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Nico Rosberg
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Nico Rosberg
2016 F1 world champion Nico Rosberg has advised that Mercedes retain both their drivers for 2019. Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are out of contract at the end of this season.
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“I would keep both. Absolutely! Lewis and Valtteri work very well together with a high level of performance,” Rosberg said.
The German also thinks that Mercedes should resist the temptation to replace Bottas with Daniel Ricciardo.
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“Only bad luck has prevented him (Bottas) from doing even better than he has,” Rosberg said.
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Nico Rosberg
He even spoke about the recently concluded Grand Prix weekend. Rosberg believes that Max Verstappen displayed characteristics similar to Lewis Hamilton. This was in reference to when the four-time world champion found himself under pressure to deliver.
Verstappen came in to the Canadian Grand Prix weekend with a Damocles sword over his head. Namely, an agitated week of criticism following another error in Monaco. Although it happened in practice, it put him out of contention for a race win.
The Dutchman was clearly in a ‘pleasant’ mood when he threatened to “headbutt” anyone questioning his approach or ability to put together a flawless weekend.
Rosberg said, “He showed a bit of Lewis Hamilton attitude to me this weekend.
“When Lewis is angry, he is at his best. He channels it into an unbelievable performance and I think Verstappen had some of that this weekend, so he gained this extra focus from the word go.
“He was first all the way through [practice], great qualifying, and finished third. I think that was a really good weekend from him.”
The 2016 world champion also spoke about his former Mercedes team mate’s performance.
“Lewis – he had one of those off-weekends totally,” said the German.
“Okay he had an engine thing in the race, but even so qualifying was still off. Typical for Lewis – these phases where he loses a bit of motivation when things don’t go well.”
