Nico Rosberg has shared a concern that if Lewis Hamilton cannot rediscover his qualifying pace at Ferrari, it may be “quite a painful adventure” for him.

While the 2016 World Champion added his former Mercedes team-mate and rival appears to be “at his very, very best” in race trim, the fact he has been self-critical about qualifying is a sign he may be “very worried” about next season.

Nico Rosberg: Lewis Hamilton will ‘100% be very worried’ about Ferrari qualifying form

While there were 22 points between Hamilton and George Russell at the end of the 2024 season, winning two races apiece at Mercedes, the seven-time World Champion was well beaten in qualifying trim by his team-mate over the course of the year.

Hamilton has been critical of himself in that regard, and goes up against one of the drivers widely regarded to be one of the quickest over one lap in Formula 1 in Charles Leclerc when he heads to Ferrari in 2025.

With that mindset, Rosberg worries that his former Mercedes colleague heads to his new team needing to rediscover his one-lap pace, and hopes he shows himself to be the “brilliant driver we know” again.

“He is at a place where he’s saying to himself, ‘I’m not fast anymore’, and that’s really singled out to qualifying,” Rosberg explained on the Sky F1 podcast.

“The problem with our sport is that if you don’t qualify high up, you really struggle, even though he still seems to be at his very, very best in race pace – we’ve seen over and over again his racing pace is just still insanely strong.

More on Lewis Hamilton’s record against George Russell in F1 2024

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying records between team-mates

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

“But when you qualify poorly all the time almost, and he says himself he’s just not quick enough in qualifying, then that’s something that was weighing on the shoulders so much during the end of the year, because you know you when you get beaten from your team-mate who’s younger, and let’s remember, the team-mate is not a World Champion, the team-mate is just a four-time race winner [three, sic.].

“And when you get beaten all the time, and in the case of Lewis, who’s statistically the GOAT [greatest of all time, ed.], then that’s really tough, and especially going forward.

“Now, he has two years at Ferrari, and he will 100% be very, very worried. ‘What if this form of mine continues, like, was it just the car at Mercedes, or was it something else? And what if this form of mine continues to Ferrari?’

“If it does, it would really be quite a painful adventure, I would say, because that’s not what Ferrari hired him for.

“Ferrari hired him to be on a level with Leclerc and fight for World Championships. So I think he will be very worried about that, and we can only hope that he finds back to his good old self with a reset at Ferrari and is, once again, the brilliant driver we know.”

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