Rosberg confident for Australian GP

By Andrew Hooper
March 30 2006

 
Rosberg confident
 

For the WilliamsF1 team the issue of reliability came to the fore in the last race, the Malaysian Grand Prix. After both Mark and Nico lined up on the second row of the grid their races would come to a quick engine with both drivers suffering reliability problems. Nico was to suffer and engine failure with his Cosworth engine.

RosbergNow the team is preparing for the first practice sessions for the 206 Australian rand Prix and the issue of reliability is something the team is confident that they are getting on top of. The Cosworth company announced that they had found the cause of Nico's engine failure and had taken steps to prevent it reoccurrence.

For Nico, such is the teams work on the reliability issues that this weekends race will be one that he can go into with  a high degree of confidence.

In an interview In Melbourne Nico spoke of the situation regarding the reliability and how the team and engine supplier Cosworth have worked hard on ensuring that there will not be a repeat of his Malaysia experience.

Nico said: "I am very confident. Malaysia was a small thing on the Williams side and a small thing on the Cosworth side. Cosworth have been pushing to the maximum all the time and they are near to be perfect.

"We had three cars running on two weekends and we only had one problem which was in mine towards the end of life.

"They have managed to change that and we have done a test with it and it worked out good, and Williams was able to change their thing quickly. It was only a small thing that could be changed easily on the hydraulics, so I have to be very confident and I am very confident."

As for what the future holds Nico is confident that they can return to the top of the grid and come away from the race with points.

Nico added: "I think we will continue the way we have been going. The top end of the grid for sure, somewhere around there and try and get some good points. The temperatures here won't help us but we have had some good tests to improve that, so that shouldn't slow us down too much. I just look forward to try and finish the race this time for both cars and try and get some good points."

As for the incident in the last race at the Sepang circuit which saw him put the squeeze on Mark Webber at the start of the race Nico indicated that he will change his approach to the start and not repeat a similar move on his team-mate.

Nico spoke of how he will change, he said: "Because there are also ways to help yourself into the first corner so I will change things, adapt, for sure.

"He (Mark) is a great team-mate to have, for sure. He is very quick and he has given me respect from the word go even though I am some young guy coming in and supports me also in the media, which is great for me also, so I can only thank him for the way he is. We have been working well together.

"As for the start incident, I think it wasn't a problem and he also sees it that way. The only problem was that together we compromised ourselves because Alonso got by, which shouldn't happen.

"Fighting between each other but we cannot go to the extent that it allows others to go by, that is wrong."

As for the teams management speaking to him regrading his driving Nico added: "Yeah, they did, of course. That is the whole point, I have to learn so they need to tell me what they think also for me to improve, so we had a word and I will try to do it better next time."

 
 

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