Otmar Szafnauer has revealed the mind games Lewis Hamilton used to play on Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg during their intense Formula 1 rivalry.
Hamilton and Rosberg shared four years as team-mates at the Brackley-based team between 2013 and 2016.
During this time, F1 saw one of the most dramatic rivalries ensue, oftentimes culminating in on-track crashes (read Barcelona 2016) and off-track bust ups for the Mercedes duo.
Szafnauer, who at the time was the Team Principal of the Force India F1 Team (now Aston Martin), revealed that a lot also went on behind the scenes with Hamilton engaging in a sort of ‘psychological war’ with the German driver.
“Lewis is really good at the psychological games, which, I’m sure you would like to hear,” he said on the High Performance podcast.
The Romanian-American engineer recollected an incident where Hamilton had hid Rosberg’s football to break his rhythm.
“Rosberg used to like to kick the football around before the start of a race to get his… Everyone does different things,” he began.
“We should explain. I see it all the time. [Pierre] Gasly does it, somebody dropping the tennis balls and you’ve got to catch it. Others kick the football around. Some do keepy uppies.
“Rosberg loved to get ready for a race. Probably relaxed him, got his reactions sharp, and guess what Lewis used to do? Hide the ball. He used to hide the ball.”
The Michael Schumacher trick Lewis Hamilton used against Nico Rosberg
Before Hamilton, Rosberg had another World Champion to contend with at Mercedes in the shape of Michael Schumacher.
While arguably past his explosive prime, Schumacher was still not afraid to rile his team-mate up to get an advantage.
Szafnauer revealed another instance where Hamilton tried to get into Rosberg’s mind which reminded host Jake Humphrey to recollect an incident with Schumacher and Rosberg at Monaco.
“He also knew that maybe you need a little bathroom break before. He’d go in the driver’s bathrooms and stay there,” Szafnauer said.
This prompted Humphrey to say, “In Monaco. Rosberg needed a pee, and ended up standing in the back of the garage, peeing in a bottle.”
Szafnauer replied, “So Schumacher did it. So Lewis probably learned. But, Lewis, hide the ball, I like that.”
Rosberg did end up getting one over Hamilton. He won the 2016 drivers’ title at the season-finale in Abu Dhabi before calling it quits on his F1 career during the FIA Prize Giving Ceremony.
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