{"id":898637,"date":"2026-09-20T07:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T07:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898637\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T07:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T07:12:10","slug":"lewis-hamilton-psychological-games-on-rosberg-revealed-by-ex-f1-team-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898637\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton ‘psychological games’ on Rosberg revealed by ex-F1 team boss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton<\/a> knows how to play \u201cpsychological games\u201d according to Otmar Szafnauer, who recalled examples deployed against Nico Rosberg.<\/p>\n

Szafnauer was in the Formula 1 paddock as Force India team boss during the Hamilton<\/a> and Rosberg partnership at Mercedes. Szafnauer witnessed Hamilton hiding the football that Rosberg used to get his rhythm before a race, while another stunt he claimed to see was potentially influenced by fellow F1 icon Michael Schumacher.<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton would hide Rosberg\u2019s football, says Szafnauer<\/p>\n

It was a Mercedes driver pairing which will forever be memorable. Hamilton and Rosberg went from childhood friends and teammates to bitter rivals in the pursuit of world championship glory.<\/p>\n

During an era of dominance for the Silver Arrows, coinciding with the arrival of the V6 turbo-hybrid era, Hamilton won the 2014 and 2015 crowns before Rosberg struck back to win the title in 2016.<\/p>\n

In the days following his sole world championship win, the German announced his immediate retirement from Formula 1.<\/p>\n

During an appearance on the High Performance Racing podcast, Szafnauer claimed that there were two psychological games which Hamilton used to play on his teammate.<\/p>\n

At the time, Szafnauer was team principal at Force India.<\/p>\n

\u201cLewis is really good at the psychological games, which, I\u2019m sure you would like to hear,\u201d he began.<\/p>\n

\u201cRosberg 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. [Pierre] Gasly does it, somebody dropping the tennis balls and you\u2019ve got to catch it. Others kick the football around. Some do keepy uppies.<\/p>\n

\u201cRosberg loved to get ready for a race. Probably relaxed him, got his reactions sharp, and guess what Lewis used to do? Hide the ball. He used to hide the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe also knew that maybe you need a little bathroom break before. He\u2019d go in the driver\u2019s bathrooms and stay there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Szafnauer was informed that this trick was also deployed against Rosberg by another former teammate, Michael Schumacher.<\/p>\n

Podcast presenter Jake Humphrey said: \u201cIn Monaco. Rosberg needed a pee, and ended up standing in the back of the garage, peeing in a bottle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American responded: \u201cSo Schumacher did it. So Lewis probably learned.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, Lewis, hide the ball, I like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Lewis Hamilton from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

The Hamilton delusion: How Lewis set himself up for more disappointment at Ferrari<\/a><\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton denies Ferrari team changes call as rumours swirl<\/a><\/p>\n

Following Rosberg\u2019s retirement, Hamilton won four further titles with Mercedes in consecutive seasons between 2017-20. That took his overall tally to seven, matching Schumacher\u2019s record.<\/p>\n

The Brit went on to join Ferrari in 2025 and has since taken a grand prix with the Scuderia, achieved at the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. His overall tally of 106 grand prix wins is a Formula 1 record.<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next: Charles Leclerc facing potential Azerbaijan GP penalty with final Ferrari decision expected<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton knows how to play \u201cpsychological games\u201d according to Otmar Szafnauer, who recalled examples deployed against Nico…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,818,823,945,44,849,85],"class_list":["post-898637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-mercedes","tag-news","tag-nico-rosberg","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}