Nico on the approach that's helped him in 2016; Championship leader wary of Hamilton fightback at Suzuka
Monday 10 October 2016 10:51, UK
Nico Rosberg has given an insight into his 2016 mindset, with the championship leader revealing he has learnt to block out the "rubbish" which could distract him from beating Lewis Hamilton to the world title.
For the first time in his F1 career, Rosberg has headed into the season's final five races in the lead of the championship with his advantage over Lewis Hamilton increasing to 23 points after his Mercedes team-mate retired at last week's Malaysia GP.
Rosberg has repeatedly stressed throughout 2016 he is only focusing on one race at a time in the quest for his first world title and, amid the longest season on record, explained how his approach has changed this year.
"That's where my experience really helps," he said ahead of the Japanese GP this weekend. "I really learn to manage my energies and where not to waste energies on rubbish stuff - for sure there I've made big progress.
"It's important to me and I really like to take that approach."
Asked what "rubbish stuff" he was referring to, Rosberg gave the examples of "reading the news a lot, or playing computer games, or going partying until 5am in the morning".
On the flip side, Rosberg cited his family - he became a father for the first time last year - as being the central part of his focus away from the track.
Hamilton under fire after press conference
Hamilton's late engine blow-up last Sunday was the latest reliability setback to hit the reigning champions' title defence and prompted the Briton to give an initial series of outspoken interviews.
But asked if he drew encouragement from his team-mate and rival's problems and frustrations, Rosberg replied: "I don't draw encouragement from that. And I know when Lewis has difficulties like that he will come back fully motivated.
"So it's not very encouraging to know that he's going to come back as strong as ever!"
After tracing the failure on Hamilton's car to a crankshaft-related fault, Mercedes have decided to run with a more conservative fuel specification at Suzuka. Rosberg, however, says he is not focusing on whether unreliability could have a big say in the outcome of the title race.
"I'm not worried because I have learned to put my energy into things I can influence," he said. "I also have a lot of trust in the team to ensure problems like that happen again, and they have come with certain changes here this weekend.
"Am I worried that it will decide the championship? No."
