What we may be witnessing in these opening jousts of the season is the mental disintegration of Nico Rosberg as a racing driver. His reaction to losing to Lewis Hamilton – blaming the Brit for slowing down and bunching him up as the attacking Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel closed on him – told us more about his own state of mind than it offered fair criticism of Hamilton. Rosberg was, I thought, disgruntled by his failure to match his team-mate during a run of eight wins in the last 10 races. In those emotionally charged minutes after the Chinese Grand Prix nothing seemed to make sense to him, rational thought was fuzzy and Hamilton appeared in his mind as a blurry figure of hate. Nico Rosberg (left) looks less than impressed after finishing second to Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton . The German driver blamed Hamilton for slowing down and bunching him up as Sebastian Vettel closed in . Rosberg (left), Hamilton (second right) and Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel celebrate on the podium in China . It was all the more remarkable given that Rosberg was for so much of last season the ultimate expression of focus, coolness, intelligence and calculation. There was no chink in his well-tailored shell of composure. That changed in the aftermath of Spa last August, when Rosberg was punished by the team (he was made to pay for the damage caused rather than fined as such, contrary to everyone’s interpretation at the time) for his part in an early crash with Hamilton. Rosberg's attitude seems to have changed in the aftermath of his crash with Hamilton in Spa last August . It was my view then and remains so that Rosberg was marginally more to blame for the collision, but that it was no more than a racing incident. The stewards agreed. They did not penalise either man. Yet, Mercedes made Rosberg a very public scapegoat, denting his confidence at a crucial moment in the season. He shrunk. Hamilton immediately seized the initiative, which he has never ceded in the slightest measure from that day to this. When on form, Hamilton is an extraordinary racer, maybe utterly unbeatable. And he is on form now, perhaps more so than ever in his life. That must eat at Rosberg’s heart. I am not writing off the German quite yet. I believe he is far tougher than his nickname Britney, as in Spears, suggests. He can be ‘nasty’ as Niki Lauda said of him. We can all recall examples of his cunning. But he is at a fork in his career, it seems. For if he cannot find a way to beat Hamilton soon, he could ebb away as Mark Webber did at Red Bull. Webber, a feisty competitor and a talented driver, was a genuine threat to Vettel in their first season fighting for the title, as Rosberg was to Hamilton in their intitial championship contest. But that was it for Webber. Vettel soon took total command, and his one-time rival was left to complain about his supposedly unfair treatment by the team, before fading into the distance and finally into retirement from Formula One. The 17-year-old Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Max Verstappen showed he has what it takes . My highlight of the Chinese Grand Prix was the pure, instinctive racing of Max Verstappen. His ability to go on the inside of his prey and brake at precisely the last moment was remarkable craftsmanship from a boy of 17. It reminded me of John Arlott’s tribute when a young, floppy haired David Gower began his England Test career with a nonchalant four. ‘Oh, what a princely entry,’ he growled. Bernie Ecclestone recently highlighted that commentators 'don’t fully understand' technical terms . Formula One has a greater than average obsession with its own navel. It never stops asking where it can improve itself to an extent that must bore any outsider to distraction. Over complicating the whole sport is an associated abomination that has increased in recent years through saturation coverage on television and the internet. Every smart aleck wants to show just how clever he is, however slight his underlying knowledge of the sport may be. Bernie Ecclestone recently picked up on this phenomenon, saying: ‘Commentators explain for an expert audience and not for people wanting to have an entertaining afternoon in front of their tellies. ‘And many times these commentators hide behind technical terms because they themselves don’t fully understand what is going on. There you have it.’ The nadir of this nerdy jargon is surely the description of tyres as ‘prime’ and ‘option’, terms that even the suppliers, Pirelli, wanted discontinued. So, to clarify: super soft tyres are always known as the ‘option’ tyres, when they are in use, which they are not always; softs can be ‘prime’ or ‘option’, so can mediums, though hards are ‘prime’ whenever they are available, which they are not always. It couldn’t be clearer, could it?
Are we seeing a mental disintegration of Nico Rosberg as a racing driver?
Last season Rosberg was the epitome of focus, intelligence and calculation .
Since his Spa collision with Lewis Hamilton his composure has diminished .
Max Verstappen, 17, impressed with classy driving ability in China .
Rosberg: Attempting to overtake Hamilton could have cost me second .