Ok, I Believed This Happened One Way Or Another 🥺

thats not how you use tags

how do u suggest I use them then? :)

In another life,

Maybe the rivalry stayed on track

Maybe each other’s wins didn’t cause a crack

Maybe his words and departure have been enough

Enough for a chance to get each other back.

Louder, please! 🥹

No but Rosberg though… pretty son of a world champion racer (so pretty that the rest treated him like a girl and used the nickname “Britney” as an insult)… the weight of expectations on his shoulders… becoming best friends with the man who would go on to become THE F1 supernova while they were both still sweet little boys… having to reccon with that as they grew and not knowing how… the relationship turning sour publicly for the whole world to pick apart and laugh at… getting constantly compared to the four “once-in-a-generation” talents racing in his years (Lewis, Seb, Kimi, Alonso) and always coming up wanting… Michael Schumacher publicly rejecting him in favour of his wünderkind Seb… no wonder this man almost killed himself to win that world championship (to prove to himself and to the world that he could, despite everything) and then immediately dipped. I have to admire his drive and mental strength, regarless of what anyone might say of him.

Umm, who’s body are we talking about here? Because all three persons he’s being shipped with are turned towards him 😅

his whole body angled towards carlos 🫠

Why don’t people consider that Nico and Lewis’s falling out had to do with events or behavior around the championship competition and not the outcome? “Lewis hates Nico for beating him” just doesn’t seem to fit the way Lewis treats…everyone else who’s beaten him.

It’s not the title, it’s what winning it represents, which is everything you had to do to get there. You have to love someone a whole lot to be that angry with them, and I mean that on both ends. They treated each other like any other competitor, but this isn’t a sport where you make friends easily, and if we treated our friends the way we treat our competitors then none of us would have them.

The way I look at it is, without knowing the exact particulars, which we probably never will, is that things got all fucky around 2014 (I won’t go all the way to the end of Brocedes, there’s nothing additional to add really after that year). The timeline of that looks like this:

Pre-2013 season:

- Lewis moves to Mercedes from McLaren. Everyone except Eddie Jordan, only man to predict it, is completely astounded when this move is announced. Sure Red Bull have won back to back to back championships and Seb’s closest rival is his teammate Mark, but this is nowhere near the Red Bull domination we see today. In those seasons, everyone from McLaren and Ferrari would also take wins, probably multiple, and Nico himself even pulled one out in the Mercedes which was slowly improving. The move to Mercedes makes no sense?

If Lewis were unhappy at McLaren the sensible move would be to attempt to edge out Massa or Webber for their seat. Okay, maybe not Massa given Hamilton’s fairly recent at this point history with Alonso, and maybe Webber is gonna be hard to shift and he doesn’t want to play second driver to Seb at Red Bull, okay aaaaggghhh the best move is probably to stay at McLaren because Jenson, even if they don’t quite get along, is as affable a teammate as you’re ever gonna get at a front running team and who is second driver depends on the day and also there’s no way to tell which of those three teams is gonna produce the best car. It’s a gamble, better the devil you know.

You have to think, well, why does Lewis move to Mercedes? Yes, it’s been slowly improving and shown it can win a race on its day, but so can a Ferrari now. It’s not good enough. Ross Brawn is deeply admired in the paddock as a team principle but he is in the process of retiring and they’re bringing some new guy in. Schumacher’s retiring too, so he doesn’t do it to benefit from being teammates with him. No he does it for Nico, because Nico’s faith in that car is strong enough to sell it to Lewis, because they can have what they promised each other as kids if this gamble pays off. And it’s a risky choice, but Eddie Jordan’s really smart about stuff like this and Eddie Jordan likes it… Better the devil you know? Or better Nico, who you know even better?

2013 season

The gamble pays off! The Mercedes is looking good which means at least Lewis is in as good a position as he was before, maybe better, within a teammate he loves. This season passes mostly without incident and they finish fourth and sixth in the championship (Lewis fourth, Nico sixth). And really what’s the difference between fourth and sixth? Nico even wins two races! Which is one more than Lewis, even if Lewis finishes higher in the standings. Nico’s playing with the big boys now.

