Shocking: Rosberg's mechanics withheld reliability issues from Hamilton's in 2016
21:40, 11 Jun
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Nico Rosberg has opened up about the enormous levels of toxicity present in the Mercedes garage in 2016 as he and teammate Lewis Hamilton were fighting for the world title, and revealed Toto Wolff's magic fix for the volatile situation.
Rosberg and Hamilton were locked in a tense title battle in 2016 with both drivers getting involved in accidents with each other at the Spanish Grand Prix and also at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Rosberg shed light on how the tension between both drivers also seeped its way into the rest of the team.
“It goes between the drivers first, then it goes to the mechanics, the engineers, and that’s when it really gets problematic in the team."
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Rosberg's mechanics withheld reliability issues from Hamilton's
“So in our time, at the beginning of 2016, it was so toxic that even when something failed on my car, my mechanics would sometimes, like, not really tell the other side."
The situation became so borderline toxic that team principal and CEO Toto Wolff had to intervene.
“So what Toto did was overnight, swap the mechanics over, and the mechanics are my friends, my family, and suddenly they were on Lewis’s car, and Lewis’s mechanics on my side were kind of my enemies. And that was like a shock therapy, and it worked amazingly, it did.”
Nico Rosberg speaking to race engineer prior to the start of the 2016 Spanish GP
Rosberg-Hamilton rivalry out of control
Regarding the deterioration of the relationship between the once best friends, Rosberg said: “The relationship with Lewis started to be difficult on a really step by step basis. It was small steps which just spiralled it worse and worse and worse until it was very much out of control."
“The most difficult moments were the crashes and coming together. Who was at fault, who took the blame? It was incredibly intense at the time, in the heat of the moment coming out of the car. So, so tough."
Fixing the relationship between the two was never possible said Rosberg, because: “Lewis and I never really took the time to have an open conversation about it.”
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