The Williams this year seems to be the fourth best car so far (behind the Brawn, Red Bull and Toyota) and isn't far off the pace. But the results haven't come. Rosberg has shown speed but just hasn't been able to deliver the results. Is it the car or the driver? Nakajima is having a terrible season, so Nico is clearly getting more out of it than his teammate. But is he WDC material if they can manage to gain the couple of tenths they would need to fight for wins?

I think most of these drivers could be capable of WDC's given the right circumstances.

But in a straight fight with other drivers, I think Rosberg might struggle a bit. Granted, its a situation we haven't really seen him in, but its true that he's had trouble really bringing results home and taking advantage of good opportunities.

Then again, we've gotta remember that with that few extra tenths could also come more confidence in the car and himself in order to start producing better results. That confidence part is so important, and we all know he's a smart guy, but he needs to put it all together into one neat package if he wants to be a true contender.

Nico could start with buying some water-repellent. He should not need to wait for a wet race to test it out, he could stand in the shower!

Oh come on, he took the lead with a great start in Malaysia and was on for something good until the rain scrambled the race. How often people's views have changed after almost every session of the last 3 GP's is pathetic

The guy's asking a question, not bashing him or anything.

Agree, HumanPromise; most of these guys are capable of clinching the F1 WDC.

Rosberg are well up to it, I've no dobts about that. He had a great '07-season, perhaps a so-so '08, and he was impressive in his rookie-season.

Check out this thread

When I started it back in October 2005 I was of the opinion that Heikki was of that calibre, but not Nico. He had demolished Michael Schumacher in the RoC 2004.

Yet most people believed more in Nico Rosberg.

My feeling about him is that he has many qualities, but not the mental duress needed. Nico comes across brilliantly, but in the end can never put it all together. Of the three drivers in question maybe Kovalainen is still in the race to become WDC, Rosberg IMHO will fail to get the job done.

There is more chance of Ann Widdecombe becoming the next 'Miss World'.

I'd hardly say that the Race of Champions is an ideal way to judge a driver's ability, especially in F1.

Heikki and Nico did look very close throughout that GP2 season, though. Heikki was looking to be the better of the two for the first half of the season, qualifying well and having some very good and aggressive races. But Nico was quite often not far behind and always seemed to be one of, if not the fastest as far as race pace goes. It wasn't until the 2nd half of the season where Heikki's consistency started to take a downhill slide, and Nico definitely took advantage of it.

That was a good season, though. Very competitive with lots of different contenders.

Anyways, I think we've seen that while somebody's pre-F1 resume may hint at potential in F1, it doesn't always become realized for whatever reason. I think some people click with F1 better than others.

RoC is not much of a yardstick though, and Schumacher is quick to admit that he is not as fast in tin-tops. Even if that is a Ferrari tin-top. I think results in later ROC's prove this.

Getting closer to his treammate would be a good start... Nice does not have that problem atm, though it would be interesting to see if he could cope better with Hamilton. Didn't he turn McLaren down for that reason?

Rosberg is a great driver - he's destined for big things. He's fast and committed, it's only bad luck this year that prevented him from having a good crack at a win in Malaysia. His time will come and I respect him even more for his commitment to Williams especially when he has been offered drives at bigger teams.

I think that the jury is still out on Nico's ultimate potential. He undoubtedly has some talent, but he has not yet been exposed to enough high-pressure situations to enable us to make a full judgement of his mental strength and resolution.

I get this feeling that Kova will end up being the next David Coulthard... good, but always playing second fiddle to a better teammate. :\

When something like 75 % of the current grid is destined for greatness, it poses the rather obvious risk that at least some of them will fail...

I don't see why Rosberg couldn't succeed. With some TLC and a good car, he should be up there. Or at least thereabouts.

He has got a lot of potential.

He's just been unlucky so far this year. Lets look race by race...

Australia
The only race where you can really pin any blame. Was up to 5th (which would have been 3rd by the end) but 14 laps on super-softs was too much for the tyres to handle. Probably as much if not more blame for the team as him for the bad strategy call.

Malaysia
Led the race from the start and 5 Laps before the race ended he was 2nd so it was mostly a case of it becoming a crapshoot and got caught out by being a little out of sync with the leaders pitstops.

China
Due to pitting under the safety car he was at the back of the pack after the safety car pulled in and only 2 places behind Alonso by the the the team took a gamble to put on inters that didn't pay off. If he hadn't gambled he'd have done as well as a double world champion and finished 10th at best so it was the right call.


That along with Qualifying 5th, 4th and 8th isn't too bad, I'd say he was doing a very good job but has just been unlucky/unfortunate this year.

No.

He's got a bit of the 'Webbers' about him. On a clear track he can be searingly fast but doesn't do the little things well. To top it off the cards almost NEVER fall his way either.

Too early to write him off, but he needs to start turning potential into points on a consistent basis.

In my opinion Rosberg is a driver that performs under pressure. He is cool, seldom makes mistakes and is quick. Quite often he has put his car higher up the grid than it has deserved. This year the results have been lacking but that is hardly his fault. His main weakness seems to be a lack of fighting spirit when there is no hope of being competitive, especially if it goes on for too long.

If there are any openings for a better drive next year I think Rosberg will be gone and one of the better teams will pick him up.

My opinion is that hes a great driver,but he wont make it into the top guys like Alonso,the mc laren liar,Vettel.
hope I am mistaken because I want williams to win.I need it!!