However, there is one race where Nico gets a team order. At Malaysia, the second race of the calendar, Mercedes orders him to stay behind Lewis. That’s not fair. They’re only two races in, neither of them has a clear bid for the championship yet. Lewis even says after the race that it wasn’t fair - that Nico deserved that last spot on the podium and not him - see Lewis bas his back!

Nobody really picks up on it because of Multi-21 at Red Bull. So he gets grumpy and at his home race in Monaco (the sport has a horrible history of pulling out team orders at a driver’s home race, the one place it’s supposed to be his race) he leads every lap start to finish so it can’t happen to him there. He wins Silverstone too and gets so many points that everyone can’t help sit up and take notice. Nico’s not a one hit wonder, he’s the real deal.

2014 season

They’re the favourites now! Mercedes looks amazing at testing now turbo-hybrid engines are mandatory and the real question is will it be Lewis or Nico? And Nico wins the first race in Australia. If that isn’t a statement of intent, nothing is. But Lewis gets him back in the next race in Malaysia. They’re just as good as each other really. (Although, Lewis did have to retire in Australia - are they really as good as each other?)

Bahrain and Spain

Bahrain is where it all goes wrong. They’ve been fighting all race and then late in the game a safety car comes out and it benefits Nico. (Happens all the time - sometimes you want a safety car, sometimes you don’t, it’s like rolling the dice… Or is it like getting help?) They race wheel to wheel on the restart, like you can’t do with anyone you don’t trust, and they kept it clean. Lewis wins and they have a silly play fight in park fermé and it’s fine really…

Until Lewis finds out that Nico used a spicy engine setting that Mercedes told him not to for those last couple of laps to give him extra power. Why would you do that? That’s cheating, isn’t it? But if it’s such a clear advantage then why aren’t Mercedes having them both use it? Like it’s not illegal, Mercedes just gets cross when they use it racing each other. But then aren’t you supposed to give it everything you’ve got when you’re really truly racing, like you want to be with your best friend, and Lewis could have used it just as easily. But Lewis still won without it - didn’t need it.

And to make it worse, Mercedes have a study they’re showing Nico about Lewis’ racing - Lewis doesn’t have one on Nico! Cheating! (Well, yes, it is from Malaysia where Lewis finished seventeen seconds ahead and in Australia it didn’t matter how Nico drove because Lewis DNFed and Lewis qualified better anyway - like this is perfectly normal behaviour within a team when you think about it, even the kind of behaviour you would expect if they’d decided already that Nico is second driver, but that’s NOT THE POINT - this is the kind of weird evil shit Fernando would do at McLaren!!!) Lewis gets a document about Nico’s driving too but the suspicion is already there. In the next race in Spain Lewis also uses the spicy engine setting, but he stays ahead. He wins with it.

Monaco

In Monaco, the next race, they’re qualifying and Nico’s got provisional pole with Lewis close behind. On the last chance lap though, he fucks up, runs wide and goes off (it happens when you’re trying to get that perfect lap - and Monaco is his home GP, which he’s defending, he needs this more than any other race) but Lewis is on a fast lap he has to abort and the yellow flags fuck him. And Lewis has always been bitchy right after he gets out of the car when things haven’t gone his way and it’s not him saying well wasn’t that convenient for Nico, it’s some of the less scrupulous pundits. And they’re asking him if he thinks it’s suspicious and he says “Potentially. I should have known that was going to happen.”

But what does that mean really? That Nico really wanted it and the chances of a mistake were sky high? That he will throw everything he has got at it to beat Lewis? Or that Nico’s a dirty cheater like the engine setting he promised he wouldn’t use, even though he could, and the spies he has in the garage. Yeah, it’s just like Alonso, who had his teammate crash at Renault to win him a race (though officially that was all Renault, Alonso knew nothing about it and was appalled) and wasn’t that another good friend of Nico’s? Nelson Piquet Jr. who will never be welcome back? Because he’s a dirty dirty cheater (even if he was pressured into it by the team threatening to end his contract). Or maybe he means that Nico’s just like his idol, Senna, who crashed a car just as on purpose and came away with a championship.

