The world champion said: “You’ve seen he complains about a lot of things”.
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“He also said the team chose to use an inferior tyre late on – an accusation Mercedes deny and claim was actually Hamilton’s decision”.
“I’m not here to make friends, to finish the race and say: “Hey, that was a lovely race, chap, you were so friendly with me, you let me win”.
“This is the one opportunity and you take it. That doesn’t mean wiping someone out or cheating but you have to be fierce, strong and hard to as much of the limit as you can be”.
Mercedes will consider changing their driver line-up if the strained relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg has a detrimental effect on their team, Toto Wolff has warned. At a time when one team has a transparent benefit over the chasing pack, the knowledge in that two drivers can be allowed to fight head-to-head for pole positions, grand prix victories & world championships has retained interest in a sport losing its popularity.
“You still have to commit and work super-hard but, for sure you’re kind of like “My job’s done, I wish the season was over, wish I could go on holiday”, the Briton said of his feelings after winning the title in Texas with three races to spare.
Hamilton’s relationship with Rosberg appears at an all-time low following two years in which they have gone toe-to-toe for the drivers’ championship.
“Well I’ve just signed on for another three years, so I guess I’m going for the next championship” he laughs.
In the pre-podium room afterwards, Hamilton tossed Rosberg the cap he had to wear on the podium, only for the German to throw it straight back at him. We’ve had one-twos.
“Ultimately I think it’s easy for people to take things for granted”.
‘His complaining over the past three races won by Rosberg is said to have grated on senior Mercedes executives and even irritated the engineers close to Hamilton.
“We are never going to be best friends but somehow we make it work”.
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“Going forward, we will consider if it is the best set-up for the team”. “It is important to have talented and fast drivers in the auto”. We always expect the worse and we set our targets in terms of development targets high, what do we want to achieve in terms of downforce in aerodynamics, what we want to achieve in terms of weight saving, and all the other areas of development.
