Nico Rosberg has hinted at balance issues with his Mercedes W03 as of the main fundamental issues with the car, after enduring several torrid race weekend’s. Nico Rosberg suffered a particularly tough race weekend last time out in Belgium, incurring a 5-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, and starting the race from 23rd on the grid.
The German driver, who won the Chinese Grand Prix back in April, has since suffered highly uncompetitive results, only being able to bring home two points combined since the British Grand Prix in July. Nico Rosberg has hinted that the balance of the car is particularly difficult, largely due to the very long corners at Spa-Francorchamps. Rosberg will be hoping Mercedes have corrected any balance issues on the car, especially with the highly demanding and very long final corner at Monza.
“We’ve had some more difficult times now, lately and a little bit of a drop in performance relative to others – we know that.” Explained Nico Rosberg on the subject, “And we’ve been looking into it, we understand a lot of the reasons, and we’ve been pushing very, very hard to turn things around again and I’m sure the next few races are going to be a little bit better for us – how good is difficult to say.”
When asked whether or not the car is difficult to drive, Nico Rosberg stated the balance with his car is currently rather difficult. After being front runners towards the start of the season, Mercedes been one of the few teams to take several steps back as the season has progressed. With rivals such as Lotus and Sauber constantly improving, Mercedes have begun to loose touch with the front teams such as Red Bull, McLaren and Lotus.
“Amongst other things the balance is difficult, yes.” Confirmed Nico Rosberg, “Especially the last two races, due to the fact that both tracks had very long corners and especially in those long corners it has been difficult.”
Nico Rosberg’s Italian Grand Prix lasted only several hundred meters last season, before he was unceremoniously taken out as Vitantonio Liuzzi’s HRT speared into the pack at turn 1. The German driver will be hoping his race this year lasts a bit longer, but he’ll also understandably be hoping his car handles better on one of the fastest tracks on the calendar.
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