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Former Alpine F1 boss Otmar Szafnauer has revealed that Lewis Hamilton<\/a> used to hide Nico Rosberg’s football before a race to try and compromise his teammate’s focus. According to Szafnauer, Rosberg liked to juggle a football pre-race to help him focus.<\/p>\n Hamilton and Rosberg were childhood best friends turned bitter rivals during their time together as Mercedes teammates, as the pair’s rivalry is written in history as one of the fiercest in recent times. While the two had multiple contentious moments on-track, they also had a cold relationship off it.<\/p>\n Speaking on the High Performance podcast recently, former Alpine F1 team principal Otmar Szafnauer has shared a story about Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg from when they were teammates at Mercedes, revealing that Hamilton used to hide Rosberg’s football that he liked to play with before races, as part of a “psychological game.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/template><\/p>\n “Lewis is really good at the psychological games. Rosberg used to like to kick the football around before the start of a race to get his\u2026 Everyone does different things. We should explain. I see it all the time. Gasly does it, somebody dropping the tennis balls and you\u2019ve got to catch it. Others kick the football around. Some do keepie uppies,” said Szafnauer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n “Rosberg loved to get ready for a race. Probably relaxed him, got his reactions sharp, and guess what Lewis used to do? He used to hide the ball. He also knew that maybe you need a little bathroom break before. He\u2019d go in the driver\u2019s bathrooms and stay there,” he added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Lewis Hamilton won the drivers’ championship in 2014 and 2015, beating Nico Rosberg<\/a> as his teammate, before the German driver returned the favor in 2016 and then retired. The Briton then went on to claim four more titles in the years that followed until his streak was broken in 2021.<\/p>\nLewis Hamilton claps back at Ferrari changes rumors<\/h2>\n
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