Rosberg had “brake-by-wire failure” on the last lap

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The collision between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton on the last lap was precipitated by a brake problem on Rosberg’s car.

A furious Toto Wolff called the incident “brainless” and said it “could easily have been a double DNF”.

He revealed both cars “were marginal on brakes” but “we couldn’t tell the drivers”. “Nico had a brake-by-wire failure onto the last straight,” he added.

Rosberg defended his driving at turn two, saying “I went a bit deep into the corner, but that’s fine because I can dictate – I’m on the inside.”

He said he was “very surprised that Lewis turned in and that caused a collision”.

Rosberg is under investigation with the stewards for causing a collision and failing to stop his significantly damaged car.

Wolff indicated he may impose team orders on his drivers to prevent further collisions between his drivers.

“It seems that talking does not bring us any further, so we need to think about all possible solutions and this can go as far as implementing the not very popular team orders”

“This is on the table now,” he confirmed, “this is what we are going to discuss because maybe that’s the only way we can manage the situation”

Asked whether this would artificially determine the outcome of the world championship in 2016 he said “I hate team orders, I think we owe it to the fans to let them race… but if every race ends up in a collision between team mates it’s not what we want so we have to stop it”

2016 Austrian Grand Prix

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    Chris Turner
    Being pelted by rain on his first visit to an F1 race at the 1998 British Grand Prix wasn't enough to dim Chris's passion...

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    117 comments on “Rosberg had “brake-by-wire failure” on the last lap”

    1. I’ve said it before and I will say it again. What Rosberg did here, the turning in too late and too little, Hamilton has done numerous times. This can not (but somehow will) be up for debate. Hamilton, unlike Rosberg in those situations, did turn in. If we are to pillory Rosberg here for making that move, surely all the past moves of Hamilton are now also bad, the only difference being Rosberg always bailed out of the move? The double standard constantly being applied (largely by British media but not them alone) to Rosberg and Hamilton is infuriating for a neutral who sees similar incidents being handled in totally contrasting ways. Hamilton should not have turned in. Or, if we want, Rosberg should have turned in more, but if that is the case, many of Hamilton’s moves in the past come under scrutiny. But no, Rosberg is bad.

    2. Looked like his steering wheel locked up as well !

      1. Ouch! good one :P!

      2. Unbelievable guys, how could you not spot his rear left wheel was at least 1.5 psi low, it was very clear on footage… thats why he couldnt steer as he liked…

        1. He was locking up, for all we know. Do we knew he can tell the difference between a lock-up and a brake-by-wire issue?
          I don’t think we do.

      3. Very unbecoming to be blind in the face of facts.

        Rosberg messed up today and no one should be making excuses for him

      4. You sir, have won the internet.

      5. Mrs Button again
        3rd July 2016, 16:06

        So why watch?

    3. Seemed to have a steering failure as well, that steering wheel just didn’t seem to turn where it should have done. Possibly a design fault with one of the parts of the car in the cockpit area. I do hope they fix it for next year.

      1. Rosberg is an excellent race driver, but Lewis is better……there was only one outcome, and Rosberg was driving Lewis off the track, so he couldn’t challenge him again……thank goodness for the inboard cameras, then people can see who was at fault…..and surely brake by wire failure is no brakes??

        1. @jop452

          Brake by wire only controls the rear brakes so there is still front braking and also some retardation from the rear by way of the energy recovery systems.

        2. The bbw only determins how the brakes fejl while loading ers. In worst case of bbw failure the brakes would feel different then expected. By no means end in a no brake situation

        3. I disagree that Rosberg is an excellent driver. Time and again he buckles under pressure. We’ve seen it happen all through his career and he doesn’t get any better.
          What we’re seeing is Hamilton struggling to beat him, which, in my view, doesn’t say good things about his skill either.

      2. The only fault with the steering was Rosbergs failure to turn the wheel…..thatl do it.

      3. It’s quite common to drive straight in case of breaking problems.

        1. why didnt he lock up if he had a brake failure?

          1. It was not a brake failure, but a brake by wire problem. It’s a complicated system, and the system went into passive mode – I think they called it. For Rosberg not to lock up in that situation, is credit to him. He only had one turn before (turn one) with that brake problem, and naturally messed the braking up there, as the problem surprised him, which was also the reason Hamilton got so close in the first place. Rosberg tried to be hard, and force Hamilton into the same move Hamilton has done repeatedly to him, but it back fired.

