Rosberg reveals key tactic ‘mastered’ by Lewis Hamilton in explosive partnership

Nico Rosberg opened up on his efforts to use the media more efficiently during his Mercedes rivalry with Lewis Hamilton.

This was a tactic which, according to Rosberg, had been “mastered” by Hamilton as the duo went to war as Mercedes team-mates.

Lewis Hamilton ‘mastered’ media approach

With Mercedes establishing dominance in Formula 1 when the sport introduced the V6 turbo-hybrid engines, Hamilton and Rosberg found themselves duelling for title glory, a long-standing battle which soon put their relationship under serious strain.

Hamilton won out in 2014 and 2015 to become a three-time World Champion, but the following year, Rosberg rose to World Championship prominence, and off the back of that achievement, swiftly retired from the sport.

Rosberg these days is involved with the F1 scene as a pundit, and during commentary duties for Sky F1, he spoke about how for drivers, the “power of the media” is something which can make or break you in any given situation.

For Hamilton, he definitely found himself in the first category, Rosberg explained.

“The media is a tool that you can use very, very strongly, something that Lewis, for example, mastered back in my time. He was very good with speaking to you guys,” said Rosberg.

“In the heat of the moment, he was just smarter, or just better at saying the better things. Because it’s so hard, something happens on track, you haven’t even seen it on TV, and you go straight in front of the microphone, it’s so hard to say the best possible thing, and it can really backfire big time if you get it really wrong with whatever you say.

“But at the same time, you have an opportunity here to use the power of the media, the power of the opinion of the world.”

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At that point, Rosberg was asked whether he saw any similarities between his and Hamilton’s situation and that of George Russell and Max Verstappen, after Russell engaged in a fiery media battle with the four-time World Champion off the back of their Qatar qualifying incident which cost Verstappen pole.

Put to him that he was in Russell’s shoes in 2016, feeling the need to speak up as he attempted to topple the then dominant Hamilton, Rosberg replied: “Sure, it was part of it, yeah.

“I knew that I had to stand my ground more and be smarter with the media, yes.

“So I tried to make progress. So I wasn’t at Lewis’s level, but I tried to make progress there and it certainly played… Everything plays a role. It’s all when everything comes together.”

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