Radio restrictions are tough challenge, but good for F1 - Rosberg

Nico Rosberg acknowledged that this year's even greater restrictions on pit-to-car radio activity have made managing a race more difficult.

But the Australian GP winner also underlined the benefits of the new limits for race fans, who want to see drivers more on their own when it comes to dealing with rivals.

"Yeah, so that’s the big challenge, I have Sebastian in front of me on his super-softs and I don’t know..," said the Mercedes driver.

"He’s going to pit stop, so I know that’s 24 seconds but how much quicker is he then going to be?

"That’s not really possible to know, and how much difficulty am I going to have at the end of the stint with these mediums, how much they are going to drop off because I know 40 odd laps or whatever is on the edge?

"That made it more difficult to judge, which is good because it makes it a bigger challenge."

Asked whether it was an advantage for a driver to be smart in a limited radio environment, Rosberg would not speak for himself.

"I’m not going to confirm that but I think that the direction is good, to really give us more responsibility ourselves in the race.

"It’s a tough challenge but good and most important is that the fans think it’s the right direction, I think that’s what they wanted because they said all the radio instructions got annoying."

Needless to say, Rosberg's sights are set on clinching the title this year although a championship challenge is not at the forefront of his mind currently.

"I don’t think about that in that sense, I’m happy to beat everybody today and I enjoy the battle with Lewis and the Ferraris and I’m looking forward to the next races for exactly that battle.

"It’s going to be good I’m sure and I’m going to try to come out on top."

Australian Grand Prix - Quotes of the weekend

Australian Grand Prix - Driver ratings

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