Jock Clear, a former Mercedes race engineer, has revealed that he “didn’t get on” with Nico Rosberg.
Clear had worked at the Brackley-based team since its BAR days, and he became Rosberg’s race engineer after the team was rebranded Mercedes ahead of the 2010 season.
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However, according to the former Mercedes engineer, he and Rosberg didn’t get along well, but their relationship has since improved.
“Nico won’t mind me saying this. I engineered Nico in 2010, opposite Michael. Then I went over to the other side of the table,” Clear said on the Beyond The Grid podcast.
“Nico and I didn’t get on particularly well, just as a race engineer-driver.
“We actually get on very well now and we still stay in touch. He’s been very helpful to me over the years since, in talking about some of the driver psychology things. So actually, that relationship improved.
“But, he’d come from Williams where he had a really good relationship with Tony Ross.
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“And so Nico and I didn’t get on. And similarly, Michael’s engineer at the time [Andrew Shovlin] and he didn’t get on particularly well. “
“So Ross had a little bit of a rethink and said would I mind not working with Nico anymore? Because Nico didn’t like me, and could I go work with Michael.
“So I said, ‘Yeah, absolutely’. I said, we’ll try and forget about ’97, we’ll try not to bring that up too often!” he added, referencing the fact that he served as Jacques Villeneuve’s race engineer as battled Michael Schumacher for the 1997 Championship.
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