Nico Rosberg worried about Mercedes rear tyre degradation, says set-up changes required – Formula 1
Mercedes Formula 1 driver Nico Rosberg has said that their 2011 Formula 1 car is a little too heavy on the rear tyres due to which the tyre degradation is high as compared to other teams.
After the first free practice session on Friday, Nico said that the same problem hindered the team’s performance in the Monaco Grand Prix and still it is causing problems for them.
Rosberg topped the time chart in the first free practice but still was unhappy with his car’s balance on the rear tyres.
The German said, “This is another track where the degradation of the rear tyres will be massive -something that we suffered from in Monaco - so our aim is it to get a better set-up to cut down on this shortcoming.”
He further added that in the qualifiers, the pace of the car is pretty good which will hopefully be a positive sign for the team but still the pace in the race needs to be addressed.
The German also emphasised that the soft and supersoft Pirelli tyres are not to be blamed for the team’s bad performance but the car itself.
He said, “It has nothing to do with the tyres. It is our car that destroys the tyres in the race. This has been a bit of a general issue for us so far this season. We are too hard on the tyres. When others do 60 laps on the hard tyres, I can do 15 or 18
and that is not a good ratio.”
He further hoped that the team can pull something great out of the Montreal race even though the tyres tend to degrade relatively faster on the track.
Nico further added that to win races, Mercedes’ engineers will have to design a car that is relatively slower in the qualifiers so that the race pace is not compromised.
The final free practice session of the Canadian Grand Prix is to be contested on Saturday before the qualifiers later on in the day.
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