Nico Rosberg Up For The Challenge As F1 Season Heads Into Final Straight

Ahead of the US Grand Prix this weekend, Nico Rosberg is sitting 17 points behind Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Still, the German remains confident he can still win this year's drivers' championship.

With just three races remaining this year, Nico Rosberg believes he can win the Formula One title despite a 17-point deficit to make up on Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.



"I have it in my own hands, that's the good thing about the situation," he told news agency dpa in an interview ahead of Sunday's US Grand Prix.



The fact that Mercedes have also wrapped up the constructors' title will also help, the 29-year-old German believes.



"Of course, the situation in now a bit simpler because I no longer have to think about the constructors' title," he said. "I can just concentrate on the driver's title now."



With double points awarded in the final race, Hamilton could turn up in Abu Dhabi with 11 race wins to Rosberg's four and yet still lose the title, if he suffers a technical failure and the German wins. But that was not something he really wanted to think about though, when asked ahead of the race in Austin.



"Do I really agree with it? I don't know if any of us agree with it or do not agree with it," Hamilton said. "But it is the way it is and you just have to deal with it and hope for the best really."



Missing teams



Meanwhile, at the other end of the grid, the double withdrawal of Caterham and Marussia teams from competition this season, means only nine teams will be on the grid for the US Grand Prix.



That's the lowest number of starters in a F1 race in the last nine years. Sauber team chief Monisha Kaltenborn wants the sport's governing body FIA to "do its duty" to save Formula One from suffering a self-destructive crisis.



"I think some stakeholders, or people, are just not willing to understand where the problems lie," she told reporters at the Circuit of the Americas. "For me, I think I am beyond the stage of frustration.



The smaller F1 teams have been arguing for some time that the profits from the sport should be more fairly distributed by Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, rather than just being mainly shared amongst the most successful teams.



The US race in Austin is followed next week by the Brazilian Grand Prix but the drivers' championship could well be decided on the last race of the season, on November 23 in Abu Dhabi.



al/rd (AFP, dpa, Reuters)