Nico Rosberg believes Mercedes can still be a serious contender in the World Championship fight this year, despite a disappointing Spanish Grand Prix.
The German struggled with tires throughout the Barcelona weekend, and finished seventh after losing positions in the closing stages of the race. However, having not lost much ground to the championship lead (currently shared by Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso), Rosberg believes that the next races on the calendar will be better suited to the Mercedes package.
"I only lost two points on the championship lead, which was good, and I am still only 20 points away which is good, as long as we can push on and improve," said Rosberg. "Hopefully, the conditions in Monaco and Montreal will favor us again. It is possible. But it is difficult to understand how the next race is going to be: let's wait and see."
Rosberg said that the Mercedes form over the Spanish weekend was simply a consequence of it failing to get on top of the tire situation.
"It was a difficult weekend for us," he said. "It is really unbelievable in F1 at the moment – the ups and downs of everybody. That Williams win is fantastic for them and I am very happy for Frank [Williams], his 70th birthday and the win is fantastic stuff.
"For us, it was a much more difficult weekend. It was just tire management. In qualifying we were eating the tires and that was why we were struggling more than some other teams like Williams. It was the same in the race."