    4. How can Rosberg blame Hamilton for that? I don’t think that he’s seen the footage yet. It was pretty clear cut. He didn’t bother to turn for the corner until he hit Hamilton. That was Rosberg’s fault.

      1. Not only that it is not turning but went straight deep end of the curve. Rosberg has blocked Hamilton in his return to the track by driving the outer edge of the track next to him that this would not have been able to return.

      2. He didnt think of the on board cameras wouldnt fail… he said in an interview, that he didnt think of that much yet :)

      3. Rosberg did nothing more than what Lewis has done every time he got on the inside!!!

    5. Even if he had a brake by wire issue it doesn’t excuse the fact that Rosberg didn’t even try to make the corner. The on board from Nico clearly shows his very late turn in. I would be surprised if the stewards don’t penalise him for causing a collision.

      1. even with the brake failure, He knew about that before the crash. … this was dangerous driving by him

    6. Had Lewis turned in any later, he’d have ended up in France somewhere.

      Brainless only from Rosberg. He waited incredibly late to turn and he didn’t leave room for Hamilton to come back on track. Very naughty, Schumacher-esque.

      It’s a tricky situation anyway when you’re on the outside and the guy on the inside doesn’t want to turn. What do you do? You’re running out of space… but you still expect the guy inside to turn, and Nico didn’t even commit to the corner, he only put half a turn in the steering wheel.

      1. Off course Rosberg’s point is pretty much what Hamilton told him in several occasions in the past (and it worked) – I had the inside line.

        I can see why Wolf was not happy. But it was significant for me that both Lauda and Wolff were carefull not to put the full blame on Rosberg, instead pointing out that their biggest issue was that both cars might have finished there and then.

        1. well, and both mentioning the BBW issue, but I don’t see how that is very relevant in this corner – or do they mean to say that Rosberg was so deep because his car was not stopping instead of just keeping it there to get Hamilton to have to go off track?

        2. What you’re saying about Hamilton is bang on. He’s done the same dozens of times. Rosberg always chose not to engage. Hamilton did engage. Doesn’t make Rosberg at fault here.

        3. It worked for Hamilton in the past because Hamilton knows how to race, he’s firm but not reckless, Nico is an actual poor racer. Hes good at a single lap on his own, but he’s got poor race craft. I said in 2012 that he is reckless, and now its got to a stage where its not just reckless, but dangerous. In Spain the accident could have been a lot worse, and today, if it wasn’t bad enough that he didn’t attempt to make the corner, he also then, and in my opinion even worse, just ran straight along the outside on the exit which could have resulted in a major T-bone collision.

          I’m afraid his mentality is going to cause a serious accident one day.

        4. “I had the inside line.” I dont think you understand having inside line and coming out of the corner… Ros had the inside line by massively missing his break point, and he didnt even try to turn… he was inside but not in the inside line, he was trying to go to outside line… thats not how it works…

    7. Sure he did…

    8. Traverse (@hellotraverse)
      3rd July 2016, 15:12

      He also had brain failure! 8)

      1. Agreed… Stupid excuse, the analysis by Ant, Martin and even the stewards investigation goes against him.

        Let’s see what the stewards say.

        1. Stewards are investigating Lewis for the same incident and reason as well.

          In my opinion, it was another racing incident. Really, really close to an infringement, but Nico did in fact not turn into Lewis, it really was the other way around. Of course it was Nico’s intention to park Hamilton on the outside line, taking the corner at the very last moment. But there’s nothing in the rules forbidding that.
          We’ve seen Lewis drive Nico actively off the track in Canada, when the latter clung to the outside line, slightly ahead of his team mate. No penalty, not even an investigation for that. Not letting your adversary turn into a corner on a competitive line, stalling them on the outside line, is a step down from that, in my opinion. So even less of a reason for a penalty.
          The only decision I can’t quite foresee is the one concerning the investigation of Nico’s limping home with a badly damaged car. They might come to the conclusion that this was unnecessarily dangerous.

          Mercedes’s assessment of the incident will be a whole different story altogether.

          1. Rosberg actively went to outside despite apex being in the inside! he didnt turn didnt even try to turn, Only reason he ended up next to hamilton is he didnt wanna stay behind him after the turn, so he did brake massively late, no steering movement… as i see it, one intention: crash ham and blame him for this to cover his mistake and whatever problem he had (which i doubt he had brake issue, he had worn tires, and made a mistake, only reason brake issue is said to cover stewards investigation to down play controversy!)