The stewards say Nico did nothing wrong. Toto, is insisting that Nico did nothing wrong. How could that possibly benefit Mercedes? It’s bullshit, it’s a conspiracy theory, it’s paranoia. But it doesn’t matter, Nico ruined his lap, the lap that would definitely have got him pole and he can’t touch him during Monaco, the track Nico knows the best in the the whole world, where overtaking is notoriously difficult without a safety car or a pit-lane leap frog. Nico wins without really giving Lewis a chance to compete. By the time Lewis gets out of the car, they’re not friends anymore in Lewis’ head. And he tells the fucking world, maybe even before he tells Nico.

Hungary

Lewis gets a team order. The team are on Nico’s side, conspiring against him and this proves it. (Or does it? Lewis had never had a team order from them and Nico had, and Nico had played nice, even if it was last season, and missed out on a podium. There’s a balance that needs to be redressed and he’s on a different strategy, on fresh tyres, and Lewis has a pit still to go, Nico will overtake and they need it to be clean and to do as little wear on either car as possible).

But Lewis isn’t moving. Says Nico can have it if he overtakes. Lewis is not even racing for first, it’s third place, just like last time. Not enough points to change who leads the WDC. And Nico’s racing for the win, for fuck’s sake. Lewis holds position, they finish third and fourth and Lewis gets a dressing down afterwards because Toto and the team think Nico could have won. (Why don’t they think Lewis could have won, even on completely the wrong strategy? Look, Niki Lauda has his back, even if he’s an old mad and a racer too who knows a true racer never yields). There’s no disciplinary action, not with Niki backing Lewis, it’ll look too much like fighting in the ranks and Toto has to stay in control.

Belgium

They touch. The greatest sin you can commit on the track is crashing with your teammate. Sure, you can crash with anyone else, especially if they’re you’re rival, but not him. It doesn’t matter if you’re racing hard for a championship. What’s worse - they’ve never done this before. They’ve always trusted each other racing wheel to wheel - that’s how you keep it clean. But they don’t anymore. Nico leaves his nose in, insists he won’t be bullied (and that should be fine, Lewis isn’t a bully on the track, not like Schumacher, or Max is now, not really, he’s a good, clean driver who knows when to back off). Except Lewis doesn’t back off heading into Les Combes and he breaks his front wing and punctures a tyre and he spends the rest of the race limping round the track. Nico comes off better and finishes second but Daniel Ricciardo wins, taking advantage of the chaos. And Lewis is insisting he did it on purpose but that’s how Lewis gets when he’s losing and he’s mean (he’s done it with every other driver who’s crossed him on the track, with the FIA when they give him penalties. He grows of it eventually, sort of, but he’s a real mean loser and even the pundits have noticed.)

Nico’s booed on the podium. By now the world is certain that he’s a dirty dirty cheater, even if the FIA doesn’t think he is and the team doesn’t think he is and the other drivers don’t think he is - Lewis thinks he is and the world is on Lewis’ side. To make things worse, Toto makes him apologise (yes he should have left some room, but wouldn’t that be more disrespectful, to let Lewis have it without fighting back? And he was sure that Lewis would back off, would know when it was Nico’s corner fair and square) and then he disciplines him anyway. He disciplines him for a racing incident when he wouldn’t discipline Lewis for calling him a cheater in front of the whole world. The team has never had Nico’s back, has never wanted him to be anything other than a second driver, a performing monkey to do what they want. And after all that Lewis still won’t forgive him for the thing he never even did.

Abu Dhabi

The rest of the season passes without incident. Lewis wins some, Nico wins some, everything’s clean and they’re not talking. They’re changing the scoring system here, from 12 points for a win to 25. Double, in every position and points for ninth and tenth now. Kinda silly to introduce it in the last race, surely they could have waited for next season? It’s a real unfair advantage in the championship if you do better than your rival here.

Nico qualifies on pole, but Lewis gets that perfect start and passes him. And he wins, because Nico’s car has a problem and he gets stuck in fourteenth. Toto’s telling him to retire but Nico refuses, says he wants to finish this, limps the car home to score nothing. Lewis won fair and square and that’s that. He goes into the cool-down room to congratulate him, even though he’s not on the podium. And later Lewis says that at least Nico is gracious in defeat. Doesn’t that hurt?

Lewis takes the title early next year. Nico spends 2015 planning 2016.

