After that (by his own admission) somewhat fortuitous win in Monaco, Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg arrives in Canada on the back of two straight victories and trailing team mate Lewis Hamilton by just 10 points in the standings. But is Hamilton his only threat in Montreal, or could Rosberg find his mirrors full of red this weekend?
Q: Nico, how do you go into this race weekend? Probably a whole lot better than the weekend before…
Nico Rosberg: If you have a positive experience behind you that helps. That makes things much easier than with a bad one. It is always a challenge to come here after Monaco because the car you need here is completely the opposite of what you had in Monaco. It always takes some time to get used to it. Here it is less downforce, you have to brake earlier, the corners have less grip… So you have to swallow all this before you can start thinking of a nice result. The good thing is that I have good memories from last year. It was one of my best races of 2014. That helps.
Q: Would you say that you have some momentum now? Can you build on that this weekend?
NR: I don’t want to go too much into momentum. The most I can say is that the last ten days were pretty good!
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Q: The Monaco win kind of fell into your lap…
NR: …but you have to be there with your lap to receive the falling thing, don’t you? (laughs)
Q: But it definitely was one of the luckiest moments of your F1 career…
NR: Luckiest? Let me think. Yes, could be. But on the other hand the win, of course, was not as emotional as in the previous years when winning was thanks to my own performance. Part of me also felt for the other side of the garage. He [Hamilton] would have deserved it, but it went wrong. So that definitely took some joy away.
Q: How is it battling with Lewis? Very different to when you were fighting your former team mate Michael Schumacher?
NR: It is very different, because now we are fighting for wins and championships. That makes it completely different. With Michael we were fighting for eighth or 12th position and sometimes nobody really noticed that we were fighting. Now it is much more intense and complicated because often it is just he and I fighting it out. You cannot compare one with the other.
Q: Toto Wolff was asked right after the Monaco race what he would have done had Lewis overtaken Sebastian Vettel - would he have told you to then let Lewis pass to re-establish the ‘natural’ order…
NR: What did he answer?
Q: That it would have been a difficult situation. But would you have obeyed such an order?
NR: I cannot answer this one. That is too hypothetical.
Q: Tyre warm-up was an issue in Monaco. Will that be the same here?
NR: Yes, it will. The supersofts are a bit harder than those last year and that makes it a bit more challenging. It will be a ride on the edge, especially as the temperature will stay rather low the whole weekend.
Q: You had some brake problems here last year…
NR: Wrong. I had electric motor problems - battery pipe problems. They were overheating. So that shut down. Because we didn’t have any harvesting any more during braking on the rear, you needed to compensate and use the rear brakes more - and as a result of that we got brake problems. But we have sorted all that out. Why did we have these issues? I don’t know. Maybe because the straights are the longest here?
Q: Mercedes still have the upper hand over all the other teams, but Ferrari have caught up significantly. Can they be a real danger here?
NR: Yes, they can be a real danger here. This is an engine and straight-line speed track. Hats off to them, but I still believe that we can bend it again.
Q: Next stop after Montreal will be Austria. You won there last year. What memories will that trigger when returning?
NR: It was a great race - probably the best of the year. The track is great and the fans are awesome. I like Austria. I have spent quite some time in Austria in my life, so I am very much looking forward to going back there.
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