Nico Rosberg shared equipment with lewis hamilton in Mercedes for several years, until the German won the battle and became champion in 2016, the year in which he decided to retire. The expilot of Formula 1 He has recalled how difficult it was for him to share a team with the seven-time world champion.
“The whole team had to keep a neutral attitude between myself and Lewis. There was a strange atmosphere within the team because it was clear that there was a great rivalry within our own garage. I felt isolated at the most important point of my career”, explains Rosberg in ‘La Gazzetta dello Sport’.
The situation between both pilots was very tense on the track, to the point that tThere were several touches and even some accident. Even before a podium, caps were thrown to each other in a derogatory manner.
Also, Rosberg admits to being envious of max verstappen. Dutch is number one for everyone in Red Bulldespite attempts to ‘Czech’ Perez for trying to assert himself in his role as second pilot.
“Max has it so much easier”
“When I think about what I went through with hamilton in Mercedes and I look at VerstappenI believe that Max has it so much easier because everyone sees him as the team’s number one driver. There’s a calmer atmosphere at Red Bull“, admits the ex of Mercedes.
However, despite the fact that in Red Bull the roles of first and second pilot are defined, there has also been tension between Verstappen and Pérezas it happened in Brazil. The two-time world champion he refused to cede the position to his partner when the subchampionship was being played with charles leclerc.
This event brought a lot of controversy, since there were radio messages with a lot of tension and even the team itself had to do a statement to relax the situation. Pérez even went so far as to say that if Max had two World Cups, it was thanks to him.