Rosberg on Norris in Canada: A strange misjudgement

The 2016 World Champion, now a Sky F1 pundit, weighed in on the McLaren driver clash, Lando Norris taking himself out, and nearly did the same to teammate Oscar Piastri on a day Mercedes scored their first win of the season, and Ferrari endured another below-par weekend.

Of course, the key talking point as F1 departed Montreal was the late-race collision between McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who were battling for third behind Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli. Norris clipped the wall and retired; Piastri finished fourth. Norris accepted full responsibility, saying over the radio: “Stupid from me.”

Speaking after the race, Rosberg said: “It’s just a misjudgement. A strange one… a strange misjudgement. But you know, at the end of the race there… It’s a very tough race mentally, and your concentration struggles, and that I think led Lando into a misjudgement.”

Rosberg admitted he sees Piastri as the new front-runner in the 2025 F1 title race, but stopped short of ruling out Max Verstappen, who finished second and remains in the hunt despite Red Bull's struggles. “This helps Max to still hang in there for now, but he needs a better car,” said Rosberg. “I don’t know if Red Bull’s going to be able to deliver that. He’s obviously… he’s the best driver for me out there, but he needs a better car.”

George Russell won the race for Mercedes, his fourth career victory and the team’s first of the season. Antonelli completed the podium after a mature drive that earned him Driver of the Day honours.

Asked for his overall take, Rosberg said: “First of all, Mercedes, are they back? That’s the question mark, because they dominated the weekend. We know that this track does suit them, but they also have a new geometry, so is the new geometry maybe the solution for them?”

Turning back to the championship picture, Rosberg added: “Then, in the World Championship fight, I think now Piastri has become the favourite. He’s just solid, he doesn’t make mistakes, always delivering 100% – that’s super impressive. This weekend, suddenly, I think he’s become the favourite for the championship.”

Behind the top four, Charles Leclerc finished fifth for Ferrari, ahead of Lewis Hamilton in sixth. Reflecting on Ferrari’s weekend on The F1 Show, Rosberg pointed to both strategic errors and misfortune: “We've got to remember that Charles Leclerc was quick at times in the race.

“He was very quick; he was keeping up with the McLarens very nicely. He was quick in qualifying. Some say he could have been top three in qualifying, right up there with the others. I think they also did a wrong tyre choice in qualifying [by not running the medium tyre in Q3]."

Rosberg was not done with Ferrari: "So a lot of strategy mistakes there because then also in the race they stopped Lewis into a bunch of traffic which lost him loads of race time. They also had a free opportunity to try a one-stop with Charles. It was a free opportunity but they didn't try to do it.

“Behind there was just Lewis and loads of space, there was just nobody there, and they could have taken a shot at it and left him out on that first stint in the first place because he was going strong and they just pulled him in early. He was also a bit annoyed about it because he wanted to stay out longer.”

Rosberg concluded: “So it was a bit of a clumsy weekend from Ferrari. Then also bad luck with the groundhog. So it all came together, which is not good. It's like the story of their year so far, isn't it? It just keeps on going like that, it's a tough one for them.”

With a weekend off before Formula 1 sets up camp at Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix, Round 11 of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship, Piastri leads Norris by 22 points at the top of the Drivers' standings, and 43 up on Verstappen in P3.

Despite their worst points haul since the season opener last year in Bahrain, McLaren are 175 points ahead of Mercedes in P2, with Ferrari next 16 points adrift and Red Bull a further 21 points back; Verstappen responsible for all but seven of their points so far this season