Lewis Hamilton is currently not at the level required with Ferrari to win a record eighth world championship, Nico Rosberg has claimed – despite hailing his former rival’s “incredible” longevity in Formula One.
Hamilton, 41, heads into Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix among the favourites to land his first victory for Ferrari, a fortnight after taking his best result with the Italian team – as runner-up to Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in Canada.
It marked Hamilton’s second podium from the opening five rounds – having failed to land a single top-three finish in his first season at Ferrari – to leave him fourth in the standings, just three points adrift of team-mate Charles Leclerc.
open image in galleryAnd Ferrari are expected to go well at the principality this weekend with the unique track expected to suit their machinery.
Rosberg, who beat Hamilton to the world championship in 2016 after three fractious seasons together at Mercedes, was asked on the High Performance podcast if he would like to see the British driver win an eighth title.
“Yes, of course, and he would deserve it,” said Rosberg. “It would be great to see him keep progressing as he has into this year. And I think he will win a race at least this year.
“But to get the championship, the car is not good enough, and his level is not quite there yet, but hopefully he can still improve throughout the season.”
Hamilton endured a poor first season with Ferrari. At one stage he described himself as “useless” and even called on the Italian giants to replace him with another driver.
open image in galleryAnd Rosberg continued: “Even though the best (in Formula One) are earning 50million dollars a year, the struggles are still real.
“Lewis Hamilton, earning tons of money at Ferrari, if you ask him about last year and how horrible was it on a scale of 1 to 10, he would give you a 10.
“Coming to a new team, the whole of Italy slowly but surely turning against him because he is not delivering, his younger team-mate beating him…that is a horrible situation to be in. And that would not have been much fun so you are on the edge.”
At the peak of their rivalry, Hamilton and Rosberg did not speak to one another despite being in the same team.
And Rosberg continued: “We are neutral now. Bad things happened and you can’t fix that so easily either. Who is going to say sorry first? I don’t know.
“But I am amazed he is still driving. I have been retired for 10 years, and it is not like we were young at the time, and he is still going. He is a genius.
“It’s incredible how he has managed to build his life with such stability to be able to have such longevity, no scandals, and performing at a high level for such a long time.
“And now he is taking on another huge challenge at Ferrari, and a huge struggle. It is getting better because with these new regulations he is performing much better than he was last year.
“But he is up against Charles Leclerc who is at the peak of his ability, and he is one of the greatest drivers of this generation so it is going to be difficult.”