DC: Rosberg will come back stronger

David Coulthard is expecting a stronger Nico Rosberg in 2015, saying the German has more room to grow as a driver than his main rival, Lewis Hamilton.

Last season the duo engaged in a thrilling intra-team battle for the World Championship title.

Trading blows – at times even literally – the duo fought it out until the final race of the campaign.

That grand prix, Abu Dhabi, saw Hamilton storm to the victory while car troubles put paid to any hope Rosberg had of overhauling his team-mate.

The German, though, will have another opportunity to do just that in 2015 as the Mercedes team-mates are once again expected to fight for the title.

And Coulthard reckons Rosberg will be better suited for the battle this time around.

“I see Nico being stronger than he was as he now has this experience of battling for a World Championship,” he said during the Autosport Show. “That was the first time he had the spotlight of expectation.

“A lot of drivers, and I know this from personal experience, think, ‘if I was in a winning car then winning would be easy’, but winning is not easy, even in a winning car.

“It’s difficult, and it should be difficult, as usually you have a strong competitor in the other car.”

As for Hamilton, GPUpdate.net quotes Coulthard as saying he expects another strong performance from Brit who he feels proved in 2014 that he’s already done his growing as a driver.

“I don’t see how he (Hamilton) can be better, as he’s at such an incredibly high level – he’s been in a championship battle four times and he’s won it twice. He’s a more mature and rounded individual than he was at the beginning of his career.

“But, for Nico, that experience of the highs and lows of success and failure – he’s gone through the booing stage where people weren’t very happy about what you’ve done on the race track – all of that makes you stronger and that makes him better competitor and a bigger challenger to Lewis in 2015.””But, for Nico, that experience of the highs and lows of success and failure – he’s gone through the booing stage where people weren’t very happy about what you’ve done on the race track – all of that makes you stronger and that makes him better competitor and a bigger challenger to Lewis in 2015.”