Hamilton used mind games on Rosberg at Mercedes, Szafnauer says
NXTbets Pro | Published On: September 20, 2026
Hamilton’s mind games
Otmar Szafnauer said Lewis Hamilton used psychological tactics against Nico Rosberg during their years as Mercedes teammates, and he said the moves worked. Speaking on the High Performance Racing podcast, Szafnauer said Hamilton knew how to get inside Rosberg’s head before races. One example, according to Szafnauer, was Hamilton hiding Rosberg’s football, which Rosberg used as part of his pre-race routine. Another was Hamilton lingering in the drivers’ bathrooms to unsettle him. The story Szafnauer told was not about one isolated prank. It was about pressure, timing and finding a small edge before the cars even left the garage.
Rosberg’s routine
Szafnauer put Rosberg’s preparation at the center of the rivalry. He also linked Hamilton’s tactics to the mind games Rosberg faced from Michael Schumacher earlier in his Mercedes career. That comparison tied one phase of Mercedes history to another and showed how this kind of pressure had already been part of Rosberg’s world. Hamilton and Rosberg were not fighting from separate teams. They were sharing the same garage, chasing the same result and trying to protect their own routines while looking for any weakness in the other driver.
Mercedes rivalry
The Hamilton-Rosberg fight went well beyond private tricks. Szafnauer said the rivalry included on-track crashes and off-track clashes. Hamilton and Rosberg fought through three seasons, and the title battle moved from race to race. Rosberg came out on top in Abu Dhabi and beat Hamilton to the Formula 1 title, then later retired at the FIA Prize Giving Ceremony. That ending closed the book on a rivalry that had already taken on a life of its own inside Mercedes. Szafnauer’s comments added another layer to that history. He described a championship fight shaped by rivalry and small psychological plays. In his telling, Rosberg had to deal with that pressure while trying to hold his own in the Mercedes team battle.
