After being teammates in karting, Hamilton and Rosberg raced at Mercedes between 2013 and 2016, going head-to-head for the Formula 1 world championship of their closing three years together.
The title battles featured an growth of disturbing moments between the 2 drivers, including on-observe collisions on the 2014 Belgian Expansive Prix and the 2016 Spanish Expansive Prix.
Upon beating Hamilton to the enviornment title in 2016, Rosberg announced his rapid retirement from F1, prompting Mercedes to mark Valtteri Bottas as his replacement.
Talking referring to the competition between Hamilton and Rosberg on Jake Humphrey’s High Performance Podcast, Mercedes crew boss Wolff pushed aside the thought that that the friction helped express out the finest in the drivers.
“I am no longer sure it gets the finest out of every, because that is negativity, and also you soundless want to be a crew player,” Wolff said.
“If the debriefing room is stuffed with negativity, for the explanation that two drivers are opposed with every other, then that will spill over into the energy into the room, and that’s no longer one thing I am going to ever allow as soon as more.”
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Wolff outlined how he was as soon as unable to obtain to the bottom of the friction between Hamilton and Rosberg, asserting there was as soon as “historical context” Mercedes was as soon as unaware of, and that he would possibly possibly well furthermore simply never fully heed.
“I’ll possibly well not substitute it, for the explanation that drivers were hired sooner than I got right here,” Wolff said.
“No person truly thought what’s the dynamic between the 2? What’s the previous between the 2? There was as soon as comparatively plenty of historical context that none of us knew, and will never know.
“That is the explanation it is one thing that we’re taking a study, how attain the drivers work with every other, what occurs in the case of failure of 1 and the replacement.
“We accept the annoyance and wretchedness if it goes against one, but we’re making an are attempting soundless to retain the particular dynamic in the crew.”
After some early-season tension in 2014, Hamilton and Rosberg first got right here to blows on-observe at Spa when Rosberg refused to relief out of an early on-observe fight. He later suggested the crew it was as soon as in response to Hamilton ignoring crew orders on the old sprint in Hungary.
Wolff labored to alternatively construct an ambiance whereby every drivers recognised that nothing was as soon as more significant that the crew result, and the importance of representing the Mercedes price.
“It was as soon as very no longer easy, because I got right here into the crew as a newcomer in Formula 1, and Nico and Lewis had been in the game for plenty longer,” Wolff said.
“However soundless I used to be as soon as ready to construct an ambiance where they needed to appreciate the crew, now and again with an iron fist, and they understood that they would maybe not allow us to down, they would maybe not let Mercedes down.
“In the events of 2014, I felt there was as soon as some selfish behaviour. I said the following time you approach terminate to the replacement car, your teammate, you take into story the Mercedes price. You divulge about single folks in the crew.
“You divulge about Dieter Zetsche, the CEO of Mercedes. That is going to change the formula you act. You would possibly possibly well furthermore be no longer going to build your teammate into the wall.
“I continuously made sure that if this was as soon as going to happen recurrently and there was as soon as a pattern, I even don’t devour any be concerned in making someone leave out races.”
