F1 champion reveals £360,000 fine after Lewis Hamilton incident

F1 champion Nico Rosberg has revealed that he had to pay a joint £360,000 fine to Mercedes after his 2016 Spanish Grand Prix crash with Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton and Rosberg’s infamous clash in Barcelona visually defined their championship rivalry at Mercedes in 2016, lasting four corners before the pair collided fighting for the lead at the Spanish GP.

Now, Rosberg has revealed that Mercedes made their drivers sign a contract that triggered a financial penalty if the pair ever crashed.

Speaking to Sky Sports at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Rosberg explained: “I even had a contract that I had to sign which said that if ever we crash as team-mates, we split the bill 50/50 us drivers! That was very expensive!”

“We shared the Barcelona bill. It was £360,000 I remember that. That was painful.”

Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle then cheekily asked: “Whose fault was it?”

“It was obviously Lewis' fault, what kind of question is that!” Rosberg replied.

Hamilton and Rosberg’s bitter F1 rivalry

Since that infamous crash, Rosberg and Mercedes have drip-fed their recollections of the collision in Barcelona with both stating that the German had the wrong engine setting which slowed him down on the way into Turn 4.

Rosberg also added that their Barcelona collision worsened his already tense relationship with rival Hamilton, a bitter internal conflict only remedied by the 2016 champion’s retirement at the end of the season.

At the time, Mercedes’ non-executive chairman Niki Lauda was furious and blamed Hamilton for his aggressive move into the corner, even threatening to release both drivers from their contract.

Lauda confirmed Rosberg’s anecdote of the fine back in 2017, and said in an interview with Graham Bensinger: “We put some regulations in, we told them - especially in Barcelona when they pushed each other off the track - we said this was unacceptable for Mercedes.

"We have to win, one of you guys has to win, you cannot push each other off.

"We had some rules put in, that you are not allowed to and you have to pay a penalty if you do it again or we will think of releasing you from your contract, because we are team players here and we cannot destroy each other.

"Toto came up with some good rules and we had peace again. We fought hard and the accidents got reduced between them."

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