Nico Rosberg revealed eight years ago what punitive measures Mercedes used against him and Lewis Hamilton to put a stop to their rivalry, which sometimes involved serious financial damage.
Rosberg and Hamilton were teammates at Mercedes between 2013 and 2016, where in the last three years they had a car that clearly excelled in terms of performance, meaning they had to fight each other for championship titles. Rosberg often proved to be an equal opponent for Hamilton, and the years of their duel were accompanied by minor and major spats.
Their most memorable clash took place at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, where after the start they both found themselves in the gravel bed, fighting for first place, and their elimination was the last straw for team boss Toto Wolff, who foresaw serious consequences for Hamilton and Rosberg’s increasingly corrosive in his struggle.
“When Lewis and I collided, the team obliged us to pay the damages,” Rosberg now gave an insight into the nature of the sanctions as a guest of the Business of Sport podcast. “Over time, we had to sign a contract that if we collided, regardless of whose fault it was, we would have to cover the costs.”
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The German did not say exactly when this clause came into effect, but based on the communication at the time, it could easily be that the double relegation in Barcelona was the root cause.
In the later part of the season, the two drivers had another spectacular collision, when Hamilton took the lead on the last lap at the Austrian Grand Prix, and Rosberg tried to counterattack by displacing him, but the attempt was hurt by the front wing. The German then defeated Hamilton for the world title at the end of the season, and then retired from racing.
“I remember one time from £360,000 [mai árfolyam szerint 165 millió forinttól] I had to part with the accidents, which was quite painful. After that, we were more careful not to collide again.”
Although it is not customary in F1 for a team to pay the financial damages with the driver, this kind of thing happens more often in the lower categories. Rosberg mentioned in the conversation that he had to spend the salary he received from Williams for his services as a test driver in 2005, the year before his F1 debut, to compensate for the damage he caused in GP2. “As soon as the 80,000 arrived in my account, it disappeared because my father took out a loan in Formula 2 [akkor GP2-ben] to compensate for damages caused by an accident caused by me. I smashed the front wing and the nose of the car, which cost 80,000,” Rosberg recalled without naming the currency.
