Nico Rosberg has admitted that his Mercedes crashes with Lewis Hamilton were “probably more my fault than his fault”, suggesting his former teammate’s “genius” made their intra-team battles more difficult to manage on track.
Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton formed one of Formula 1’s most intense intra-team rivalries at Mercedes during the turbo-hybrid era, with the pair clashing on multiple occasions as they fought for wins, and world championships, between the 2014 and 2016 seasons.
Nico Rosberg reflects on Lewis Hamilton Mercedes crashes
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The German surprised the Formula 1 paddock when, in the days following his title glory, he chose to retire from the sport immediately and go out on top, admitting he knew his time was up in the sport due to the toll of beating Hamilton in the same team over the course of the season.
He expanded on how he needed to change to “be tougher” on track and go against his natural instincts to yield in racing, which in turn would prove to his teammate that he was not “Mr. Nice Guy” in wheel-to-wheel battle.
Rosberg cited the recent example of Lando Norris in his battles with Max Verstappen, with the reigning world champion having yielded to the Red Bull driver more often than not when going head-to-head – believing the McLaren driver should “hold his ground” to show Verstappen he will not yield.
Asked on the High Performance Podcast if he needed to stop being ‘the real Nico Rosberg’ on his way to title glory, the 2016 world champion replied: “Oh, totally. Because the real Nico Rosberg is way too nice.
“I had to push and be tougher sometimes, even though it didn’t come naturally to me.
“Then you have the same example with Lando [Norris]. Lando, generally, people will say ‘he’s just too nice.’
“In wheel-to-wheel battle, he has always lost against Max [Verstappen] in the last years. Every wheel-to-wheel battle against Max, he lost out, because what Lando needs to do once is just hold his ground, cause a crash.
“That will send a message to Max: ‘Oh, he’s changing, he’s becoming more ferocious. Maybe I need to calm it down a bit next time against him, because otherwise we’re going to crash.’ And you just have to do that.”
The most infamous of Rosberg and Hamilton crashes during their time at Mercedes came at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, with the two coming to blows in the opening corners after a tight tussle for the lead.
With neither driver wanting to give way, Rosberg defended to the inside out of Turn 3 when Hamilton had a tow, with the Briton taking to the grass rather than lifting off the throttle.
This, in turn, saw Hamilton lose control and careen into his teammate, taking both drivers out of the race.
This was much to the ire of team principal Toto Wolff, who revealed earlier this year that he threatened to fire both Rosberg and Hamilton for their personal rivalry taking over in a team environment.
Asked if he performed similar tactics as he advised Norris earlier, Rosberg quipped: “Well, we crashed, right?”
He added: “That’s just me consciously saying I have to be more firm, I have to not yield.
“Naturally, I would yield, like I did so often before that, and I had to push myself hard, and it was part of my visualisation repetitions that I was doing in meditation.
“I was working very hard on that, visualising myself not yielding and being firm in my position, that was a strong part of my visualisation, and even I was meditating with posture, it’s like you meditate with a posture of strength.”
Rosberg added with a smile: “It’s all these details that add up, and then in the heat of the moment, that preparation helps to hold your ground and not yield, and unfortunately, then of course it led to quite a few crashes and, unfortunately, because Lewis is such a genius, most of the time it was more my fault than his fault.
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“But it didn’t matter, in hindsight, for me, I had to do that because it sent a message to him.
“I think it took him back a little bit. ‘Oh, something’s changing here with Nico. He’s not the Mr. Nice Guy anymore’, and that was a very important ingredient to then having a chance to actually beat him one day.”
Hamilton went on to win four more consecutive Drivers’ titles at Mercedes after Rosberg’s retirement, prior to his high-profile move to Ferrari in 2025.
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