Rivals and friends are at separate far ends of the spectrum. When close friends are in the same team, competing for the ultimate win, it is unikely that the friendship would stay as close as before.
Since the start of 2013, much of the tittle tattle revolving around Formula One drivers and Mercedes team mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg had been creating a huge spiral in the industry.
Many have been comparing the two 30 year-old Mercedes’ drivers to great pairs of rivals in the past. Some say they depict the rivalry of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber back in Red Bull Racing, some even conceded that the sense of emulation both presented on track resembled legends Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. But, all in all, many claimed that the two were just close friends trying to give their all for the team.
Close friends is quite a sensitive term for team mates, considering both men are competing against each other for the driver’s world championship. The term ‘close friends’ had been cleared up by the Briton himself, insisting the pair have never been close friends and won’t ever be for as long as they continue to compete with one another.
The 2015 champion even said there was no reason to buy each other Christmas presents, or even cards, this year.
Well, that brings much closure to most people but the high profile duel between them will never stop.
Just like last year, Hamilton made his way to the top of the driver’s standings and bagged yet another title and leveled with his idol Ayrton Senna with three winning championships, whereas Rosberg has yet to claim his.
The two have known each other on and off the track for quite some time. Hamilton even admitted that “We were friends when we were kids, and that was that. It’s not like we’ve been close friends recently, because we haven’t,” as quoted from Autosport.
“The media generally tries to big up our relationship like it was a friendship, more than it was.
“But Nico has his group of friends, I have my group of friends. We don’t do dinner together, we don’t want to party together, we don’t want to go to the movies together, we don’t want to hang out.
“We’re fierce competitors, and ultimately he wants to beat me and I want to beat him.
“I’m sure one day when we retire we’ll sit back and laugh about all this s*** that has happened and all the competitiveness. We’ll be chilling, our kids will be playing together and all that crap, but right now we’re not there, and there’s no need to be,” he added.
So both men are strictly just business partners then.
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