With Felipe Nasr seemingly on his way out of the Sauber F1 Team, his team-mate from 2015 and 2016 has given praise to the Brazilian, with Marcus Ericsson feeling that the former GP2 Series race winner pushed him to become a better driver.
Ericsson is remaining a part of the Hinwil-based squad’s line-up for a third season in 2017 but is looking likely to be partnered by Mercedes Benz-protégé Pascal Wehrlein, with Nasr stepping aside, mainly due to his main backers Banco de Brasil withdrawing their support.
But Ericsson believes Nasr has been a great team-mate in the past two seasons, and that they have been able to push each other to better results, even if the have had some on-track issues, most notably in Monaco last year when the two collided.
“I think me and Felipe has been a good match,” said Ericsson on Motorsport.com. “Because we’ve been pushing each other. Even though I believe I’ve been stronger, it’s still been really close, and always has been. It’s always been a good fight between us two, and we’ve been pushing each other quite hard.
“We’ve had our disagreements and problems, no question about that. But I still believe that it’s been a positive two years together and, like I said, we’ve usually been quite close pushing each other. That’s been good.
“Also things that have happened, we’ve been able to put them aside and move on, it’s not like we’ve had an incident and we don’t talk. We’re both professional enough to put it aside and move on.”
