Formula One’s rowdy circus rumbled out of town on Monday, leaving Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg behind. It felt like a crowd scrambling out of the way of a western shoot-out. They could settle this in private, without anyone else getting hurt.
Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Rosberg both live here, of course, not that they will be socialising before the Canadian Grand Prix on 8 June. “We’re living in the same building,” Hamilton said on Sunday night, looking relaxed after his earlier traumas. “People say that we’re best friends, but we aren’t. We haven’t been since we were 13 years old. I say ‘hi’ to him and he says ‘hi’ to me. We don’t have lunch together. We don’t have dinners. We are cool.”
But they looked anything but cool during a Monaco Grand Prix which changed the dynamic between these two forever. The racing gloves are off for the remaining 13 races of the season. Hamilton is convinced that Rosberg pulled a fast one to win pole position on Saturday.
The F1 jury is split on whether Rosberg deliberately locked up to deny Hamilton his final flying lap in qualifying. But Hamilton thinks Rosberg is guilty – and that means, in his eyes at least, he is up against a much more ruthless opponent than he may have first realised.
Hamilton, who finished second to Rosberg, losing his world championship lead in the process, appeared to let events get to him over the weekend. But Jenson Button, the driver who knows Hamilton best, is convinced his old McLaren team-mate will be all the stronger in Canada following his bitter disappointment in Monaco.
Button and Hamilton had three years together at the Woking factory, 2010-2012. Button said: “Whether Nico did it on purpose or not, Lewis is going to think that he did and that is the way when you are team-mates fighting for a world championship. But you will see a more determined Lewis at the next race. I remember with Lewis that when we had a tussle in a race or there was an issue between us or with the team, he would have a really bad race and be quite outspoken and emotional. And at the next race he would destroy me. He would come back stronger than ever.
“In Spa, we had the issue of running different downforce levels and he did not like that. It hurt him that weekend, but he came back and won the next race. He is very good at turning it around because he is a super driver, he is very fast and he can wrestle a car around a circuit. The mind games people play on him will not work. Initially, he is an emotional character, and he will be quite hurt, but he comes back strong. After a bad race he would arrive at the next one very quiet, and then go out and blitz it. He will do the same in Canada – he will probably be untouchable in Canada. And he likes the circuit.”
Hamilton won in Montreal in 2007 – his maiden F1 victory – and again in 2010 and 2012. He rather liked what Button said about him. “Jenson is one of the toughest drivers I have ever raced against, so to have positive comments like that is very pleasing.
“I feel stronger than I have done before. It was a difficult weekend and I have always said that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. This has been a difficult weekend from my side, but this is a good learning experience. You cannot be winning all the time. We need those experiences and it will put me in good stead for the rest of the season. I got a lot of compliments on Saturday.”
One of those compliments was Mercedes boss Niki Lauda telling him that he’s a faster driver than Rosberg. And he is. But as Rosberg well knows, Ayrton Senna was quicker than Alain Prost, and that didn’t stop the Frenchman winning world titles.
