Nico Rosberg made impressive revelations about his relationship with Lewis Hamilton while they shared Mercedes and competed for the title in the 2016 Formula 1 season.
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The Brit replaced Michael Schumacher on the team from 2013, joining the German and everything indicated it would be a rekindling of an old friendship. However, things were not exactly like that and over time the very tense internal situation became increasingly clear.
In 2014 and 2015 it was Lewis who ended up champion, and the following year it was Rosberg’s turn to come out victorious. There, it was already possible to see the enmity, which became clear with the accident at the Spanish GP. “There was no relationship at all. It’s real war. It’s like a war. No relationship at all. No talking. War,” said Nico on the High Performance podcast.
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Although he said he was a ‘great friend’ of the seven-time F1 champion, Rosberg stated that there was a dividing line between them “Yes, but when you fight for a world championship, unfortunately, you always end up sacrificing friendship to win it. It’s such a big dream that you just… if you choose, you will choose the world championship over friendship. It’s not like we were best friends at that time anyway,” he said.
“We were best friends as kids, but then we drifted apart a bit during our careers. We got along, but we were no longer best friends. And between getting along or winning a world championship, you will choose to win the world championship. And to win a world championship, you need to explore the gray areas all the time. In wheel-to-wheel battles, you can’t just be the nice guy. You need to go into the gray area, hold your position, because the other guy will do that too, so you have to go there,” he concluded.
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