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Rosberg calls for tighter rules on wheel-to-wheel racing

Former Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg says that the sport needs to tighten up its rules surrounding close wheel-to-wheel racing in the wake of this year's at times fractious season.

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were involved in a number of controversial incidents over the course of the year, including one where Hamilton accused his rival of 'brake testing' him.

Drivers admitted that they were unsure exactly how far they could go in defending or attacking during the race, after the implementation of existing rules seemed confused and contrary during some of this year's Grands Prix.

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Rosberg said that now jean Todt has completed his term as president of the FIA, the sport's governing body, there was an opportunity for his successor Mohammed Ben Sulayem to make much needed changes.

“Big respect to Jean for his career of course, but now with a new person there’s an opportunity," he told Sky Sports News as reported by Motorsportweek.com. "The sport needs to make progress.

“It starts even with all the overtaking, the wheel-to-wheel action," he continued, using examples from the crucial season finale in Abu Dhabi that decided the outcome of this year's title battle.

"Let’s not forget that in the race, Max passed Lewis [wide at turn 6 on the opening lap] and kind of pushed him off a little bit," Rosberg explained. "“Lewis stayed flat out, cut the corner and came out in front again.

"Even that, all of us experts said Lewis should let Max get by here, but they didn’t ask him to," he said. “The FIA needs to tighten all that up so that we don’t have all these discussions.

“It would be better for the sport if it was much easier to understand.

"Also in wheel-to-wheel racing, who is now right and wrong? What needs to be done? A quick decision is made, and we go on.

“We need to get rid of all of these discussions," Rosberg insisted. "That’s important.”

The 36=year-old German, who retired from F1 five days after winning the 2016 title and now runs a team competing in Extreme E, wants to see the situation clarified in time for the start of the new Grand Prix season in Bahrain on March 20.

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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.