Nico Rosberg once revealed how he ‘messed’ with Lewis Hamilton’s head amid tense F1 title battle

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As another tense finish to a Formula 1 season dawns, it’s time to look back on one of the greatest rivalries of the 21st century between Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

A story of friends to enemies produced a fascinating conclusion in 2016, as the Mercedes pair battled it out for drivers’ championship honours at the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

For Hamilton, it was a chance to extend his legacy and claim a third consecutive crown. For Rosberg, it was a case of proving to the world that he could and would.

For the Formula 1 fans watching at the time, there was relief that there was finally a title battle, four years on from the last final race showdown between Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. It’s sort of similar to what is unfolding in 2025.

Rosberg couldn’t let Hamilton push him around, and he became aware of that fact in 2015, following a messy battle at the start of the United States Grand Prix.

Towards the end of their rivalry, Rosberg forced Hamilton into mistakes and found a way to make the seven-time champion crack under pressure. It was a key component in his championship charge.

READ MORE: Five worst moments of Lewis Hamilton’s F1 career including Chinese GP woe and Italian GP disaster

Nico Rosberg ‘messed’ with Lewis Hamilton’s head by losing weight in 2016 F1 title battle

Nowadays, Rosberg thinks Hamilton is crazy at Ferrari, and has acknowledged that the Briton is working harder than ever. Unfortunately, it hasn’t brought him much success yet, but next year’s regulation changes could be an opportunity.

Back in 2016, and knowing that he needed to do something to get in his rival’s head, Rosberg made a drastic change during the summer break. The result? A potentially title-defining victory at the Japanese Grand Prix, which he thinks ‘messed’ with Hamilton’s mind.

“This is really a true story, yeah,” he said on F1’s Beyond the Grid Podcast in 2018. “Because we were so on the edge with everything, and we were overweight with the car. So, our body weight really mattered. It came to the long summer break, and you can’t go on a diet in the middle of the season.

“It just destroys you, mentally. It kills you, and it’s so important to play the long game, mentally, in a season like that. So, I couldn’t afford to go on a diet, and so the only solution was, I thought of it myself was just let’s lose some leg muscles.

“I did stop cycling, and then after the summer break, we went to Suzuka, and I was on pole by two hundredths of a second. One kilo of the leg muscles, which I lost, is worth three hundredths of a second per lap. And I won the race, and that really messed Lewis’ head a little bit on that weekend there.”

What happened during the rest of the 2016 Formula 1 season after Japan?

In each of the four races following the Japanese Grand Prix, Rosberg would finish second, with Hamilton in first.

The result at the end of the year was a five-point margin between the two in Rosberg’s favour, proving how significant his Suzuka win was.

Rosberg once copied a stupid Hamilton mistake and now, for the first time since they had become teammates, he was able to realise what it felt like to beat him.

A few days later, he rode off into the sunset and retired from Formula 1, leaving fans to wonder whether he could have successfully defended his crown in 2017.

Unfortunately, they’ll never know.