Nico Rosberg reveals major mental change behind 2016 Lewis Hamilton clash

2016 Formula 1 champion Nico Rosberg has admitted that his infamous on-track collisions with Lewis Hamilton were sometimes the result of a deliberate, psychological decision to stop yielding and shed his natural tendency to be "too nice" on track. 

The 2016 title battle between the Mercedes team-mates remains one of the most fiercely contested intra-team rivalries in the history of the championship.

While reflecting on the 2016 season on the High Performance podcast, Rosberg explained, when asked if he had to stop being himself: "Oh, totally, because the real Nico Rosberg is way too nice. I had to push and be tougher sometimes, even though it didn't come naturally to me."

The former driver drew comparisons with McLaren driver Lando Norris's battles with Red Bull ace Max Verstappen.

"And again, you have the same example with Lando," Rosberg continued. "Lando, generally, people will say he's just too nice. In wheel-to-wheel battles, he has always lost against Max. In the last year, in every wheel-to-wheel battle against Max, he lost out. What Lando needs to do once is just hold his ground, cause a crash.

"And that will send a message to Max. 'Oh, he's changing, he's becoming more ferocious. Maybe I need to calm it down a bit next time against him because otherwise we're going to crash.' And you just have to do that."

Going back to his own 2016 championship title fight, the 40-year-old discussed his own crashes with the now-seven-time champion. 

World Champion Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 shakes hands with team mate and race winner Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1

Photo by: Mercedes AMG

"We crashed. And that's just me consciously saying I have to be more firm. I have to not yield as I would. Naturally, I would yield like I did so often before that and I had to push myself hard.

"It was part of my visualisation, the repetitions that I was doing in meditation. I was working very hard on that, visualising myself not yielding and being firm in my position. That was a strong part of my visualisation and even I was meditating with posture.

"You meditate with a posture of strength, and it's all these details that add up, and then in the heat of the moment, that preparation helps to hold your ground and not yield and unfortunately, then of course it led to quite a few crashes."

Rosberg went on to win the drivers' championship in 2016 by five points over his team-mate, and retired at the end of the same year.