Louder! 🔊

Nico is the one who made it, whether haters accept it or not. He may have been a 2nd driver, but he proved that he deserved that spot which he was deprived of. 🩵

something we don’t talk about when we talk about nico rosberg, and honestly even though it involved being a horrendous cunt, is that he did what generations of drivers have tried and failed to do - he refused to be made second driver and still walked away with his championship.

like think about that. there are so many people in my memory, and many more before that, that fell to that hurdle by accepting their fate or switching teams and making the wrong call, or just never quite getting there. you’ve got valtteri and daniel and mark webber and felipe massa and before that you have rubens barrichello and david coulthard and eddie irvine and so on and so on. and they either had some moment of quiet resignation to it or they let it completely destroy them, sometimes both.

nico rosberg was the part of the foundations of mercedes. he was there since it took the name mercedes and was brought in to play second fiddle to michael fucking schumacher, and then he outdrove him every damn day, when the mercedes wasn’t championship contention material but was outclassing the rest of the midfield. i remember it so well when you had button and hamilton at mclaren, vettel and webber were at red bull, and alonso and massa were at ferrari. you had no idea what was gonna happen with that top six but you could count on one thing like clockwork, nico rosberg would be seventh, making that scrappy little bastard of a car sing.

and then lewis arrived when schumi left and people assumed nico would play that second fiddle like he hadn’t won them the lion’s share of the points with schumi in the other car. no one gave him his due. and then the car was a winning car and he was suddenly a winner, someone no one had ever rated from that stacked as hell grid. and lewis already had his championship. he wanted more, sure, but he didn’t need to prove that he had it in him the way nico did with his dad and everything else hanging over his head.

let’s not beat around the bush, mercedes wanted him to be second driver. toto came in with lewis and didn’t respect what nico had achieved under ross brawn. lewis was already a championship winner even if nico knew the car and the team much better. certainly the management at mercedes were never on his side once toto took the reigns. and lewis must have expected it somewhat too, it’s just how teams work. and his long-standing teammate at that point had been jenson, who had just as many championships and seniority in the sport, which made them as close to equals as possible and also frustrated lewis no end at that time because on some days he was second driver. it was owed to him, at last, to have a teammate whose only job was to prop him up.

i’m not saying if it was the right decision, or the ethical decision, or a decision that he doesn’t deeply and intimately regret, but the point at which nico had to say to himself no, lewis isn’t allowed to do this to me, no i won’t be second fiddle, not even to my best friend, must have required such strength of conviction like sport has never seen. and yeah it’s sad to think that a championship ended a friendship that old and that caring, but reframe it for a moment. what must it have felt like to escape out from under the thumb of schumacher who was never ever going to support nico, who could be affable outside racing but had a long history of being the meanest of sports on the grid, and think finally, a friend, someone to support and care for me, someone who wants me to win just like i want him to win, and be told no, it’s just the same as it was. like yes this is work, but imagine what that would do to you in any career - a fellow artist, a fellow businessman - to be told that your friend, in any context, sees you as an obstacle to overcome, or even worse just a tool to get ahead.

like we make fun of that - look at the man that sold his soul for a championship - but so did everyone else, so did lewis even. we have no idea who went first in sacrificing the friendship to the flames but we do know it was the first time nico ever fucked someone over in the sport. he’d never driven a winning car before. lewis had, and lord knows he learnt well enough from fernando, from jenson even.

nico had never had the opportunity to do it, and even when he was teammates with schumi, it was a noticeably sedate schumi racing in a midfield car. there wasn’t a championship for him to snatch at like he had done before. and that must do damage to you, as someone that’s never been at that kind of desperate infighting team before. and to have someone who is supposed to love you more than anyone else on the grid right there in it, in your first true experience of it? ooft.

then you think about him retiring, right after he’s finally done it. he must have wanted to step away before hand but imagine that friendship up in smoke and to go away empty-handed, with nothing to show for it. so he says no, i have to have this championship. all this had to have been for something. think about keke, who won one world championship pretty much by accident. how he won because the front runners on the grid that season died in those cars. and what had just happened to poor old jules. and how keke has always insisted that nico is his greatest achievement, not his championship, his son. and nico has just become a father. think about how important his daughters are to him, how much he loves them. how he was burning down his relationship with vivian too just to get this stupid title, these stupid trophies.

