Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg went from childhood friends to fierce title rivals in Formula 1 as teammates amidst Mercedes’ early dominance of the turbo-hybrid era.
The Briton and the German were close as kids after first becoming teammates in 2000 whilst competing in karts for MBM (Mercedes‑Benz/McLaren). Hamilton had the better of Rosberg that season as he won the European Championship, with the latter achieving a close second.
It was an unlikely friendship with Rosberg the son of the wealthy 1982 F1 drivers’ champion, Keke Rosberg, and Hamilton a kid from a council estate in Stevenage. But it was a friendship that lasted until they became teammates at Mercedes during the 2013 Formula 1 campaign.
Lewis Hamilton felt Nico Rosberg’s pace in the 2014 F1 Bahrain Grand Prix ‘can’t be right’
Rosberg reached F1 in 2006 for Williams after winning the GP2 Series title in 2005. Hamilton followed one year with McLaren after likewise winning GP2 in 2006. Mercedes then brought the band back together in 2013 after Michael Schumacher retired from F1 for a second time.
But Mercedes acing the introduction of 1.6L V6 turbo-hybrid power units in 2014 catapulted Rosberg into title contention for the first time in his career and battling exclusively with 2008 champion, Hamilton. Their title fights also turned a friendship into a fierce and bitter rivalry.
READ MORE: The best moments of Lewis Hamilton’s career in Formula 1
It was early in the 2014 season that Hamilton and Rosberg’s relationship started to sour, too. The Bahrain Grand Prix marked just the third race of the year but with it already increasingly clear Mercedes were in a class of their own, Rosberg pushed the limit to try to pip Hamilton.
The 2014 Bahrain GP became known as the Duel in the Desert as Hamilton held Rosberg off to win in Sakhir. A late-race safety car after Pastor Maldonado flipped Esteban Gutierrez let Rosberg pit for newer soft tyres, while Hamilton stayed out on a set of well-worn mediums.
Having superior Pirelli rubber let Rosberg hound Hamilton, yet the Briton held on to win by 1.085 seconds. But Hamilton has revealed he could not understand in the 2014 Bahrain GP how Rosberg kept making moves until he learnt the German used engine modes he did not.
“The race in Bahrain, we had this great battle,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 (23/11, 05:21). “I think the difficult thing was we didn’t have [the] freedom of choosing different strategies at the time.
“But, in this race, Nico kept going down to the higher power modes – which I wasn’t doing – and that’s why he was coming from so far behind. I couldn’t understand.
“I was like, ‘I’ve definitely got a good exit. I’m not cheating on these exits. I’ve got a good distance’. And he was coming from so far behind. I was like, ‘This can’t be right’.”
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg repaired their friendship after fighting for F1 titles
Rosberg and Hamilton had shared one win each to open the 2014 season in Australia and in Malaysia before the Duel in the Desert took place at the Bahrain GP. Hamilton would win 11 of the 19 races in 2014 to Rosberg’s five but the title fight went the distance to the last race.
READ MORE: The five worst moments of Lewis Hamilton’s career in Formula 1
Ultimately, an ERS failure cost Rosberg a chance to win the title with double points on offer in the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as Hamilton secured the crown. The Briton also lifted the 2015 title, and it took Rosberg giving everything he had to beat Hamilton to the 2016 title.
The mental strain Rosberg required to get the better of Hamilton over a season even proved to see the German retire immediately after winning the 2016 drivers’ title. But leaving while on top would let Hamilton and Rosberg repair their relationship through the following years.
“Lewis and I have repaired our friendship,” Rosberg told Suddeutsche Zeitung in February 2024. “We see each other from time to time. Every Christmas my daughters receive a huge box full of gifts from him.”
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