Rosberg signs up for two more years alongside Hamilton at Mercedes

Mercedes has signed a new deal with Nico Rosberg, according to reports on BBC Sport Online.

He may be giving second best to team mate Lewis Hamilton at the moment, but Nico Rosberg clearly has confidence that he can come back at the 29 year old, as he has signed a new deal for two years with Mercedes, the dominant team in F1 at the moment.

Rosberg won the opening round in Australia and led the championship until two weeks ago. This weekend in Monaco he aims to repeat his performance of last year, where he beat Hamilton to pole and in the race.

Despite the warm words from Dr Zetsche, of Mercedes' parent company Daimler with regard to Fernando Alonso, the Rosberg deal puts paid to any thoughts the Spaniard may have had about getting into the dominant car in F1 at the moment.

The Mercedes driver pairing is well matched; Hamilton is paid more than Rosberg, but the German driver is important both to push Mercedes cars and to push Hamilton to the limit.

It is only May, but the drivers of the leading F1 teams look set already for 2015, with largely unchanged line ups from this year.

The possible exception is McLaren; Kevin Magnussen is establishing himself in F1, but will have pressure from Stoeffel Vandoorne, while Jenson Button is believed to be close to a new deal with the team, possibly a one year roll over, as Honda comes back into F1. Whether Honda has another driver in mind is not known yet.

There are a few question marks over whether Kimi Raikkonen will continue at Ferrari, but he has a two year deal and logic suggests that he has no reason not to fulfil it, even if this year has been a disappointment.

Alonso's options look very limited, as he is believed not to want with McLaren's Ron Dennis again, even if the veteran team boss has said repeatedly that he can imagine putting the acrimonious past behind them.