Nico Rosberg says Lewis Hamilton used to do something cunning at Mercedes that was ‘like a dagger in the heart’

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When Lewis Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013, Nico Rosberg was already deeply embedded within the team. Rosberg was one of their founding drivers in 2010, alongside Michael Schumacher.

Rosberg saw off one legendary teammate, but he faced another who was entering his prime. Hamilton was the team’s highest scorer in his debut season, albeit by a slim margin, but he then prevailed in two championship head-to-heads as Mercedes became F1’s dominant team at the start of the turbo/hybrid era.

Around a decade on, Hamilton abandoned the most successful partnership in the sport’s history to join Ferrari. But even more so than Rosberg at Mercedes, Charles Leclerc is a true child of Maranello, having been with the team since 2019.

And Leclerc has resisted any symbolic attempts from Hamilton to take control. He’s scored all five of the team’s podiums, outperforming his teammate 22-8 in competitive sessions.

Nico Rosberg says Lewis Hamilton excels at ‘lobbying’ F1 team management

Speaking on the Sky F1 podcast, Rosberg recalled that Hamilton was able to win over the top brass at Mercedes. He would quietly schedule dinners with figures like (former Daimler CEO) Dieter Zetsche.

This was a ‘dagger in the heart’ for Rosberg when he found out, because he felt like he’d been pushed to the outside. This was one of Hamilton’s ‘greatest strengths’.

Speaking before the Belgian GP, Hamilton revealed he was sending documents of extensive feedback to Ferrari to try and change the team’s direction heading into 2026. He may be looking to become the team’s dominant figure again.

“Unfortunately, there’s a whole load of lobbying you can do as a driver, which would benefit you,” said Rosberg. “That was one of Lewis’ greatest strengths when I was fighting him at Mercedes.

“He was really good at building strong relationships with all the leadership. Suddenly, I would find out ‘Lewis last night went for dinner in Stuttgart with Dieter Zetsche’, who was the CEO of Daimler.

“It was like a dagger in the heart just to hear that, because who knows what they were talking about? He was very good at doing that, and he will need to be using those skills now at Ferrari, because it never hurts to get more and more support from the team.”

The problem for the 40-year-old is that he’s rarely producing top form out on track. And that may inherently limit his influence compared to Leclerc, clearly the faster of the two right now.

Did Lewis Hamilton risk upsetting Ferrari with this Belgian GP comment?

Hamilton is facing internal ‘scepticism’ at Ferrari, a team who are notoriously set in their ways. He feels fundamental changes are needed to end a title drought stretching back to the late noughties.

He arguably let the team down during the Belgian GP weekend, when two errors led to consecutive Q1 exits. Gary Anderson accused Hamilton of blaming Ferrari, albeit subtly, rather than taking full responsibility.

He expressed confusion over the rear locking that ended his Sprint qualifying session, but Ferrari insisted there was no problem with the car. Anderson says he must be wary of alienating his team.

It’s rare to see the seven-time world champion make one big mistake during a race weekend, let alone two. But Alex Jacques has defended Hamilton in an exclusive interview with F1 Oversteer, explaining that he only had one practice session to adjust to multiple new parts.