Nico Rosberg shares Lewis Hamilton legacy concern amid Ferrari woes

Nico Rosberg fears Lewis Hamilton is suffering a “nightmare” end to his F1 career with Ferrari.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton crashed at high-speed halfway through final practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when he lost control of his Ferrari at the long left-hander of Turn 9.

Hamilton spun off and crashed into the barriers, breaking his front wing and front suspension. He reported over team radio that “something buckled at the front and snapped the rear”.

Hamilton’s former Mercedes teammate and F1 title rival Rosberg shared his verdict on the 40-year-old Briton’s ongoing struggles.

“It’s unbelievable isn’t it? It just gets worse and worse and worse,” Rosberg told Sky Sports F1.

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“Anthony Davidson did a really nice analysis, that it was probably Lewis going a little too wide on the entry of the kerb, trying to open his line up as much as possible and taking it a bit too far.

“So perhaps a little bit of driver error in there. It didn’t look like anything broke but you never know, they need to analyse that now.

“You just see how he keeps on being uncomfortable with the car as a whole, because when have we seen Lewis Hamilton on a normal lap in free practice just spinning out like that?

“In his whole career we have never really seen that and now, with Ferrari, it’s mistakes here and there. He’s just really not comfortable with that car, it seems like a handful to drive.”

Hamilton’s damaged Ferrari is recovered

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Rosberg also shared his concern that Hamilton’s struggles at Ferrari are putting a “scratch” on his legacy.

“It’s been a terrible season for him and it’s not a worthy way to kind of end his career,” the 2016 world champion added.

“It’s so hard for him to deal with that. He’s been beaten by his teammate, he’s struggling to get into Q2 most of the time, he’s spinning on his own. It doesn’t get worse than that so it’s a real nightmare.

“I think it’s even worse than it looks from the outside for him personally. He’s the greatest and we’re never going to debate that anymore but still it’s putting a little scratch on his legacy as well now. It’s just really not nice.”

Is age a factor?

Hamilton turns 41 in January and Rosberg believes this has to be considered as a factor amid his ongoing woes.

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“Lewis is almost 41 now, at 41 we know that you are not going to get any faster, so time is not on his side either,” he explained.

“You have these young guns of the next generation, the best of the next generation, who are in their super prime, 26, 27 years of age with lots of experience. Of course that’s not an easy feat to go up against.”

But Rosberg dismissed suggestions that age doesn’t seem to be a problem for two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, who is still impressing for Aston Martin at 44.

“Fernando doesn’t have a level of teammate like Charles Leclerc, or Max Verstappen, or Lando Norris,” Rosberg pointed out.

“So it’s very hard to judge his level of performance properly in a way you can look at Lewis’s level now against someone like Charles Leclerc. It’s not a fair comparison.” 

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