Nico Rosberg has joked that Lewis Hamilton is still banned from entering his house nine years after their on-track rivalry ended.
That’s despite Hamilton performing a gesture towards his family on a yearly basis that will melt the heart.
The pair enjoyed a successful but sometimes volatile relationship while they were team-mates at Mercedes between 2013 and 2016.
Hamilton and Rosberg were childhood pals but, at the cutting edge of their sport, the rivalry intensified and by May 2014 the Brit had declared they were ‘not friends’.
Rosberg, who retired in 2016 after he won the Drivers’ World Championship, was asked about his former team-mate, who is gearing up for a multi-year stint at Ferrari.
‘The other weak point is probably a painful topic for you. Both your daughters are Lewis Hamilton fans?’ he was asked on NDR Talkshow in Germany.
Nico Rosberg has joked that former Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton is banned from entering his house
He said that Hamilton brings Christmas gifts every year for his two daughters
The pair had an intense rivalry in Formula One with the Silver Arrows between 2013 and 2016
Rosberg replied: ‘That’s true too. That’s even more than a weak point. That’s a big problem.’
His wife Vivian Sibold added that Hamilton ‘he always gives them [their daughters] Barbies for Christmas’.
Rosberg added: ‘No, that’s great. That’s nice of him. We kind of had an enmity. Now both children have a huge box of presents from him on their doorstep every Christmas. It’s a nice approach.
‘He has to stay outside the door,’ he joked. ‘But he’s welcome to leave the presents.’
The tension between the duo was a destabilising force at times, but one which also underlined the competitiveness and desire to win at Mercedes, and Toto Wolff managed to keep things under control.
There were various flashpoints – collisions in Belgium and Spain, team orders ignored surrounding overtaking, and forcing each other off the track.
Close contact was inevitable as they shared the sharp end of the grid. Between 2014 and 2016, Hamilton and Rosberg occupied the top two spots in the table each season.
In that time, they recorded 31 1-2 finishes. Rosberg peaked in 2016 when he pipped Hamilton to the title by five points – just hanging on as the Brit won the final four races – and stepped down after that, to be replaced by Valtteri Bottas.
‘It happened immediately when we were fighting for the World Championship, not before,’ Rosberg previously told Eurosport of the breakdown in relations. ‘But that’s always the case. When you’re fighting for success in every race and for titles, it doesn’t work anymore.
‘It was a build-up from one race to the next. If you want to decide the world championship for yourself, you can’t play “love, peace and harmony”.
‘You have to test limits and go into grey areas to win, especially when two drivers are at such a high level. Then it often gets tight.’
So iconic was their rivalry that it has was even given its own name: The Silver War.