Nico Rosberg reveals personal hurdle to defeating Lewis Hamilton

2016 Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg has revealed a personal hurdle he had to overcome to defeat Lewis Hamilton, which saw him abandon being the "real" version of himself.

Rosberg famously decided to retire from F1 immediately after sealing his world drivers' title in the Abu Dhabi season finale, securing the championship by five points.

It brought an end to Hamilton's initial period of dominance with Mercedes after he won back-to-back titles, as well as bringing Rosberg's career to a close.

The German gave everything to defeat the seven-time world champion and did not want to go through it again, having finally reached the top of the sport and achieved his lifelong dream.

Beating Hamilton took more than on-track performance for Rosberg; he had to abandon being his true self because he was "way too nice", realising he needed to become tougher.

He sees similar traits in current reigning world champion Lando Norris, particularly when the Briton has battled Max Verstappen.

The Dutchman has consistently gotten the better of the McLaren driver, with Rosberg believing Norris needs to "hold his ground" just once to send a clear message.

Discussing if he had to end being his true self alongside Hamilton, Rosberg explained on the High Performance podcast: "Oh, totally. Yeah, 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.

"You have the same example with Lando. Generally, people will say he's just too nice. In wheel-to-wheel battles, he has always lost against Max in recent years. In every wheel-to-wheel battle against Max, he has lost out because what Lando needs to do just once is hold his ground and cause a crash.

"And 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."

Asked if that is what he did against Hamilton, Rosberg replied: "Well, we crashed, right?", referring to Barcelona 2016.