Huge Rosberg Hamilton clash – Rosberg relives the chaos of 2016 – While the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix offered a clean start for the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris on the front row, those with longer memories could not help but be transported back nine years to a far more chaotic opening lap.
This lap saw the destruction of both Mercedes cars, the boiling point of a bitter rivalry and the beginning of a new Formula 1 legend. For Nico Rosberg, who found himself locked in a battle for supremacy with his teammate Lewis Hamilton that day, the haunting echoes of May 2016 were impossible to ignore.
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Déjà vu on the front row
This year’s Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya opened with an eerily similar scenario: two teammates and title contenders starting side by side at the front. In 2016, it was Rosberg and Hamilton for Mercedes. In 2025, it was Piastri and Norris for McLaren. The parallels were obvious, and so was the tension.
Unlike on that infamous Sunday nine years ago, McLaren’s drivers kept their composure. However, that wasn’t the case in Rosberg’s day, as the now-retired world champion was keen to recall in vivid detail while working for Sky Sports in Barcelona.
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Rosberg sets the scene
“Unbelievable,” Rosberg said, shaking his head as he revisited the crash that tore both Silver Arrows apart just seconds into the race. He had been enjoying a period of dominance, arriving in Spain with seven consecutive wins and a substantial lead in the championship standings. Meanwhile, Hamilton was still recovering from a shaky start to his season, but he had found his pace in qualifying and was lining up ahead of his teammate.
Rosberg got the jump at the lights and passed Hamilton around the outside, only to be hindered by a misjudged engine mode setting that caused his car to lose pace out of Turn 3.
“I took the lead from Lewis on the outside,” Rosberg recalled, “but I’d chosen the wrong engine setting and it slowed me down on the run to Turn 4.”
That slight vulnerability was all Hamilton needed. He saw the gap and lunged for it on the inside. Rosberg swerved late to close the door.
“I blocked him very late — very aggressively,” Rosberg admitted.
“But then he went onto the grass. What shocked me when we looked at the data later was that he never lifted off the gas. Full throttle. On grass. That’s incredible. And dangerous.”
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The Worst-Case Scenario
What followed was the kind of collision that team bosses have nightmares about. With no grip, Hamilton’s car spun back onto the track and straight into the side of Rosberg’s. Both cars ended up in the gravel and were out of the race before the first sector had ended.
“It was the worst-case scenario,” Rosberg said. ‘Two teammates out on the first lap. You just don’t come back from something like that in terms of trust.”
The consequences of the wreck extended far beyond just points lost. The aftermath in the garage was a political and emotional minefield. According to Rosberg, the two drivers, who were already locked in a barely concealed feud, didn’t speak to each other afterwards.
“We just tried to move on, but there was so much going on behind the scenes. People were taking sides and trying to shift the blame, it became an internal war zone.”
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As the dust settled, the blame game began. In a rare move, the then-non-executive chairman of Mercedes, Niki Lauda, publicly called out Hamilton.
“Lewis was too aggressive,” Lauda told the media at the time. “Why should Nico have moved? He was ahead. It was a misjudgement on Lewis’s part. I blame him more than Nico.”
Coming from someone of Lauda’s stature, those words not only inflamed the intra-team tension, but also served as a stinging rebuke of Hamilton’s racing skills and decision-making under pressure.
Rosberg, now with the benefit of hindsight and no longer caught up in the politics of the Mercedes garage, is somewhat amused by how bad things really got.
“The crash didn’t ruin our relationship,” he said with a smirk. “It was already bad!”
A Silver Catastrophe, a Red Bull Opportunity
While the Barcelona clash marked a low point for Mercedes, it presented a historic opportunity for Red Bull. While the two Silver Arrows were stranded in the gravel, a teenager named Max Verstappen seized his chance.
The 18-year-old Dutchman had only just been promoted from Toro Rosso that week to replace Daniil Kvyat in a controversial mid-season switch. Suddenly thrust into the senior Red Bull team, Verstappen capitalised on the chaos, calmly fending off pressure from Kimi Räikkönen and becoming the youngest ever Formula 1 Grand Prix winner.
Verstappen’s breakthrough win in Barcelona is now a cornerstone of his legend. Perhaps ironically, the very same track where Mercedes imploded and Verstappen’s stardom was born is now where Red Bull’s current dominance has most recently been challenged — by none other than McLaren.
The Calm After the Storm – This Time
Back to 2025: Despite their growing rivalry and the high championship stakes, Piastri and Norris avoided any drama. Pole-sitter Piastri had a clean start, while Norris was shuffled back by Verstappen at the first turn – no contact, no chaos. This was a reminder of how far McLaren has come in terms of team maturity, but it was also a silent echo of what could have been had things gone differently in 2016.
This kind of restraint could have prevented the civil war that nearly tore Mercedes apart. This may also explain why team principal Andrea Stella has made a point of managing egos before they spiral, something that Toto Wolff learned the hard way during the Hamilton–Rosberg years.
From Rivalry to Ruin, and Redemption
The aftermath of Barcelona in 2016 marked a turning point in the Rosberg–Hamilton rivalry. The following races became increasingly hard-fought, with icy radio messages and awkward podium celebrations. Yet it culminated in Rosberg winning the championship, before walking away from the sport just days later — perhaps knowing he had extracted all he could from that brutal rivalry.
Looking back now, Rosberg seems less emotional and more philosophical about the saga.
“It was hell to go through,” he said on air. “But it made me who I am. It made me a world champion.”
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A race that changed everything.
For Mercedes, the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix remains a case study in how not to handle team rivalry. For Verstappen, however, it marked the start of one of Formula 1’s greatest modern careers. And for fans, it was a race that proved how explosive intra-team dynamics can be when the stakes are highest.
Nine years later, Barcelona still echoes with the ghost of that crash. With McLaren’s new title contenders now in a similar position, the lessons of 2016 are more relevant than ever — a reminder that in Formula 1, the greatest threat to victory is sometimes not the rival in another car, but the one parked just across the garage.
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Much is being made of the ‘annus horribilis’ being experienced by Lewis Hamilton in his first season as a Ferrari driver. In Saturday qualifying he is 8-1 down to his team mate Charles Leclerc and despite a shock win in the China Sprint race, he has finished ahead of his team mate on Sunday’s just twice in nine rounds.
With each passing race weekend, Hamilton’s demeanour deteriorates and such was the low following his sixth place in the recent Spanish Grand Prix, he found it necessary to apologise to Sky presenter Rachel Brookes after giving what amounted to a monosyllabic interview.
Just the day before, Lewis had qualified in P5 for the Grand Prix and was set to start two places ahead of his team mate. The seven times world champion was buoyant in the media pen following the session, saying: “P5 in quali shows the progress we’ve made. The car felt good, so I’m going all in tomorrow, aiming for a podium finish.”….. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
