The German’s fourth victory of the year ended teammate Lewis Hamilton’s three-race winning streak with the Briton having to settle for second.
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Nico Rosberg should walk away from Mercedes and start fresh, that’s according to Felipe Massa.
The newly-crowned triple champion denied he felt the team had orchestrated the victory for Rosberg, before hinting otherwise.
Rosberg, who launched a cap at Hamilton in Austin, added: “I am not going to comment on our relationship”.
“I will remember this weekend forever”, the 25-year-old said.
Regardless of how good you are, how good your vehicle is, that is a tall order, especially at an age when most athletes are looking more towards a comfy chair and slippers, rather than another season at the top of the game. “You should put those questions to them about how they feel about it. What they have to do behind the scenes to keep him happy”.
Lewis Hamilton has claimed his Mercedes team have “felt the need to be extra warm” to Nico Rosberg following the fall-out from last week’s United States Grand Prix.
In Mexico the controversy centred on the team’s decision to bring both drivers in for a second stop. Rosberg and Hamilton were way out in front, with enough time to pit and come back out in the lead.
There are those who will argue that Hamilton, now 30, has had an easy ride to the title with a auto so much better than his rivals that it was nearly like watching donkeys try to keep up with fully-fledged thoroughbreds.
Hamilton also delivered a jibe at his team-mate in the post-race press conference when he said: “Nico drove well. If we run longer on this set we will be down to zero if not worse so box at the end of this lap – instruction”.
“I think that’s the wrong call, but I’m coming in”, Hamilton said. The only exception was Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who did just one lap on the medium before taking no further part in the session.
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Turning to the strategy, Hamilton said: “There was no risk. We have won the constructors” championship, so let me take a risk, let’s go for it. But we did what we did and we still got the one-two’. The Mercedes driver proved that he is still a force to be reckoned with and that he does not want to remain in the shadow of Hamilton in future seasons. Naturally, sceptics were speculating about team orders after the race. They may be better served by letting the drivers make up their own minds. “You should ask Toto [Wolff, Mercedes’ motorsport director] and Niki [Lauda, the non-executive chairman]”. But the three-times world champion was called into the pits for fresh tyres two-thirds of the way through the race when he was leading Rosberg by 18 seconds and he still believes he could have driven on to win.
