Nico Rosberg backs Ferrari as ‘Dark Horse’ for 2024 F1 championship upset. Ferrari now sit just 40 points behind Red Bull in the constructors championship..

2016 Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg has expressed confidence that Scuderia Ferrari could stage an upset and claim the constructors’ title in the 2024 Formula 1 campaign. The Maranello team’s recent victory at the 5.793-kilometre Autodromo Nazionale Monza in the Italian Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc securing the Maranello team’s third win of the year, has put them firmly back in the hunt. The Italian team is now only 40 points adrift of Red Bull, with McLaren also posing a serious threat at the top of the standings ahead of the next round of the season, which is scheduled to take place at the Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan.

While Nico Rosberg still considers McLaren the frontrunner for the constructors’ championship, the 39-year-old believes the team led by Frederic Vasseur shouldn’t be overlooked as a serious contender for the title:

“Yes of course it could happen,” the German said in a recent interview for the Sky F1 podcast – “With the form they have, they are not the favourites. McLaren, by far, are the favourites. It depends on this upgrade. The upgrade from Ferrari looked good but Monza is such an outlier track. Is it going to look good at other places? We need to wait to have that answer – if it is working so well, it will have an outsider’s shot at taking the constructors’.” – the 2016 Formula 1 world champion added.

Charles Leclerc’s triumph at Monza in front of the Tifosi was secured through Ferrari’s bold decision to adopt a one-stop strategy, enabling him to hold off the two McLaren cars of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, who had opted for two pit stops.

The former Mercedes driver credits Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur for the pivotal call, praising his leadership in choosing the alternate race strategy that ultimately paid off in the Italian Grand Prix last weekend:

“That would certainly be Fred’s influence. Fred is a racer. He doesn’t need to follow what a computer is telling him, he goes by feel, and what he sees. It’s a nice contrast to some of those nerdy engineers in front of their numbers and screens who sometimes forget to look outside at what’s really happening. Also, it was a big decision to make because it was a less than 50 per cent chance that they would get the win by doing that. It was rolling the dice, looking at the odds, saying ‘it’s worth a try. We are in Monza, there is a 35-40 per cent of winning if we try this, so let’s go for it. It worked out, but it was a gamble.” – Nico Rosberg concluded.