In F1, your teammate is your biggest rival because you cannot afford to lose to someone who is driving the same car. This often results in rivalries between partners that often spill over to the outside of the race track. Michael Schumacher was a known psychological warfare specialist and Nico Rosberg once fell prey to his antics.

Mind games are not new to F1. Ever since Lewis Hamilton stepped foot into the sport in 2007, he developed an epic rivalry with his teammate Fernando Alonso. While the duo eventually finished with equal points, missing out on the championship by just one point, things heated up between them. Alonso went as far as handing out envelopes full of cash to the McLaren employees to influence them.

In a 2017 interview with Graham Bensinger, Nico Rosberg recalled one of many incidents where Schumacher used his tactics. He said, “There was a lot of stuff going on. One example is here at Monaco Grand Prix, there’s just one toilet in the garage. There is no other way, you can’t go anywhere else and we always go to the toilet just before getting in the car. Because we’re in the car for such a long time, you can’t go. So, he got there first, so I was waiting outside and he knew it was me outside.”

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“He just took his time forever. He was just probably standing there, looking at the mirror, watching his watch, leaving at the last minute to get out so that he can just about get to the car. But he knows that I’m not going to be able to go to the bathroom anymore. And of course, I’m getting more and more stressed outside because I’m like, ‘jeez I’m going to miss the start of the session’. And then I had to eventually use a bucket for help.”

Nico Rosberg counts Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton among GOATs

Despite his moments with Michael and epic rivalry with Lewis, Rosberg holds them both in very high regard. Nico recently posted a video on his YouTube channel where he talked about his top 5 drivers of 2022. While listing out the names, he also revealed his top-5 greatest drivers of all time. While he admitted he rated Max Verstappen very highly, he felt the Dutchman wasn’t ready to make the list as of now.

He said, “For me, it’s almost sure that he’s going to be a top-five driver of all time, with the likes of Senna, Hamilton, and Schumacher and someone else where fourth you’d pick Fangio, of course. It’s Schumacher, Senna, Hamilton, and Fangio. That’s top four and it’s quite an easy one, I think. And then you’d put Verstappen there very soon, not yet because he has only two titles, but he’ll be there very soon, I’m sure. So that’s very impressive. He’s only 24-25 years old.”

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What do you think of Schumacher’s epic prank on Nico? Was it a bit too much? Or was it all in good spirits?