"The weakness Lewis Hamilton has is a bit of inconsistency": When Nico Rosberg revealed his masterplan for beating the British driver in 2016

Former F1 world champion Nico Rosberg revealed that his ex-Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton had a weakness of being inconsistent. The German driver was teammates with his British rival for four years at the Brackley-based outfit between 2013 and 2016.

During their time as teammates, the duo ran each other close on the track every season, with Hamilton coming out on top three out of four years, including two championships. However, Rosberg came out on top against his nemesis in 2016 and beat him to the title in the final races of the season.

Speaking with Sky Sports in 2018, Nico Rosberg revealed that his plan to defeat Lewis Hamilton in the 2016 season included targeting the latter's weakness.

"The weakness Lewis has is a bit of inconsistency. He has these periods when he is just not on it. If you are able to pounce in those periods and really make the most of it, you can keep him down for a while longer. You have to make the most of it," he explained.

"When Lewis has his good weekends, he is almost unbeatable. He is unbelievably fast and maybe the best guy out there. The only way to beat Lewis is to be 100 percent with everything, do the perfect season. Otherwise, there is no chance," he added.

Nico Rosberg retired from the sport at the end of the 2016 season, while Hamilton went on to win four more titles in the following years.

Nico Rosberg gives his take on Lewis Hamilton's struggles

Former F1 world champion and pundit Nico Rosberg stated that it has been a "difficult" start to the 2025 season at Ferrari for Lewis Hamilton and believed that he had continued the trend from his final years with Mercedes.

Speaking with Sky Sports, the German driver reflected on the Brit's struggles and said:

"It's been a difficult start so far, a continuation of the form he had last year which was the first time in his career he had a dip in form for the whole season. George Russell beat him last year, and Leclerc has taken over from Russell, always a bit ahead of Lewis, who hasn't found his way yet."

"He's not connecting with the car yet and still a bit on the backfoot, but the car is a handful. He's 40 and at some point, it's all about the speed of processing in our brains, the reaction time in qualifying. At some point, you will get ever so slightly slower, and it will happen to Lewis sooner rather than later," he added.

Lewis Hamilton has been largely outperformed by Charles Leclerc in the first 12 races of the 2025 season, with the latter claiming four podiums to the former's none.