Among the prevalent tribological failures affecting rolling element bearings, an unconventional rolling contact fatigue mode has been identified as white etching cracks. Those correspond to three-dimensional branching crack networks partially bordered by white etching microstructure, eventually leading to premature and unpredictable failure. Recent work supports that this failure mode may be associated with various combinations of operating conditions depending on the application or test rig, but that all seem to converge towards similar tribological drivers related to surface-affected hydrogen evolution at asperity scales, which is known to embrittle the bearing steel. Nevertheless, as white etching cracks remain delicate to reproduce without artificial hydrogen charging, the underlying formation mechanisms remain unsettled. The present work aims to better understand how some of the main tribomechanical and tribochemical drivers may trigger white etching cracks and premature failures. In this study drivers such as sliding kinematics, water contamination, and electrical potential and lubricant additives are progressively transposed on a twin-disc machine that provides an enhanced control of contact parameters. Various attempts advocate that the tested drivers are not self-sufficient to reproduce the failure mode in such apparatus, but confirm that specific lubricant additives may reduce the fatigue life by promoting surface-initiated embrittled cracking similar to white etching cracks. A local criterion accounting for the local sliding frictional power dissipation and the lubrication regime is further proposed to assess the risk of white etching cracks based on the analysis of various reproduction and occurrences. © IMechE 2016.