and maybe some part of him thinks i can fix this, i can have lewis back if i just put the weapons down, if i walk away. but lewis doesn’t see it like that - he sees it as cowardly, that nico took something from him and didn’t give him the chance to get it back, even though held already proved over and over and over that he could beat nico, that he was definitively the better driver. but nico only had to be better once - keke won his championship with a single race win to his name that season and it was enough. goddamit it was enough. and even if it hurt him to give up being in that car, nico had things that were more important. just once was enough for him in a way it never could be for lewis. lewis has nothing else, no partner, no children, no real friends at that point. of course he could never understand. maybe he envied nico in that moment, for once to be enough, but lewis never had that luxury.

god it’s so tragic, but nico really did achieve the impossible.

Inevitable and everlasting ❤️🧡

i think the thing about carlos and lando that pushes things into focus is how they speak about each other, to each other, how comfortable they are when one of them is suddenly around. it feels so surreal because of who they are; carlos, in his late twenties, driver with maybe the most confident and guarded personality i have ever encountered and lando, in his early twenties, driver that is somewhat anxious and really outgoing which culminated in the who they are today.

like don’t forget how depressed carlos was before he met the kid, he was stupidly released from his red bull contract after being loaned off to renault for a year, some of the best racing in the sport at the time being straight up ignored and given a one-off chance by mclaren. like lando was in the mcl young driver program while he was still at carlin, he had the reins in a way even if he was a rookie. fernando left it to him but he wasn’t arrogant about it.

lando can be sometimes but he wasn’t with carlos. he worked with him and carlos saw a friend in him, he could have battered the kid that first year but in choosing the team, he chose lando. he could’ve been threatened, either of them, but they stuck it out with each other. i think that’s what fucks everybody up. we never were close to winning the championship that year but fuck sake, that fourth place really had us feeling like champions after all of it.

that’s why brazil means so much to me. between it being lando’s birthday that year and carlos first podium, i felt like they’d given a little piece of their selves to each other. like i can’t be the authority of what a best friend is, what a teammate is or what a partner is but no one can ever say to me that carlos sainz jr doesn’t absolutely, with every fiber of his being trust lando norris; in the same way lando can’t forget it and how carlos thinks of him, how he keeps repaying it over and over again.

his nineteen year old self still so fucking chuffed that his teammate thinks he’s good at what he does and keeps telling him, keeps passing him praise and reassurance in a way no other teammate has. and so now twenty three years old, carlos sainz jr looks at him and lando norris feels like a teenager again. one that will be worthy of his support. lando still doesn’t understand carlos has believed in him since they’ve fucking met. since snowy first day in england.

carlos can’t speak and utter the words, “it isn’t the driving that makes me like you so much, i just do because i have for so long and it has everything to do with the fact of who you are. that you had me laugh when i was ready to give up, that you listened when i spoke and you let me help. and we flourished.”

carlos sainz jr refuses to say the words, “i love you (irrevocably and irrationally) and i (know) don’t think it’s possible for me to stop” and lando norris doesn’t reply “yeah, but i don’t need you to say (i’d fall apart where you stood) anything, i just (beg) ask that you stick around (for me), so i can show you that i worship you (like a man of God) in every other possible way. (i love you back) alright?” so, they tie themselves together with twine, stems and ribbon.

HOW DO YOU LOSE 26 PODIUMS!??!!

McLaren: You forget to cherish them

Oh Nico, the man that u are 🥹🫶🏻

Formula BMW engineer in interview: What makes Nico Rosberg tick

By Christian Nimmervoll, originally written 27 June 2015 for motorsport-total.com (x)

Between VIVA and Keke: Peter Sieber worked with Nico Rosberg when he wasn't yet a Formula 1 star and remembers the 2002 season in Formula BMW.

Many people have the wrong impression of Nico Rosberg. He comes across as effeminate, pseudo-intellectual, aloof. But envy is something you have to fight for - and level only looks like arrogance from below (to quote some Facebook wisdom). In fact, the Wiesbaden native, who grew up as the son of Finnish Formula 1 champion Keke Rosberg and a German mother, is a well-bred, smart young man who speaks five languages, happens to be an excellent racer, and earns millions doing it.

