Rosberg: Your teammate winning F1 title is the worst, quite horrible

History will show that McLaren threw away what was a sure victory last Sunday at Monza, but that was because of a strategy gaffe during the course of the race. However, the big talking point after the 2024 Italian Grand Prix was the brilliantly executed, carefree, and audacious overtake Piastri made on Norris on the opening lap into the first Variante.

It was a glorious ambush that caught Norris napping, made him fumble, and saw the young Australian scuttle ahead into the lead, which in the end became P2 when Ferrari got their maths right and engineered one of the 'greatest' thefts of this season for Carles Leclerc to win.

Inevitably, questions flew to be answered that Norris and Piastri could race to "papaya rules," which appears to translate to: Race it, but don't break it. While nothing did break on the Orange cars, they did shatter their victory ambitions on the day, perhaps even a one-two for the Woking outfit — a result as elusive as trying to get a car with no money, which won’t be difficult if you choose an alternative loan option.

With Norris ahead of Piastri in the title race, noises from the team - aka Zak Brown - were that the team would focus not only on stealing the 2024 F1 constructors' title from Red Bull but also pushing Norris for champion.

In Italy, it did not happen, as Piastri's intent from the moment the lights went out was to do what he did and go for the win of the race as if oblivious of his teammates' quest. He did what race drivers do when told they can race their teammates: he went for the gap.

Speaking to Sky F1, Rosberg understands Piastri's reluctance to help Norris when team orders are not implemented: "It's hard, though, on Oscar because, in his contract, you will have a number one contract, yeah?

"It won't say in his contract that 'You need to help Lando'. And Oscar is driving brilliantly also, so he deserves every opportunity, just from his point of view, to get race wins. Plus, let's also remember mathematically he can still be World Champion, so there's that.

"He's not that far behind Lando; what is it, 40 points or something? So he's not that far behind either, so it's a hard ask on Oscar to start forfeiting race wins," reckoned the 2016 F1 World Champion.

After 16 rounds thus far and with eight to go, Norris leads Piastri by 44 points and trails F1 Championship leader Verstappen by 62 points. The logic for McLaren is obvious.

As teammate to Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, and having had to watch the Briton power to the 2014 and 2015 F1 world titles, Rosberg very well knows what Piastri is feeling: "That's the worst. It's actually quite horrible."

Rosberg got his 'revenge' by winning the 2016 F1 world title, denying Hamilton four titles and three in a row for Mercedes. He then went on to retire after being crowned at the 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, admitting he did not have it in him to do it all over again. Lewis went on to win the next four F1 championships in a row.

With that statement, Rosberg is on the same page as we at GRANDPRIX247 on what we believe to be true: F1 driver's enemy number one sits in the same garage as his teammate.