Nico Rosberg opens up on CURSE after jinxing two more drivers

Nico Rosberg

Rosberg opens up on CURSE after jinxing two more drivers

Former world champion's social media antics appear to sway race results

Lauren Sneath

Thursday 27 July 2023 15:57

Nico Rosberg has joked that he will not be posting pictures with cars ahead of Grand Prix races anymore, as they appear to fall victim to a curse, performing poorly as soon as he bets on their talents.

The former world champion, now a Sky Sports F1 pundit, became something of a sensation on social media due to the Rosberg ‘curse’ at the weekend, after two photos he posted in support of drivers were followed by poor showings on track.

First, Rosberg posted a photo of Max Verstappen’s car in the garage ahead of qualifying, saying: “Budapest!!!! Mercedes and Mclaren looking fast so far! Maybe challenge Redbull!!!”

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Soon after, Verstappen’s string of strong qualifying performances was ended as Lewis Hamilton beat him to P1.

Then, ahead of the race, Rosberg posted in support of Mercedes, taking a selfie with Hamilton’s car and sharing the caption: “Go @mercedesamgf1 today!”

Sure enough, in the race, Hamilton had a poor start and could only fight back to take P4.

It's not the first time Rosberg's been chastised for 'cursing' a team, the joke becoming so prevalent that his Instagram story supporting Morocco against France in last year's men's World Cup was seen as a sign of the African team's doom. They lost 2-0.

Rosberg jokingly explained the instances of the so-called curse at the Hungarian Grand Prix to the Sky Sports F1 podcast, saying: “So the back of the back story here is that on Saturday I posted Max's car, and of course he lost the qualifying.

“And then on Sunday I was like, ‘go Mercedes,’ and I posted Lewis's car and that went completely wrong. So that's the backstory behind this.”

Rosberg: I need to be careful

Rosberg jokingly admitted his bad luck, saying that he will need to be careful in future.

He said of the ‘curse’: “Yeah that's not cool at all...On race weekends I just post a picture from the pitlane with someone with a with a car or something, and that car has then gone pretty poorly. So I need to be careful with that in future.”

He said he would hit “the pause button” on posting with cars, adding: “I’m not doing that anymore.”