What's still missing is the world championship title. With his victory at the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend, Rosberg proved that he shouldn't be written off even when his back is supposedly against the wall - there's life in the old dog yet. And in doing so, he gave himself an early birthday present: Today, June 27, the Mercedes driver turns 30 - and is presumably in the prime of his Formula 1 career.

Reason enough for us to talk to a man who not only knows the superstar Nico Rosberg, but also worked with the up-and-coming driver Nico Rosberg when he first came to Formula BMW from karting - and won it outright, as the very first champion of the then new series in 2002. Peter Sieber was hired as race engineer for the world champion's son - and taught him the basics of racing.

Getting to know about Arno Zensen

Question: "Mr. Sieber, how did you meet Keke and Nico Rosberg?"

Peter Sieber: "That went through Arno Zensen, now head of the Rosberg team in the DTM. Arno used to work for Walter Lechner, and we've known each other ever since. Franz Tost was also involved at the time, who is now the boss of Toro Rosso. At the time, they had a South African race engineer at Team Rosberg in Formula BMW who had to go back home. So they asked me if I would like to be Nico's race engineer."

Question: "Can you still remember the very first time you met Nico?"

Sieber: "I had seen him at tests before, when we hadn't worked together yet. My first impression was of a very likeable and well-mannered young guy. In all my years in motorsport, I've noticed one thing: Drivers who have what it takes, who have the potential to make it to the top, don't say anything loud, don't argue, but are professional even at a young age. That was the case with Nico from the very first moment."

"I was a bit scared with him: father Keke Rosberg, Formula 1 world champion, enough money. There are always these father-son stories when the father wants the career more than the son. But that wasn't the case. In terms of people skills, I learned a lot from Keke, namely from the way he dealt with his own son. Nico was always very interested, especially in technology. That's where he always wanted to know what was going on, everywhere."

Question: "They say that Nico was an intelligent student who, if racing hadn't worked out, would have studied aerodynamics or mechanical engineering. When they worked with him, he was still at school."

Sieber: "That's true. The others always said: 'Sure, that's Rosberg's boy, he can test the most and has the best material'. But in truth that wasn't quite the case, because dear Nico had just graduated from high school. So he skipped some tests, which I then had to drive with Kimmo Liimatainen, now team manager at the Rosberg team in the DTM. Because Nico didn't have time."

"Nico didn't have it easy. When he was good, everyone said, 'Sure, I can do it with these prerequisites. And when he wasn't good, they said: 'He's just Rosberg's son, he doesn't have his dad's talent. But Nico didn't want anything as a gift, he wanted to fight for everything. He worked his ass off to achieve that. I was captivated by him right from the start. I always tried to create the best conditions for him."

Spoiled millionaire's son my ass

Question: "Lewis Hamilton said in the 2014 World Championship battle that Nico has always been a spoiled millionaire's boy, while he himself had to work hard for everything. If I'm interpreting you correctly, you don't agree with that at all?"

Sieber: "No. Keke and Nico's mother, Sina, have a very special attitude; they're not aloof people. When we had stopped working together, and Nico later won his first Formula 3 race, Sina still came up to me afterwards and gave me a hug."

"I say to her, 'Sina, I had nothing to do with that, it was Erich.' Erich Baumgärtner, a friend of mine who was Nico's race engineer in Formula 3. But Sina to me: 'No, Peter, I mean it, because you did the dirty work.' That was a statement for me! The first year is always the most difficult - that's when you have to teach a driver style, technique, work ethic. It wasn't easy, but with Nico it was really fun."

Question: "What does learning style and technique mean? You're hardly going to have ridden in front of Nico like an instructor…"

Sieber: "A young driver makes his first statements at the beginning, and as a race engineer I have to filter out the most important ones right away. Many say eight to ten problems at once, from which I then filter out the main problem. Because when the main problem is solved, the smaller problems usually dissolve as well. Then I see on the data: 'You need to brake earlier, but come out of the curve with more momentum.' Those are the first fundamentals you work on with a young driver."

