It is rare to see close friendships between two F1 drivers. Given the dog-eat-dog nature of this sport, the competitive nature overshadows the friendly side of a driver. On one end of the scale, we have former McLaren duo, Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris, arguably the best F1 pals in years. On the other, we have former Mercedes duo, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
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The Brit and the German driver locked horns at Mercedes in 2013. Hamilton replaced Michael Schumacher at the German team that year and jumped shipped from McLaren in a high-risk move. In this sport, your teammate is your biggest rival, as they share the same machinery. Thus, making them your most accurate performance benchmark.
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That year, the fresh Mercedes recruit stole the spotlight and finished ahead of his teammate. Furthermore, he won the 2014 and 2015 world championships. Both years, Rosberg finished behind him in the standing, and in 2016 he fought his way to the top. This is when things boiled in the German garage and both drivers were at each other’s throats throughout the season.
#HappyBirthday Nico Rosberg, still only 37 despite retiring from #F1 as world champion 6 years ago. Underrated as a result IMHO, he won 23 #F1 GPs & took 30 poles & 20 fastest laps while competing against one of F1’s GOATs in the same car. Famous Suzuka 2016 pic by Peter Fox. pic.twitter.com/un3gFHh8pi
— Matt Bishop 
(@TheBishF1) June 27, 2022
It was a season finale at Abu Dhabi in 2016 that decided the championship. That was another time when Hamilton faced grievance in the middle-east as even though he won the race, he lost the championship. It was a harsh blow for the Briton, who is only familiar with being number 1.
The following year, Rosberg announced his retirement. As a result, Valtteri Bottas partnered with the 3-time world champion at the time in the Mercedes. Since then, the 37-year-old has won 4 more world titles and broken many world records. At the end of the 2021 season, when the Finn parted ways with the team, the Brit mentioned him as his ‘best teammate’
What kills me is that earlier in the year, Lewis called Valtteri his best teammate on Instagram, Nico got drunk and ranted about it to a bunch of Italian strangers at a Heineken event 
like bro…it’s been YEARS. How did Lewis have this man so pressed. STILL https://t.co/PeS79wWOYR pic.twitter.com/dF9E0VpTKQ
— Athena
(@tarmactorque) July 20, 2022
At a Heineken event, Rosberg shared his feeling about the Brit’s comments with the Italian public. He said, “Bottas was super useful, he never beat Lewis, they were chill. That’s why that’s why, Lewis says Bottas was his favorite teammate of all time. I wanted to write under the Instagram post, ‘what about me?’ Yeah Bottas, my true love.”
DIVE DEEPER
He followed it up by looking around and joking, “We don’t have journalists here right?” To which the Sky Sports journalist said right next to him, “I’ll cover my ears if you want dear Nico”
“No, because you have to be careful you know,” replied the German
“No, no tonight I am not a journalist” acclaimed the Sky Sports representative
“Good, good” exclaimed the former world champion.
Are Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg buddies now?
As the German driver retired immediately after winning the title, we never got to witness him defending his crown. Notably, he is the 7th driver in the sport’s history to not race the following year of being crowned the champion. This robbed the fans of Hamilton’s act of retaliation in the next season.
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Nevertheless, the 2016 victor shared his views on the obstacles that come between two drivers in a cut-throat competition. He said, “The dream of being a World Champion is essentially just that much greater than sometimes a friendship in that sense. We’re good now, we’re fine, it’s all good.”
The German-Finnish racing driver concluded by adding, “Lewis has gifted my daughter something in recent years, so he’s been very kind.”
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It was a shame that we did not get to see the aftermath of the 2016 battle between the two Mercedes pilots. Nonetheless, it is great to see there are no hard feelings among the duo and they share a mutual respect for one another. Do you think Rosberg ran away from a fight after immediately retiring in 2016?
Did you miss our previous article...
https://formulaone.news/mclaren/red-bull-doubts-saw-daniel-ricciardo-make-nascar-promise-to-dale-earnhardt-jr-7-years-later-has-the-time-finally-come
