{"id":738099,"date":"2026-06-15T13:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T13:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738099\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T13:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T13:05:14","slug":"exclusive-nico-rosberg-hails-legendary-moment-of-f1-as-lewis-hamilton-climbs-to-greatness-again-with-maiden-ferrari-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738099\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Nico Rosberg hails \u2018legendary moment of F1\u2019 as Lewis Hamilton \u2018climbs to greatness again\u2019 with maiden Ferrari win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nico Rosberg has described Lewis Hamilton\u2019s breakthrough Ferrari triumph at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix as \u201ca legendary moment\u201d for the sport \u2013 suggesting that his former team mate has \u201cclimbed to greatness again\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hamilton<\/a> made a blockbuster switch to Ferrari<\/a> in 2025 after a long association with Mercedes<\/a>, where he partnered Rosberg for several years, but the seven-time World Champion\u2019s first season in red proved to be one of his most challenging.<\/p>\n

Aside from a Sprint victory in China, Hamilton struggled to make an impression across the campaign, which passed without a Grand Prix podium finish, and included a run of self-critical comments after several Q1 exits and point-less races.<\/p>\n

However, following a reset over the winter, Ferrari \u201cmoving mountains\u201d to make him feel more comfortable<\/a>, and the introduction of all-new regulations for 2026, Hamilton appears to have rediscovered the form that previously took him to so many titles.<\/p>\n

Off the back of P2 finishes in Canada and Monaco, Hamilton once again impressed in Barcelona, where he stormed to the front row of the grid with a stunning final lap in Q3, and converted it into victory via an aggressive three-stop strategy<\/a> against his two-stopping Mercedes rivals.<\/p>\n

Speaking to F1.com<\/a> in the paddock as the dust settled on the result, and after he interviewed Hamilton in Parc Ferme, Rosberg took a moment to reflect on what the world of F1 had witnessed \u2013 and what his ex-colleague had achieved.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve witnessed a legendary moment of F1,\u201d said Rosberg. \u201cIt\u2019s historic for him, and it\u2019s a historic moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the whole of the F1 world, everybody appreciates this moment. There\u2019s nobody who does not appreciate this moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, he went through such an extremely tough start to the time at Ferrari. It\u2019s amazing how he\u2019s really managed to turn it around and climb to his greatness once again, you know. It\u2019s awesome to witness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all kind of want this to continue now, because we want him to take on the fight to the Mercedes guys. That would be awesome. The car is fast, so let\u2019s see if they can make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton sat 66 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli<\/a> heading into the weekend, but his victory \u2013 combined with the Italian\u2019s late retirement \u2013 means that deficit has been slashed to 41.<\/p>\n

Asked if Hamilton and Ferrari can dream of more as the 2026 season continues, with the Briton looking for an eighth title, and the team aiming to end a championship drought stretching back to 2008, Rosberg was clear in his response.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can, yeah,\u201d Rosberg said. \u201cThey should, and they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking separately on Sky Sports F1\u2019s coverage, Rosberg argued that the result will only add fuel to the fire for Hamilton, with Ferrari\u2019s significant Barcelona upgrade package also appearing to pay off.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get positive results, you get more motivated, you get happier, you work harder,\u201d he commented.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to propel him even higher, together with his team. It\u2019s an incredible momentum over there. All these ducks are falling into place at the moment, and that\u2019s what it takes to win races in F1.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey improved the car, they brought a lot of upgrades here this weekend \u2013 eight different parts of the car are new \u2013 and he is mentally in an awesome place.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s beating his team mate [Charles Leclerc], the others are struggling a little bit with different things, so it\u2019s all coming together, which is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nico Rosberg has described Lewis Hamilton\u2019s breakthrough Ferrari triumph at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix as \u201ca legendary moment\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-738099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}