Nico Rosberg thinks Sebastian Vettel could become a key player in the championship, but hopes only by stealing points from Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton rather than as a contender himself.

Vettel's win in Malaysia ended a run of eight consecutive Mercedes victories stretching back to last year's Italian Grand Prix. The 2014 title battle was a straight fight between eventual winner Hamilton and Rosberg but the German thinks his fellow countryman could be a useful asset in this year's championship.

"Vettel can be a help, yes," Rosberg said. "Already in Malaysia he was in that sense because Lewis only took three points from me and not seven. But it depends; he can also become a big problem if he continues winning!"

Rosberg admits Vettel's win in Malaysia was unexpected and agrees with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff's assessment it served as a "wake-up call".

"It was a shock to us; shock might be too harsh a word but close to that anyway because we didn't expect it at all. We were very, very confident we were the quickest so it was very surprising and a big wake-up call for us. You can really feel in the team, it's given a fresh impulse, which is good also for us because it will push us to higher things.

"I want to win so of course having Sebastian win in Malaysia was not good and I hope to beat him and Lewis here, and that's it. I'm sure also we will have a stronger car than in Malaysia. I'm expecting us to be the best again here [in China]."

Though he has two podiums so far this year, Rosberg is yet to beat Hamilton in qualifying or a race. Despite this, he says consistency is and always has been key to winning a championship.

"It's a long season and I see it as 10 points to the lead of the championship at the moment and there's still 350 or whatever to be had. That's the way I see it, so of course every race is important but there's still a long way to go and consistency is still going to be very important, as we saw last year, all these things are going to play into it so I'm panicking or anything. But of course I want to do a great job and try to win here."