Although he didn’t have any nasty intentions when he uttered the words, Williams’s driver Rubens Barrichello has warned his young colleague over at Mercedes Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg, to get out of the team and away from the position of being Michael Schumacher’s teammate as quickly as he can.

"Yeah. Get out of there! That is the only thing I can tell him. He needs to drive fast and don't crash: Ross will always tell you that before the race," he told Autosport. “He [Nico] is a great talent and I wish him all the best, and maybe tomorrow you will see the newspapers saying, 'Rubens tells Nico to get out of there', but I am not being bad about it.”

Rubens spent many years being teammate to Schumacher at Ferrari where he was forced to take a back seat to the German, even giving up a fifth place to Michael, who was sixth, just in case he may need that one point later in the season, and no one will ever forget Austriagate where he was forced to give up the win in controversial fashion.

Both Nico and Michael were on duty for Mercedes on the opening day of the first test session of the season with Schumacher finishing the day over half a second faster than his young German teammate.

This showed many, including Barrichello that Michael hasn’t slowed any in his three years away from the sport and coupled with his knowledge of being the seven time world champions teammate for so many years has prompted the warning.  

“Knowing what I know, and seeing how fast Michael went today, it is going to be a tough job (for Nico). I wish him all the best because I think he is a talented boy who can be world champion. If he has the chances of being world champion in the same team as Michael, then he can be world champion anywhere. Let's put it this way," Barrichello added.