After losing out on the championship at the final race last year, Nico Rosberg says he is aiming to become an even better driver as he targets his first world title this season.
Following a highly productive opening day of testing in Jerez where the German logged over two race distances in the new W06, Rosberg says he’s feeling positive about his team’s new car.
“All I can say is that I have a good feeling about the car,” says Rosberg. “There’s no reason or no numbers behind it, it’s just a good feeling. It’s been a reliable day, no major problems. The car balance feels decent.”
During an enthralling season-long battle with Lewis Hamilton last year, Rosberg lost out after his team mate secured six more victories than him. This year, Rosberg says he’s determined to become a more formidable challenger.
“I want to become an even better driver this year. That’s my aim and my personal challenge,” says Rosberg.
“It started at the first moment after Abu Dhabi last year – which is why I did the test immediately after the race, to try and learn some things.
“I even learned some things from my training over the winter. For example, my breathing in the race car is something I worked on. When we go through fast corners, we hold our breath because with the g-forces, you can’t really breathe properly. So I worked on that a little bit over the winter.”
Despite losing out on the championship on the very last day of the season last year, Rosberg says it didn’t take him long to put the disappointment behind him.
“With sporting success, the emotion is always very short-lived. And last year, that was very fortunate for me, because it meant my life got back to normal very quickly. I can honestly say I had that same feeling of well-being being back at home within one or two days.”
“It’s the way it is with sport. They give you these extreme highs, but they don’t last very long. And then it’s back focusing on finding the next one.”
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Todfod (@todfod)
2nd February 2015, 9:35
Rosberg is going to need to learn more than breathing techniques to beat Lewis. I’d think he should focus more on tyre management and overtaking if he wants to stand a chance of beating Lewis.
Sem (@05abrahamsemere)
2nd February 2015, 9:46
Rosberg, like Vettel, is good if the car, conditions suit him. Drivers like Alonso, Hamilton and Riccardio can adapt to car changes, conditions much faster – which is why they are a cut above the rest. That includes Vettel who was smashed by Riccardio last season :)
Castwand2 (@castwand2)
2nd February 2015, 12:31
Alonso and Hamilton always had cars that suited their driving style. Don’t know about Ricciardio though. I think Ricciardo only beat Vettel because Vettel had rear downforce issues.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
2nd February 2015, 15:12
@castwand2
They did? I didn’t know that Alonso liked trucks that understeered on entry of corners and oversteered on exit. Because that’s what the F14T was like, as well as the F2012 early on.
hamiltonN1
2nd February 2015, 12:05
Ros is lucky Merc have no rivals you could say same with Lewis but i think Ham has an even bigger chance if there was rivals. Ros knows he loses maximum 7 pts with a few rivals like Alo and Ric i could see Ham being the guy to get between Ros not the other way round.
Robbie (@robbie)
2nd February 2015, 12:50
It’s gonna be fascinating to see how NR responds after only his first season of having the capable equipment. He and his crew know what they have to do so it’ll be great to watch, especially if a car or two can come between he and Lewis to throw them both a curve ball.
tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
2nd February 2015, 13:12
Rosberg showed the level he has to drive to at Interlagos last year, where he pushed Hamilton into a mistake even though the latter was on top form. It will be interesting next year, Hamilton has to avoid the Hakkinen-style self-destruct issue, Rosberg has to drive consistently nearer to his absolute limit. It’s easy to assume that Hamilton should be the favourite, but he has a habit of letting his emotions get in the way of his driving.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
2nd February 2015, 15:14
@thegrapeunwashed
The difference between Hamilton in 2011 and Hamilton today is that, while Lewis is still the same emotional guy he was a few years ago, I haven’t seen him allowing his emotions to effect his driving. For instance, he was taken out by his teammate in Spa which resulted in a 30 point deficit, yet went on to win 6 of the next 7 races. A mentally weaker driver would have allowed that accident to psychologically shake him. Lewis didn’t.
evered7 (@evered7)
2nd February 2015, 18:37
It sort of helps when your team sucks at race pace and when the car is 2s faster than the competition. I think reliability gave him a bigger fight than Rosberg last season.