In the video clip at the bottom of this BBC story from Bahrain, what mental state are the two rivals in during these overtaking moments commentator anxiety? Are they super cool and calm, or are they fuming, shouting in their helmets, expletives flying?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/features/32323837

I imagine they are shouting ‘STRAAAVAAAAA’

I get the impression that it’s different for every driver. Hamilton does very well in wheel to wheel racing, so I’d imagine that the pressure actually clears and focuses his mind, whereas Rosberg tends to perform less well in the same situation so I guess that the same pressure works very differently for him, and he gets flustered and makes bad decisions.
Interestingly, there were many races last year (Austria springs to mind) where Rosberg outperformed Hamilton in qualifying, delivering a very cool, calm and collected final (and therefore fastest) lap, when the pressure to deliver is at it’s greatest, whereas Hamilton made considerable mistakes whilst trying to complete his lap under that same type of pressure.

You have to remember its not just driver against driver…each driver has thier own team within the team to maximise performance, i would imagine that this provides real support. Also to get to this level they eould be very mentally tough slready

What do they make? ~£20m basic pay, plus bonuses for placing and endorsement fees..

I would struggle on with the stress of a sporting rivalry for a fraction of that TBH…

Maybe they just switch off and think of a less dull sport, such as, ooh, I don’t know, bowls…