Is Nico Rosberg the most relieved man in Formula One?

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Home » F1 Blog » March 16 2010 at 19:58 | posted by | 1 comment made so far - add one
Photo: Is Nico Rosberg the most relieved man in Formula One?

Nico's surprise season start

2010 is a make or break year for Nico Rosberg and the young German found himself under a huge amount of pressure leading up to yesterday’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Nico required a strong result on Sunday to avoid being cast as the ‘number two’ Mercedes driver alongside Michael Schumacher before he had a chance to settle in. It’s never easy to create your own place in a new team, but it’s even harder when your teammate is the most prolific champion in Formula One history.

With that in mind, Rosberg will be delighted and somewhat relieved that he performed so well during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

For Nico, the stakes are particularly high this year. His career is still developing but if he wants to emulate his father and become World Champion he will need to conquer the Schumacher challenge from within Mercedes GP. First impressions count for a lot in Formula One and the pressure on Rosberg would have grown immensely had he been slower than Michael at Sakhir. As it turned out, Nico is now the benchmark for his teammate and can afford to have a few unlucky races without being considered Schumacher’s understudy. He has proven that he can mix it with the former champion.

The pressure on Rosberg to compare well against Schumacher has lifted.

Importantly, Nico’s confidence will now be sky high. He has always had faith in his own ability but would have been unsure over the winter where that compared to Michael’s. All of Schumacher’s teammates have approached races hoping they can beat him, but Rosberg arrives in Melbourne knowing that he can. He might even expect it. Nico will be able to focus on his own driving rather than comparing his speed to Michael’s.

With less pressure and more confidence, Rosberg will be a man to watch in Melbourne.

However, Schumacher isn’t too worried just yet.

Michael improved dramatically throughout the Bahrain weekend as he brushed off the cobwebs from three years sitting on the pitwall. At the start of qualifying Schumacher was five tenths behind Rosberg but reduced that deficit to three tenths in Q3. He continued that progress right up until the end of the race and finished just four seconds behind Nico at the chequered flag. Both Mercedes drivers set their best times on lap 45, and Schumacher’s was faster.

Michael will find even more speed in Melbourne since the circuit should work in his favour. He has raced at Albert Park on eleven previous occasions and the racetrack hasn’t changed at all since the first of those events. He is the only driver to win at Melbourne more than once (taking every Australian Grand Prix victory between 2000 and 2004) so clearly knows the place well.

Schumacher will be faster in Australia than he was in Bahrain, but will that be enough to step over Nico Rosberg’s line in the sand?

Recent comments on this article:

#1 Jimmy@enterF1 | 16 Mar 2010, 19:48 Reply »

It's a fascinating battle huh! Lets hope the battle between them is also for the positions that count such as the podium - should make it even more exciting to watch!

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