Maybe Schumacher's return wasn't all that rubbish?

[Alfa Fan]

The form of Nico Rosberg in comparison to Lewis Hamilton this season has been very interesting.
I think it is fair to say that the majority of people expected Lewis to have the upper-hand in the team; and by some margin. However this has so far not been the case at all, with them both fairly evenly matched. This being the same Nico Rosberg that was kept honest in 2012 pace-wise at least by the "rubbish" Schumacher.
So is it a case of either a) Lewis Hamilton not being anywhere near as good as he's hyped to be, or b) Schumacher's return was no where near as bad as it sometimes looked and that Rosberg is infact a very strong driver?

[Robinho]

I rememer saying when MS's comeback was announced, that Nico was on a hiding to nothing. Ih he beat MS, no matter how convincingly, it was because MS was too old, too slow, been away too long etc, and that if he failed to beat him it would spell the end of his top flight chances as he was being beaten by a has-been. This was pretty much borne out, as Nice did pretty much convoncingly beat him, yet didn't receive the kind of credit it perhaps deserved, if you assume that he was driving at the same, or at least a similar, level to that he is now.

2 things we can probably deduce now is that post comeback MS was not nearly as poor as some of us thought, and that Nico is a bit of a superstar

[henners88]

Personally I think 6 races into the new season Lewis is still settling into his new team and Nico is not surprising me in the slightest. I've been saying for years here how I think Nico is under rated. Hamilton has admitted he's suffered breaking issues in the last two races and hasn't been that far off Rosberg's pace overall. I think we are in for a treat for the remainder of the season to be quite honest, and lets not forget Hamilton is only 15 points ahead of Nico. Hamilton is hyped for good reason and that is because he has shown his ability since entering the sport. You can't fake the types of performances he's put in and we all know from watching the sport for so long that a great car doesn't always make a driver great. In Hamilton's case he's a World Champion and has many victories to his name already. His time at Merc will improve and I expect Rosberg to show his talent too. Arguably the strongest pairing in F1 right now and if Merc deliver the car, they'll reap the rewards.

As far as Schumacher goes I'm not sure how we can really compare. This season the car is the best one Merc have produced so far and although Schuey found his old pace in 2012, he also demonstrated his age far too often. He did ok but was far from his past brilliance IMO. The lack of in season testing, a team with its own test track, and 3 years out of the sport, not to mention being a man in his 40's, I still think he made a mistake returning. What we have now at Mercedes is a more exciting prospect and I expect 2014 to bring a very competitive package indeed.

[The Black Knight]

Personally I think 6 races into the new season Lewis is still settling into his new team and Nico is not surprising me in the slightest. I've been saying for years here how I think Nico is under rated. Hamilton has admitted he's suffered breaking issues in the last two races and hasn't been that far off Rosberg's pace overall. I think we are in for a treat for the remainder of the season to be quite honest, and lets not forget Hamilton is only 15 points ahead of Nico. Hamilton is hyped for good reason and that is because he has shown his ability since entering the sport. You can't fake the types of performances he's put in and we all know from watching the sport for so long that a great car doesn't always make a driver great. In Hamilton's case he's a World Champion and has many victories to his name already. His time at Merc will improve and I expect Rosberg to show his talent too. Arguably the strongest pairing in F1 right now and if Merc deliver the car, they'll reap the rewards.

As far as Schumacher goes I'm not sure how we can really compare. This season the car is the best one Merc have produced so far and although Schuey found his old pace in 2012, he also demonstrated his age far too often. He did ok but was far from his past brilliance IMO. The lack of in season testing, a team with its own test track, and 3 years out of the sport, not to mention being a man in his 40's, I still think he made a mistake returning. What we have now at Mercedes is a more exciting prospect and I expect 2014 to bring a very competitive package indeed.

I agree with everything in this post, which is rare given that it was such a long one

The one thing I'd like to add is that some people seem to believe that Hamilton underestimated Nico but this is not the case at all. Hamilton said he wasn't surprised that Nico gave Schumacher a hard time because having raced against Nico in karting he knew how good he was. To say that about a guy up against Schumacher says a lot. He also rated Nico, Alonso and Vettel as the best drivers in the sport about a year or so ago and he's right.

I've always felt that Nico is a superstar and I'm glad it's finally getting recognized now. Hamilton might just pip him in the end, just maybe. China is the only place so far this year where I felt Hamilton looked anywhere near being at one with the car whereas Nico is completely harmonious and you can see that especially in qualifying. It will take time for Hamilton to resolve but he will be the better driver in the end for it.

[Big Ben]

of course it wasn't... well, maybe just for those who overrated MS and underrated NR... both concepts used to be quite trendy

[DexDexter]

Schumi was let down by the car. If he had driven a Red Bull, we would've won quite a few races during his second career. Interesting twist about Hamilton vs Rosberg: Nico's greatest rival in GP2 was Heikki Kovalainen who was destroyed by Lewis and now Nico is outperforming Lewis. My point is that it's very difficult to make comparisons....

[steveaki13]

I think we need to give credit to Rosberg. He is clearly a great driver and is showing now that given the right car he can be right at the top.

Also lets give Lewis a chance. I mean its only 6 races into a massive transition and in the first 3 of those he did well. Also we know about Merc's tyre issues so really its been a hard situation for Lewis to come into. He is doing OK and will get better settled over this season and step up in 2014.

Also on Schumi. I always thought he did a good job on the whole. This maybe just confirms it a little more

[odykas]

3 - 0

Well done Rosberg mokin:

[zako85]

Six races into season is to early to make any conclusions. As for Schumacher's return, it's really hard to tell now if this was the same Schumacher we have been seeing in 1992-2007. Time and a long break have got to take their toll eventually. I do believe that Rosberg is probably much better than the credit he normally gets.

[jens]

It is a mix of various things. I was genuinely impressed with Schumacher last year. He was a contender of being a top6 driver on the grid in my view. You could get the feeling he could give top drivers a run for their money by the way he was hustling that tyre-eater Mercedes around and outracing Rosberg in the process.

On the other hand Rosberg, regardless of how he is performing right now, was a little disappointing last year. IMO there is no hiding of this. But drivers performances vary, now he has reached a higher level again. One we saw in 2007, 2009 and 2010 - the best Rosberg years.