Nico Rosberg attributes his set up to the Chinese Grand Prix win – Formula 1 news
Nico Rosberg says that the rise in success behind Mercedes at the Chinese Grand Prix was his set-up.
He believes that it will be hard for him to take this form into Bahrain as the high temperature will play a major role and make it difficult for Mercedes to come up with the same pace shown at the Chinese GP.
Rosberg victory points were the first points he has scored so far in the season. The first two races saw Mercedes hampered by tyre degradation. Mercedes adopted a two-stop strategy at Shanghai and it worked perfectly for Rosberg.
Michael Schumacher was also in contention for a podium finish but a pit stop fault caused him to retire after only 12 laps. Schumacher was placed third at the time he entered the pits.
“Already from the beginning of the year we've been very strong in qualifying, perhaps more difficult in the race. Now we're still strong in qualifying - very strong, maybe even stronger - and also improving the race, so it's good progress forward and I'm
sure that we will continue this ongoing development. It was mainly set-up.”
“Before the race, that was our plan,” he said. “Of course you have Plan B if things don't go well but things progressed exactly as we had hoped for. The tyres lasted for exactly the amount of laps that we were hoping for so it just all went to plan.”
Rosberg admitted that the team is still not where it wants to be. The Chinese race was great but the team needs to push even harder to continue on the progress made. Bahrain will require a different strategy. He also said that he cannot predict anything
but is for sure looking forward to the race because the team looks much stronger than before.
It will be interesting to see how Mercedes fare as the season progresses. Schumacher has yet to have a trouble free race and if he and Rosberg and can both make normal finishes to all the races they can be in serious contention for the Constructors’ title.
The Bahrain Grand Prix is scheduled for April 22, 2012.
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