Rosberg contract talks unaffected by crash: Mercedes

Nico Rosberg has been assured his ongoing contract negotiations with Formula One champions Mercedes will not be affected by Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix collision with team mate Lewis Hamilton.

“The contract is a long-term decision and isn’t influenced by a race incident,” team boss Toto Wolff told reporters at the Red Bull Ring.

An exasperated Wolff, who has a 30 % stake in the team as well as being Mercedes motorsport director, had earlier slammed the latest clash between the two title rivals as ‘brainless’.

Nico Rosberg

Stewards blamed Rosberg for causing the last lap incident, imposing a meaningless time penalty and reprimand.

The German, who has been at Mercedes since 2010 and turned 31 last week, finished fourth while triple world champion Hamilton won to cut Rosberg’s overall lead to 11 points with 12 races remaining.

While Hamilton has a contract to 2018, Rosberg’s future is in discussion. Austria’s former McLaren and Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger is negotiating with Mercedes on his behalf.

He told Reuters no deal had been reached yet and whether Rosberg stayed was up to Mercedes.

“It would be very short-term thinking of everybody,” he added when asked about a possible negative impact of a collision that denied the team a one-two finish.

“We are seeing here a race where somebody did an outstanding job, and then a couple of circumstances happened in the last lap.”

Rosberg has won five of nine races so far this season and, despite some speculation about a possible Ferrari move, has said he expects to remain at Mercedes for years to come.

“It feels great to be here, and the team’s also very happy with me,” he said. “I feel really very much at home. This is my racing family here and this is where I want to be for the foreseeable future.”

Asked on Sunday whether anything had changed, he replied that he was just disappointed to have lost another victory.

“I had it in the bag and would have loved to win here. To lose it in such a way in the last lap is unbelievably hard,” said the German, who had been chasing a hat-trick of Austria wins.

“I don’t think of a big picture like that,” he added when asked about working with Hamilton. “I’m just thinking of today and I’m gutted and that’s it.

“I just lost the race and he won it. I’m the guy that suffered from the collision and he didn’t.”

Mercedes may have to impose team orders, says Wolff

Reuters: Mercedes boss Toto Wolff threatened to impose ‘team orders’ on Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, however unpopular the move, after yet another collision between the battling Formula One title rivals in Austria on Sunday.

The team mates have clashed three times in the last five races -- in Spain, Canada and the Red Bull Ring -- as their championship duel heats up. Wolff said something had to change.

“It’s unpopular, it makes me puke, because I like to see them race, but if the racing is not possible without contact that’s the consequence,” he said of a move that would force the drivers to hold position after a given point of the race.

On Sunday, the pair collided on the last lap as triple world champion Hamilton tried to seize the lead by going around the outside of the German.

Formula One - Grand Prix of Austria - Spielberg, Austria - 1/7/16 - Mercedes Executive Director Toto Wolff during a training – REUTERS

The Briton ended up the winner while Rosberg dropped to fourth and saw his lead slashed to 11 points with 12 rounds remaining. In Spain in May their collision came on the opening lap and led to both retiring.

“In Barcelona I was much more at ease with it,” said Wolff.

“We had (gone) 30 races without collision, it was clear it was eventually going to happen, it wiped out both cars and from my naive thinking I thought to myself: ‘Okay they’ve learnt the lesson, seen what the consequences are and it’s not going to happen any more’. “But here we go, it happens again. So the only consequence is to look at all the options and one option is to freeze the order at a certain stage of the race.”

Such a move would be deeply unpopular with fans, who yearn for more of the drama seen over the closing laps in Austria as Hamilton reeled in Rosberg before making the fateful move.

Mercedes have taken pride in letting their drivers race, telling them only to keep it clean and avoid contact, and Wolff said any decision would not be taken lightly.

“I have to cool down and in the next couple of days figure it out. Next thing I’m going to do is put my head in a bucket of ice,” said the Austrian.

“We will make the decision irrespective of what they (the drivers) say. It could go in either direction. We need to avoid contact between the two cars whatever the decision is. Everything’s on the table.”