ABU DHABI // You would not have needed a psychology degree to have deciphered the layers of subtext on show at Yas Marina Circuit on Thursday as the protagonists in the duel to be the Formula One drivers champion sat next to each other in front of the media.
The FIA, motorsport’s ruling body, had arranged for Mercedes-GP teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to be the only drivers seated in the media centre to answer questions as they prepare for Sunday’s Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which will decide who walks away with the 2016 title.
The following half-hour was an exhibition of evasive answers with hidden meanings designed to provoke a reaction.
Rosberg, who has a 12-point advantage over Hamilton and needs only to finish third on Sunday to claim his first championship, had a default answer of “just focusing on the weekend” to deal with queries as to how he was handling his nerves and what his outlook was.
The only real sign of irritation from the German was when he was asked how he would cope with finishing second for a third successive year behind Hamilton.
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“That is not going to make me go faster to have such thoughts that may or may not happen in the future,” he said.
“What is important is now. That has worked until now and that is why I am in this position, fighting for the championship right here, because of that approach. So I will stick with that and focus on the race win this weekend and that is it.”
Hamilton initially appeared tetchy, dismissing the relevance of championships such as 2007 and 2010 when Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel respectively trailed by sizeable margins going into the last race before going on to be champions.
“Not really. It doesn’t make any difference to this weekend,” he said.
He also hinted that he was still unhappy about the decision by Mercedes to swap a number of his mechanics from his car to Rosberg’s at the start of the season, a move that had been labelled by the German marque at the time as an attempt to improve team spirit.
“You have to buy my book in 10 years’ time to find out exactly what happened. It will be an interesting read,” Hamilton said after listening to Rosberg put a positive spin on why the moves happened.
The triple world champion did however open up when it came to discussing strategy for Sunday’s race, taking an opportunity to have a swipe at Rosberg in the process.
Christian Horner, the Red Bull Racing team principal, had suggested it would be in Hamilton’s interests to hold Rosberg up by driving at a slower pace, thus keeping him in sight of the rest of the pack if he has the lead in the opening laps.
The Briton did eventually answer the question when Horner’s idea was put to him, but not after going out on a tangent to remind everyone of his superior pace to his teammate in Brazil two weeks ago when he won to keep his championship hopes alive.
“When you have an 18 to 30-second lead that is as painful a blow as you can give to the guy you are fighting,” he said.
“If you look at the last race, with no red flag I would be 30 seconds ahead. That is more of an achievement than backing up your teammate.”
When he finally got around to discussing Horner’s idea, he said: “While it sounds like it makes sense, it is not very practical to do — you have two long DRS [drag reduction system] zones, it wouldn’t be easy or wise to do.”
Rosberg, unsurprisingly, would not be drawn into his tactical plan.
“It’s going to be a weekend like any other, where I’m going to go for the race win and do what it takes to get that, and that’s it,” he said.
The talking, perhaps thankfully, will soon come to an end with the two drivers taking to the track with the other 20 drivers for practice on Friday.
There are two 90-minute sessions, at 1pm and 5pm, which will give them the chance to work on car set-up for Sunday’s 55-lap race.
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