When Lewis Hamilton repeatedly ignored team orders from Mercedes and tried to sabotage his teammate's race

Lewis Hamilton has had a great relationship with Mercedes. However, there have been times when he has not listened to certain team orders while racing his rivals, especially Nico Rosberg. The 2016 F1 season was quite thrilling to witness, as both Hamilton and Rosberg were in an intense title battle. In the last race in Abu Dhabi, the Briton cleverly tried to sabotage Rosberg's race by controlling the pace.

Lewis Hamilton was comfortably leading while Rosberg was in second and was somehow defending against Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen. Mercedes told Hamilton to pick up the pace for Rosberg to retain the second position. However, the driver knew that if his teammate finished second, he would win the world championship by five points.

Hence, he ignored the team orders and intentionally drove slowly so that Vettel and Verstappen could pass Rosberg. Had Rosberg finished fourth, he would not have scored enough points to win the drivers' championship. Since Mercedes had already won the constructors' championship by then, both Rosberg and Hamilton raced for the drivers' title.

After the race, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said (via The Guardian):

“Undermining a structure in public means you are putting yourself before the team. It is very simple. Anarchy does not work in any team and in any company. The other half of me says it was Lewis’s only chance of winning the championship at the stage, and maybe you cannot demand a racing driver that is one of the best, if not the best out there, to comply in a situation where his instincts cannot make him comply."

In the end, Nico Rosberg successfully defended his position and finished second. Hence, he won his first and only drivers' world championship by five points.

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Lewis Hamilton feels it will take a long time to catch Red Bull

Red Bull built a beast of a car for the 2023 F1 season. The RB19 is so quick that even seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton feels that it will take him and Mercedes a long time to catch up. Speaking about Red Bull's performance gains throughout the season, Lewis Hamilton said:

"I'm aware that it could take a long time to catch a car. If you look at the Red Bull, is just going to continue to evolve most likely. Although some cars do plateau in terms of performance, when you get to some point, it can't just keep going. But maybe it can. They've got a great team around them, so I'm sure they'll continue to add downforce."

Mercedes is finally taking a different route to improving their cars. However, only time will tell whether their new development approach will allow them to close the gap to Red Bull.