Nico Rosberg recalled how he felt "seriously angry" and having "zero fun" when losing to Lewis Hamilton during their time as Mercedes teammates.
Rosberg signed with Mercedes for the team's inaugural season in Formula 1 in 2010. He raced alongside the legendary Michael Schumacher for three years before the latter's retirement, and his replacement was no slouch either.
Hamilton, already a world champion from 2008, left McLaren to join Mercedes in 2013 in a shock move. Things were pleasant enough in that first year together but, as so often is the case between team-mates, things began to get heated when they started winning regularly.
The 2014 campaign began a period of unprecedented dominance for Mercedes. And, other than in the 2016 season in which Rosberg won the title before immediately retiring, Hamilton had the lion's share of the glory.
Specifically recalling the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix, dubbed the 'Duel in the Desert', Rosberg spoke of how he had lost to Hamilton. The Brit used it a springboard to go on to secure his second world championship, while his team-mate's resentment grew.
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"I remember myself in Bahrain, I said after the race, 'Wow, that was the most fun I've ever had in a racing car'," he told the Sky Sports F1 podcast. "But actually the truth was that was the most far from the truth possible.
"Because the truth was I was seriously angry and seriously hurt from finishing second to Lewis and it was zero fun. As race drivers, we always have to be a bit Hollywood. You can't always say the truth obviously because it's going to backfire otherwise."
Rosberg was using that personal example to illustrate a point he was making about Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque finished fourth behind teammate Carlos Sainz at last weekend's Italian Grand Prix. after which the Ferrari star said he was happy with the result and the way he and Sainz had battled throughout the race.
Rosberg questioned those words and said: "I was watching Charles, he just had got beaten by his team-mate who also ran him off the track once. Charles is sitting there and saying, 'Yeah, that was super fun. Happy days, having a beer with Carlos'. And I was like, 'Is this now genuine? Or is he pulling a Nico you know?' And saying the complete opposite of what he's feeling.
"But I think it was pretty genuine. In which case, I was thinking [Leclerc is] a little bit too [much of a] nice guy, somehow. Because [he lost out] already on the strategy, he lost out the day before by allowing the team to give Carlos the slipstream twice in the end of qualifying rather than it being split.
"It should have been one person's first run and the other person the second run and yet he allowed Carlos to have a double slipstream in the qualifying already. So I'm not sure. Maybe he's just a super nice guy, but that would be a little bit too nice."
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