The 2016 Austrian GP will be remembered in the near future, not for the reasons most F1 fans would like, but for a final lap incident between the Mercedes drivers which have divided the public opinion.
Niki Lauda blamed Nico Rosberg for the collision this time, though the Austrian backed the German driver in Spain, implying Hamilton was “stupid” following their coming together at Turn 4 in Barcelona.
A shaken Rosberg addressed the media following the chequered flag and said, “[I’m] absolutely gutted, for sure. It’s unbelievable. I was sure to win that race, and then lost it on the last lap. Pretty intense.
“We were battling, and I was struggling a little bit with my brakes because they got a bit hot in the end. And my tyres were degrading, so that gave Lewis a chance.
“Nevertheless I was confident I could defend and bring it home, and I had the inside position, strong position, and I went a bit deep into the corner, but that’s fine, you know, I dictate, I’m on the inside.
“Then I was just very surprised that Lewis turned in, that caused a collision.”
Nico Rosberg is under investigation for causing a collision and for not stopping after his car suffered damage. The result is at present outstanding.
Lewis claimed, “I left Nico plenty of room”, however the replays clearly demonstrate Hamilton was the first to turn towards his team mate.
Toto Wolff defended Rosberg’s actions explaining he had a brake failure, then continued to describe the coming together between his two drivers as ‘brainless’. Fans can draw their own conclusions on Toto’s view of the blame.
Fans at the circuit appeared to blame Hamilton for the collision, roundly booing him on the podium, though the British broadcasting media almost unanimously exonerated their countryman from any blame. Martin Brundle queried whether the booing was indeed for Lewis or because of the recent UK Brexit vote.
The debate will now rage as to whether Nico in anyway hung Lewis Hamilton out to dry, and even if he did, whether this was a tit for tat response to other incidents where Lewis ‘has done the same to Nico’ – as Anthony Davidson suggested.
For now, the longer-term result may well be that team orders are introduced for the Mercedes drivers, as Toto Wolff implied following the chequered flag. This could see similar procedures enforced as during the Vettel/Webber era at Red Bull Racing. This would mean following the final pit stop, the leading driver would be given preference and battle to the flag would be called off.
Niki lauda both times nail on the head.
“Lewis claimed, “I left Nico plenty of room”, however the replays clearly demonstrate Hamilton was the first to turn towards his team mate.”…
‘Turn towards his teammate’…… Wow and I mean WOW!
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/24098/10332607/lewis-hamilton-and-nico-rosbergs-late-austrian-gp-crash-analysed
As for the booing, I think you need to watch Ted’s notebook segment.
Well I am one who will hold their hands up…Lewis made a good move and Nico tried to force the issue on a re pass…this one is all down to Nico. Remember Schumacher making a move to hold a charging Williams of Montoya?…that didn’t hold well for the champ and the same penalty should be applied here, we can’t have one rule for one and not the other.
The stewards agree. Nico gets a penalty but keeps 4th. And 2 points on his license.
Does someone here remember last time when Rosberg successfully defended against Hamilton ? I don’t…
Lewis turned first to make the corner ! Nico missed the turn in completely and turned the wheel very late . This isn’t the first time that Nico has closed off all space in an over exuberant manor . Nico’s fault all day long
Partial…From Nico’s onboard I see other things.
This one is to lay on Rosberg. The racing line was further right to Rosberg, he seemed to have brake issues and most importantly doesn’t look like he tried to make the corner before he hit Hamilton.
Hamilton was on the outside and did turn much later to leave room to the racing line on the inside. Hamilton haters will probably say he should have yielded from a clear overtaking position (name one F1 driver who would willingly do that), or better yet: gone off wide because Rosberg’s brakes were gone.
The good thing is that stewards are investigating the issue, let’s see how their take is. And we might also throw in the amusing fact that both of Hamilton’s pit-stops were botched. One, I guess it’s possible, two in the same race to the same driver, that makes Mercedes look bad.
I’m waiting for Toto to cry fool about conspiracy theories. Their press later today / this week should be fun.
Did anyone see Sainz make the same move as Rosberg made into turn 2 on multiple occasions. Its a dirty move but fair on Rosberg s part. I only blame Hamilton because Hamilton could have slowed earlier and undercut him easily. All in all Rosberg took the higher risk and paid for it equally.
Non issue in my book let’s go to Silverstone.
I think Sainz was different. Sainz was on the inside and in front, so he indeed dictates turn-in moment. Exactly like the Rosberg overtakes on the Ferraris in Bahrain (2014?).
Rosberg however was on the inside BUT slightly behind, so Hamilton on the outside dictates turn-in. In other words, since Hamilton was slightly in front he has the right to turn-in when he needs to (and he arguably left a lot of space on the table there for Nico to sort himself out), and Rosberg slightly behind must oblige.
To me this incident is very similar to Turn 1 in Austin, where Hamilton understeered into Rosberg. Then too, Rosberg was on the outside and slightly in front, so when he needed to turn-in Hamilton must have obliged but couldn’t, hence the contact. Then it was racing incident/fault Hamilton, now too it’s racing incident/fault Rosberg.
I’d say though that while Austin was more of a racing incident (at least Hamilton had a modicum of plausible deniability), Austria was more of a driver error… Rosberg was quite eloquent that he had no brakes, no tires, so should have known better than to defend as robustly as he did. Ultimately, he lost it under braking and clobbered into his teammate.
Rosberg has been penalized, so at least they also felt that Hamilton gave room AND Rosberg made no effort whatsoever to avoid the collision. The penalty he received is laughable but I can imagine the stewards Rosberg lost 3 places was penalty enough.
