Nico Rosberg doesn’t believe his defensive tactics during the Bahrain Grand Prix put anyone in danger, despite forcing two drivers to leave the track in their attempts to overtake.
Lewis Hamilton successfully passed the German, but had to take to the asphalt run-off to do so. Just a few laps later, Fernando Alonso did the same, but failed to pass before complaining to his team about Rosberg’s defensive skills.
Rosberg doesn’t believe his actions put anyone in harm and admits he’s happy to talk about it after two drivers, believed to be Hamilton and Alonso, raised concern on Thursday.
“Two of the drivers raised their concerns about it so we need to discuss it,” said Rosberg. “If there was a danger which I didn’t cause on purpose then we need to implement rules so that it doesn’t arise again.
“It is driver safety and we need to do the best we can so that we can move forward. We could look at implementing more rules in that situation because it is not very clear, but it can be looked at.”
The Chinese GP race winner says he may have played it differently had there been barriers surrounding the circuit, but since there wasn’t, he saw no problem in the moves and would do the same again.
“Of course if there had been the barriers like at Monaco it would have been a different story, yes,” he admitted. “Then again the guys behind would have backed off a lot earlier.
“In that situation I judged it to be harsh but fair so it was harsh but within the rules. And I didn’t judge that I was putting my competitors in danger.”