Neither Mercedes driver was able to complete very much of the race distance at the Spanish Grand Prix when the duo collided in turn four and came to rest in the gravel trap on the outside of the corner. The incident was not good for Mercedes no matter whose fault it was, but which driver was to blame for the crash?
The accident occurred on the small straight between turn three and four. Nico Rosberg was leading Hamilton out of turn three, but Hamilton got a bigger run coming out of the corner. He went to overtake on the inside, but Rosberg also moved to the inside. This forced Hamilton into the grass, causing him to spin and collect Rosberg.
So why did this whole incident happen? When reviewing the replays, it would appear that Nico Rosberg is at fault for the incident. However, I would consider this more of racing accident than something that could have been avoided.
When the pair exit turn three, Lewis Hamilton has more speed than his teammate, largely because Rosberg’s power unit was harvesting electricity on the exit of the corner. Many people suggest that Rosberg was attempting to block Hamilton by taking away the space on the inside, but I have a different theory.
It appears that Rosberg was moving towards the inside slightly before Hamilton began to move to the inside, meaning that Rosberg’s movement on the track wasn’t in reaction to Hamilton’s overtaking move. Instead, I believe that Rosberg knew he was slower than his teammate and decided to move towards the inside in order to keep the inside line around turn four. This would give him the advantage around the corner because Hamilton would need to go around the outside and would likely end up losing the place to Rosberg by the end of the corner.
At the same time that Rosberg began to allow Hamilton to overtake, Hamilton decided to overtake on the inside because he must not have expected his teammate to give him the space on the outside. Given the speed that Hamilton had and how fast the events had occurred, Hamilton wouldn’t have been able to react to Rosberg’s moving, meaning that he had no choice but to put the car on the grass and avoid clobbering into the rear of his teammate’s Mercedes.
Although Niki Lauda has pointed the blame at Hamilton, it isn’t really his fault. It’s Rosberg’s fault, but really you can’t place the blame on either of them because these things happen even to the greatest drivers. The fans can’t be angry because they want to see the Mercedes teammates race each other.
Regardless of who is at fault, it’s safe to assume that neither driver had the intention of wrecking the other’s race, let alone their own race in the process. And neither driver is going to take the blame because from where they are standing, the other driver was at fault. There’s no point in trying to assign blame to any of the drivers because at the end of the result will be the same: Mercedes teammates crash each other.
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The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. Assumptions made in any analysis contained within this article are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author.
