Nico Rosberg has questioned whether age has caught up with Lewis Hamilton after the Briton decried his qualifying “weakness” at Monza.
Hamilton will line up sixth on the Italian Grand Prix grid having made a few mistakes on his final hot lap that left him just under two-tenths down on Lando Norris’ pole position time.
“Furious. Absolutely furious,” Hamilton told Sky F1 before going on to reveal the corners where he lost time.
He added: “No one to blame but myself. Qualifying has been my weakness for a minute now, and I can’t figure it out… The team deserve better – maybe they’ll get that with Kimi.”
The Kimi being Kimi Antonelli who Mercedes finally confirmed on Saturday would replace the Ferrari-bound Hamilton.
Swapping age and experience for a rookie driver and youth, Antonelli was just seven months old when Hamilton made his Formula 1 debut with McLaren in 2007.
Nico Rosberg: Do you think it’s age coming in there?
Rosberg, a pundit for Sky at the Italian Grand Prix, questioned whether age was playing a role in Hamilton’s qualifying where he trails team-mate George Russell 4-12 for this season.
“What a weakness there’s somehow come about with Lewis in qualifying this year. He’s never had that in his whole career, so it’s really a first there,” he said.
“At least this weekend he was actually fast, listening to what he was saying, just that there were mistakes. Most other times this year, he was just not quick enough compared to George.
“Do you think it’s age coming in there, Simon?”
His fellow pundit Simon Lazenby sidestepped the question, saying “That’s not for me to comment on that, but a few people have been saying that.
“But the end of the day, it’s Lewis Hamilton, isn’t it? And sometimes he could just pull it out of his back pocket. You’ve seen that, haven’t you on a number of occasions.
“I don’t know. And I think it’s quite interesting at the end there that he said you might not get that from Kimi coming in, so making light of it.
“But what’s your thoughts? You know the guy well, you raced against him. Do you think it’s, let’s just flip the question on to you, do you think it is?”
Rosberg replied: “It’s natural that at some point you will start to get a little bit slower and the first place that happens is in qualifying.
“Now, Fernando [Alonso], 43, has until as of late, gone really, really strong so maybe things have been extending.
“I mean, Lewis is going to be 40 in a couple of months. That is quite an age for, of course, high-performing elite sportsman, but it’s difficult to know.”
