Nico Rosberg calls out Mercedes over controversial Lewis Hamilton farewell message | F1 | Sport

Nico Rosberg has questioned Mercedes‘ ‘Every dream needs a team’ slogan that has been ever-present at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, stating that he would have preferred a more personal message of gratitude to Lewis Hamilton.

The five-word slogan was chosen to commemorate Hamilton’s final race with the Silver Arrows as he brings an end to a 13-year stay at Brackley, and has featured in promotional films, on the wall of the motorhomes and even on stickers placed on the W15.

Rosberg, however, wasn’t impressed. During Sky Sports F1’s FP3 broadcast, he said: “Every dream needs a team. I would have preferred reading like ‘Every team needs a hero’ because we’re kind of celebrating Lewis here, rather than ‘Every dream needs a team’.”

Lead commentator David Croft then countered Rosberg’s point. He replied: “I think what they’re saying is, Lewis had the dream and then he found the team and they came together as one and there was unity there, and you can’t win anything without the team.”

This prompted a giggle from Rosberg, and the word: “Okay.” Croft then continued: “But I’m not a racing driver. I’m trying to be diplomatic here. You had a dream once and your team gave you that dream too.”

Rosberg then followed on: “Yeah sure… I just think it is kind of about Lewis, but I understand the team point.” Fellow pundit and Mercedes test driver Anthony Davidson tagged on: “Every team needs a dream… driver.”

Unfortunately for Hamilton, his final race weekend with the Silver Arrows got off to a disastrous start. The 39-year-old showed pace throughout the practice sessions, but some poor luck combined with a team error led to him being eliminated in Q1.

Asked if he can make progress on race day, Hamilton told Sky Sports F1: “I’ll try to. As I said, the car has been feeling decent. To go from P1, P2 I was always relatively in the top five to then be in 18th definitely changes the look into the weekend but I’m still trying to be really present.

“I’m still really grateful. The car has been completely different this weekend, it’s been so much nicer to drive, so my hopes were high but it is what it is. I’ll try to come back from that.”