Rosberg: Vettel looked like Barrichello at Spa

  • Published on 04 Sep 2019 09:55
  • 8
  • By: Fergal Walsh

2016 Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg believes that Sebastian Vettel looked like former Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello at last weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

Barrichello was teammates with Michael Schumacher when the latter was winning his championships in the early 2000s, and was known to be the second driver within the team.

Last Sunday at Spa-Francorchamps, Charles Leclerc picked up his maiden Grand Prix after a dominating drive in qualifying to take pole position by over seven-tenths of a second.

Vettel was instructed to let Leclerc past after Vettel undercut his Monegasque teammate - however Leclerc quickly caught up to the rear of Vettel's car and was let by.

"Poor Vettel, Vettel was like a Barrichello in that race," Rosberg said in his post-race video blog. "Just waving past your teammate and helping him out. Amazing, for a four-time world champion, impressive. Let's see how that plays out for Vettel, but he won't be very happy with that, that's for sure.

"Vettel is just struggling with that car at the moment, especially with the rear end, because it's very very nervous and needs the confidence from the rear end and he's just not getting it from the car."

Rosberg hailed Leclerc's drive at Spa and has tipped the 21-year-old to take the spoils this weekend at Monza, another high-speed track that is set to favour the Ferrari package. 

"Awesome job he did," Rosberg commented. "He's driving so well this year and I think this is going to be a really, really important breakthrough for him mentally.

"Getting that first win gives you so much confidence as a driver, so he's going to get another step, he's just on it and he feels so good with that car.

"Next race is Monza, another very high-speed track and that's where Ferrari's car is best so Leclerc is the definite favourite again. Which would be epic, the tifosi in Monza, that will be a huge party. That's good for F1 that we get a bit of change there."

Replies (8)

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  • Mansell

    Posts: 104

    Still saying anything to try stay relevant are you Rosberg.

    Take your wooden spoon and stir else where quitter

    • + 1
    • Sep 4 2019 - 14:35
    • f1dave

      Posts: 782

      Following in Jaques footsteps.

      • + 0
      • Sep 4 2019 - 16:13
  • Agree, he should really step away from F1 or get involved, this side-lines twittering is getting a little annoying.. That said, not many can say they quit at the top - never be able to take that away from him.

    • + 0
    • Sep 4 2019 - 20:43
  • Rosberg looked like a coward in 2016.

    • + 1
    • Sep 5 2019 - 04:24
  • I don't quite get the negative comments here. He is basically saying the same thing as many here would, only he is actually experienced in the field.

    • + 0
    • Sep 5 2019 - 04:53
    • While I thin Rosberg exaggerated comparing Seb to Barrichello (which is an absolute pejorative), I think we all got the point. The extremely negative comments about Rosberg strike as salty.

      • + 0
      • Sep 5 2019 - 13:14
    • I agree. He never was one of my favorite drivers but massive respect for him beating Hamilton. It seems it doesn't really matter what he says, haters be hatin. I have watched a few of his vlogs and some are actually entertaining. It's easy to criticize him from the comfort of a sofa or armchair but I can hardly blame him for quitting at the top considering his chances of doing it again were not that great and he basically had to give up his life in order to focus on beating Ham. Now he has a life and looks to be having a lot of fun living it. More power to him. Maybe he did go a bit far with the Barrichello comparison but he's making a business out of creating videos. When he says outrageous things he gets more hits and more people talking about him.

      • + 0
      • Sep 6 2019 - 06:26
  • Dert38

    Posts: 377

    Oh come on man

    • + 0
    • Sep 5 2019 - 13:21

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