"A young driver can only tell you about the car if you explain to him beforehand what's important. Nico soaked it all up like a sponge, he fought every second. From home he had the opportunity to race, car, engine, team - others may not be able to afford that. But his driving skills and assertiveness, he fought hard for all of that. Whether it was dry or wet, he was always really good."

Like Father, Like Son

Question: "Nico's former kart team boss Dino Chiesa once said that Nico didn't get a PlayStation game from Keke that he really wanted, and that he also got relatively little pocket money. Which suggests that he felt relatively little of his family's wealth at the time, and was also just a young racer like any other."

Sieber: "I've known Keke for a long time. I can still remember that back then, as a junior driver, he always came to the race track with a trailer and bus. Keke learned to work his way up from the bottom. And he passed that on to Nico for his development."

"I remember the Formula BMW race at the Sachsenring. Officially, testing was banned, but others tested anyway. Our weekend went really poorly. The engineer was not good, the car was not good, the driver was not good. It was a pitch-black weekend, with spins and everything."

"Then Keke arrives, with a cigar in his mouth - and grins at me, who has such a blood pressure you can see my carotid artery: 'Peter, it's going to be all right.' And I: 'Were you in the wrong movie? What I saw was a disaster.' And Keke: 'What I saw is going to be fine.' Because you two are determined to make it together, and it's going to bear fruit.' At first I couldn't do anything with that, but then we improved from race to race."

"At the beginning, it was difficult to work together because I hadn't done all the official tests and first had to get to know the car and Nico. But then we worked our way up and became champions in the end. That season we had a test day at the Nürburgring before the race. I changed the gear ratio then, which is normally done by the mechanic. But there was no time for that because of the rain. And I mistakenly swapped fifth and sixth gear. In other words, where fifth gear should have been, sixth was - and vice versa."

"Nico drove out, came back to the pits very slowly and said with a smile on his face - with a smile, not kind of angry like others would be: 'Master, how do you actually count? One, two, three, four, five, six.' And I said to him: 'But you're doing your school-leaving exams right now, you'll manage that!' So he had to change gears stupidly, skip a gear with the clutch in the sequential gearbox, but he didn't care. The next morning I found a note on the transmission: 'Love from Nico, please put the gears in the right order!' That was Nico. That's the kind of person you live motorsport for."

Criticism always constructive

Question: "Were there also situations in which Nico could get loud?"

Sieber: "No, and that was the nice thing about working with him. If something wasn't okay, it was discussed, but not loudly or in an argument, but positively. He asked questions, contributed good ideas, and the collaboration got better and better. He worked hard for his success."

Question: "Nico already had the sponsor VIVA in 2002, in Formula BMW - and therefore had a lot of media presence earlier than other drivers. Was that an advantage or a disadvantage?"

Sieber: "People were already very attentive: son of Keke Rosberg, VIVA, very well-known among the youth. The hype was sometimes too much."

Question: "Girls, too?"

Sieber: "The girls raved about him anyway. But he didn't care. Nico did his stuff."

Question: "You can't tell me that Nico didn't have a girl at the start now and then…"

Sieber: "No, not at all, really! He wasn't the typical girl hero. Sometimes they are, and then they usually forget that racing should be the most important thing. That wasn't the case with Nico. He was focused and really never had a girl with him. It wasn't until the end of 2002 that I remember there being one - and I think that was his current wife Vivian."

Question: "In 2003, Nico met Lewis Hamilton again in Formula 3. Was it already foreseeable for you back then that this duel would continue into Formula 1?"

Sieber: "In Formula 3, Nico had a different race engineer, but that was a good acquaintance of mine, so I always knew what was going on with him. When we met at the race track, we always chatted. By the way, the contact hasn't completely broken off to this day."

"And yes, for me it was already foreseeable that this could go into Formula 1, because Nico simply has a very special way. He didn't have it as easy as Hamilton claims, as a spoiled boy who gets everything dumped in his lap. Our last race in Formula BMW in 2002 was at Hockenheim. Nico won, both races, in the rain and in the dry. Afterwards, there was the award ceremony for ADAC and BMW. Keke didn't go at all, but his mom, a few mechanics and I did."

