Nico Rosberg Shows He Is a Real F1 Title Contender with Austrian Grand Prix Win
Twice in the last four Formula One grands prix, Nico Rosberg has done something he struggled to do at all in 2014: He has beaten his teammate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton head-to-head in a fair fight.
"I think this year I found what I needed to find last year in terms of race [pace], y’know, and just doing a little bit better in the races and that’s really working out for me this year," Rosberg said in the press conference after taking his third win in four races on Sunday at the Austrian Grand Prix (he also beat Hamilton in Spain and Monaco, although the latter was hardly a straight fight).
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Hamilton won nine of 11 races from the 2014 Italian Grand Prix to this year's Bahrain race, taking the drivers' title last season and opening a 27-point lead in the 2015 championship race (larger than his lead at any time last year, aside from after the final race).
Now, the gap is back down to 10 points and the plucky yet measured Rosberg is showing himself to be a real threat to Hamilton's hopes for a repeat.
That is good for the sport, as the expected (or at least hoped for) challenge from Ferrari has failed to materialize, despite Sebastian Vettel's victory in Malaysia and the team's recently upgraded power unit.
In Canada two weeks ago, the Scuderia had the pace, but they were unable to capitalize on it when Vettel qualified at the back of the grid and Kimi Raikkonen threw away a likely podium with a spin at the hairpin.
In Austria, Raikkonen lost control on the first lap and ended up underneath Fernando Alonso's McLaren. Vettel, meanwhile, looked headed for the podium until a long pit stop dropped him behind Felipe Massa's Williams.
Mercedes have not been perfect this season, either—look at Hamilton's Monaco fiasco or qualifying in Austria, where both drivers spun on their final flying lap—but such is their performance advantage that they can get away with those mistakes and still emerge victorious.
Ferrari, as we saw in Malaysia, still need to be perfect to have a shot at the Silver Arrows.
Team principal Maurizio Arrivabene acknowledged as much, saying, per a team press release:
"I’d like us to be the first, and that means we have to commit ourselves beyond what’s possible. We must use whatever we have available and try to get as close as we can to our main competitors, taking advantage of their mistakes. Also, as per the time we lost during Seb’s unfortunate pit stop, we must work with humbleness: because, even if everything had gone well, that wouldn’t have been enough to beat both Mercedes on track. But this only prods us to never give up.
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Watching Sunday's race, at first glance it looked like Hamilton gave the race away with a slow start, his inability to pressure Rosberg and a five-second penalty for crossing the pit exit line. Upon further review, though, Rosberg was simply the better man this weekend.
He was quicker than Hamilton in two of three free practice sessions and the first two qualifying sessions. After Hamilton ended up in the gravel on his last qualifying run, Rosberg had a chance to snatch pole, but he carried too much speed into the final corner and ended up on an off-roading excursion of his own.
In the end, it didn't matter. Rosberg made a slightly better start and, assisted by the Red Bull Ring's setup where the pole-sitter is on the outside going into Turn 1, jumped into the lead.
"I had a problem with the wait revs," Hamilton explained in the post-race press conference. "I took my foot off the gas and it was still on—like the throttle was still on—and then I dumped the clutch and just lots and lots of wheelspin."
Aside from the four laps after his pit stop, Rosberg led the whole race and was never under serious threat from behind.
Hamilton's best chance to pass his teammate, at the pit stops, was nullified when Rosberg cooly turned in the fastest lap of the grand prix as Hamilton was in the pits (at 1 minute, 11.235 seconds, that lap was nearly one second quicker than the best lap at the 2014 Austrian Grand Prix—Sergio Perez's 1 minute, 12.142 seconds—illustrating the ongoing improvement of the cars).
Even with the memory of his qualifying error in the back of his mind, Rosberg was still able to push the limit when it mattered. And that can only be a confidence builder, as surely he will need to continue to test his limits if he hopes to beat Hamilton to the championship.
Mercedes' fifth one-two finish of the season moves them 136 points clear of Ferrari, which actually makes for a closer constructors' title fight than at the same point last season, when they were 158 points ahead of Red Bull.
Meanwhile, despite Hamilton's recent sufferings, he is actually in much better shape than he was post-Austria 2014. Then, Rosberg was ahead by 29 points; now, as mentioned, Hamilton is up by 10.
The spell that Hamilton cast over Rosberg and the F1 world for the six months encompassing the end of last season and the beginning of this one is broken, though. Rosberg is truly back in the fight.
The next grand prix is Hamilton's home race at Silverstone, although that is not necessarily an advantage—British drivers in recent years have one of the worst home records in the sport. In 2014, Rosberg qualified on pole, but Hamilton inherited the victory when his teammate's gearbox failed.
The defending champ figures to remain a heavy favorite, both for the next race and for the title, but the gap is closing.
There are only two races over the next nine weeks and you can bet both drivers want some positive momentum to carry them through the long summer. For the first time in a while, that momentum is swinging toward Rosberg's side of the garage.
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