Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton shared a rivalry that had very deep and personal roots, but Alain Prost wants them to reconcile.
If there’s anyone who would know a thing or two about rivalries, it’d be Prost. The Frenchman shared one of F1’s most heated rivalries back in the day with fellow McLaren teammate Ayrton Senna.
However, in spite of the animosity reaching boiling points on several occasions, Prost says that with time it got cooler. After Prost’s McLaren days ended, the duo reconciled and looked back on moments where they both felt they had crossed the line.
The rivalry turned to grief and tragedy after Senna’s fatal accident at Imola in 1994. Today Prost feels proud to have shared battles alongside the legendary Brazilian driver.
“All of it’s a part of history,” he said. “And that’s the best because in the end we come back to the human side. And that’s what I wanted to show, the human side. It was stronger than you’d think.”
Rosberg and Hamilton used to be best friends before this infamous falling out as teammates in Mercedes. Since then, the two have said that they aren’t friends anymore, but Prost hopes they reconcile.
Nico Rosberg open to sorting things out with Lewis Hamilton
Rosberg had previously said that he would not mind talking things out with his former teammate. Hamilton on the other hand, does not see eye to eye. The two definitely respect each other, but the friendship they once shared is long gone.
During a podcast session with Rosberg, Prost said he hoped for the German to mend things with Hamilton like he did with Senna. “I hope you have the same thing with Lewis obviously, one day,” the 67-year old said. After a small pause, Rosberg responded.
“Yeah, maybe one day. I would be open for that, definitely,” he replied. This led to Prost shedding light on the exact moment when he realized he had no negative feelings towards his big rival.
“No, when you’re older you can see things differently,” the four-time World Champion continued. “For me not older. I mean suddenly in one moment on the podium in 1993 and after at the press conference, I realized that something was absolutely completely different and I could not believe that.”
Rosberg did not disagree with what his podcast guest had to say. However, he insisted on the fact that apologies had to be made from both sides in order to start mending things.
“Maybe it requires one of us to do the first step of saying sorry,” the 36-year old concluded.
