Nico Rosberg is confident his Mercedes team has learnt from the “big weaknesses” it showed at Singapore on the soft and supersoft tyres, which are returning for this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix.
Niki Lauda said ahead of the event that he was worried about the situation repeating itself, as the Sochi Autodrom asphalt shares similarities with the Marina Bay Circuit tarmac.
His fears are further compounded by Pirelli’s decision to go one step softer in its tyre nominations compared to last year’s inaugural grand prix when Lewis Hamilton and Rosberg secured a dominant 1-2.
Although well aware of Mercedes’ shortcomings at Singapore, the German reckons his squad has done its homework before traveling to the Black Sea’s Olympic resort.
“It is quite particular, because the asphalt is very special here,” said Rosberg. “It is quite different. Therefore there are some new challenges you need to handle.
“Also, with the tyres being softer, it is going to be different again to last year, because last year there was hardly any degradation, I did the whole race without any pit stop, or with one on the first lap.
“So, it will be a particular challenge and we did show weaknesses on the soft, supersoft in Singapore. Big weaknesses. We have learned from that but, again, here is not Singapore so we need to do a really good job and it’s not going to be as simple as maybe Suzuka was in terms of preparation.”
Besides tyre management, Rosberg’s most pressing need is to maintain his title hopes alive by returning to winning ways for the first time since Austria last June.
With five rounds left in 2015, Hamilton enjoys a 48-point lead over his team-mate, which means that Rosberg might have to rely on the Briton running into some sort of troubles to secure his maiden world title.
“I don’t really think about it in that much detail. I see the gap, I see that it’s quite big considering there’s just a couple of races left and just go for it, go for it.
“I need to try to win the races, that’s what I’m focussing on, winning the races and then the rest... I’ll just see how it goes.”
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