          2. the stewards only investigated rosberg …they announced it immediately ; obvious to all that he pushed hamilton off the track deliberately
            mercedes will try and protect rosberg again

    9. He didn’t even tried to make the corner.

    10. Clearly Rosberg’s fault. He simply tried to run Hamilton off the road by not turning into the corner. He then failed to provide any room for Lewis to re-enter the track, even though his own car was damaged.

      If he had brake failure on turn 1 he should have given way at turn 2. I don’t believe it though. Teams are allowed to tell drivers of dangerous conditions in their car.

      1. I’m very curious about that last point. The team stated repeatedly that they couldn’t tell Nico about the failure, but I am under the same impression as you, that the team can share safety related issues.

        1. I heard them say He knew about it

      2. Not only that but it also tells the drivers if the brakes are failing on the steering wheel. So nico didnt need anybody to tell him he already knew

    11. My Dad always used to say “actions speak louder than words”. Nico’s words are muted by his crystal clear actions at turn 2.

      Mercedes have provided him with a very weak excuse with his brakes. His brakes did not push Lewis off the track, he did. Poetic justice took over from there.

    12. “very surprised that Lewis turned in and that caused a collision”.
      If he didn’t turn in he would have ended somewhere in Germany. Try explaining that one to the bosses in Stuttgart.

      ”Why is a F1 car in my office. Herr Lewis, what are you doing here?”
      ”Nico hit me.”

      1. I actually thought he said “very surprised that Lewis turned in and THEN I caused a collision”, although I might have got that wrong.

      2. lewis should have done what schumacher did in the video below, straightened the car & avoided the car on the inside.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx9W3pNdSR0

        yes nico went into the corner deep for whatever reason but the car on the outside cant simply turn into the corner as normal. when its lewis pushing nico wide as he has a dozen times nico has always done what michael did in that video & straightened the wheel to avoid the collision & go into the runoff.

        1. Traverse (@hellotraverse)
          3rd July 2016, 15:46

          Lynda Green: “yes nico went into the corner deep for whatever reason”

          He went deep to cynically block Hamilton to the detriment of his owm race, that much is blindingly obvious! At least it is to people who don’t have an agenda…

          1. Sviatoslav (@)
            3rd July 2016, 15:53

            @hellotraverse – Yeah, and when Lewis does the same thing…it’s okay, because it’s LEWIS!!!

            1. @sviat

              He doesn’t do the same thing though! Hamilton is forceful about taking his line on the exit of corners. This is TOTALLY different, are you honestly not able to see that?

            2. There a HUGE difference between pushing someone wide on the exit when you are in front and on the natural racing line, and running someone deep from the inside to the outside on the entry to the corner…keep OFF THE racing line

        2. Precisely.
          “Whatever Reason” could be failure, or defensive move, or even overtaking manouvre as we saw with Max Verstappen on Ericsson in China 2015 (a lot of praise for that one, ehi?).
          Outside car can’t simply turn in just like the inside car isn’t there.

    13. We could all be here praising Rosberg’s aggressive move. However, he failed in his attempt to a give Lewis a taste of his own medicine.

      From the Mercedes perspective, it’s a 1-2 blown, and a needless moment where 43 points could have been zero.

      1. Traverse (@hellotraverse)
        3rd July 2016, 15:34

        The objective is to finish as high up the order as possible, not to give another diver a taste of their own medicine.

        Nico needs to grow up!

        1. Traverse (@hellotraverse)
          3rd July 2016, 15:40

          *driver

          1. Nico was pretty much a diver today!

      2. It has similarities to moves Hamilton has done, but it’s the subtleties that make all the difference. USA 2015 for instance, Hamilton knocked wheels with Rosberg, he didn’t clean T-bone him into the sidepod, and that also happened after the apex as he maybe ‘slightly questionably’ had understeer in damp conditions.

        Rosberg may end up being cleared of any wrong doing, onboards make it look straight up deliberate but if the data shows no braking from the rear and him doing everything he could so slow the car down which does tend to involve keeping the steering straight then maybe it isn’t as bad as it looks.

        1. The differences exist because Hamilton actually knows how to race with other cars.
          Rosberg does not. He doesn’t know how to be aggressive but correct at the same time as to avoid collisions.
          He doesn’t know how to make correct moves in such situations. He tries to play aggressive and makes a mess of it.

