P1racenews AI automatic summary:
Nico Rosberg has revealed a policy from his time at Mercedes requiring him and team-mate Lewis Hamilton to pay for the cost of damage incurred from crashes with each other.
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton’s intense rivalry at Mercedes was a highly contested intra-team battle between 2014-2016. Hamilton won the F1 drivers’ title in ’14 and ’15, but Rosberg claimed victory in their last year as teammates. Their clashes, including the one at the Spanish GP, allowed Max Verstappen to secure his first F1 win at 18. Rosberg disclosed Mercedes’ policy of making drivers pay for collisions, revealing he paid £360,000 for damages. The agreement ensured they avoided crashing again, with a specific incident likely being their final-lap collision in Austria 2016. Rosberg’s revelation sheds light on Mercedes’ strategy to deter in-team collisions.
