Nico Rosberg disagreed with Ferrari's strategy for Carlos Sainz and said he "doesn't believe" that Charles Leclerc's crash was caused entirely by the driver
The accident suffered by Charles Leclerc at the French GP, when he crashed out while leading the race, led to a rather despondent reaction from the driver after the race - admitting his guilt for the incident. However, using strong words, the Monegasque penned that he "didn't deserve to be champion" due to mistakes like last weekend's, which was an exaggeration in the view of Nico Rosberg, winner in 2016 with Mercedes.
"I really think it was premature on Leclerc's part to take the blame," Rosberg told British broadcaster Sky Sports. "He needs to get back [on track] now, because it's very unusual for that to happen the way it did, because you're not even pushing to the maximum there, you're saving the tires," he explained.
Besides considering it a certain exaggeration for Leclerc to take the blame for a possible title loss on his own, Rosberg evaluated the accident suffered by the #16 and considered other scenarios, such as a wind change or an engine cut that could have affected the piloting and caused the driver to lose the car.
"For the rear to come out like that, something happened at that moment," he opined. "That is exactly the point where the wind meets the rear, and if you get an unexpected gust or something like that, you can immediately lose 20 percent of your aerodynamics at that moment," he pointed out.
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"Also, what was going on with the engine there?" he questioned. "You just need a little cut [in engine spin] or something to lose the rear end. I really think they need to spend some time looking at that, because I still can't believe it was driver error," he assessed.
Right after hitting the tire barrier, Leclerc complained over the radio that he couldn't get the throttle to work to back up and try to get back on track. Rosberg recalled the moment and found it strange that Charles didn't even try to restart the race, since the car seemed to be in condition - despite needing a front wing change.
"I also found it a bit strange - I think it was when Charles [Leclerc] was complaining about not being able to activate the throttle - because the car was not broken," he said. "The front wing was broken, probably from hitting the barriers. But I was surprised that he didn't even try to get out of there and continue. I'm not sure what happened," he repeated.
Finally, the German strongly criticized Ferrari's own attitude in the race regarding the strategy of Carlos Sainz, who started from the back of the field because he had to change the engine of his F1-75. Rosberg's first criticism was about the moment when the team tried to communicate with the Spaniard, in the middle of a battle with Sergio Perez for a better track position.
"I was shaking my head at Ferrari's strategy with Sainz," he criticized. "What are they doing there? First of all, he was in the middle of a big battle on the track and his team wasn't even watching, they were making calculations about pit stops. They were talking to him in the middle of the battle, and I thought, 'what are you guys doing?
Moreover, Sainz was still called to the pits in the final part of the race, when he had a 5s penalty to take off for a mistake by his own team - which released the Spaniard's car in a dangerous way inside the pit-lane and caused the driver to be penalized.
"So Carlos is in third and could have stayed there comfortably, the tires would last until the end," he noted. "He still had a chance to catch Lewis [Hamilton] for second place. Then they call him into the pits and take away his chance to finish above fifth place. What's happening there? I think it's time to make some changes, serious changes," he warned.
"To pit-stop and not run to the end was a terrible judgment," he criticized. "I can't explain it. Mattia [Binotto] really needs to take control of this and make some serious changes there," he closed.