Nico Rosberg – the driver debates
17th July 2008, 15:00 by Keith Collantine 23 Comments »
Nico Rosberg isn’t having the season many of us expected him to have. Since scoring his first podium finish at Melbourne he’s only added to his points total with a pair of eighth places.
What’s gone wrong for the Williams driver?
Rosberg burst on the F1 scene in 2006 as winner of the inaugural GP2 championship. He joined Williams, the team his father Keke won the world championship for in 1982, and the partnership started well.
At the season-opener in Bahrain he bounced back from a collision on the first lap to finish seventh, setting fastest lap as he went.
The rest of the season failed to live up to that promise. The Williams-Cosworth FW28 proved unreliable, but Rosberg made mistakes as well. Two years later on he’s having a similar kind of season: on the podium in the first race, nothing much since then.
Last year Rosberg shone with a consistent string of excellent qualifying performances and points finishes. But where has that consistency gone?
Much was expected of the FW30 this year but its performance has waxed and waned from one weekend to the next. How much this is the characteristics of the car, and how much Rosberg is struggling to tap its potential, is hard to tell. But what is clear is his rookie team mate Kazuki Nakajima has been in the top eight more regularly.
But his is highly rated by Williams – and at least one other team. Frank Williams was determined to keep a hold of the driver over the winter when McLaren were courting him. Recent rumours suggest McLaren are still after Rosberg to replace Kovalainen at the team in 2009.
Are they right to rate him so highly? What do you think of Nico Rosberg?
Read more about Nico Rosberg: Nico Rosberg biography
Chris Johnson said on 17th July 2008, 15:40
I just don’t think he’s all that good. If McLaren are looking to replace Kova with Nico, it’s because he’s prettier and more sponsor-friendly.
Kester said on 17th July 2008, 16:06
He’s clearly got pace. It’s unfortunate he just doesn’t seem to have the consistency to back it up with a regular string of results.
Dorian said on 17th July 2008, 16:56
I think he has pace too but really lacks the consistency required to rack up the points. I still think he has potential and is one of a few drivers that I’d like to see in a WCC winning car just to see how he would do. Not quite sure whether he necessarily WDC winning material, too soon to tell for me.
But as Chris said, he’s a sponsor’s dream. Good-looking, smart and the son of a former champion. Plus he actually seems modest…
Chaz said on 17th July 2008, 17:23
I’m sure he’s thinking if only I went to McLaren
Tim said on 17th July 2008, 17:28
A difficult one, I think. Sometimes he looks amazing and destined to be a world champion, other times he looks utterly ordinary. The ups and downs of 2006 could be excused by Williams’ unreliability and it being his rookie year. However, that pattern of results has more or less continued through 2007 and, so far, 2008. Is he missing not having an experienced team mate? Is playing the role of team leader weighing him down too much this year? Who knows. I’m surprised McLaren is rumoured to be looking at him as a Kovalainen replacement (actually, I’m not surprised it’s rumoured but I would be surprised if it were true). I don’t really see how Nico, on form to date, would be doing any better than Heikki.
Going back a bit further, I can remember watching Rosberg in the F3 Euroseries where he was a frontrunner but never really stood out as being really hot stuff. In GP2 he had a slow start but came on strong over the year and managed to turn the tables on Kovalainen. I do wonder whether this was partly due to Rosberg driving for ART, which had gotten its head round the Dallara chassis better than everyone else. I sometimes think that, if it hadn’t have been for ART’s engineering cunning, Heikki would have been the inaugural GP2 champion instead… but anyway.
I’d rate Nico as a good driver. Whether he’s a great driver I don’t know. He needs put in some solid drives – and beat Nakajima.
Milos said on 17th July 2008, 18:05
Whitmarsh today rubbished the rumours that McLaren are looking to bring Rosber in.
Rosberg is not bad, but I expected him to be much quicker than Nakajima. So is Rosberg slow or is Nakajima quick ?
Sebastian said on 17th July 2008, 18:38
My take on this is as follows: A good driver driving a bad car for an extended period of time gets worse, or in any case; not better.
If Rosberg was ever a better driver than Kovalainen, the reverse is probably true now. Even though I’m sure Rosberg still has potential, any damage driving in that Williams piece of not-so-good can’t have done him any favors as far as skill progression goes.
Sebastian said on 17th July 2008, 18:42
^ Loosing trust in the hardware, having to hold back and “ah geez I’m stuck at the back”-mentality probably inhibits “growth” skill-wise.
Polak said on 17th July 2008, 19:00
You don’t see Alonso complaining…. well you do but he still drives the hell out of his car.
A crap car should drive him to making the best of it.
Jamin said on 17th July 2008, 19:33
I think he has the potential to be great. But I fear if he does not have a competative drive soon he will always be a ‘could have been’. Hopefully the aero changes and slick tires level the playing field(at least for the first few races) next year and we’ll be able to get a better idea of what some of these champion GP2 drivers in current back marker cars are capable of.
ukk said on 17th July 2008, 20:03
Nico could not live up to the hype created about him – he started seeing himself as a star far before he racked up enough good results.
Alianora La Canta said on 17th July 2008, 20:11
Nico has the capacity to develop into a championship contender, but somehow he doesn’t seem to be developing that way at Williams. It’s more of a consistency problem than anything else – mind you, nearly every driver seems to have a consistency problem at the moment…
Ukraine)C said on 17th July 2008, 22:55
One more season with Williams will bury this very talented racer…
Sebastian said on 17th July 2008, 23:27
@Polak
Well I’m not arguing he’s not making the best of it. “Making the best of it” might include compansating for sub-par hardware (holding back, for example) and thus not developing as a driver.
Certainly there are different responses from different drivers to a situation like this. Alonso has a very different background from Nico, two time champion and all.
Toby said on 18th July 2008, 1:23
He’s the next Kimi. Take that any way you want.