German-Finnish former racing driver Nico Rosberg feels that Scuderia Ferrari’s recent poor results have put them in “nothing to lose” territory ahead of the 2022 British Grand Prix, as the Maranello team lost a lot of ground to rivals Red Bull after a strong start to the current F1 campaign.
Charles Leclerc secured two race wins in the first three rounds of the season, in Bahain and Australia, as it looked like not only were Ferrari back at the top of the sport but they were real contenders for the 2022 F1 titles against Red Bull. Unfortunately, just a few months later, due to a series of reliability issues in Spain and Baku, alongside some bad strategy calls in Monaco, have seen them and Charles Leclerc slip well behind Red Bull in both Championships.
Ahead of the British Grand Prix next weekend, the momentum is clearly on Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s side given their recent run of victories, but 2016 Formula 1 World Champion Nico Rosberg feels this should at least take some pressure off from the Maranello team:
“It’s kind of nothing to lose anymore.” – Nico Rosberg said in a discussion with Sky Sport’s Any Driven Monday. “So just go for it and then see what can be maximised. Of course they need to get on top of their reliability issues but the pressure is kind of off a little bit now. I mean, they were huge favourites after the first couple of races but now they’re so far behind. So you have nothing to lose. Go for it. Big push and let’s see what they can do.” – he added.
Nico Rosberg was also asked which car he would prefer to be driving between the Red Bull RB18 and the Ferrari F1-75 based on his impressions from this first part of the season. Despite the fact that Red Bull also had some mechanical issues in the first races of 2022, while Sergio Perez suffered a DNF in Canada last time out, the German was clear on which seat he would rather be in at this stage of the title battle:
“Definitely Red Bull,” the ex-Mercedes driver said. “Maybe it’s not actually such an easy question, but feeling wise I do say Red Bull because recently it’s been the Ferrari not the Red Bull [that is breaking down], they’ve kind of got on top of their things.” – he explained.
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The 36-year-old was also asked about Carlos Sainz and pointed out that the Spanish driver has to quickly improve in order to be able to help Ferrari fight againt Red Bull in the Constructors standings:
“Sainz has got it in him to be a good, decent driver within Ferrari,” Nico Rosberg said. “But at the moment he has not got it in him to be a World Champion. Because on performance, [Charles] Leclerc has been outdriving him every single race this year. So there he still needs to find quite a bit of progress to be on level terms with Leclerc, he is still somewhat away from there. That comes as quite a surprise after last year but of course the car is completely different so maybe it takes him more time to get on top of things.” – the German-Finnish former racing driver concluded.
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