2016 F1 World Champion Nico Rosberg has said that there are some similarities between Fernando Alonso's return to the sport and that of Michael Schumacher's between 2010 and 2012.

The Spanish two-time champion generated real waves when it was announced he would be returning to the grid with the newly-named Alpine team and, naturally, for a driver of his talent, there was huge excitement over seeing what he could do.

Thus far, though, it's probably been steady at best with even the great man himself suggesting that it's taken him a little by surprise as to how long it's taking him to fully get into the swing of things.

We have, at times, seen glimpses of the Spaniard at his best - his late surge in Portimao was an example of that - but after a pretty non-descript weekend in Monaco last time around, there are clearly a few things that still need to be ironed out by the former Renault and McLaren man.

Indeed, for Rosberg, those moments of brilliance remind him of when he was Michael Schumacher's team-mate at Mercedes between 2010 and 2012 where the seven-time champion returned to the sport but could only really show off his talents in spurts, rather than over the course of a full campaign.

Speaking to Sky F1, Rosberg explained:

“The Alpine is not an easy car to control, and Alonso seems to struggle with it.

“Every now and then we see these flashes of genius from Fernando Alonso, it reminds me a bit of Michael Schumacher when I was his stablemate at Mercedes during his comeback.

“It does have something to do with age. Fernando hasn’t been in Formula 1 for two years, and it’s going to take him a while to get back to his old self.” 

Up next for Alonso and the rest of the paddock, a trip to Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and, though it's a street circuit, the more open format of the track could lend itself to the Spaniard's superb race-craft.