BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Tensions were high between Mercedes teammates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton throughout the 2016 Formula 1 season.
Rosberg had been with the team since 2010 and through the lean years as the new owner, Mercedes, was building the former British American Racing/Honda/Brawn outfit into the powerhouse it is today. He won the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix, which was the first F-1 victory for the Mercedes team since 1955.
Hamilton, the 2008 world champion with McLaren, joined Mercedes in 2013. Rosberg and Hamilton had been friends since they were kids racing go-karts, and they had become teammates with Mercedes. Their friendship quickly became strained.
Rosberg scored two wins and Hamilton one in 2013. Then in 2014, the first year of F-1’s hybrid era, Rosberg won five times, but Hamilton topped that with 11 victories. Hamilton won the championship and Rosberg finished second. It was a similar story in 2015 with Hamilton’s 10 wins giving him the title, while Rosberg’s six victories put him in the runner-up spot.
Hamilton’s final victory in 2015 was the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas. He then went into a slump — winless in the final three rounds in 2015 and the first five in 2016 before finally winning in Monaco. Rosberg won the final three races in 2015 and the first four of 2016.
The race preceding Monaco was the Spanish Grand Prix where Hamilton started from pole and Rosberg qualified second. Their race lasted just a few bends before they controversially collided. That certainly did not ease the tension between the two drivers. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff later admitted it had been difficult to manage the situation, especially in 2016.
The victor in Spain that afternoon was Max Verstappen. It was his first race for Red Bull after being promoted from Toro Rosso, and at 18 years and 228 days, he became the youngest driver to win an F-1 race.
Rosberg won the 2016 world championship by a mere five points over Hamilton and abruptly retired.
Hamilton had never shirked from hard work, but 2016 was a reminder of how much dedication is needed to win a world championship. Flash-forward to this year and Hamilton is now a seven-time world champion, tying the record set by Michael Schumacher.
Hamilton started this season strongly with three wins and a second-place finish in the first four races. But then he went winless for five consecutive races — something that last happened in 2016. And, like 2016, he was trailing in the drivers’ world championship, albeit not to his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas. This time around it was Red Bull’s Verstappen at the top of the standings.
After missing the top step of the podium five times in a row — due in part to Red Bull finally having a car as good or better than Mercedes — Hamilton was determined to win his home Grand Prix of Britain at Silverstone. Hamilton is not a big fan of spending time in the driving simulator at Mercedes’ F-1 factory near Silverstone. He usually leaves those duties to Bottas or one of the team’s test drivers. But on the Friday morning of race weekend, he spent time in the simulator before heading to the track for practice and qualifying.
“The simulator wasn’t his most favorite tool in the past,” Wolff said, “but I think we’ve developed it to a level that is quite good and made it best in class, and he’s started to see the benefits of it. This fight (with Red Bull) is so tough that you need to just grab every single marginal gain, and that’s why we’ve progressed together to better understand the car also with the tool of the simulator.”
In this year’s British Grand Prix, Hamilton controversially tangled with his championship rival, but this time Hamilton continued while Verstappen crashed. Hamilton went on to win his home grand prix for the eighth time.
“I have been giving it my all this past week,” Hamilton said after his 99th F-1 victory. “I’ve been in the factory and just giving it absolutely everything trying to uncover performance with this car with the guys. I am just so proud of everyone on the team for just continuing to work, even though we have had a bit of a deficit (to Red Bull). I am just putting in the time to give absolutely everything. Leave no stone unturned.”
If Hamilton fails to win the world championship for the first time since 2016, it won’t be because of the lack of hard work and dedication.