          For example in this case if you want to force the other guy out what you do is keep the inside line and try to close the road at the corner exit. That way you are not actually pushing the other guy but you simply keep a line and the other guy runs out of road when his line interacts with your line. That’s is how other drivers push others outside in a fight.
          Nico went like tool and try to make Hamilton go off track at a corner entrance instead. You can’t do that. To do that you have to leave your line and miss the corner.
          The guy just doesn’t get it. He doesn’t know how to race. He can be fast but when it comes to actual racing he just makes silly panic moves. Every time they collided is on him really.

    14. So when Hamilton forces Rosberg wide it’s racing, but when Rosberg does the same he gets condemned? The phrase “Do as I say, not as I do” springs to mind

      1. Forcing someone wide and crashing into the side of him is a big difference. Give your head a shake.

      2. Traverse (@hellotraverse)
        3rd July 2016, 15:36

        When has Hamilton forced Nico wide resulting in a collision that ruins his own race?

        1. @hellotraverse montreal this year & cota last year are 2 recent examples.

          and interestingly at cota last year lewis like nico today turned into the corner late to intentionally push nico off & everyone said it was fine. only difference is that nico saw it coming & straitened up his wheel to avoid more serious contact. today lewis just turned in as normal as if nico was not there.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYussOGRSpE

          1. Nico bailed out in Canada when Lewis pushed him wide to avoid a collision. Lewis has quite an odd mentality, push people about then act shocked when it happens to him.

            1. If Lewis has an odd mentality, what you think about Rosberg, who pushed him wide and lost for it.

              He loses when he is on both situations. And Hamilton is odd ?

              People says such strange things sometimes.

          2. Traverse (@hellotraverse)
            3rd July 2016, 16:06

            @Lynda Green
            Your comment doesn’t answer my question. On both of those occasions you mention neither car suffered damage, thus they were clean incidents.

            You don’t have a point to make.

            Also, at the start of the 2014 Canadian GP Nico runs Lewis wide into the first corner. So I guess what goes around comes around…right? ;)

            The start is at 18:25 of the following video: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2inak1

            1. Traverse (@hellotraverse)
              3rd July 2016, 16:11

              *The start of the race in the video I linked above is at 8:25 NOT 18:25.

          3. There’s a huge differente between the moves.
            Hamilton pushes Rosberg out slowly, giving him time to avoid it or not

            Rosberg crash into Hamilton, didn’t give him any opportunity to avoid it, and for it, lost his front wing and the race.

            A very jerky move. That’s just dirty and by no means part of a normal race dispute.

            1. Nico went straight.. lewis turned right and caused the crash. If he had bailed out like nico in montreal, no hit would have happened.

            2. It’s factually obvious that Lewis could have left the track and avoided a collision, and still retained 2nd place. I guess it’s Rosberg’s own stupidity for not crashing into Hamilton “the right way” to avoid wing damage.

    15. Ross Brawn, please come back. This team of two aces needs a king to control the situation.

      1. I think it is pretty clear after this incident where Mercedes loyalties lie. Putting Hamilton on soft tyres instead of the super softs as they had Rosberg spoke volumes. Wolff mentions Nico’s brake issues as being a factor into what happened on the last lap, he never once mentioned the team’s tyre strategy at the last round of pitstops. For me, this is what turned the race in the sense that you now had Hamilton questioning the decision. Who could blame Lewis for feeling aggrieved, or that his team had stitched him up? This was a big motivation for Hamilton, you could see it in his driving from there on in that he was determined to win the Austrian Grands Prix on pure anger alone.
        After the Barcelona incident, Niki Lauda was quick to come out and throw Hamilton to the wolves. Spain for me was more of a 50/50 split on apportioning blame, today it was more 80/20. Rosberg knew he was beaten, if his brakes were as bad as Wolff claims, Nico surely would have known that regardless of the team not being able to tell him or not. As Senna once said ‘I am the one doing, I am the one driving’!
        The gap between Rosberg and the apex was big enough to fit three F1 cars yet he blames Hamilton for turning. As one person said in an earlier post, Lewis would have ended in Stuttgart had he not turn. Utter nonsense from Rosberg and the team, whose only grievance that I can see is that the driver who won was not the one they had wanted too.
        And what do we hear from the glorious Niki Lauda, Mr Fair and Balanced. Nothing! Not a peep! And to top it off, the booing during the podium was disgusting and beyond shamefull. I am not a Lewis fan by the way, nor am I British, but I can now see why you voted to leave the E.U. What fine sports they are.

