Nico Rosberg recalled his 2016 fight with teammate Lewis Hamilton. He shares how the German constructor had to take some necessary steps to hold them back.
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The Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Rosberg established the dominance of the Silver Arrows. However, the drivers competed not only against other teams but also with each other. The fight between the two Mercedes duo became so fierce that it even earned the nickname the ‘Silver War.’
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However, the fiercest season of this Silver War era was in 2016, when Hamilton lost to his teammate Rosberg. That season, Rosberg and Hamilton had a big crash in the 2016 Spanish GP, taking each other out of that race.
The Brackley base eventually had to jump between the two drivers. They came up with rules for the two drivers, and the drivers had to pay penalties if they failed to abide by those rules during a race.
Rosberg reported, “It went to the point that we had a code of conduct, a paper, what we were allowed to do in a wheel-to-wheel battle, even penalties with a lot of zeros on them attached to that because there was no other way.”
Mercedes learned from the Nico Rosberg – Lewis Hamilton rivalry
The fierce rivalry between Nico and Lewis was a great learning experience for the Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff. After Rosberg’s retirement, Valtteri Bottas filled in the vacant spot left behind by Rosberg. Further, Bottas and Hamilton never had a heated battle like the one in the Silver Wars era.
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Later, the young prodigy George Russell joined the Brackley base in 2022, which raised speculations about another Silver War. However, the two British drivers are working in harmony so far. Even the 2016 world champion said, “I think Toto has learned so much from the fight Lewis and I had and managing us.”
The Mercedes F1 drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in Bahrain. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
“That’s helping him a lot now in managing George coming into the team because it’s very difficult – you don’t want to cut his wings completely, but you want to tell him ‘don’t crash into Lewis,’ so it’s a very fine line.” Rosberg continued, “but I think Toto is getting that right brilliantly at the moment.”
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Currently, George Russell is standing ahead of the seven-time world champion teammate in the 2022 drivers’ championship. But there is still no sign of rivalry between Russell and Hamilton. Let’s see if the relationship between the Mercedes duo stays this peaceful as the 2022 season continues.
