Nico Rosberg issues Charles Leclerc warning over Lewis Hamilton ‘dagger’

Nico Rosberg has warned Charles Leclerc to be prepared for "daggers in the heart" from Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari. 

Leclerc is in his seventh season as a works Ferrari driver, having graduated through the Driver Academy, and was firmly seen as Scuderia team leader, before Hamilton's arrival earlier this season.

Given Hamilton's status as a seven-time champion and as a big-money signing from Mercedes, it was expected that he would be able to earn control of the team and become the focal point, as Max Verstappen is at Red Bull or George Russell at Mercedes.

Leclerc has comprehensively outperformed Hamilton, who remains without a grand prix podium with one race to go before the summer break, having never failed to finish on a podium in the first half of the season. 

Hamilton recently revealed that he had written a series of dossiers as to where Ferrari must improve, sharing these with Ferrari chairman John Elkann, CEO Benedetto Vigna and team boss Fred Vasseur. 

Such meetings are something Rosberg, Hamilton's team-mate between 2013-2016 at Mercedes, has warned Leclerc about.

"There is a lot of lobbying that you can do as a driver which would benefit you," Rosberg told the Sky Sports F1 podcast when asked what a driver can do to mould the team to him and not his team-mate.

"That was one of Lewis's greatest strengths, and when I was fighting him at Mercedes, he was really good at building strong relationships with all the leadership at Mercedes.

"Suddenly, I would find out that: 'Oh, Lewis went for dinner in Stuttgart last night with Dieter Zetsche,' who was CEO of Daimler. 

"That was like a dagger in the heart just to hear that, because who knows what they are talking about? He was very good at that.

"He will be using those skills now at Ferrari because it never hurts to get more and more support from the team."

The article continues below. 

Hamilton praise from Rosberg

Rosberg also touched on Hamilton working with the engineering team at Ferrari, and praised his former friend-turned-team-mate-turned-rival.

"It is nice to hear that Lewis is pushing flat out, because at the moment, he could be giving up, he could say: 'What the hell, I've done it all, why do I need to struggle through this now again?'

"But he's really pushing on and is super committed and super motivated, which is great to see, but it is not easy for him, as Leclerc had such a great weekend [in Belgium], he was struggling all over the place.

"Yes, it was a great race from him, but when your team-mate finishes third, it is tough."