F1: Rosberg Upbeat Despite Qualifying Frustration

Formula 1

F1: Rosberg Upbeat Despite Qualifying Frustration

Mercedes driver is encouraged going into the Australian GP...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted March 17, 2012 Melbourne (AUS)

Nico Rosberg walks on the grid in Australia after qualifying seventh. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Nico Rosberg slipped to seventh on the grid in Australia after failing to get a good final lap in, but his overall pace throughout the session has given the German cause for optimism.

He also believes that he has a good package for Sunday’s race.

“I’m feeling good because the team has progressed well and gone in the right direction, which is great,” said Rosberg. On the other hand my qualifying wasn’t ideal, I got it a bit wrong on the last lap unfortunately, so seventh place. Anyway, in general and also for the race we have a much better car this year, so I can still work my way up tomorrow.

“There are so many things that are new this year, I was a bit in a corner in qualifying in terms of the set-up, where there were a few things that I wasn’t quite so happy about. It’s just a matter of learning with my engineers to improve things. Still as I say on high fuel things were looking good for this weekend.”

Rosberg said that the potential of the package was encouraging.

“I feel that there’s still some way to go to get the most out of it. Maybe the others are in the same situation, but definitely I can say that we have some way to go. All this together is definitely looking much better. As we’ve been saying all the time it’s really important that we progress towards the front, and we’re doing that for sure. So that’s great.

“Also I think in terms of race pace and high fuel, last year that was a bit of a weakness, that we generally a bit stronger in qualifying, and not so strong in the race, and that’s also something that we’ve improve for this year.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.