“I used to criticise Toto, now I’m like, ‘Oh, s**t”– Nico Rosberg

“I used to criticise Toto, now I’m like, ‘Oh, s**t”– Nico Rosberg is more empathetic to Toto Wolff after witnessing the management role himself.

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton’s pair up had given some unbearable stress to Toto Wolff, who found it best for the team when Rosberg left Mercedes in 2016.

Some calls led the German to whine at the management, but now Rosberg runs his own franchise- RosbergXRacing in the Extreme E series. “I like to be involved and support where I can,” Rosberg told Autosport.com. “Of course, I have such a vast experience.”

“I always have to be careful that I don’t intervene too much. There’s a fine line. But also, it’s a new challenge for me because I’ve never been on this opposite side of the road.”

“Now I look back, and when I used to criticise Toto, now I’m like, ‘Oh, s**t, OK, maybe I shouldn’t criticise him.’ It’s actually quite difficult to be in that role.

“Also, in the way you interact with the drivers. It’s hard to understand what the path is to be most supportive. But at the same time, it’s very interesting.”

F1 experience helping

Rosberg claims that everything he learnt in F1 is now helping him run his venture, as the Extreme E series requires a lot of guesswork to figure out things.

“It’s so difficult because nobody understands the cars properly because you don’t test them before,” Rosberg explained of the Extreme E vehicles.

“You have to guess and figure things out. As a team, we’re really trying to bring some Formula 1 approach to Extreme E. That’s really helping us as a team to perform.”

Along with Rosberg, even Hamilton has invested in the Extreme E racing series, where he runs his franchise with the name of X44, which symbolises his car number in F1.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

Read More