Nico Rosberg: Mercedes driver signs new contract with F1 team - BBC Sport Nico Rosberg has signed a new contract with Mercedes and will continue to partner triple world champion Lewis Hamilton for the next two years. The German joined the team at the end of 2009 and has been runner-up in the championship for the past two seasons. The 31-year-old's new deal means both he and Hamilton are under contract until the end of the 2018 season. Rosberg leads the 2016 championship by one point from Hamilton going into Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix. The pair are dominating the title race, having won nine of the opening 10 races between them. But their relationship is a fractious one, punctuated by a number of on-track clashes.
+1 why leave the best team and car if you are in F1 no matter who your team mate is. Its a win for Nico. Others around the paddock would not hesitate one nanosecond to join him LOL
The only way either will leave is if they are booted out. Well deserved. Hopefully they are allowed to continue to race each other. Were it not for MB's management the last two plus year would have been horribly boring.
I don't agree. There are far more talented drivers who deserve the seat more so than Rosberg. He's proven he hasn't got the natural driving skills of Hamilton and given any pressure just cracks. i.e. how did he allow Max to overtake him at Silverstone given he has exactly the same car as Hamilton. Give the car to Max
Max isn't going anywhere. He'd have to be a complete buffoon to leave RB going into a new aero dominated era. Well done Ros. I wasn't expecting that, but it seems a sensible outcome for Merc who now have probably the fastest 'sprint' driver in Hamilton, and probably the fastest 'strategic' driver in Ros. If only they could crash less... Looks like Vet is going to have to stick it out at Ferrari and hope...
Wrong! Rosberg is just as fast as Hamilton as proven by his qualifs record and number of wins. But he is less aggressive on the track.
Rosberg and Hamilton are very close on speed, but Lewis is the better racer. He is ruthless when needed, Nico doesn't have that--and can't fake it.
Yep you do need 'controlled' aggression to win multiple WDC.I feel a bit sorry for Nicole nowadays, he has finally managed to up the aggression level quite a bit but he hasn't so far got the hang of controlling it.
I don't recall Stewart, Lauda or Prost being over aggressive and playing dirty tricks on the track. Each of them was 3 times WDCs. It's Senna who introduced his brand of bullying in F1 and got away with it, setting a trend that Schumacher took on. Hamilton is of the same ilk. The sad thing about it is that they are good drivers who don't need these tactics, but they want to win all the time, and at any cost.
Wrong. Prost was possibly the dirtiest of the lot and did most of his nasty work off the track like a true coward. At least Senna, Schu and Ham all did/do their work on track - good or bad.
A bit of light reading should you get bored over the weekend... Top 15 Intense Formula 1 Rivalries - TheSportster Not bang up to date but a few bits and pieces of 'history' in there.
Was about to say something similar. Wasn't the infamous Suzuka tit for tat initiated by Prost, who immediately ran to the stewards when he saw that Senna was able to get going again? We could debate for ages on who did what to whom, but Prost was no saint, that's for certain.
Prost wasn't a saint but he certainly wasn't dirty on track. Now when it comes to playing the political game he was unmatched. Other than Suzuka in 89 he didn't have many on track confrontations that I recall.
There is just no way Prost pulled the moves Senna or Schumacher did on track. Schumacher was notorious for driving his car towards his rival at the start of GP, or squeezing them against the wall to stop them overtaking; he did it to team mate Barichello more than once, and almost killed his brother Ralf. For your information, Schumacher won his first WDC by ramming Hill's car after damaging his own; he deliberately waited for Hill to come through to collide with him and break his suspension. Senna was a bully, running people of the track on many occasion, banging wheels, not leaving room when overtaken, etc and even provoking accidents and lying about his responsibility. Unfortunately, his behaviour was not reprimanded and has become the accepted standard in motor racing. I don't recall Prost doing any of that, and the Suzuka incident was provoked by Senna with Prost deciding he wouldn't be intimidated this time. Prost refused to yield, and the cars made contact; Senna thought he would get away with it, ignoring the rules. Prost was one if the cleanest drivers there was. I have never heard another driver complaining about his track behaviour. On fact, Prost is probably the most under-estimated WDC.
SERIOUSLY??? That is certainly not "an information" but best a biased opinion.... Even the British media titled Hill "Dämlich Hill" the next day for pressing by instead of waiting for Schumacher to get off the track with broken suspension...It is funny that whatever Schumacher did in his whole career is believed to be on purpose by some...
All of this debate is only because post Elio de Angelis death in 1986 there was no other deaths until 1994 and that made the drivers feel bullet proof. Further safety measures after Senna's death made them even more cocky about safety and now why should Hamilton care if he punts Rosberg off the track, sorry makes a racy pass. Go back to the early 1970s or any era before that and you were lucky to not die in a fiery crash EVERY race. Nobody was going to take another out like they do now. Given half a chance, Rosberg will be WDC in 2016. Given the chance that is, the question is will Hamilton take that chance from him and will he do it legally AND will his supporters care? Congrats to him on the new contract
