Has Nico Rosberg given the game away?

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Nico Rosberg admitted he wants Lewis Hamilton to win the championship:

Personally, I hope Lewis manages to win because he deserves it. It’s fantastic for Formula One to have a three-way battle for the championship going into the last race of the season, which is not a situation that happens very often.

It’s unusual to hear one driver backing another in this way. Perhaps Rosberg is backing Hamilton because the German could take Alonso’s seat at McLaren if Hamilton wins?

If Hamilton wins the title then McLaren will have even less reason to want to keep Fernando Alonso – who has not endeared himself to them this year having repeatedly criticised the management of the team.

McLaren will keep the number one on their cars (despite being excluded from the constructors’ championship) and Alonso can head off to Renault or Ferrari (the latter seeming less likely as Felipe Massa has just re-signed until 2010).

That would leave a free space at McLaren for the talented, sponsor-friendly, fluent-in-three-languages Rosberg. Knowing Hamilton from their days as karting team mates, he may well fancy his chances of beating the Briton.

Alternatively, it might just be that the two get on and Rosberg wants his friend to win.

But like I say, it’s not as if many other drivers are lining up to say which driver deserves to win the title…

Photo: Williams F1 Media / LAT Photographic

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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15 comments on “Has Nico Rosberg given the game away?”

  1. I think you may have achieved a nail/head interface, there.

  2. Really hope Nico stays with us. Yet another reason to want Alonso to win the title \o/

  3. Did they not race together in GP2 or something? Methinks it’s just a case of them knowing each other from days gone by rather than anything more sinister.

    Though this season does make you look for the darker side of every little thing!

  4. My first thought when I heard him say that was that he was going to be in that McLaren next year.

    Personally I would prefer it if they kept Hamilton and Alonso – come on, who doesn’t want to see round two of this battle?!

  5. Didn’t Rosberg speak up about Hamilton prior to the season start as well? Again, words of praise and encouragement I believe, and this suggests to me that he is simply being nice to his friend.

  6. Hamilton certainly had nice things to say about Sutil. And he wasn’t far wrong! Christijan who?…

  7. Ahh, maybe that was it. Thanks Keith, my memory is playing tricks on me these days – old age. I was saying “Christijan who?” all last year!

  8. No comments.
    Incredible.
    He’s a *****

  9. Care to elaborate JavierR? I assume you’re talking about Rosberg…

  10. given that no drivers (rosberg included), supported hamilton over the webber / vettel incident, i’d be inclined to agree that something must have changed in the world of rosberg jnr.

    all change at williams in ’08 then.

  11. It’s just beacuse they raced side-by-side, they’re both marvellous drivers and they respect eachother. Where is all this talk of Nico leaving for McLaren?? As far as I know, he’s not for sale. McLaren probably wouldn’t be searching him out, as he’s never placed higher than 5th. I mean I love my Nico and everything, but…

  12. Nico never placed higher than 5th – That should be the reason why McLaren would not want him ? Last year Williams was one sorry car, it was similar experience for Rosberg than for Alonso his years at Minardi … And this year – unless Ferrari and McLaren have a problem, penalty, driver mistake or weather messes up the race, nobody can even hope to finish higher than 5th … I doubt McLaren will pass on the opportunity to sign him. That requires 2 things though – a) they need a seat for him, and that is still occupied by Alonso, b) he needs to be available and at the moment he is not. It will all be down some dollar talk. The problem for McLaren may be that Rosberg will very likely be only available with very high price tag attached to him

  13. Maybe he just wants hamilton to do well – not get a seat which is still alonso’s at the present? – but after the finishng line has been crossed by whoever – there will be as many rumours/scandals you could wish for as we head for the next season – so the blogs will still be busy

  14. Sidepodcast.com

    I’m interested to know your source of… “given that no drivers (rosberg included), supported hamilton over the webber / vettel incident”…. Because I read a report elsewhere and Trulli said there was no condemnation of Hamilton as Alonso had suggested.

    As regards Rosberg’s comments, cant we just have fire without smoke? Or vice versa?

  15. milos, I wasn’t saying from a driver ability standpoint, as that I don’t believe is in doubt with regards to the junior Rosberg, but rather the speculation that would be spawned on a PR side of the argument. I wasn’t slamming Nico at all.

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