Nico Rosberg spots Ferrari’s ‘main problem’ after messy Madrid F1 weekend
Nico Rosberg shares his verdict on another disappointing weekend for Ferrari at the Spanish Grand Prix.
2016 Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg says Ferrari’s strategy and communications remains its “Achilles heel” following a messy weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix.
It proved to be another difficult weekend for Ferrari as Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc missed out on pole position, and could not challenge for victory in Madrid.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton ran as high as third in the early stages but had to retire with a braking system failure on his SF-26 on lap seven.
Leclerc led 32 of the 57 laps at the Madring as Ferrari kept the Monegasque out on an offset strategy in the hope that a late-race safety car might give him a shot at an unlikely win or podium. Ferrari ultimately pitted Leclerc on lap 48 and he took fourth.
Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Show podcast after the weekend, Rosberg pinpointed the biggest problem he believes Ferrari still needs to get on top of.
“Isn’t it the case that Ferrari always have messy weekends? It’s just the Achilles heel is still in the strategy area, communications area, that’s always been a weakness and still is a weakness of theirs now,” Rosberg said.
“The pace of the car is damn close to being able to challenge consistently for race wins, and even this weekend, Lewis would have been a comfortable second position in the race on Sunday. He would have finished second after Max had to let him through. So he would have definitely finished second place behind Kimi, quite easily.
“So I think they are very close, they are just not putting it together properly and they need to somehow make progress on that. That’s the main problem they are facing.”
Hamilton felt Ferrari “had the car to fight for a win” in Spain, while Leclerc insisted the team “did the right thing” with its strategy as another opportunity for the Italian outfit went begging.
Leclerc ultimately believes Ferrari “paid the price” for its qualifying form, which has been a consistent issue throughout the 2026 season.
“I really don't think we are worse than the others,” Leclerc said. “I just think that, generally, our car is just a little bit weaker in qualifying than it is in the race with lower fuel.
“When you've got to really attack the kerbs, particularly yesterday, McLaren was very, very strong, and we were a bit on the wrong side of things on that.
“So, we paid the price this weekend, probably because of this. But as a whole, I always feel like we are a bit on the back foot in quali.”
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