Nico Rosberg says negative reports in the media during his epic title fight with Lewis Hamilton tempered the enthusiasm of his Mercedes engineering crew.
In an interview with SunSport, the 2016 world champion says the power of the media impacted the demeanor of his Silver Arrows crew which did not take kindly to alleged comments made by Rosberg about his team during his massive fight for the world title with his team mate.
"During that battle, the media had such power that maybe they did not even realise," says Rosberg.
"They influenced my engineering team because all they do is read about F1 and the headline 'Rosberg disses his team', or whatever even it was not 100 percent like that, if I am sitting next to them while they are reading it during a race weekend, it has influence, so the drivers have to take the media game importantly."
The relationship between the two men - who had been racing against each other since their karting days - has been well chronicled.
But now that the dust has settled and Rosberg enjoys life after Formula 1, the German aspires to rekindle his relationship with his former nemesis.
"I am not a competitor anymore, so for me I am open to being neutral and having a laugh again, why not?," says the 32-year-old.
"I have a lot of respect for Lewis and what he has done. Of course, we had some crazy and intense moments and run ins but that's unavoidable I guess if you are fighting for the world championship.
"We were so ultra-competitive. I kept on saying that I was taking it one race at a time, but that was my defence," he adds.
"Of course I never admitted that at the time. I did not talk about it. I worked closely on it with a mental trainer."
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