- Mercedes
Rosberg unconcerned by Hamilton form
Nico Rosberg says he cannot afford to dwell on Lewis Hamilton's three consecutive wins ahead of the Russian Grand Prix with only four races of the 2014 title race left.
Since the pair's controversial collision at the Belgian Grand Prix Hamilton has won every race, taking the lead of the championship in the process. The gap between the Mercedes drivers stands at 10 points after Hamilton led a Mercedes one-two at Suzuka but Rosberg does not think it would be wise to concentrate on his title rival's current form.
When asked if he was looking to end Hamilton's three straight wins in Sochi, Rosberg said: "I wasn't even really aware of that [statistic], until I heard another question about it. It's really not something that I've dwelled on in the last couple of weeks, trying to put together a statistic that would go against me - which is exactly that statistic! It's not something positive to go into a race weekend with. I believe and know that if I do a good job on Sunday I will win. That's where it ends for me - I'm not in the past, I'm just right here."
Rosberg struggled with oversteer in Suzuka and admitted after the race Hamilton had just done a "better job" in the conditions. Having analysed what happened in Japan, Rosberg thinks Mercedes' set-up explains why he had such a tricky race.
"The summary is that as a team we had a poor set-up on the car. Not because we did a bad job but because it was unpredictable circumstances. We were not able to prepare for those circumstances, we were not able to prepare for those circumstances the whole weekend. We get to the race, we've set the car up for qualifying and we got the rain. We knew it was coming so it didn't surprise us but we did not expect the car to be balanced in the way that it was in the rain.
"It was very unpredictable to have it like that and there was massive oversteer, which is why we had so much more degradation than, for example, Red Bull. They were better than us on the inters just because our balance was so far off. The only conclusion I can get to is that my team-mate got to grips with that poor car balance quicker than I did. For me, I really lacked the confidence in that car at that Suzuka track where you are twitching all the time. I wasn't able to push as a result and that's the explanation."
Rosberg believes he has to put thoughts of Jules Bianchi's serious accident in Suzuka to the back of his mind to focus on the end of the championship battle.
"It's difficult because it was shocking circumstances. Here it's coming out again because you're meeting people who are closer to him - or closer than I was maybe. It's difficult, but there is a job to be done and when I get into that car and close my visor I put everything aside as always - all thoughts, all emotions and am fully focused on the job in hand."
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