“I literally said “Here you go mate” and then it came back at me”, Hamilton recalled early this week after celebrating his third drivers” title – Rosberg’s second consecutive defeat in the Mercedes “power unit’ era.
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“I was like “No problem”. “Nico is upset. I understand. I just can’t believe it”. “It’s the worst thing to be my teammate”.
“My mum’s 60th is coming up, I’ve got friends’ events coming up, more races to win, got the team after-year party, the Stars and Cars…Jeez, man. I’ve got to get a few good sleep because there’s going to be a lot of partying as far as I’m concerned”, he said. “There’s a saying: if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it. So I think if I’m ever remembered I want to be remembered for the stuff outside of the auto, and those things (titles) are the cherry on top on the cake”, he said.
Hamilton has loomed large on Formula One’s grand stands that crave for a central figure that can inspire awe and give fans the ultimate racing feast they expect from a World Champion.
But not everyone agrees.
“Amazing”, Hamilton told singer Elton John during the podium interviews.
“And a global star, not just among the British”.
Turn one for sure was very aggressive [by Hamilton].
“No need”, he insisted.
“I’m ahead mid-corner, and I have a right to the piece of track and he’s driving me off the road and banging into me”.
Rather than looking exclusively at how many points each driver has, these rankings take into account race results, qualifying, each driver’s overall performance and how drivers stack up against their team-mates.
Since then, Hamilton has become the first black driver to race in Formula 1 and he now has three titles to his name.
Wolff subsequently vowed to speak to Hamilton to discuss the incident which saw the British driver emerge in the lead and Rosberg lose four places. It was in that year he turned Ferrari into constructor’s champions and the following that began his five-in-a-row domination.
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Rosberg, unsmiling and unresponsive on the podium, told reporters that what Hamilton had done at the start was “not good” but the Briton defended himself.
