How Rosberg denied F1 a Hamilton-Schumacher dream team

Nico Rosberg has revealed that his dominant 2012 season over Michael Schumacher at Mercedes denied Formula 1 fans the chance to see the legendary seven-time world drivers' champion paired in a dream tandem with Lewis Hamilton at the Silver Arrows the following year.

Hamilton replaced the retiring Schumacher, having been convinced to join Mercedes by Niki Lauda, despite the team's poor performance relative to Hamilton's employers at the time, McLaren.

Schumacher was outscored 93 points to 49 in 2012, with Rosberg picking up the team's first win since returning to F1 in China.

Hamilton's move proved to be inspired – as McLaren's form has fallen off a cliff, Mercedes have become F1's dominant team, sweeping both championships since the advent of the V6 Hybrid era.

Hamilton and Rosberg's rivalry at Mercedes became fierce until the German retired as world champion in 2016, but he has now suggested that Hamilton could have been duelling with F1's most decorated racer.

"Very important that I beat him [Schumacher in 2012]," Rosberg told F1's 'Beyond the Grid' podcast.

"It was massively decisive for my career, because that meant that he retired and I stayed on the team.

"Surely he would have stayed and I would have been out [if Schumacher had beaten Rosberg]."

The 91-time grand prix winner returned from four years of retirement to take a solitary podium in three seasons at Mercedes – at the 2012 European GP – and Rosberg has a theory on the cause of his underwhelming comeback.

"I had not even won a race at the time," he added. "He was the best of all time and therefore it's like… first, it's really questioning: 'How am I going to fare against him? He's so damn amazingly good, am I going to be able to be close to him? Am I going to be able to beat him?'

"Sometimes that's really the thinking that was going on. It's difficult to judge, he's my childhood guy, where I'm watching, and just larger than life – he's phenomenal.

"He was a little bit beyond his peak, of course. So he had very strong peak performances, even did pole position in Monaco, we need to remember that, in 2012 in the last year.

"So he had very strong moments, but where it showed that he wasn't at his best anymore was a little bit in the consistency, which was just a little bit off to where it used to be."

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