Rosberg dismisses Hamilton’s radio complaints
Nico Rosberg insists restrictions to the use of team radios should not be changed, despite recent complaints from team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton’s frustration was born out of the fact he could not seek advice from his Mercedes crew on how to change an engine mode during the Grand Prix of Europe at Baku.
The Brit has argued that the ruling has become a safety issue and has been backed by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.
Rosberg, however, suffered from a similar problem but was able to change the setting on his way to winning the race and opening a 24-point lead over Hamilton, believes it is up to the drivers to cope with situations from the cockpit.
“The fans were complaining that we were puppets on the track, and we were just doing what the engineers were telling us to do,” Rosberg said ahead the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg.
“This is why the rule changed, and they are OK the way they are now. It is more challenging for us out there. You need to make sure as a team and driver that the driver has all the options to handle everything on his own.
“Of course, is not easy to get it 100 percent perfect, so that is why there are going to be problems, and that is what we got in Baku. That is what we wanted to achieve with these rules.”
Hamilton, meanwhile, reinforced that he had no control over the problem, which ultimately saw him finish fifth in Azerbaijan.
“It was nothing to do with me. At the beginning of the race the team decided to use a programme that was on the car,” he said.
“It had nothing to do with the functionalities I had put in or anything I requested on the car and was the first time the team had decided to use this at the beginning of a race rather than activate it in the race.
“I started with it and Nico didn’t, so Nico went into it, realised it didn’t work and disengaged it whereas I started with it and did disengage it but it didn’t make any difference.
“The team are going to work hard and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”