        1. Mrs Button again
          3rd July 2016, 16:13

          Well said!

        2. William Jones
          3rd July 2016, 17:04

          I know, they totally stitched him up by giving him the undercut and the superior tyres for that last stint, what utter cads! Excuse me, my tinfoil hat is slipping

          1. You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to see the obvious. Because if you think this sport is a level playing field you are as stupid as you are sarcastic.

            1. I don’t get it, Hamilton had the superior tyre strategy and first stop. On what basis was this Merc favouring Rosberg? Merc have a history of trying to spine their way out of mistakes from either driver, this makes them appear to favour Rosberg as he seems to mess up more often.

              As to why Rosberg can’t accept the obvious conclusion that everyone else analyzing the video reached I guess that’s part of being a top level sportman.

        3. Doesn’t the fact that Hamilton was within 1 second of Rosberg on the last three laps prove that Hamilton had the better tyre startegy?

        4. hamilton left rosberg plenty of room to take the line he always took , but rosberg didn’t take it , he preferred to push hamilton off track

          surely it is clear to all that just not letting hamilton beat him is all that is required for rosberg to be WDC after all hamilton’s car problems ; hence his willingness to stop hamilton at any cost

          if rosberg wasn’t german he wouldn’t be getting a new contract …personally I would throw him out and bring in perez , an excellent pairing for hamilton just as button was , pity button’s age precludes a restoration of that pairing
          notice rosberg got away with it AGAIN…no actual penalty …didn’t lose a position and didn’t get get black flagged for driving on for with a damaged car as the rules dictate

        5. Spain Was also clearly Rosberg’s fault. The guy makes mistakes and when his mirrors get full of Hamilton he makes silly panic moves that create collisions.

      2. If RB came back, Rosberg will be clear No. 2. Like Barichelio.

    16. Red herring from Wolff to spare Rosberg further censure.

      1. William Jones
        3rd July 2016, 15:46

        Stewards have the data, and the knowledge to read it too

        1. Which is more than you do. It must suck to still have spots.

    17. Much as I liked Nico’s performance today before the last lap, I hope they disqualify him and take his points away. Then he’ll think twice before driving someone off the track again. When he loses the championship he can look back to this race as to where it all went wrong.

      1. But Hamilton drove Rosberg off the track in Montreal and you said nothing.

        1. Because he did the right way. And Rosberg did it to Hamilton in Montreal the year before also.

    18. I agree with Rosberg. Hamilton made a mistake turning into him. The corner there was just a detail.

      What a rubbish excuse. Jerez 1997 all over again.

    19. The whole driving another driver to the outside and of the track has not been penalized this season, so it would be very inconsistent to do it now. It is an avoidable accident, though that is a very grey area.

      Secondly, it’s the job of the guy outside the track to find a safe place to re-enter. While it’s not very nice to not let Hamilton join, it’s not Rosbergs problem. Rosberg decided to drive Hamilton of the track and Hamilton decided to not lose any time rejoining the track no matter what. Both are idiots and if i were toto i would use team orders, cause this is getting out of control.

    20. A very idiotic and unnecessary move by Rosberg.

    21. Dear Totto & Mercedes,

      Please don’t bring in team orders…. We are enjoying it right now. This is how it should be. This is the only thing keeping our interest in Formula 1 given the utter dominance of Mercedes.

      Regards,
      An F1 Fan

    22. As I understand it, you can run someone wide if you’re following the racing line on the outside of a corner. What you can’t do is effectively run the driver off the road mid corner even when they are giving ample room.

      It’s just sad to hear Rosberg blame Hamilton for this one. Really leaves a bitter taste.

    23. Can anybody tell me why Lewis stopped first in the last round of pit stops? The only possibility I can think of is that the super soft wouldnt last for Nico. Otherwise, Nico should have got preference.

      1. They wanted to give Lewis the opportunity to get the undercut because they gave Rosberg the first pitstop, despite Hamilton being the lead car at that point.

      2. Because they had screwed Hamilton over by keeping him out too long and nico got passed him. So they had to give Hamilton priority in the 2nd stops. Just a shame the team then screwed up his pit stop losing him 3 seconds

    24. ROS didn’t push HAM. He just went straight. HAM should have break earlier and go for the inside. If something, it was HAM who went right having another car beside him.

