While Downplaying Rivalry With Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton Once Confessed the Harsh Truth About Infamous Partnership

The friction between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg was possibly the greatest teammate vs teammate rivalry modern F1 has witnessed. Ever since the start of Mercedes’ era of dominance, they were in a league of their own. As battles on the track became intense, the relationship turned sour. While Hamilton once tried to downplay the situation, a brutal truth still came out.

As Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013, things were friendly with Rosberg. The team wasn’t competitive enough to challenge Red Bull for the win. However, the Silver Arrows’ fate changed starting from the 2014 season. As the car became competitive enough to win championships, Lewis and Nico started to challenge each other.

Lewis Hamilton gave a reality check on the relationship with Nico Rosberg

In Formula 1, losing out against other drivers doesn’t hurt as much as it hurts to lose against your teammate. After all, they just proved they’re better than you driving the same car. And when that car is worthy of winning the championship, the intensity goes a couple of notches higher. That is exactly what happened with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

In a 2015 interview with BBC One, Hamilton said, “It is kind of crazy. They shouldn’t really call us teammates as such. Because the problem is there’s two championships. In football, there’s that one championship and for us, we’ve got the constructors’ championship. So, that’s what they hire us and pay us to do, but individually, selfishly, we want to win the championship. So, it is difficult but I think this is always blown so much out of proportion. You know, we’ve had like, sixteen 1-2s.”

“So, our relationship isn’t causing any problems. It’s not like he’s been distracted and not finished high up and vice versa. I think ultimately it’s easy for people to take things for granted and I think we’ve both done a great job and not caused any problems. The energy within the team is as high as it’s ever going to be and that’s because we do what we do, how we do it. We never will be best friends, but somehow make it work.”

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Ever since Rosberg’s retirement in 2016, waters have calmed down between the two. In fact, Nico recently praised his old nemesis and put him on his list of the top 5 greatest F1 drivers. However, when things were getting out of hand in 2016, Toto Wolff had to take matters into his own hands.

Toto Wolff delivered an ultimatum to Hamilton and Rosberg

Hamilton got the better of his teammate twice as he won the driver’s championship in 2014 and 2015. All this while, the intensity of their rivalry kept increasing and reached its peak in 2016. The duo crashed into each other at the Spanish GP and the Austrian GP. Fed up with their antics, team principal Toto Wolff took some extreme measures.

In a 2022 interview with The Times, Wolff told, “After the race, I asked both drivers to come into the room where all the engineers were sitting. I told them, ‘Look at everyone in this room, imagine everyone at home and their families, and see how you make us look.’ I used some harsh words that I’d rather not repeat.” [Translated using Google]

He continued, “I saw the engineers looking down, the drivers looking down. I said, ‘Next time you guys want to push each other off the road, think of all the faces here, you’ll think twice’.” 

“And I told them that if that happened again, I wouldn’t hesitate to throw them out of the car. I said, ‘Don’t challenge me – you don’t want to find out what I’m capable of.'”

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Rosberg finally got the monkey off his back that season and won the championship. He immediately retired after that. Hamilton has since then enjoyed cordial relations with his teammates Valtteri Bottas and now George Russell.