I can't believe this. Rosberg has one othe top cars of the grid and you say he is performing well??????? Compare the williams with Mclaren, surely a poorer car so far and hamilton if we take in consideration Australia he would be 9points to the good with a poorer car. Iam beginning to have doubts on Nico. He looks very ordinary just topping practice on low fuel.

I like Rosberg but if you compare him to other drivers he is not getting the most out of the car and the situations. Good drivers always seem to find away to fight up the field, just look at the drives that Lewis has done in the slower Mclaren, sure he made several mistakes yesterday but in each race he has started down the field and thought up into the points, Rosberg has started towards the front and fallen backwards. I hope that they turn it around because the other teams will catch up quickly.

Nico has been a bit of a disappointment, he's never performed well in a wet race.

like one of the above poster, I wish he'll do well because Williams needs a driver performs well consistently - they already lost one seat to Nakajima, so the team relies on Nico alone to score points.

He is a great friday-saturday practice driver.

I think he needs a better team.

I enjoy watching him very much. He really hurls the car into the corners, a bit of a throw back almost. I think he's 'searingly quick' (as noted previously) but perhaps not quite matured yet. This year things just haven't fallen his way, but it's early days yet. Fingers crossed for a Rosberg win before the season is out.

Rosberg has done nothing to prove himself as top class. Hes only ever beaten a past his prime test driver, and a japanese pay driver so I wont rate him until he shows he can cut it against a quality team mate, which is the only true barometer in the sport.

he is simply not that good. He has the car to run at the front but is blowing it week after week.

I would rate him as one of the very best on the grid. The problem is that the Williams (apart from in 07) has never been a really solid, consistent car. He also seems to get a lot of bad luck.

He has indeed had some rotten luck so far. He could be the real deal, but would probably benefit from a team mate that can actually get near enough to push him.

He did not help the cause in Australia by immediately putting in the fastest lap of the race as soon as he came out on the Super Softs. If he had nursed those tires a bit more the drop off would not have been as extreme. This has been commented on in the Autosport magazine.

I think Niko suffers from Trullitis ... he can be fast but he's seldom consistently fast over a whole race distance.

he's not in my opinion.

Trullitis

i tipped Nico to win last weekend but I am beginning to think he is a journeyman, Alonso, Raikkonen, Vettel, Kubica & Hamilton would be winning in that car

Gary Anderson on the issue:

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/25032009/23/...must-blame.html

my guess is that Williams and NR could benefit from having a more experienced driver in the lineup.

He is definitely fast enough. Wurz said he thought Nico was the best qualifier in F1. Of course he was constantly losing to Nico at that time so he wasn't maybe the most objective person in the world to comment on that. But I think there's some truth there, he almost always nails Q and is high up on the fastest laps list. So the speed is there, but he has to start getting some results now that he finally has a decent car. I don't think Williams will be up there during the latter part of this season so he really only has a few races to show his worth.

Raikkonen??? jesus he hasn't won in almost a year.

I'm not convinced he is as good as Frank Williams thinks he is. When it comes to qualifying or the races I don't see anything special. Good but not great.

Well he's much quicker than his team mate

It's pretty hard to say where he is at this point. I think the Trulli comparisons are unfair, but also he may not be as good as some think. But we need to wait and see. He had bad luck in Melbourne with traffic (and was as quick as the leaders in clear air), and the last two races, clearly he or the car aren't very good in the wet.

I'm pretty sure in Heiki's seat last season he would have done a much better job though and made life alot harder for Lewis.

I quite like Nico as I feel he has the potential to be a winner. His first race in Bahrain showed so much, he was exciting with the overtaking from the back of the field, numerous fastest laps and basically looked like he was driving something completely different from Mark Webber. But we haven't really seen that spark since. In Singapore there was some, when he was leading and knew he would have to serve the penalty he did an awesome drive. In Malaysia that was a great start.

I think if Nico can find that spark and drive every race with it, we might see better results. A driver who always seems to have his spark about him.... Fernando Alonso, even when things aren't going well. FA and NR were in the same position when they pitted under the safety car in China, that is not how it finished!!!

Never be able to tell until he gets into a #1 car.

Too hard to tell - he could use a veteran teammate to teach him the ropes but then again he's got a great mentor in his dad and dad wasn't a bad driver in his day eh?

I suspect he's just a step below the top tier drivers (Kimi, Alonso, Hamilton, Kubica) - he's in the group with Massa, Button, Vettel etc. If he was truly mega he would have been scooped up by one of top teams right (it took only a year for Kimi).

Put Nico and Alonso in Ferraris and you'll soon find Nico playing Massa to Alonso's Kimi. At least that's what I imagine. He's a fast learner, but he still needs to be taught.

Rather than point the finger at Rosberg, I think we should look at Williams. As a team, Williams is best known for building fast, technologically advanced cars and for screwing itself on race strategy. This was perhaps most obvious when Newey cars went head to head with Schumacher-Brawn cars but race strategy has always been their weak point. Williams does best when they can disappear in the distance, not when having to read a race and make the smart calls.

Rosberg indeed seems to have underperformed regarding results if you look at the speed of his car. But barring driver mistakes, that would seem to be a question of strategy. And that is a team issue....

At least he is if you compare him to Kamikaze Nakajima, but that's no hard feat to achieve

+1

I heard she was a hotty when she was at Oxford. As for Rosberg? He is no WDC of the future IMO.