News is pouring in now at the end of the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix, as the Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg incident in the race has finally come to some sort of closure. During a closed meeting between the Mercedes crew, Rosberg openly admitted to purposely making contact with his teammate. Although this was a closed door meeting, this discussion has been made public by an outraged and clearly frustrated Lewis Hamilton.
“He said he could have avoided it, he said ‘I did it to prove a point’,” Lewis Hamilton told the media after the meeting. After a deeper investigation from the news, the Mercedes team has confirmed that this information is true. “I was gobsmacked when I was listening to the meeting… You need to ask him what point he was trying to make because he just came in there and said it was all my fault.”
Clearly the rivalry between these pair has not cooled during the summer break. The pair have had quite a history in the 2014 season; between the Monaco qualifying incident and a tight battle in Bahrain. Rosberg was leading the World Drivers’ Championship and following this accident that put Hamilton out of the running for the race, this lead has grown by another 18 points.
It is unclear what punishments, if any, will be issued, either from the team or the FIA. Could there be a disqualification or another penalty that will force Rosberg to lose positions in either the race at Belgium or the next race in Italy. Personally, I don’t believe that we will see any intervention from the FIA because usually the team deals with these inter-team issues. On the other hand, after seeing the crowd’s reaction to Rosberg’s podium appearance, the FIA may deal with the issue – even if it is only giving a warning to both drivers.
It is dauntingly clear that the team is unhappy with Rosberg at the current time. “Lewis was clearly in the lead and Nico was behind, and then why in the second lap?” said Niki Lauda following the race. “Because you fight all the way to the end and these things happen… they can happen. But not in the second lap.”
How will this situation affect Rosberg and will Hamilton be able to bounce back? And most importantly: will we see any more incidents like this in the 2014 season? Only time will tell.