      1. But you are meant to turn right. You’re not meant to go straight, unless Rosberg was bored and decided to go off the track and have a crash.

        1. Ros wanted to head straight to Stuttgart by the Factory, he wanted hamilton to follow suit… waddyaknow

      2. If Hamilton had done the undercut, nobody would have crashed. The thing is Hamilton is so proud of his “I’m the latest braker” attitude that he never tries the undercut.

        Doesn’t mean that Rosberg not turning wasn’t retarded though.

        1. Patrick, Why would he undercut when he was already ahead? And what room did he have to cross over with Rosberg trying to drive both of them into the forest? If he actually took the corner and then ran Hamilton off on the exit, that’s racing. But he didn’t even bother with the corner. That’s what people are seeing. To be honest this was very close to an intentional causing of a crash.

          1. @dmw “intentional causing of a crash”
            Pretty funny saying that underneath an article titled ‘Rosberg had “brake-by-wire failure” on the last lap’

      3. He just went straight…..at a corner. That kind of sums it up. Rosberg abandoned the corner in favor of hitting Hamilton. How did he think that was going to turn out?

    25. Its pretty funny watching the anti-Hamilton brigade trying to figure out how they can make this not Rosberg’s fault.

      Its a pretty simple situation really. Rosberg had no intention of making the corner. The only thing he cared about on the run up to turn two was making sure Hamilton didn’t make the corner either. I doubt he will get a penalty for it but if he does it wont be undeserved.

      People keep bringing up Canada or Austin but the crucial difference is in those cases Hamilton was taking the racing line and perfectly within his right to hang Rosberg out to dry (just like Rosberg has done to Hamilton before at Canada 2014 or Brazil).

      This is also the second time now that Rosberg, with a hampered car, has triggered a collision between himself and Hamilton with an overly aggressive move just to stop Hamilton overtaking him. Mercedes really can’t be happy with that can they!

      1. Everyone is blaming Rosberg, did you even bother to read the comments above?

      2. Pretty funny to see the Hamilton brigade try to prove that Rosberg is at fault when he was doing the same thing Hamilton and others have done countless times. Funny they see the video proof of Hamilton actively turning into Rosberg and say it was Roaberg’s fault.

        If it were the other way around, you guys would be screaming red-mad that Rosberg ought to be displaced. Oh yeah, that already happened.

        It is utter nonsense. And udder nonsense, to be frank.

        1. Frankly, you should see more races, if you really think it is the same think.

          Schumacher did the same thing to JV on Jerez 1997 and now suddenly Rosberg is innocent?

          You are desperate.

        2. Look at Hamilton’s crash with Ricciardo on Hungary last year.
          Nobody blamed Ricciardo then, did we? And that crash was a mirror image of this of today.

          Everyboyd blamed Hamilton that day.

      3. “did you even bother to read the comments above?”

        Yes. Did you?

        Not everyone is blaming Rosberg so either you haven’t read the comments yourself or you are just flat out lying. I admit there is the subtle 3rd option of you don’t understand what the word “everyone” means but I think that is unlikely :)

        @Neiana “Pretty funny to see the Hamilton brigade try to prove that Rosberg is at fault when he was doing the same thing Hamilton and others have done countless times”

        Please show us a time Hamilton or “others” t-boned another car to stop them overtaking the way Rosberg did today :)

        “Funny they see the video proof of Hamilton actively turning into Rosberg”

        I see Hamilton actively turn round a corner, you know that thing the drivers had been doing for the preceding 70 laps that Rosberg suddenly forgot about? :) But you know maybe it is my bias that is making me see a corner where there is none and in actual fact they were both on a straight?

    26. Sorry but this brake failure garbage is just an excuse. The drivers get warned that they have brake problems on the steering wheel. So nico knew the only way he was beating Hamilton was to force him off track and hopefully buy him some time to coast home. Fact is Mercedes put Hamilton in a race with rosberg he didnt need to be in with awful strategy and some terrible pit stops on Hamiltons car. I seriously believe their chief strategist is a moron.

    27. Larry Loughner
      3rd July 2016, 17:14

      Rosberg is a petty looser and should be disqualified from the Austrian G P 2016.
      MB Management is making excuses for petty Rosberg.

