F1 world scoffs at Nico's slow torture

14 April 2015 - 02:04 By Reuters

Nico Rosberg might not have lost the plot, as some suggested in the wake of his outburst against Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton at Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix, but he is feeling the heat. The German's accusation that the world champion had been selfishly slow as he cruised to a pole-to-flag victory in Shanghai spoke more of mounting frustration than any real grievance.Hamilton has won eight of the last 10 races and Rosberg, last year's runner-up in a title battle that went down to the wire, has been unable to assert himself in qualifying either this year.With Ferrari looking far more competitive, and Sebastian Vettel second in the championship after winning in Malaysia, Rosberg is facing pressure from more than just Hamilton.The mental cracks are starting to show and the next race in Bahrain will rekindle memories of last year's fireworks when Hamilton won a wheel-to-wheel duel between the two.Rosberg knows he needs to step up in Sakhir."Nico is just shooting himself in the foot by showing the world he's upset, as if the world can do something about it," commented 1996 world champion Damon Hill. "We can't do anything about it."Nico has to outqualify Lewis, he has to take the fight and take the high ground and then maybe he's got a case to argue," added the Briton.Niki Lauda, the Austrian who won three titles and is now non-executive chairman of the Mercedes team, put it typically bluntly: "Sure, everyone drives selfish. What do you think these guys are here to do? I call them egocentric bastards. That is the only way to win and the only way to win a championship."Hamilton, who set the fastest lap of the race, made the perfectly valid point that "it's not my job to look after Nico's race" and that he needed to make his tyres last.He would not be the first driver to dictate the pace to suit himself - compatriot and triple champion Jackie Stewart was a master at winning at the slowest possible speed. Such tactics are part of every great driver's armoury.Martin Brundle, the Sky television commentator who competed in 158 races and was teammate to Michael Schumacher in 1992, had no doubts who was in the right."Lewis is leading the race. I think he's entitled to do what he likes. If you want to change that, get in front of him," he declared.Rosberg's call for Hamilton to speed up might have seemed surprising, given that slower drivers would appear easier to catch and pass, but there was a logic to it - even if an equally selfish one."Why didn't I attack? I can understand why you are asking that because it's maybe not so easy to understand from outside," he said in a video blog."The reason is, I did try to attack him during the first stint and it just didn't work. All I did was destroy my tyres. So, in the second stint there was no point doing that again because Vettel was right behind and it would have risked second if I had tried that as I would have just ruined my tyres completely again."The drivers and team met after the race for what Rosberg described as "constructive criticism" and agreed to move on. ..

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