Mercedes Motorsport boss Toto Wolff has spoken of the relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg now being one of “enemies”.
The Mercedes title-challenging duo has experienced their good, close relationship with one another, stemming from being team-mates during their karting careers, turning into one that’s deteriorated & distant as the heat of their championship fight has turned up.
The nadir of it being the events transpired in Monaco, Hungary and Spa. With either Hamilton or Rosberg going out of their way to help their championship bid.
Hamilton’s sixth win of the season in Monza last time out has been made to be a major psychological blow to Rosberg, who seemingly conceded the race lead under-pressure, and cut his team-mate’s points advantage to 22 points as the Formula 1 paddock heads to Singapore for one of the first races of the second flyaway season.
Wolff himself has had a first-hand observation of how the pair’s relationship has changed over the course of the season.
“It has changed from, let’s say, an almost amicable relationship at the beginning of the season to a very intense moment, where it was almost like realising these two are enemies competing for the world title.” Wolff admitted.
The Austrian believes that there are life lessons this season for both Hamilton and Rosberg to take on on what he describes as a “new” and “difficult experience” for his drivers.
“It’s also a learning process,” he added. “These boys have been calibrated their whole life that their main priority is to win the drivers’ championship in F1. And here they go – they are in the same car, competing against each other for that trophy and one is going to win and one is going to fail.
“This is a new experience for them – a difficult experience maybe.”
