Nico Rosberg does not regret the souring of his friendship with Lewis Hamilton as they fought each other for the Formula 1 world title.
Rosberg had already been with Mercedes for three seasons when Hamilton joined in 2013. They were told that neither would be given preferential treatment and were allowed to race each other, with the German certainly holding his own against the 2008 world champion.
And during that first season, with Sebastian Vettel winning his fourth title in a row with Red Bull, there was relative harmony with the exception of one or two moments. But with the start of the hybrid era in 2014 came unprecedented success for Mercedes – and the start of a real rivalry.
The Silver Arrows adapted to the new hybrid cars better than anyone and have been almost entirely dominant ever since. Rosberg was strong for the next two years, but lost out to Hamilton in both.
But in 2016 came the moment he had been working for. He finally managed to get the better of the Brit to win the title before retiring from the sport – but it came at the cost of the breakdown of his personal relationship with Hamilton, with the friendship between them lost.
Still, several years on, Rosberg does not lose too much sleep over it. "I don't regret anything," he replied when asked by Eurosport in Germany. "It was a sensational time and a mega fight. I'm very proud of that. We're now neutral again, that's okay."
The pair are duelling again to an extent, with both racers running teams in the Extreme E championship. Rosberg C Racing edged out the competition to win the inaugural season of the series last year, but was pushed all the way by Hamilton's Team X44, and the two teams are in the hunt again in 2022.
Rosberg's team has a healthy lead after the first three rounds, but the X44 pairing of Dakar Rally stage winner Cristina Gutierrez and World Rally Championship legend Sebastien Loeb are still in the fight.
"We didn't know about each other's plans beforehand, so we set up our racing teams at the same time," Rosberg added. "We were tied on points at the end of the season, but we had more wins. This year things are going haywire again. The Hamilton team is third, we are leading the championship. But it's great that we're reviving this duel."