Tears at Formula BMW victory ceremony 2002

"Nico had a knitted cap on, I remember it like yesterday. Then they called him up and said they had another 'little' present for him. I wonder what that will be? A Formula 1 test drive at Williams! That's when he really broke down, sat down, put his hands in front of his eyes and cried. He was so happy at that moment because he was so disciplined, he did without so much. That's very difficult for a young lad."

"And: He himself had done it - not because he was Keke Rosberg's son, but because he was the first Formula BMW champion. That's when I realized what racing meant to him. I still remember that day today as if it were yesterday - it has stuck in my heart. He said: 'It was always my dream to drive Formula 1 one day. That's what I've worked for.' That was an honest moment. As honest as Nico is."

Question: "Do you think it sometimes hurt Nico to be reduced to Keke Rosberg's son? Did that get to him?"

Sieber: "I think it was close to him. As I said before, if he was good, then it was the good material, but if not, then he's just Rosberg's son, but not as good as Keke. But Keke always stood behind him and told him: 'Nico, you have the greatest job in the world, you are a racing driver. People are all coming here to see your race. Enjoy it and have fun.'"

"And so he took all the pressure off the kid. That was awesome. That was Keke. People were brutal to Nico sometimes. When all he ever wanted was for them to just respect that he was doing his job, that he was doing everything he could to get into Formula One, and that he had talent. The Rosberg name was very positive for Nico, but on the other hand it didn't make it easy for him either.

Question: "It doesn't sound like Keke interfered much with Nico.

Sieber: "No. He left us alone. If he saw something that the competition was doing, for example, he told me, but without interfering. He would say, 'You can worry about that.' That was it, but then he was gone again."

Always looked up to father Keke

Question: "Nico's former karting team boss Dino Chiesa says that it was always important for Nico to once be as good as or better than Keke. Is that true in your opinion?"

Sieber: "He always looked up to his father, because Keke achieved a lot and was a driving force for Nico. But Nico was self-motivated enough to go this way and achieve something himself. He was looking in the right direction, he fought for it. Nico was an intelligent young man for his age. Of course, he sometimes took his cue from his father."

Question: "Were there ever moments when Nico cried to you about Keke?"

Sieber: "No, never. I admire the way Keke handled his boy. Keke always managed to motivate us all. In a positive sense, he was a gangster! It's okay to write that, I mean it in a positive way. Once he came to see me at the Nürburgring, Formula 1 weekend, and Nico had finished third in Formula BMW on Saturday. The conditions were difficult, race started in the rain, then it dried up."

"Keke comes up to me afterwards and is really happy about third place, but in the same breath says, 'We're not good enough, the others are better!' Inside I was boiling. That's when he lit a spark in me, so that even in the hotel I was still thinking about the car. And then we won on Sunday. Grins Keke: 'Oh, did it work?' Motivating his people, Keke always understood that."

Question: "Mr. Sieber, is there anything else you would like to add?"

Sieber: "Yes, two things. First, my son has a problem with his spine. I told Nico about it once in passing, and he said to me, 'Hey, my physio Daniel, he also had a back operation. I'll put you in touch with him, I'm sure he can recommend a good specialist. And that's what he did. He wouldn't have to do something like that - others don't."

"And another story: For the 2002 championship title, he got the Formula 1 test that Keke and Nico wanted to take me to. Unfortunately, my son was ill and I had to stay at home with a heavy heart. So they sent me a video after the test and talked to me live on the phone during the test. And Nico gave me his helmet, with which he became Formula BMW champion and tested Formula 1 for the first time, as a small consolation. That's just the way Nico is.

Question: "Will you wish him a happy 30th birthday?"

Sieber: "Yes, for sure. I'll think of something! We still see each other from time to time. Last year, for example, he invited me to the German Grand Prix."

Wanna know why Silver War happened? This team. That’s the answer. 😒

https://x.com/MercedesAMGF1/status/1712472853151666446?s=20 the first photo on this tweet literally crops him out he's standing on lewis's right in the full version... at this point do you think they have some agreement (with lewis?) that they're not supposed to mention him?

you see lewis won 2014 constructors all by himself there was no other mercedes driver who won 317 points to lewis' 384. Mercedes' 700 points in constructors? who knows where it came from.......

I don't think the team have any explicit agreement with lewis, but rather they just want to make it seem like their current driver is the only one who took that team to greatness all by himself