Mercedes GP driver Nico Rosberg says DRS caused him problems at Spanish Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
Mercedes GP driver Nico Rosberg has said that his falter in the later part of the 2011 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix was due to a rear wing failure.
Along with the rear wing, Nico stated that his radio was not working after which he had no information of the race which also stood between him and a higher point scoring finish.
Nico finished the race in seventh place with a lap down to the race leader but thinks that at least his teammate Michael Schumacher was catchable.
Nico stated, “Then my rear wing also broke so I didn't have the overtaking system and it made it very difficult to overtake. The radio didn't work so that made it difficult to understand the race because there's so much you have to do with the settings and
fuel saving, so that was a bit challenging.”
The German also added that he would have gone on to compete with some of the higher ranked drivers if it was not for his Drag Reduction System issues.
There were not a lot of overtaking moves in the Spanish Grand Prix as expected but still the numbers were way better than those from previous years.
The DRS proved to be the only competitive element in overtaking adding up with tyre degradation. Nico’s DRS failure meant that he was unable to post any challenge to the frontrunners.
Still Nico thinks that the gap to the frontrunners is huge. The German stated, “But there's still a lot of work to do because unfortunately I don't think we really managed to close the gap yet.”
Nico’s teammate Schumacher did a good job at the starting grid when he unexpectedly overtook four cars and placed himself in sixth position. After that, the former world champion did his level best to go for higher numbers but eventually found himself a
lap down to the frontrunners.
Schumacher was satisfied with his performance on the race day and said that his sixth position was the maximum Mercedes’ cars could have achieved.
The next race of the 2011 Formula 1 season will be contested on May 29, 2011 in Monaco.
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