Nico Rosberg: Lewis Hamilton was in the wrong, he should have been a team player
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ByEurosport
Updated 22/03/2017 at 19:24 GMT
Nico Rosberg has accused former Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton of being in the wrong after claiming his first world championship at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - GP of Abu Dabi 2016
Image credit: AFP
The German announced his retirement shortly after beating Hamilton to the title in November. Hamilton needed to win the race with Rosberg fourth or lower to win his fourth world title in the desert but he gradually slowed the pace when it became clear that was not happening.
Despite several radio messages telling him to speed up, Hamilton continued to slow, particularly in the final stint, allowing the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers to close on Rosberg in second.
As Sebastian Vettel closed up on Rosberg, the Mercedes driver's engineer reminded him he only needed third to win the championship.
But Rosberg said he couldn't afford to concede second to Vettel because he was concerned about the potential challenge from Max Verstappen in fourth
Speaking on In Depth with Graham Bensinger which airs across the US this weekend, Rosberg revealed why Lewis Hamilton was wrong and went against team orders in last season’s final, championship-deciding race.
“Well it was not right what (Lewis) did," said Rosberg. "Because in the end, we’re driving according to certain guidelines that are given to us by the team.
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Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - GP of Abu Dabi 2016
Image credit: AFP
"And I respected those guidelines, because in Monaco we had exactly a similar situation where I was second, he was third, and I was driving too slow - just as he was in Abu Dhabi. And so we were risking a good team result, so the team wanted me to let him past.
"And I just did straightaway - let him past. And he got the race win, which helped him in the championship fight as well, ironically. And so it was the same situation in Abu Dhabi and he didn’t abide by those rules, so from a team’s perspective for sure that was not the right thing to do but from an individual I can understand why he wanted to try something.”
Rosberg says that despite their intense rivalry, retirement presents the opportunity to repair his once close relationship with Hamilton, who begins his quest for a fourth world title at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Mebourne on Sunday.
It was important for me to tell (Lewis) personally as well (about retirement) Because..of the battles we’ve had and everything..I just wrote him a message before the actual announcement and then afterwards we got together and had a chat about it and just went through stuff and it was a nice conversation. And I’m open to finding our way and even having a good relationship again in the future. Why not?
Rosberg calls Fernando Alonso one of the best drivers in Formula 1, but says his car continually restricts the veteran from elite status:
"So our sport is quite unique in that sense… We’re seeing it with [Fernando] Alonso for example, who is one of the best drivers out there… for the last 10 years he’s struggled to be in the top 10 because his car is just not good. So we really depend on our car and then the driver is important as well. "
Former F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone talked down to Rosberg, saying that him winning the world title would be bad for media headlines. More recently, Rosberg shared his excitement with Bensinger regarding the sale of F1, including how the old ownership group grew stale and ran out of ideas:
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Mercedes' Formula One driver Nico Rosberg of Germany is carried by fans after winning Formula One world championship.
Image credit: Reuters
“The structure in Formula 1 needed change. It was not optimum for the sport. And so I was very happy, because it’s really a breath of fresh air it needed to reinvent itself a little bit the last structure sort of ran out of ideas a bit and didn’t want to race all these new directions, like digital arriving, for example.”
Rosberg is now an ambassador for Mercedes and says he and his wife, Vivian Sibold are planning to have a second child:
"Yeah, yeah it would be nice. Yeah. Now we have one daughter and we’re in the process of practicing already for the second child. 11, yeah. Soccer team. But I think my wife is not up for that.”
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