Heading to the iconic Chinese Grand Prix for the second time in five years, Lewis Hamilton will be aware it’s where his fiercest rivalry was born.
The Ferrari driver will be looking to improve on his disappointing 10th place finish in the season opener in Australia, but may have one eye on teammate Charles Leclerc.
Back in 2015 Hamilton headed to the Shanghai International Circuit in far different circumstances, defending the title after winning his second in 2014.
With his new team Mercedes mastering the new set of Formula 1 regulations, it looked like Hamilton was in for an unrivalled spell at the top, but just across the garage he was about to awaken a beast.
In race three, Hamilton appeared to be heading for an easy win, before the only man capable of challenging him, Nico Rosberg, kicked up a fuss on team radio.
“Hamilton is driving very slowly. Tell him to speed up,” he said, despite being over a second behind.
“If I go closer I destroy my tyres, like the first set. That’s the problem.”
Despite being told to ‘pick up the pace’ Hamilton had no interest in what his teammate was up to, as he told the media in awkward fashion while sitting alongside his childhood friend.
“I wasn’t controlling his race, I was controlling my own race. My goal was to look after my car. I had no real threat from Nico throughout the whole race.
“It’s not my job to look after Nico’s race, it’s my job to manage the car and bring the car home as healthy and as fast as possible. That’s what I did.
“I didn’t do anything intentionally to slow any of the cars up, I was just focused on myself. If Nico wanted to get by he could have tried but he didn’t.”
Then came the reply, making things even more painful to watch.
“It’s just now interesting to hear from you Lewis, you were just thinking about yourself with the pace in front when that was compromising my race,” the German replied.
“Driving slower than was maybe necessary in the beginning of the stint meant Sebastian [Vettel] was close to me, and it opened up the opportunity for Sebastian to try an early pit stop to try to jump me, and then I had to cover him.
“It was unnecessarily close with Sebastian as a result, and also it cost me a lot of race time because I had to cover him. Then my tyres died at the end of the race because my stint was just so much longer, so I’m unhappy about that.”
The media pool exchanged glances as it was clear there might be problems at the top for Mercedes, and Rosberg would later reveal that there certainly was.
“It was definitely intense after the race, but we had a very good sit down, a good discussion,” he recalled.
“I did try to attack him in the first stint and it just didn’t work: all I did was destroy my tyres.
“So in the second stint there was no point to try and do that again because there was Vettel behind and it would have really risked my second place had I tried, because I would have destroyed the tyres again and Vettel could have had a really good shot at overtaking me.
“My only chance to win the race anyway, or to fight Lewis and try and overtake him, would have come at the end of the race and so that is what I was building up to.
“Without a doubt the worst part of the weekend was losing out to Lewis in qualifying. That compromised me most. And it was those four-hundredths. It’s all down to me to be those five-hundredths quicker next time.”
The tone was set for a new rivalry, and Hamilton would continue to win it, collecting his third title ahead of his teammate and former friend.
However, as the season progressed, more barbs towards Rosberg provoked him into action, and he finished the campaign with three straight wins, a run he continued into the following campaign to make it seven in a row.
That was the start of a 2016 campaign where Hamilton and Rosberg staged one of the most vitriolic rivalries of recent years, and the German came out on top, later leaving the sport days after his championship win citing exhaustion.
