiton) Mercedes look to have the strongest line up at the moment which adds a little something to their results as they have to beat a impressive team mate to get said result.
What are peoples opinion of Rosberg? He's clearly of a very high standard, but how high?
Nico Rosberg - Overlooked?
posted on 20/8/13
Shameless self bump
posted on 20/8/13
I rate Nico Rosberg quite highly.
I admire the way that he ignored the silly mind games that Michael Schumacher played like insisting that he chose the number of his car and the side of the garage. Nico just shrugged that nonsense off and got on with the job.
In my opinion. MS was the greatest driver in the history of F1 and there was no need to resort to that (superstitious) nonsense.
I think Rosberg would have scored more points if Mercedes would have developed the car after the half way point in each of the seasons.
I think that most F1 followers recognise his ability.
This year at Monaco, Rosberg led from start to finish. He totally controlled the race by driving at the same speed as the Caterham.
Then some know nothing numptie declared that Rosberg was not good enough to win the race that he won.
posted on 20/8/13
good evening nsix ,
difficult to know how to judge rosberg as he has never done anything particularly startling yet behind the wheel relative to his machinery , his two wins this year were nothing to get excited about but fair play to him he did not put a foot wrong in either of them ,
i suppose his claim to fame so far is he had the better of an ageing micheal schumacher or more to the point a micheal schumacher who was found out when he didnt have the benefit of team orders and a purpose built rory byrne chassis built solely around his style and bespoke bridgestone tyres as he did in his first career ,
for me nico"s main strength is his relative smartness in the car and his adeptness at using the cars systems to there maximum , i suppose only time will tell if has anymore in his locker than that ,
--------- for me the jury is still out on that one ----
posted on 20/8/13
Rosberg is a quality driver. Beating MS consistently is nothing to scoff at. He also was matching Hamilton which is no easy feat.
I think he's a little intimidated by Hamilton at the moment and if he can relax a bit, should be back to his best. He did screw up Hamilton's race in Germany though
posted on 21/8/13
Good to see I'm not the only one who thinks Rosberg is often overlooked. If Mercedes really have fixed their tyre issues and Hungary was more than a Hamilton master class is tyre management then I think Mercedes have a very good shot at the WCC.
Rosberg shouldn't be counted out of the WDC either, but if Hamilton beats him another couple of times that dream will be over until 2014
posted on 22/8/13
Rosberg beat Schumacher easily in 2010 but 2011 and 2012 Schumacher would have beaten him if not for reliability problems. Though Schumacher was a shadow of his formerself.
posted on 22/8/13
I decided to take out retirements to make things fair (although Schumacher took himself out more than Rosberg so its not entirely fair) and Rosberg still beats him.
Average finishing spot 2011
Ros: 7.65
MSC: 8.29
Average finishing spot 2012
Ros: 8.76
MSC: 9.00
posted on 28/8/13
Rosbergs quality, top driver, however his results against MSC are a bit irrelevant. If anything we can only say, he isnt as good Hamilton, but not many are, in a same car same conditions situation, he would be about 4th/5th/6th in my book
posted on 16/9/13
A bit of a update perhaps. Italy was a farce for Hamilton. A botched qualifying and then a race ruined by a slow puncture and far from ideal strategy. Even with all that Hamilton was all but 20s behind Rosberg come the finish.
Is Rosberg having a mid season dip in form?
Is Hamilton getting better in the Merc so that even on a really bad day he's not far off Rosberg
Or is it something else?