“The problem is that Lewis Hamilton is the guy who shuts the door – Rosberg knows, in a one on one fight, that he’s the one who needs to make sure they’re not going off because Lewis doesn’t give a damn.”
“Lewis just shuts the door; if you’re there it’s your problem. Rosberg’s not like that. He’s not a killer, and Lewis is.’
The concise words of the Netherland’s Sport One’s Olav Mol before the Belgian Grand Prix, reflecting on Mercedes’ team orders debacle in Hungary. The words are also particularly pertinent when applied to Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s fights in Bahrain and Spain, which Rosberg complained were out of order at time.
Back to the present day and to how the world has changed. Rosberg, once universally regarded as the cleverer racer of the two, has made an uncharacteristically stupid mistake.
The Mercedes team, previously able to hold together a precarious harmony with its underlying ‘just go racing’ attitude, has crumbled and must rethink the foundation of its racing philosophy.
Context removed, this situation ought to be filed under ‘storm in a teacup’. The racing we’ve seen between the Mercedes pair this season is rare among teammates, but reasonably common between drivers from rival outfits.
Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, for example, have had their own memorable on-track encounters in 2014.
In fact it’s probably more noteworthy that only one ‘racing incident’ has come from the significant amount of time this pair has spent together at the pointy end of the field. Such incidents are plentiful in the tangle of midfield cars over the course of a season.
Certainly the Formula One world is in hysterics because they are teammates, and any manoeuvre that puts a sister car at risk is a violation of that golden rule to keep both cars on the track.
The situation is exacerbated by the obvious title tensions that exist inside the team, and Mercedes will be made all the more uncomfortable by the creeping threat of Daniel Ricciardo holding a not-impossible Championship points deficit.
But none these reasons describe why the events a Spa-Francorchamps are important.
Belgium represented a significant shift in the Hamilton–Rosberg dynamic. Rosberg has assessed the situation and recognised that Hamilton, that great hustler of cars, twice narrowed a significant points gap – first of 25 points after Australia, then 29 points after the German Grand Prix – and was poised to seize the title lead for the first time in Belgium.
Tied into that is Rosberg’s own experience on the receiving end of such bullish drives, all of which put him in the decision to make sure the two don’t come together – at the detriment of his points haul.
All that’s changed now.
“When you’re out there you have to trust the people [not to] do things deliberately … I don’t really know how to approach the next race.”
The summation by Lewis Hamilton as to his feeling after Mercedes’ post-race debrief, in which Rosberg revealed to the team that he chose not to pull out of the ill-fated pass.
Much like football players blasting the ball through a wall of defenders when taking a free kick, a psychological objective has been achieved – the opposition might flinch and think twice before putting themselves at risk.
Rosberg’s pass attempt was clumsy – clumsy in the extreme considering his experience – and he is unlikely to draw any pride from his actions or their consequences. It is equally unlikely that his intention was to send Lewis out of the race, despite Hamilton’s belief that this is the case.
However, some satisfaction will be gained from Nico’s side of the garage – not from the 29-point buffer between he and his teammate, but from the knowledge that his message has been heard loud and clear.
Nico Rosberg is no pushover, no nice guy.
That’s the circuit breaker he was after. Next time he and Lewis are sharing the same piece of track – and there will certainly be a next time – Lewis might not be so fast to close the door on his teammate.
Though unjustly achieved, that psychological edge may well be the difference between a World Champion and the best of the rest.
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