    28. Rosberg showed on the past how metodical he is.
      Hungary last year, for example, he passed on a gamble to win the race to “whatever tyres Hamilton is” just to make sure to be ahead.

      Monaco 2014, or holding Hamilton’s attempt at pole on Malasya last year, and this.

      He has much more issues with Hamilton than Hamilton with him. He didn’t try to push Hamilton wide, he tried to take him out of the race.

    29. Rosberg was behind on the inside, and delayed too much the approach for the turn.
      Hamilton gave him plenty of room and was already ahead, but on the outside, he couldn’t wait Rosberg to take forever to turn to the right and did it. And Rosberg crashed in him.

      For someone who was supposedly having braking difficulties, Rosberg was too optimistic.

      https://pp.vk.me/c636323/v636323194/121c5/8BCKLJa1y6E.jpg

    30. Interesting. Rosberg passed Hulkenberg at turn 2 on lap 6 on the outside without incident.

      Hulk took the normal line through the apex of turn 2 and Rosberg made the pass. And, Rosberg was not even as far to the outside line as Hamilton was when Rosberg went straight into him instead of turning into the normal racing into into the apex.

      According to Rosberg’s logic, Hulk would have been perfectly justified to drive Rosberg off the track because it was his corner.

      1. Exactly! If anything we’ve seen Rosberg’s biggest weakness exposed today, and that’s his inability to except blame for his own mistakes. The sad thing is that he doesn’t need to do these things, he’s good enough without having to cheat. Behaving like he did today, in the interview especially, cheapens his achievements.
        All he had to do was maintain the points advantage over Hamilton, show maturity and play the long game. Nico, unwittingly, became Hamilton’s biggest friend today by throwing away all those points. Points he will need. He needs to compose himself, realise that he still leads the championship, and focus on winning in Silverstone.

    31. Well time for me to leave this website again.

      Once again disappointed by the lack of intelligence and “steering failure” comments.

      Yeah I’d rather go to a site where people understand how an F1 car works thanks. I’ll be back once everyone has evolved back to a human though.

      1. Bye bye! :)

      2. Bye Felicia

    32. Let me first stress that Rosberg is to be blamed for the incident.
      However, and provided you accept Wolff’s statement about the brake problem (which I do – if you look closely at the data, NR was .15 quicker than LH on the penultimate lap and .6 in front when they last crossed the line, I find it hard to believe that LH could have closed the gap so dramatically unless RH had already encountered a problem) I feel that there are a number of exonerating factors:
      – Why should we be so harsh with a driver, who starting from behind, had driven beautifullu and arguably until that point out-driven his teamate? I mean, OK, in the heat of the moment drivers tend to throw caution to the air. After all we are talking for the last lap here, just a mere 50 seconds from victory. In the past Rosberg has been (rightly) condemned for his lack of “aggressive” spirit. Until the incident today he drove beautifully and I believe that he had Lewis covered up. The rest may be explained by his frustration after encountering the problem plus his desire to win no matter what. It is arguable that Lewis would have behaved in the same manner if the roles were reversed and then we would all put the incident down to LH’s “natural winner’s instinct”.

    33. Nice escape from MErcedes.

    34. It’s about time that the stewards actually did something about Rosbergs questionable driving.

      2012 Bahrain when he ran both Alonso and Hamilton off the track – they did nothing.

      2016 Spain when he did exactly the same thing to Hamilton causing a 200mph crash – they did nothing

      2014 Monaco when he deliberately caused a yellow flag during qualification to rob Hamilton of pole – they did nothing

      2014 Spa when he deliberately – by his own admission took Hamilton out – they did nothing

      No wonder that even though he has been caught bang to rights this time, deliberately steering into Hamilton, he is still in denial. Clearly he needs to go and read the rule book and work on his lack of race craft. As for the stewards, they are as much to blame for Rosbergs repeated transgressions as he is. Thankfully on this occasion, Antony Davidson’s excellent analysis gave them no option but to act, even if the eventual punishment was no more than a slap on the wrist. However their decision, in conjunction with AD’s analysis and Rosberg’s ridiculous explanation have finally exposed him for the wilful, desperate and unscrupulous cheat that he is. Furthermore this weeks events show that the stewards were totally wrong to have repeatedly given him the benefit of the doubt in the past.

      Finally it’s clear that the only team orders needed at Mercedes need to go to Rosberg.

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