Toto Wolff: 'Hamilton and Rosberg was more intense than we thought beneficial'


While Lewis Hamilton and his F1 team appear closer than ever, the Mercedes executive director accepts ‘the way the best ones are calibrated can cause bumps on the way’

“Still I Rise” is the motto Lewis Hamilton wears proudly tattooed on his back and emblazoned across his helmet. Inspiration for resilience in adversity adopted from Maya Angelou’s poem via Tupac Shakur that he had good reason to look to last year when, in the wake of consecutive Formula One world championships, an emotional and mental rollercoaster of a season left him ultimately beaten by his team-mate, Nico Rosberg. Worse still, by the close, the title gone, his fractured relationship with his former friend extended to the team. The formidable partnership forged over four years between the Briton and Mercedes was probably at its lowest ebb.

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