There’s almost nothing worse than your own teammate being your biggest rival. He’s on the same equipment, technology, crew, and the team shares each of the driver’s data. Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton know all about what this is like. You could see the tension between the Mercedes drivers at the start of the 2014 F1 season. But according to former karting boss, Dino Chiesa, the feud has been there since they were teenagers. Chiesa claims that Rosberg was the one who worked the hardest because he didn’t have as much talent as Hamilton. “Rosberg has always worked harder and does all the dirty work, the set-up, working with the mechanics and engineers. Lewis has never worked as hard behind the scenes as Nico.”
Rosberg hinted at a rivalry with his teammate during a pre-season interview with Telegraph Sport saying, “It will definitely be harder, yes. The more success we have the tougher it is.” So far this year, every Q3 has ended with the Mercedes drivers qualifying one-two. With the exception of the Australian Grand Prix, Lewis and Nico have managed to finish one-two in every race. Nico is a measly four points ahead of Lewis in the driver's standings. Hamilton has four wins, Nico has two. Keep in mind that there have only been six races so far this season.
In Bahrain, Lewis made it clear about where he stood with Nico. “We are not friends. Nico and myself can count our friends on one hand. He doesn’t come in my five friends, I am not in the five friends he has. We are colleagues.” The race itself was very close, and Nico was not happy about finishing second to Lewis. During the Spanish Grand Prix, Lewis questioned his engineers about the strategy he was placed on in comparison to the one they gave Nico.
Once in Monaco, Lewis told the press that he was hungrier than Nico because unlike his German teammate, he wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth. During the final qualifying session on Saturday, Nico made a mistake on the last lap that caused a yellow flag, impeding Lewis’s lap, in which he had just set his fastest sector. Lewis was not pleased with Nico on Saturday, and he definitely wasn’t pleased when Rosberg got an early lead and kept it until the checkered flag dropped. There was no interaction between the two during the podium presentation. Mercedes non-executive chairman, Niki Lauda was very upset with the way the two drivers handled themselves at the Monaco Grand Prix, saying that he was to talk to both Nico and Lewis about their actions.
Last week, Lewis posted a picture of he and Nico as teenagers with the caption: “We’ve been friends for a long time & as friends we have our ups & downs. Today we spoke & we’re cool, still friends #noproblem". They might still be friends, but the rivalry is very much there. With the intense battles on the track, and the not-so-friendly words spewed away from the track, these two are always in each other’s heads. The next race is the Canadian Grand Prix, this weekend May 6th-8th, in Montreal Canada.
-Dallas Hollins
Find us on Twitter & Instagram: @InsidePitRow
Photo Credit: Motorsport.com, Instagram.com
No comments:
Post a Comment