Nico Rosberg says he had a piece of advice for Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur in the wake of the intra-team battle between Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc that gripped the Tifosi in the closing laps of the Italian Grand Prix.
After Red Bull's drivers gained the upper hand over a valiant Sainz, the Spaniard fell into the clutches of Leclerc with just a handful of laps to go in the race.
The pair were given a free rein by Vasseur to duke it out as long as they didn't take undue risk, but Leclerc came close to wiping out both himself and his teammate when he locked up at the Monza's first chicane on the penultimate lap of the race.
But in the end, all was well that finished well, and to the delight of Ferrari's thousands of fans present at the Temple of Speed.
But Rosberg noted that Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff would have never allowed his drivers to race each other so closely in similar circumstances.
"Right decision? I mean, that’s a difficult question. For us fans obviously yes. Probably for the Ferrari team, I’m not sure," commented the 2016 F1 World Champion; speaking on the Sky Sports podcast.
"Toto might’ve said, ‘You know, just hold position now’ because are they in a closed championship fight in the constructors also? I think they are.
"From that point of view, you might have said hold position because it’s such important points in the attempt to still try and beat Mercedes. But yeah for us it was great."
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Both Sainz and Leclerc admitted after the race that their intense tussle had been "on the limit" at times. But the Monegasque felt that his teammate's defense had perhaps been a bit too borderline.
Rosberg, who is well acquainted with Vasseur, having won the 2005 GP2 Series with the Frenchman's ART Grand Prix squad, said that he offered his former boss some friendly advice after last Sunday's race.
©Ferrari
"It was so close to crashing, especially the last one with a very big lock up from Charles. Wow, that was close to crashing," the German added.
"I was telling Fred Vasseur after the race that I highly recommend that he asks both drivers to sit down with him because he has the most authority – it’s not the team manager or something, but the boss – and perhaps even goes first with one then with the other and then combined, because then you really get the open story.
"It’s so important to be proactive because otherwise if one driver or the other – in this case, it will mostly be Charles – has a bad feeling it can quickly spiral that he will think at the next race, ‘Hey I’m not going to yield next time or I’m going to do the same next time, I’m gonna get payback’.
"So he definitely has to proactively manage that, and try to be supportive and neutral."
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