Keke Rosberg: Hamilton was lucky twice

Editor

Keke Rosberg says his son Nico deserved his F1 title after a trouble-free year, just as Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton had two “lucky” title-winning campaigns. 

Nico Rosberg finished second at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to maintain a lead over race winner Hamilton, who needed the German to finish fourth to defend the title.

Hamilton’s campaign was beset with engine failures, while Rosberg had few such issues.

Keke Rosberg said: “I thought Lewis was lucky twice already, so why shouldn’t Nico be lucky once?”

Hamilton won the past two titles.

“If you want to win the championship in Formula One you can’t have a lot of bad luck,” said Keke Rosberg, who was World Champion in 1982.

Keke Rosberg said his son’s commitment was key to his success.

“I don’t think many people from outside appreciate the effort that went into this,” he said.

“There is one guy in Los Angeles, here, there and everywhere, and then you have one guy concentrating on only one thing.”

“Nutrition, time differences, training, emptying the brain at the right time and concentrating on performance, performance, performance.”

He hinted at a vast difference between racing in his day compared with today’s sport.

“It is remarkable and I admire him for his mental strength and commitment. The commitment of somebody like Nico is 110 percent and it has nothing to do with how I went about being a Formula One driver.”