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Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton rivalry turned sour at Mercedes

The 2016 world champion said the friendship became a negative spiral as team-mates fought for titles.

By , Sports writer

· 2 min read

Apex Sports News graphic: Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton rivalry turned sour at Mercedes
Photo: Apex Sports News graphic

Nico Rosberg has explained how his friendship with Lewis Hamilton deteriorated after they became Mercedes team-mates in 2013. He said the rivalry became a negative spiral and that mechanics were swapped ahead of the 2016 season.

Key takeaways

  • Lewis Hamilton joined Nico Rosberg at Mercedes for the 2013 Formula 1 season
  • The pair collided on lap two of the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix
  • Rosberg said the relationship became a negative spiral of becoming enemies internally
  • Mercedes swapped mechanics and engineers ahead of the 2016 season
  • Rosberg said fans began booing him after the Spa collision

Two long-time friends became Mercedes team-mates when Lewis Hamilton joined Nico Rosberg for the 2013 Formula 1 season, according to Motorsport.com. Their amicable relationship soon turned sour as Mercedes dominated the world championship’s early turbo hybrid era from 2014 and title battles turned into intra-team duels.

The rivalry turned into a negative spiral

Rosberg told the Beyond The Grid podcast that the rivalry was not a single event but a continuation of a negative spiral of becoming enemies internally. He described it as a step-by-step process that linearly got worse and worse, with big spikes in between.

The first major flashpoint at Spa

The first signs of tension appeared early, and in the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix, the pair collided on lap two as Rosberg attacked Hamilton around the outside of Les Combes. Rosberg’s front wing clipped Hamilton’s rear-left wheel, both drivers suffered damage, and they lost victory to Daniel Ricciardo.

Rosberg said the incident was consequential because it ended Hamilton’s race and all eyes were on the two of them fighting for race wins and the championship. He added that Lewis fans started booing him at Spa, which was difficult to experience mentally because of the hate directed against him.

Mercedes split the garages ahead of 2016

As the intra-team rivalry became deleterious, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff took a drastic, unforeseen decision ahead of the 2016 season: to swap mechanics and engineers around. Rosberg said it was tough because his mechanics were his family, and he arrived at Melbourne for Friday free practice to find them working on Hamilton’s car.

Rosberg explained that the mechanics started to compete and the engineers started to compete, and information was not shared as openly as before because each side wanted their own driver to be champion. He said it was not healthy for a team when information was not shared properly, because then they were not a real team anymore and things could go bad very quickly.

What the competition was and what happened next

The rivalry took place during Mercedes’ dominance of the early turbo hybrid era of Formula 1, with the two drivers fighting each other for race wins and the world championship.

Earlier context on their relationship

When Hamilton joined Rosberg at Mercedes for the 2013 season, it was initially seen as a feel-good story: two long-time friends becoming team-mates. The tension built gradually over the following years as both drivers competed for the same titles in a dominant car.

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