Formula 1's Latest Rumours and Talk: Nico Rosberg, Nico Hulkenberg and More

Nico Rosberg's one-lap pace has deserted him this season, with the German being dominated by Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in qualifying.

It is some turnaround from the 2014 campaign, when Rosberg was so often the man to beat on Saturdays and became the maiden winner of Formula One's Pole Position Trophy, and the former Williams driver has recently been trying to explain why Hamilton has beaten him so frequently in 2015.

Elsewhere, the race for seats with the newly formed Haas outfit appears to be reaching its latter stages, with team owner Gene Haas claiming he has a three-man shortlist.

Two of the names on Haas' radar are hardly a surprise given the team's relationship with Ferrari, but the American's interest in signing Force India's Nico Hulkenberg is indicative of how seriously his outfit will approach their debut season in F1 next year.

While Haas seems to have little doubt over his future plans, Renault continue to lurk in the corridor of uncertainty, with the French company still unsure whether they want to compete with their own team or leave F1 entirely.

Renault Sport F1's managing director, Cyril Abiteboul, has insisted the manufacturer are still not ready to make a decision.

Felipe Nasr, meanwhile, is taking a more short-term view, with the Brazilian speaking of his hopes for the second half of the season as Sauber introduce updates to their chassis and engine in an effort to return to competitiveness.

The Swiss team are set to receive the new-spec Ferrari power unit in time for the Belgian Grand Prix, where Scuderia Toro Rosso and Max Verstappen may have a slight advantage, having made preparations for the new race-start procedure during a recent filming day.

Here's this week's F1 roundup.

In 2014, Nico Rosberg was the king of qualifying, claiming 11 out of a possible 19 pole positions and beating Lewis Hamilton 11-7 in the Mercedes inter-team battle.

Although the Silver Arrows continue to be dominant on Saturdays, having claimed pole at every race over the last 12 months, Rosberg has been outperformed in qualifying this year, recording just one pole to Hamilton's nine.

And the German is unable to understand exactly why he has struggled to match his championship rival in the one-lap arena in 2015, with Rosberg's solitary pole, at the Spanish Grand Prix, coming on a rare off-weekend for the two-time world champion. 

Although the Mercedes drivers are more evenly matched in qualifying than the head-to-head scoreline suggests, the German qualified a massive 0.575 seconds slower than Hamilton at the recent Hungarian GP, per the official F1 website.

After losing the title to Hamilton in the 2014 season finale, Rosberg, per Sky Sports' Pete Gill and James Galloway, promised to improve his racecraft for this season.

And while the 30-year-old believes his decision to prioritise his Sunday performances may have had an impact on his qualifying displays, Rosberg has admitted he is unable to pinpoint a reason why Hamilton has beaten him so frequently in 2015, telling Crash.net:

I've been working to improve my racing and it may have slightly compromised qualifying a little bit, but most of it is not explainable to me. I don't understand why there is such a big difference and it is frustrating at the moment, but I am nearly over it. It is not something that pulls me down—it is the way it is and, as long as my racing is good, I can try to turn it around.

The problem for Rosberg, though, is not the nature of his own performances but those of Hamilton, whose 2014 qualifying performances were hindered by braking and reliability problems.

With those issues resolved and with the machinery at his disposal—as early as the season-opening Australian GP, Hamilton hailed the Mercedes W06 as "the best car I've driven," per the Independent's Ian Parkes—Hamilton has been able to remind his team-mate why he has long been regarded as one of the fastest drivers in F1.

Nico Hulkenberg, the Force India driver, is among the three front-runners for a seat with the new Haas Formula One team, which is set to arrive on the grid in 2016.

Haas were granted an F1 entry in April 2014 and have the potential to become a major force in this year's driver market, with team owner Gene Haas telling USA Today's Jeff Gluck of his eagerness to poach drivers who have grown tired of their existing teams.

Despite being an all-new outfit, Haas' close links with Ferrari, with whom they will share a technical deal, should ensure the team will be an attractive proposition for drivers next season.

In July, Mr Haas—whose right-hand man, Gunther Steiner, previously told Autosport's Edd Straw and Dieter Rencken of his desire to seal a driver lineup by September at the latest—was quoted by Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble as claiming he had a shortlist of 10 drivers.

But now it seems that list has been narrowed down to three, with 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours winner Hulkenberg, as well as current Ferrari reserve drivers Esteban Gutierrez and Jean-Eric Vergne, leading the way.

Per Fox Sports, Haas said:

We have a list of drivers in which we are interested in, but in the next few months there will be many moves in the [existing] teams' lineups and we will wait to see who is interested in the project we are developing. ...

[Hulkenberg] is a driver from another team, so the possibility of him driving for us depends of his position with his team.

Anybody who is driving in a Formula One team right now, certainly, is someone that we would be interested in, if he becomes available.

