F1 News: Nico Rosberg claims Mercedes chief favoured Lewis Hamilton in bitter title battle

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in 2016 in Abu Dhabi — Photo: © IMAGO

Hamilton vs Rosberg

Nico Rosberg claims Mercedes chief favoured Lewis Hamilton in bitter F1 title battle

Rosberg delved into his rivalry with Hamilton

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Tuesday 2 June 2026 08:59

Nico Rosberg has revealed how divided Mercedes was during his F1 title rivalry with Lewis Hamilton and how one chief tended to side with his team-mate.

Hamilton versus Rosberg remains one of modern F1's greatest rivalries, a competition that originated from childhood and boiled over in front of the world's cameras from 2014 until 2016.

The 2016 Spanish Grand Prix saw the most memorable incident between the pair, where they both crashed into each other on the opening lap of the race.

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff recently revealed that after that crash he threatened to fire both drivers, as it became clear how unmanageable the rivalry was becoming.

Rosberg: Going up against Camp Lewis was tough

Rosberg himself recently made an appearance on the High Performance Podcast where, naturally, his rivalry with Hamilton came under the microscope.

During the interview, Rosberg revealed Hamilton's strengths and how Mercedes was divided into two camps during the period. He also added that then executive director Paddy Lowe could also be swayed easily to Hamilton's side.

"It's never been a strength of mine to know the right thing to say, the right version of the truth. Lewis was very very good at that, in meetings saying the right thing," Rosberg explained.

"It's a huge battle off the track, because, do you have the team on your side or do you not? If you say the right thing then you've got the team on your side.

Rosberg was then asked by host Jake Humphrey if he felt the team was on Hamilton's side, to which he responded: "No, it was divided. Some people were Camp Lewis and some people were my side. Which was important and helpful of course.

"But it remains tough, when you're up against people who are Camp Lewis. One of the things I felt most difficult about was Paddy [Lowe], who was our executive director at the time, he won the championship with Lewis at McLaren, so they had an existing very deep relationship.

"I generally felt that Paddy would, if in doubt, he would be on Lewis' side, and that subjectively felt like one of the most difficult things for me to deal with. Because Paddy was often the first one to discuss any incidents with us, before any other senior people like Toto [Wolff] or Niki [Lauda] got involved, we would do a lot of the incidents with him first. Which was generally difficult for me."

F1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Nico Rosberg Paddy Lowe