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Rosberg: Ground effect can bring back overtaking

16:00, 31 May 2018

byAdam Newton

2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg believes that F1’s proposed overhaul should look back to the ground-effect era of the sport, in a big to improve racing.

One of the biggest criticisms of F1 in recent years has been the difficulty drivers have faced to race closely behind another car, due to the dirty air and turbulence involved.

Rosberg drove one of his old Mercedes car in Monaco in a demonstration run with his father Keke, also a world champion. Keke drove his title winning 1982 Williams, which was at the height of the ground-effect era.

Nico said: “I was looking at my dad’s car and it’s all ground effect.

“The aerodynamics are under the car. They could follow each other in the gearbox all the time.”

Rosberg believes Liberty Media should introduce this back into the sport.

“They have to go in that sort of direction. And hopefully they’ll manage [it by] 2021 at latest. Because that’s what we all need, for the fun.

"We need to see battles, fighting and touching wheels. That is one of the biggest problems because it's as difficult as ever.

"Unfortunately at the moment it is not at the right place, and then the costs [need changing] to give more opportunities to the middle teams to have some success."