Rosberg and Hamilton's hidden F1 warzone

Battles for the drivers' championship define seasons. What the Bahrain Grand Prix offered us, as well as one of the best Formula 1 races of the 21st century, was the first genuine shooting war in the tantalising head to head between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

On track, Rosberg was the aggressor, but off it, it was Hamilton who was on the front foot. During the weekend, he wasted no opportunity to highlight the unseen battleground that will prove a deciding factor in which of the pair prevails.

In Malaysia a week earlier, Hamilton was superior on all fronts. Faster, wiser, more fuel efficient, stronger on tyre management. Rosberg didn't have the ammunition to take him on and had to settle for second. So what had changed in Bahrain? On Saturday evening, Hamilton took his first gentle dig at his team-mate.

"It is always easier to catch your team-mate," he said. "When you start the weekend and there is a little bit of a gap to the team-mate, you go through all of the data and bit by bit you close that gap so if you are ahead, whether it is Nico or me, it's harder to keep eking out more and more."

He then added a few minutes later: "there was a lot of analysis done on my data [from Malaysia] by Nico so he has been studying that through the weekend and he applied that through the long stint yesterday [Friday]. Until I find something else you won't be seeing a gap as big as that."

This wasn't an isolated case. During the post-race press conference, it cropped up. And that wasn't the last time.

Hamilton landed a psychological blow to Rosberg in Bahrain © LAT

And it's not a theme that has come as a bolt for the blue. Pre-season, in an interview with AUTOSPORT, Hamilton was asked how you go about getting the edge on your team-mate. His answer trod a now familiar path.

"It's very difficult in F1 nowadays to have an edge on someone and it has probably been the same for quite some time," he said.

"You get in the car, you go and do a lap. It's a fantastic lap. Your team-mate does a lap and it's not so good and then he compares that lap through data on the screen or on a printout and can say, 'shoot, that guy is braking five metres later than me in Turn 1, or he's on the power earlier than me or he's using a different gear to me'.

"Any advantage through your skill that you bring to the table is immediately taken away, or inherited."

In tabloid-speak, Hamilton's comments would be 'blasts' or 'barbs', but they are more subtle than that. Rosberg is the first to admit that he spends a lot of time assimilating all available data and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

But Hamilton has been at pains to ensure everybody knows that Rosberg has been cribbing from him, doing so in a matter-of-fact manner that does him much credit. Cleverly, he always stresses that the same applies when the boot is on the other foot and he can learn from Rosberg, but the message he is trying to get across comes through loud and clear.

Racing romantics would probably shake their heads at what football journalists love calling 'mind games'. But elite sport is as much about psychology as it is technique, skill and that misleading shorthand 'talent'. And what Hamilton is saying could be very good news for his title chances.

Mind games: Hamilton often declares he grows stronger as a driver © LAT

He has a habit of declaring most things, even the negatives, as making him stronger. It's his standard reaction to anything and has become little more than a soundbite to brush off negatives. But by reacting to Rosberg eroding what Hamilton considers to be well-earned advantages, he really could become a stronger driver.

The days of the great intuitive drivers ended years ago, if they ever really existed. You still need those qualities, the car control, the ability to balance a car right on the limit, but they must be augmented by others. That probably frustrates Hamilton, who sees himself as a pure driver in the Senna-esque tradition, but remember the legendary Brazilian was a far more studious driver than the caricature would have it.

Hamilton has incredible pace, is strong in wheel-to-wheel combat, which is what allowed him to prevail in Bahrain, and better on aspects like tyre management and set-up work than he is given credit for. But the engineering mindset of Rosberg, an area where he is arguably the best in the business, makes that a relative weakness.

In simple terms, it could go two ways for Hamilton now that he has vowed to absorb Rosberg's data morning, noon and night. It could well make him an even better driver, but there is a risk that it could lead him down a cul-de-sac. The key is isolating the data that really matters and applying it. That is where the real skill lies.

His Mercedes crew should be able to load the dice when it comes to doing this and it's important to remember that this isn't just two drivers going at it, it is two sides of the garage.

At times, Hamilton has the air of someone who struggles to reconcile himself with being beaten, something Rosberg has traditionally excelled at. But if his mindset now is to outwork and out-think Rosberg, or at least match him in those areas, that could make him very difficult to beat as there are few in the paddock who would attempt to argue that Hamilton is not the quicker driver over a single lap. 'Quicker', after all, is only one of the elements that make up 'better'.

Rosberg is seen as more technically minded than his team-mate © LAT

It will be interesting to see how Rosberg reacts. In Bahrain, he seemed not to be distracted by Hamilton's comments about data, but was much more concerned with the fact he had lost a race that he knows he should have won.

And Rosberg can be secure in the knowledge that he was able to make plenty of progress with how to set up and drive the car during pre-season testing, so can be secure in the knowledge that he has made a big contribution to the performance and understanding of the W05.

Shortly after Hamilton's first data dig, Rosberg brushed it aside. Quite rightly, he pointed out that the real skill is how you use all that data. It's not a secret weapon and as anyone who has worked with statistics will know, you have to avoid losing yourself in the noise.

Remember those 3D magic eye pictures that were de rigour 15 years ago? Well, that is the perfect metaphor. You have to look at data in the correct way to see the big picture. That is the engineering mindset. It's not about intelligence, it's about approach.

"Everything is open, everything can be seen and everything can be found," said Rosberg.

"The thing is, though, that there is so much you will never be able to see everything, it's impossible.

"We spend so much time in that engineering room optimising every single detail and there's no way that the other guy is going to be able to follow on everything, there is too much.

"But everything is on the table, everything is open and it has to be like that as a team."

This makes the battle between the two team-mates so fascinating. But there is also potential for acrimony. There have been plenty of times when what was once an open approach within a team has broken down when crews are fighting for the title. With Mercedes in a class of its own, the risk of trying to keep secrets from the other side is heightened.

Rosberg and Hamilton continue to co-operate, but could that change? © LAT

Managing that is probably going to be an even bigger challenge than ensuring things stay healthy when Hamilton and Rosberg are battling on track.

There's no sign that things are becoming problematic right now, but you never know what will happen after a few months in the pressure cooker of a title fight. Even the drivers themselves won't know how their relationship will stand up.

This is very encouraging for the season to come. It's possible that Mercedes won't be caught and with a fair wind could even be in with a shout of dominating the season in the way that McLaren did in 1988, when it won 15 out of 16 races and was only robbed of a clean sweep by Ayrton Senna's late clash with Williams driver Jean-Louis Schlesser at Monza.

That year was the first of the title fights between Alain Prost and Senna. Anyone doubting that a one-team fight for the title is automatically a dull one need only look at '88 and '89 to be reminded what drama can unfold.

What Rosberg and Hamilton offer is a contrasting skill set that should ensure the competitive balance ebbs and flows over the season. That is what makes the battle to come so fascinating, doubly so given their history, which stretches back to their days as karting team-mates.

Let's hope Bahrain was only the first act of what might prove epic sporting theatre, on and off the track.