The feud between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton from their days in Mercedes is a well-documented one. In a recent appearance on the High Performance Racing podcast, the retired Mercedes driver spoke of many things, including how the feud was resolved from time to time by the late Nike Lauda. 

According to Rosberg, Lauda had a key role in mending the relationship between the two drivers, including after their infamous 2016 Spanish GP incident.

He explained that most times Lauda would speak to them in his house, get both of them to calm down, reflect on what they could have done differently, and get them to take some accountability on their part. 

"Niki Lauda said, ‘Tomorrow morning, Monday, I want both of you at my house in Ibiza. We're going to make a discussion around this.’ He was the mediator," said Rosberg. "He did a great job with mediating because he pushed us each to take ownership, at least a little bit of what happened. So to get to a point where you say, 'Okay, yes, I actually could have done better. Yes, I understand. That was part of what caused our crash.'"

Nico Rosberg explained how both he and Lewis Hamilton would have the attitude of blaming each other, but after Lauda's intervention, they would acknowledge the mistakes they made as well.

"Going into the conversation with Nikki, it felt like it was 100% the other guy's fault (laughs). But at the end of the conversation, it was, 'Okay, yes, I understand. That part, maybe yes, I could have done better, and that is my fault, actually.’ And then Lewis, the same."

Rosberg then concluded by saying that the two drivers now share a neutral relationship. However, in various parts of the interview, he often circled back to the fact that the incident and the rivalry from their years at Mercedes did play a key role in hampering their childhood friendship. 

Niki Lauda lived to see Rosberg retire after his 2016 World Championship title. Until his passing in 2019, Lauda remained associated with Mercedes, which had already won six F1 constructors' titles by then.

Mercedes would surely hope not to have a repeat of the same Rosberg-Hamilton situation with its current drivers. 

The Battle Of Antonelli And Russell At The Canadian GP

Kimi Antonelli and George Russell were involved in a cat-and-mouse battle for the lead at the Canadian GP. While the 19-year-old succeeded on a few occasions to take the lead from his pole-sitter teammate, Russell managed to claim his lead back.

The two also briefly made contact in a few sections, and both drivers experienced lock-ups at various stages. Unfortunately, Russell’s race ended with a premature retirement on Lap 30 with a mechanical failure.

However, the tension had already started brewing earlier in the weekend. Both drivers sounded very displeased with one another during the Sprint race and voiced it on the team radio.

Antonelli seemed more irate and repeatedly took to the team radio to voice his frustration. This prompted Toto Wolff to chime in and say, "It’s the fourth time to talk about this, we shall talk about this internally and not on team radio."

As the team now heads to Monaco, it will be interesting to see what cards the Silver Arrows can play at the tight street circuit, where it is expected to relatively underperform, considering the straights aren’t long enough for their acceleration advantages. 

What do you think of the team’s chances at Monaco?

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Written by

Aaradhya Singh

Edited by

Yask Kotak