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The civil war between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg is one of the most heated teammate rivalries in Formula 1 history, and Niki Lauda previously revealed how bad it actually got within Mercedes.
From the beginning of Formula 1’s turbo-hybrid era in 2014, avid fans of the sport were treated to three consecutive seasons of intense rivalry between the two Silver Arrows of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
Rosberg recently described Hamilton as being an ‘assassin’ during their tenure together as teammates, with the British driver often getting the better of his Mercedes counterpart during Grand Prix weekends.
It came to a point where, in 2015, Rosberg realised that he couldn’t let Hamilton push him around for much longer.
The following season saw their rivalry turn up a notch. Things reached a boiling point at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, where they collided on the opening lap in one of the darkest days in Mercedes’ recent history.
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Niki Lauda once revealed how Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg wouldn’t even greet each other at Mercedes
During a 2017 interview with Graham Bensinger, Niki Lauda, the non-executive chairman of the German constructor at the time, was asked about the dynamic between Hamilton and Rosberg during the height of their feud inside the Mercedes garages.
Given that Rosberg retired after clinching his maiden title in 2016, the wounds of their spat in Brackley were healing at the time of the interview, allowing the F1 icon to delve into details.
Asked about the ways in which the two Mercedes teammates were nasty to each other, Lauda said, “They had no relations, which is always bad.
“They were so bad that they didn’t even say hello in the morning to each other. I don’t expect them to have breakfast together.
“They don’t like each other, you don’t have to sit down and have breakfast. But they had a relationship that was really bad. It affected Lewis mainly and Nico. It was fine, but not easy.”
Lauda was then prompted to elaborate on how the feud affected the British driver, to which he replied, “Lewis got so upset about him that even in their performance, sometimes they lost because they’re playing tricks on each other.
“Didn’t show the other one what set-up he’s using, which is bad for the team again, because we want both to go forward, not only one.
“So they played all the tricks you can do, which I understood, I did myself too, but for the team it was pretty tiring.”
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Niki Lauda also shared the ‘mistakes’ that Mercedes made during Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s feud
One of the tricks that Rosberg played on Hamilton came during the notorious 2016 season, which served as a flashpoint in the rivalry between the two Silver Arrows.
The German driver lost weight over the summer break and returned to racing by dominating that year’s Japanese GP. Rosberg recently stated how the advantage he gained from the loss of weight ‘messed’ with Hamilton’s head.
Another question that Lauda fielded was in regards to the distrust that Hamilton used to feel during the heated battle with his Mercedes counterpart.
Lauda added, “There had been some mistakes made that we did too. We changed the mechanics once, one year to the other, from Lewis’ car to Rosberg’s car and the other way around.
“We did not tell the drivers, especially Lewis, beforehand that we were going to do that. They were upset about it because they didn’t like each other, so suddenly they didn’t like us.
“The logic was to exchange the mechanics, because we need to change around anyway. It was nothing against one of them to help the other; it was a simple system change we did.
“But we should have communicated it to the drivers a little better. But there was a lot of aggravation going on last year.”
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