Before publicly saying that he will not play the lieutenant role within the Mercedes lineup for no one, he had pointed at Schumacher for the careless driving F1 has been confronting in recent years. According to Rosberg, it was Schumacher who started the whole thing, with his dangerous maneuvers over former F1 champion and title rival Mika Hakkinen. Of course, he shared his thoughts with the media before knowing that Schu will be his teammate for the upcoming 3 years.
“It is Michael Schumacher who started this, like at Spa, when Mika Hakkinen tried to overtake him and he ran him off the track. When the guy behind has made a decision (to pass) and the guy in front then moves over, it is very dangerous. You cannot do that. That was the first time I remember it being a dangerous issue,” said Rosberg, according to F1 Fanatic, following the 2009 season finale at Abu Dhabi.
He also referred to the incident in the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix, when Schumacher parked his Ferrari on the track minutes before the qualifying session had ended, causing quite a chaos on the narrow streets of the Principality. Rosberg opinionated that Schu then set an example for other drivers to do the same in their quest for grid advantages or even race positions.
“Barrichello, Webber and Kobayashi did exactly the same thing (at Interlagos). With Webber, Raikkonen lost his front wing, with Kobayashi, Nakajima had a massive 'off', which could have been much worse – you can really hurt yourself, marshals and others in that sort of accident. With Barrichello, Lewis (Hamilton) ran into the back of his tire. That was the third time – and it is not allowed to happen,” added Rosberg, according to the aforementioned source.
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