Current Formula 1 champion Nico Rosberg says the current crop of drivers will be 'proper gladiators' this year, because the new cars will push them to find their absolute physical limit.
Rosberg, who retired after winning his maiden championship last year, made a visit to the pitlane on Wednesday to see his Mercedes team and to see the news cars in action.
Speaking to the official Formula 1 website, Rosberg described the new cars as "absolutely monstrous" and expects them to truly test the drivers this year.
"There's such a massive hype at the moment," he said, "so I wanted to see it first hand, see the new cars – they look absolutely monstrous – very, very aggressive.
"Everybody is excited and that's great to see. The drivers are loving it and I think this year they will be proper gladiators out there with these cars, because the cars will take them to their physical limits and we might even see drivers losing race wins because of it just being 'game over' physically, and that's what we need."
Discussing the prospects of his former team, Rosberg added: "I expect the team to be the best this year because the team is awesome. I'm not saying that's the case, we still need to wait and see, but for sure it looks like they've made a good car."
