Nico Rosberg 'confirms' 2022 F1 regulations' impact: “It was such a great season”

Nico Rosberg has given his endorsement for the regulation changes Formula 1 introduced for the 2022 season.

Overseen by F1's Managing Director of Motorsports Ross Brawn and his team, the various changes included a ground-effect floor, bigger tires, a simplified front wing, and a sharp new rear wing. These new rules, which were initially planned for the 2021 season before getting pushed back by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were introduced to bring back the excitement in the sport by allowing cars better chances to overtake, among other things.

Nico Rosberg, the 2016 F1 world champion, has praised the sport for making the changes as he believes it made the 2022 season “awesome.” As quoted by the F1 website, he said:

“For me, the year of F1 was so awesome. It was such a great season.”

“Even though one guy dominated so much, it didn’t really make it boring. It was just so interesting all the time, so exciting, so many things changing – it was great. I think the rule changes really worked very well, to make overtaking easier – we can confirm that. They’ve done a great job with that, led by Ross Brawn, so thank you Ross and team for the effort on that.”

The regulation changes did have an impact as the 2022 season saw 785 overtakes, a big jump from the 599 passes recorded in 2021. This, Rosberg believes, is proof that the new rules were working as intended, as he said:

“The amount of overtakes [in 2022] compared to [2021], [there were] so many more, and that’s really just proof of how the new rules are working.”

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Nico Rosberg names Max Verstappen 2022's best driver, former Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamiton not in his top-3

Nico Rosberg named his top five drivers of the 2022 season in a video on his YouTube channel.

Max Verstappen, who won his second consecutive F1 world title with a dominant campaign, unsurprisingly features at the top of the list. The German stated that Verstappen's "incredible level" made him stand out throughout the season, making him his best driver for 2022.

Rosberg said:

"Number one, I would definitely go for Max Verstappen. Just incredible the level that he’s in. He’s so fast, so consistent, never makes any mistakes, so confident. [It’s] incredible because he didn’t have the fastest car in qualifying for most of the year."

"Leclerc took nine poles and yet then Verstappen always came through, never made any crashes, and won 15 races in the year out of 22. That’s just unbelievable."

George Russell and Charles Leclerc were Nico Rosberg's second and third-best drivers, respectively, of the recently concluded season, with his former Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in fourth.

"Lewis was very, very unlucky, especially in the first half of the season. If it wouldn’t have been for that, I think he would have been on a par with George in terms of points if not, maybe in front."

"Lewis, especially in the latter part of the season, when the car was starting to get better, he could really show again, how he’s still at his very, very best. He did some incredible drives there at the end of the season. They were all just special."

McLaren driver Lando Norris was ranked fifth by Nico Rosberg.