Nico Rosberg on how he would fare against Max Verstappen in the same car: "I put Max on the same level as Lewis"

Nico Rosberg feels he would match up very well against Max Verstappen if he was in the same car as him. The former world champion was asked this question on the Sky F1 podcast, in light of the fact that Verstappen is continuing to walk through the competition in his own team.

Ever since Daniel Ricciardo left Red Bull at the end of the 2018 F1 season, Max Verstappen has been dominant against every teammate he's had. Be it Pierre Gasly in 2019, Alex Albon in 2020, or Sergio Perez right now, Verstappen has been the clear leader.

Nico Rosberg, on his part, was teamed up with a world champion and an elite driver at Mercedes. He raced with Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton as his teammates and beat them both over a season at least once.

When the question of a challenge in the form of Max Verstappen was posed in front of him, Nico Rosberg claimed he would do as well as he did against Hamilton. He also delved a bit into the challenge that comes with having the Dutch driver as a teammate.

“I put Max on the same level as Lewis [Hamilton]. So that’s how I would do," Rosberg said. "Yeah, so that’s how I would do. That would be my best guess. Would I take it? No. Because I’m very happy with where I am in my life. But, if I was someone like Alex Albon… it really depends. It’s a difficult one, because you know that you’re just not going to have a chance against Max, because no one in the world will have a chance against Max."

“Yes, you have the best car, you can win races and be in the best team," he added. "But do you really do accept to put yourself into a place where you’re going to be a number two? That’s a decision that you have to ask yourself."

Why Nico Rosberg thinks Daniel Ricciardo will be happy to play second fiddle against Max Verstappen

Nico Rosberg further gave his reasons why Daniel Ricciardo would be happy to play second fiddle against Max Verstappen in a Red Bull now as compared to earlier. According to the German, it comes down to the realization that Verstappen is going to be one of the greats in F1.

"Whereas someone like Daniel Ricardo, a couple of years ago, would never have accepted that," he said. "Now he’s in a place where he says, ‘OK, listen, Max is going to be one of the top five of all time, in line with [Ayrton] Senna, [Michael] Schumacher, Hamilton, [Juan Manuel] Fangio, and it would just still be lovely to be back at Red Bull and accept that I probably will be more of a number two there’."

It will be interesting to see what the future has in store for Max Verstappen and his teammates, especially with Sergio Perez reportedly finding himself with one foot out of the door already.