Hamilton haters will not care, obviously. The headlines will still read that Darling gold-haired Rosberg was robbed a win by a brainless barging Hamilton. And nothing will be said of Mercedes’ questionable pit-stops.
I feel a bit sorry for Rosberg. In Canada at the start he was pushed off the road by Hamilton. That was a ‘racing incident’ and Rosberg is told he is ‘silly’ for trying to go around the outside as he will always run out of road. Now in Austria I do not see a lot of difference. Rosberg hangs Hamilton out to dry and bumps him off the road but this time it’s Rosberg’s fault. Still one would like to be a fly on the wall in Wolfie’s office next week.
You don’t see it because you don’t want to see it.
And you, Fortis see it, because you want to see it.
Funny how that works.
Yea i did see it and so did you and everyone else, but the issue is for some of you to actually side with Lewis for a change, would probably be a step too.
Canada 2014 Rosberg did the same when Lewis tried that very same move and shoved him onto the grass, he was applauded for it. Here’s a question, why did Rosberg back out when he tried the same move on Max in this years race?
Is Lewis a hard racer? damn right he is, but what he is not, is a dirty racer and he would never have done what Rosberg did yesterday and deliberately attempt to take someone out of the race for his own selfish needs.
Haha, Bill. It’s almost worthy of an M. Night Shyamalan film.
@WTF_F1
the canada corner is a totally different sequence to this very simple 90 degree right hander. in canada you cannot go around the outside side by side due to the momentum and sequence to the long right tight hander. the canada section is also a lot narrower than turn 2 in austria which opens up greatly towards the outside.
Exactly. In Canada T1-T2, like in Spa after the Kemmel straight, once you’re on the racing line in between the two corners, you’re on the racing line. Period. Hamilton was on the racing line and preparing T2, and Rosberg was in a position to back off and yield (a bit like in Spa 2014). While Hamilton could have been nicer and allowed him through, he didn’t really have to.
He sure did back off when he tried that move on Max.
Some people seem unable to even judge from a picture. “The racing line” is clearly 1 – 2 car widths inside Rosberg’s line. Plenty of rubber in the picture to prove this so he was trying to push Hamilton out. “Hamilton turned first”. Was he supposed to get run of the road? This is not the High Street, this is a race for professionals. Rosberg should have tried to avoid but but (as shown on the replays by Ant ) turned too late and was going too fast and too deep. Remember, afterwards he did not even give Hamilton room to rejoin the track. The stewards got it spot on and showed it by only causing 6 to be called to account. Shumacher and Senna did far far worse in their time so I say cut the bleeting and act like grown ups.Especially the author of this article.
As like all of these incidents before:
Hamfosi – Its all Rosberg’s fault
Everyone Else – Its all Hamilton’s fault
Just let them race, if the idiots want to crash into each other, all the better for us. Imagine if they had done it properly and then the race was on between Kimi and Max for the win, now that would have been an exciting final lap!!
you must be living on planet Z if you think hamilton took nico out or you are just writing this to stir the pot. hamilton turned in because it was the widest he could go and still make he corner. im convinced that rosberg decided to do what he did because he feels so insecure against hamilton, and those kind of people resort to dirty tricks to try and win.
you cant implement team orders now after years of not having it. they will just disobey when the championship is so close.
im convinced that rosberg decided to do what he did because he feels so insecure against hamilton
I agree. For me both the Canada move on the outside in T1 and this robust defence in Austria are similar in that Nico has a point to prove to himself, that he can not get outclassed by Hamilton. Along with the Barcelona run-in, these all point to Nico’s somewhat shaky racing craft, whereas he doesn’t really deal as he should with on knife’s edge racing situations… Bottom line, both incidents cost him dearly, much more than if he simply accepted the inevitable at the right moment.
Lewis’s shadow looms large over him and he needs to get out from under it, so he becomes desperate and that desperation and yesterday was another example of that desperation
Of COURSE Lewis turned first, he was closer to the apex.
I think you’ll find the apex is on the inside of the corner i.e. where Rosberg should have been…
Closer to apex of the outer racing line he had chosen. The apex of Nico’s racing line was somewhere in the gravel trap.
Who comes up with this bait headline?
Talk about misrepresenting the facts I’m sure if you look at the rest of quotation, where ever it came ifeom certainly didn’t imply Hamilton caused a collision on the contrary it, in no certain terms, put the blame squarely on Rosberg. That’s in accordance to those who matter which are the stewards.
Well, you might want to look up where the quote came from. Rosberg said in those words that Hamilton hit him.
But furthermore welcome to the judge, where titles are clickbait and the articles create a fuzz. Where commenters scream and shout. Where everyone is against something. And something is against everyone.
I’m amazed that anyone cares who did what. A preferable outcome would have been to have both Mercedes’ cars out simultaneously since they were, as usual, in a separate race from the rest of the field.
Not a member of the Hamfosi. But Rosberg totally missed the apex. Very clumsy attempt to push Ham off. Nico would have been smarter to just collect the points for 2nd. Ham just has one engine left right? Thought Nico was smarter than this!
I think the problem was that Nico didn’t realise how shot his brakes were. Last of the late brakers only works when you have a fully functional car…
However, all I’d say was that because of that there was no way for him to avoid. In the end he got out of it unscathed but Lewis might have been better served letting Nico sail off the circuit rather than assisting his failed brakes. I think that is mostly what Toto was narked by – the accident was avoidable, no matter how badly Nico screwed his braking.
So to be the blame clearly lies with Nico but Lewis could have helped avoid the damage.
Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown