Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsOpinion

Rosberg should leave Mercedes - Massa

40

Felipe Massa says Nico Rosberg needs to change teams as Mercedes starts to gravitate towards triple world champion Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton won a dominant third title - and second in succession - last weekend at the United States Grand Prix, with Rosberg unhappy with his team-mate’s robust start which saw the two make light contact. Massa has previously spoke of a loss of respect from Ferrari during his later years with the Scuderia after Fernando Alonso joined, and he believes Rosberg could do with a new start.

“I believe that Nico’s situation will only get worse next year because Lewis keeps winning and also ‘winning’ the team for him,” Massa said. “I think Nico’s only hope is to change teams so he can start fresh all over again.”

Rosberg’s current contract expires at the end of 2016, though there are additional options in the “multi-year” deal he signed in 2014. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff told F1i in Russia plans to try and get Pascal Wehrlein in a race seat in F1 are not designed with the team thinking about any future driver line-up.

“It’s too far-fetched because at the moment both of our drivers are contracted to us,” Wolff said. “We enjoy working with them, so we can’t have the discussion yet because I’m still concentrated on Nico and Lewis.”

REPORT: Rosberg beats Hamilton to Mexican GP pole

AS IT HAPPENED: Mexican Grand Prix - Qualifying

Click here for the F1 drivers' girlfriends gallery

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.