Rosberg Was a Fan of Mika Hakkinen, Not Schumacher

As another day goes by, it's another comment from Nico Rosberg that suggests an interesting duel between him and future teammate Michael Schumacher in the 2010 Formula One Championship. The fear of being relegated to No 2 status within the Mercedes organization made young Rosberg launch some slight attacks at the 7-time world champion.

First, the son of world champion Keke Rosberg accused his new teammate of being the one that caused careless driving in Formula One, with his dangerous overtaking maneuvers over his former title rival Mika Hakkinen. Also, by stalling his car on the grid of the Monaco Grand Prix during qualifying, Rosberg argued that Schu set a dangerous precedent in the sport.

Now, almost a week after making those comments, Rosberg again made the headlines by telling the media that he never ruled for Schumacher back when he was contending for the world title. Naturally, he then favored Finnish driver Mika Hakkinen, not only because his father is from Finland, but also because the McLaren driver was a close friend of the family.

“To be honest, I was a fan of Mika Hakkinen. I was always happy when he beat Michael, because he was a good friend of the family,” said Rosberg in an interview with the new edition of Auto Bild Motorsport magazine.

During the time Hakkinen was racing for the world title in F1 – late 90s, early 2000s – Keke Rosberg used to manage the Finn in the series.

Needless to say, Rosberg's first words when finding out that Schumacher will become his teammate for the upcoming 3 years were that he will never play second fiddle to anyone. Later on, the 41-year old German added to that, insisting that he will not become leading driver for Mercedes and will respect driver's equity inside the team.