Depending on the future of Kimi Raikkonen, it is possible Hulkenberg could still land a seat at either Ferrari or Williams for 2016. Perhaps recognising this, Haas told Motorsport.com's Charles Bradley he is unsure whether a driver as highly regarded as Hulkenberg would be willing to join a new team.

Should Hulkenberg depart Force India, who currently sit fifth in the constructors' standings, it is probable that the German would be replaced by Mercedes-affiliated DTM driver Pascal Wehrlein, who has tested for the team on several occasions in 2015.

Torn between purchasing an existing team and withdrawing from Formula One altogether, Renault aren't inspiring much confidence as they evaluate how to extract the most from the pinnacle of motorsport.

And Cyril Abiteboul, Renault Sport F1 managing director, is adamant Renault will not make a decision on their Formula One future until September at the earliest.

In between the two extremes of pulling out of F1 and taking over one of the current teams on the grid lies the possibility for Renault to continue along their current path, which sees them provide power units to Scuderia Toro Rosso and four-time world champions Red Bull Racing, with whom they have a troubled relationship.

Abiteboul recently told ESPN F1's Laurence Edmondson how Renault "are much closer to a conclusion and a decision." However, the former Caterham team boss now says no decision is imminent, telling Autosport's Ian Parkes:

It's no secret we are working a lot on lots of things, including trying to make our engine more competitive because frankly without a competitive engine there is no story whatsoever.

It's also true we are looking into different options, but there is no immediate decision.

It's a long-term process because anything to be decided is a long-term decision, so we are not going to rush anything.

We will not make further comments before September at the earliest.

Should they decide to return to Formula One as a full works operation, it is likely Renault will purchase the Enstone-based Lotus outfit, which ran under the Renault name between 2002 and 2010 and secured two consecutive world championships with Fernando Alonso in 2005 and 2006.

Renault's plans to revive their young-driver scheme, as well as their decision to withdraw their backing of the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, as reported by Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble, suggests the French manufacturer are putting plans in place ahead of a full-scale assault on F1.

Felipe Nasr is hoping the upgrades Sauber are planning to introduce in the second half of the season will allow the team to fight for points once again.

The Brazilian's fifth-place finish on his Formula One debut at the Australian Grand Prix got Sauber's campaign off to a near-perfect start, but the team, with fewer resources than their rivals, have since slipped down the pecking order and constructors' standings.

With Nasr and team-mate Marcus Ericsson having scored just three points between them in the last seven races, Sauber now sit eighth in the championship, just five points ahead of McLaren-Honda.

As reported by Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble, however, Sauber will finally receive the latest specification of the much-improved Ferrari power unit in time for the Belgian GP, with the team set to make significant upgrades to the C34 chassis ahead of September's Singapore GP.

Nasr hopes the raft of improvements will give the team, who endured their worst season on record in 2014, a boost, not only for the remaining nine races of this season but a strong base for their 2016 car.

The rookie told Crash.net:

At the moment, we are facing a rather difficult time, but we have our updates in Spa-Francorchamps and Singapore, so we have to be patient. I am looking forward to running the car with the updates but, as we have not driven the car yet, we cannot precisely predict what it is going to be like. 

The target is to put us back into the points. In the championship, we have dropped back down, and I think it will not be easy to move up. However, I am still confident the updates will help us to be in a better position. ...

We have to make sure the updates we are bringing for the next races are working properly as these will be the first step to guide us into the right direction for 2016.

The second half of the season will provide a stern test for Nasr, who told the same source he is yet to drive on a number of circuits that make up the latter stages of calendar, including Suzuka, the home of the Japanese GP.

In a bid to gain an early advantage over their rivals ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, Scuderia Toro Rosso have conducted a filming day at the Imola circuit.

As reported by Motorsport.com's Adam Cooper in July, a new race-start procedure will be introduced at the Belgian GP, as the FIA, Formula One's governing body, continues a push to ensure the drivers operate without the aid of their teams.

These changes will include a reduction of pit-to-car radio messages and greater restrictions regarding the biting point. While they are not expected to lead to any drastic results, the new protocol should provide more variation in terms of the quality of the starts.

Per Sky Sports' James Galloway, F1 teams—in this era of limited testing—are permitted to hold two filming days with their current car, which must run on "demonstration tyres" and can run no more than 100 kilometres.

While some of their competitors were enjoying their mandatory two-week summer break, having completed their own filming days in pre-season, Toro Rosso were at Imola getting to grips with the new rules.

According to Motorsport.com, Max Verstappen—fresh from scoring a career-best fourth-place finish at the Hungarian GP—drove the STR10 at the former home of the San Marino Grand Prix.

But rather than racking up the miles, Verstappen "spent most of the day practicing starts in the pit lane."

Having had just 10 races to adjust to the previous start procedure, extra practice will come in handy for the 17-year-old. It will be interesting to see whether Verstappen will have an advantage over his peers when those five red lights go out at Spa-Francorchamps.

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