In the turbo-hybrid era, dominated by Mercedes since its dawn in 2014, Nico Rosberg he was the only driver able to break Lewis Hamilton’s streak of consecutive titles. In 2016, the German surprisingly managed to beat his then boxmate, at the end of an extremely tense and controversial season. Inevitable, when wondering if and how Valtteri Bottas can beat The Hammer, think about what Rosberg did in that year. The German, interviewed by Sky Sport F1, is back to talk about his relationship with Hamilton, with whom he was also seen chatting in the Barcelona paddock.
Hamilton: “Bottas is closer than I would like”
“Lewis and I live in the same building in Munich… today we talked about private things. Tranquilli. Now we are ‘neutral’, all that mess that was there is now gone. Dinner together? No, we haven’t gotten to that yet, we’re working on it “ joked the former Mercedes driver, now a TV commentator. But Rosberg also tried to gut the weaknesses of the ancient rival, starting with the infamous ‘psychological warfare’. “Hamilton fights by getting into his head, because in that aspect he is not that strong. You have to get inside and then start making mistakes and losing your way a bit. This is the only way. Bottas must try to do what he can. But this year he seems to have difficulties again“.
Bottas: “I’ll try to overtake Hamilton from the start”
Rosberg also revealed gods contacts with Bottas at the beginning of his experience in Mercedes, then interrupted by the Finn: “At first he called me. But then I waited a while to meet him and after that he didn’t want to anymore. I think maybe the team told him not to talk to me, to do it himself and learn his way on his own ”. Rosberg then did not use half measures in indicating i flaws of the Finnish driver: “I in the early years, 2013, 2014, was a bit like Bottas now. Too kind. Then I worked hard mentally and learned how to get tougher in the head. Now it’s too easy to overtake Bottas. We also saw it with Verstappen at Silverstone. There he can get even better. At Silverstone he was too kind at the start, for example. He gave Lewis space to pass him “.
