Nico Rosberg makes Mercedes’ ‘sabotage’ fear claim over Lewis Hamilton’s struggles in 2024
Ex-F1 champion Nico Rosberg dismissed the sabotage claims surrounding Mercedes for favoring George Russell over Lewis Hamilton.
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Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton (VIa: Imago)
Lewis Hamilton finished an all-time-low seventh in the drivers’ standings in 2024. This caused fans to speculate whether Mercedes was sabotaging the seven-time world champion in favor of the team’s future George Russell. This theory has been brutally discarded by the 2016 F1 champion Nico Rosberg.
After the 39-year-old announced his plans to leave Mercedes at the end of 2024 to move to Maranello, fans wondered whether the German giant might sabotage his last season. Moreover, with Lewis Hamilton struggling for the major part of the season, fans further conspired about this theory which heightened mid-way through the campaign.
Despite all such conspiracies, Hamilton ended his 56-race winless streak at the British GP. This trend continued at the Belgian GP, where he won his second and last race of the year.
Oh no, I’m pretty sure they didn’t favour George. One of the best times to see that was Toto Wolff’s [team boss] comment in the race, when Lewis came out of the box and he was 14 seconds behind George. He said, So how many seconds? And Bono said 14. And Lewis said, Geez, that’s far down the road. And Toto came on the radio and said, You can do this, Lewis.
Nico Rosberg said on the Sky F1 podcast
Subsequently, Nico Rosberg claimed that Hamilton was not being sabotaged by the Brackley-based squad. He referred to the Abu Dhabi GP where team principal Toto Wolff motivated the seven-time champion to hunt down George Russell for a P4 finish. Thus, squashing the rumors surrounding the German giant.
This is talking about the teammates! Oh, Lewis, you can do this! If I was George and I listened back on this, I’d be like, Toto, Hey, what’s up with that? You should be neutral here. So that’s because they were under a lot of pressure, the team, because a lot of fans, every time Lewis gets beaten by George, a lot of fans are like, Oh, this is sabotage.
Nico Rosberg said
Lewis Hamilton’s legend status ensured impartiality between him and George Russell
While driving for Ferrari is a dream that almost every driver holds, Hamilton is a legend of the sport owing to his magnificent career. This would have been enough for the Brackley-based squad to ensure neutrality in their behavior toward both drivers, as even a solitary instance might taint their reputation in the paddock.
Rosberg explained how the 39-year-old’s status had played a major role in forcing the team to be as fair as possible. Meanwhile, other teams force their outgoing drivers to sit out meetings and briefings for secrecy.
The pressure was on Mercedes, and I could see, for Toto, it was so important to show the world that there was no preferential treatment towards George and that they were fair because, I mean, Lewis is the legend. There’s such a tension on there, and it would have been really, really bad on Mercedes if there would have been any, any preference going towards George.
Nico Rosberg said on the Sky F1 podcast
On the other hand, Hamilton would be ecstatic to move to the Italian powerhouse and drive for the Scuderia. He would want to cement his name in the brand’s history by returning the championship glory to Maranello. However, he might have to face stern competition from Charles Leclerc, who has been deemed Ferrari’s ‘golden boy’ since his entry onto the F1 grid.
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Geetansh Pasricha
(740 Articles Published)