Hamilton vs Rosberg - Who Was Really to Blame in Austria?

[Paul Jeffrey]

Once again Mercedes "team mates" Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton came together on track after a highly pressurized game of cat and mouse at this weekends Austrian Grand Prix.

Hamilton, after finding himself on the back foot and trailing his championship leading teammate heading into the final few laps, made a move on the ailing sister Mercedes that will go down in the records as yet another accident between the two drivers whom currently sit atop the Formula One standings.

Collisions between these two lifelong rivals are nothing new, Rosberg and Hamilton have come to blows twice in the previous five races, again costing valuable manufacturers points for the German marque. If one considers the infamous collision at Spa in 2014, Circuit of the Americas in 2015 and Spain this year that's an impressive 4 times the teammates have made substantial contact since their Mercedes partnership began in 2013.

The team blamed Rosberg's faltering brake-by-wire mechanism and of course the drivers blamed each other. Who do you think was at fault, and why?

Let the discussion begin...

Photo Credit - Mercedes AMG Petronas Team​

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Much as I really want to see Rosberg take it to Hamilton more this season, sadly I have to place blame on the #6 for this one. Shame, as I think trying to imitate the aggressive nature of Hamilton is just not Nico's forte and he should stick to the things he does best. Whenever he tries to put one over on Hamilton he keeps bloody hitting him!

Roll on Silverstone!

 

[Simon Fillingham]

Spa - Rosberg
USA - nothing incident, no one to blame
Barcelona - Rosberg
Austria - Rosberg

Inferior driver making poor decisions under pressure.

 

[Tim Ling]

I agree, Rosberg was to blame for this one. He knew Lewis had him beat, but he just couldn't let it go. Sad really

 

[Christian Moreau]

Obviously, it's the last lap, things are going to get heated, we all realize that. But Nico absolutely chucks the car in the corner, with brakes that were apparently completely shot, not a very smart move. There is absolutely nothing that Lewis could've done. He gave Nico the entire inside line, and would've had to use the runoff and the kerbs to stay out of trouble.

A real shame that things had to turn out like that, but hey, the championship just got a little tighter.

 

[paracletus]

Maybe the previous collision that took them out was a racing incident, but there isn't much to debate on this one.
It was a good race. It usually is pretty good to watvh when NR and LH are racing close, doesn't happen very often though.

Hopefully merc won't go ahead with team orders from now on, but it's a possibility now.

 

[Tom Blackett]

Rosberg's fault again. He just needs to accept he's second best. But the penny should of dropped by now after 20ish years. I guess that's what hurts the most.

 

[Bert Austen]

Rosberg.....love it....good for our Rising formule one star Max (lederhose) Verstappen

 

[BoogerMac]

Does Toto Wolff have something against Hamilton? I read a few articles on Racer Magazine with Toto saying things like "Rosberg's car was handicapped. So there was only so much he could do.". Sounds like he's deflecting all the Rosberg criticism and placing it on Hamilton.

Also, what the hell was AMG thinking putting Hamilton on used soft tire instead of a brand new set of super softs? I think there is a lot more going on behind the scenes that we haven't seen yet.

AMG Petronas F1 team is starting to look like a clown show.

 

[Chris]

100% Rosberg.

You have to wonder, if he knew he had a BBW issue, why did he choose to defend so deep when he knew it might result in a crash, taking them both out? I understand he wanted to win the race, but if he had his thinking cap on he might have realised that he had a decent WDC lead going into this race and could afford to give up 7pts.

It was very poorly judged, and executed even worse.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Rosberg

You did that to me at Zandvoort in the F3's. It was my first thought when it happened. Hamilton had left the space and Rosberg completely missed the apex and slid straight into him.

 

[Chris]

You did that to me at Zandvoort in the F3's. It was my first thought when it happened. Hamilton had left the space and Rosberg completely missed the apex and slid straight into him.

Once I applied the brakes, I was essentially a passenger. So in that respect its not similar because I was not trying to run you out wide. But I still agree that the incident was my fault.

 

[paracletus]

The 10sec + 2point penalty was lenient.

 

[Kurupt CDN]

100% Rosberg and i am also enjoying watching his lead diminish

 

[Mark Aalberts]

Nice to have the Mercs under pressure with no room to play with against their opponents they finally start to mess up races and the car starts to break down.

More of this please!!!!

 

[hitm4k3r]

Am I the only one who thinks that it was a racing incident between some highly competetive racers in the last lap who fight for the win with everything they got? Last race in Montreal Lewis made Nico run wide, same as in Cota last year, but luckily Nico didn't turn in as Lewis did today so they didn't crash back then. He was obviously short on breakes, but when you fight for the win you try everything you can. It's not the first time that we see this kind of collision (Senna vs. Prost anyone?) and I find it ridiciolous to give a punishment for such a situation nor blame anyone and bring it to the stewards.

No word about the unsafe reentering of the track by Lewis either. And at the end Nico got a warning because, because he finished the race with a damaged car. Tbh, I find it hypocritic to applaud drivers like Gilles Villeneuve, someone who would drive his car as long as it was possible to drive with it and blame Nico at the same time. Villeneuve won his home grandprix with a damaged wing allmost falling off and it was just great. Hell, even Villeneuve and Arnoux banged the wheels. The margine between crashing and getting home safe in such a situation is pretty small and Formula 1 lost a lot of credibilty with the enforcing "rules" once again.

People want to see racing, and no politics and sometimes it just gets a bit too close. Schumacher won a title this way and he lost one, yet he is the most successful driver so get over it. It's racing

 

[Blimey]

Finally I made it on the front page title.
Rosberg is to blame as he literally went straight, but the only excuse I can think of is that he might have thought that he went too fast in order to turn in early and then go really wide on the exit, making them both go off the track.

 

[zAmboni]

Rosberg's fault.

If ya want to push him wide go for the apex and then try to force him wide on the runout. Problem with that is that Hamilton was nose ahead going into the corner, and I feel would have still gotten a penalty if he tried to do that. I might have given him a pass about the brakes if he actually tried to turn for the apex. The replay basically showed he was trying to shove Lewis off of the track.

Edit: Nico sounded quite contrite in the Sky interview. His talk of Hamilton turning into him sounded hollow like he knew he was in the wrong but was trying to pin blame on Lewis.

 

[BlindDeadMacSlow]

Rosberg & it was a purposeful action under analysis. If you watch the laps at that corner prior to the incident, he has zero lock-ups, never misses an apex, even under pressure, & there are zero team radio reports of BBW issues or tire deg. He has this immature do-or-die tunnel vision & win at all costs mentality & throws his toys out the pram like a desperate child when it's under threat of being taken away. He also had 2 points added to his super-license & a 10 second penalty to his race time by the stewards so they obviously saw through his fantasy excuses as well. Probably with forensic post race telemetry in front of them. To my mind it was a blatant attempt to force Hamilton off track & take the win at all costs, even driving on in an unsafe condition & flouting the FIA rules. Instant karma stepped in & dealt with Rosberg. Maybe karma will put him in a Manor next year. Go & sit at the back of the class Nico This poll is at 84.8% so far - Rosberg to blame - the consensus should say enough.

 

[Kakusso]

Probably Rosberg got a personal trainer since last year to make him more aggressive in racing, but the personal trainer took it too far. I can imagine him repeating to Rosberg:
- "Don't let him win, Don't let him win, don't let him win".
When Rosberg saw Hamilton alongside trying to pass, those words came to his mind, since he didn't had the tires to fight, he had to come up with something else.