Another typical Monaco Grand Prix: a lights to flag victory for Nico Rosberg.
The real drama came after the race. Lewis Hamilton gave Rosberg the coldest of cold shoulders. Come on. What did we really expect? That these two drivers going for the World Championship only with each other weren’t going to fight? It was an inevitability. Things seemed cordial enough at the start of the weekend, although we had heard murmurings of Hamilton having used a higher boost level than agreed in Barcelona to keep Rosberg behind (an apology had been given and accepted). The weekend started to heat up in qualifying three, both Mercedes F1 drivers on their final attempt for a good grid slot. Rosberg, ahead on time and in pole position, made a mistake at Mirabeau and has to take the escape road. The yellow flags came out and Hamilton, behind his team mate on a “pole position” lap had to slow and settle for second on the grid.
Pole for Rosberg and another front row lock out for the Silver Arrows team. But under what can only be described as suspicious circumstances. I thought he genuinely lost the car but maybe, just maybe, he knew in the back of his mind that doing what he did would bring out the yellow flags, halting Hamilton’s charge, giving him pole position at Monaco and with it an almost guaranteed win.
Hamilton definitely had that view. His efforts to try to keep his emotions in check could not be hidden. He may have followed the corporate line, but his face could not hide the frustration, anger and sense of betrayal from his one time friend. Come race day the inevitable occurred, with Hamilton failing to get ahead at the start Rosberg took the lead into Sainte Devote. Lewis put up a good fight, keeping a second or so within his team mate, his only other chance would come at the pit stop window. Much to Hamilton’s frustration, Adrian Sutil’s crash led to a safety car.
Both Mercedes came into the pits leaving Hamilton with almost no chance of getting past his teammate. Hamilton was straight on the radio, asking his team why he hadn’t been pitted a lap earlier, adding: “I knew you guys wouldn’t pit me,” a remark he later explained; at McLaren he had his own strategist working on his race, whilst at Mercedes they have one stratagist working on the best race for the team.
Rosberg took the win, with Hamilton in second and the ever impressive Danial Ricciardo in third. The excitement was just beginning, with Rosberg and Hamilton avoiding each other during the podium ceremony, not even seeming to make eye contact. Hamilton went off with his champagne to celebrate with his side of the garage. He could barely hide is frustration and afterwards in the Press pen he was asked if he was still friends with Nico. “No, we are not friends” he said. Pushed on the matter:
“Surely those years growing up together being team mates must mean something?”
“I guess” was all that Hamilton could muster.
Rosberg, asked the same question, said:
“Of course we are friends; we’ve known each other since we were Thirteen”
Now cue the haters. Social media was full of “Rosberg did it on purpose – Hamiltons a bad loser.”
I’ve never seen a good loser win a World Championship- the hatred and vilification that comes with passionate sports fans can be amusing. But these same people who vilify today’s great drivers: the Sebastian Vettels, Rosbergs and Hamiltons, are the people who deify Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. The similarities between Hamilton and Senna are particularly striking: not only in driving style but in the way they reacted to what they would see as an injustice.
Lewis seems to have more than his fair share of injustices, as much as I remember Senna having. We do seem to see the past through rose coloured glasses. We think of the greats: the Schumachers; Alain Prost; Niki Lauda; James Hunt; Nelson Piquet and many other Champions as the greats of the sport that they are, but we seem to forget their flaws as time goes by.
This is truly a golden era of Formula 1, with five World Champions racing this season and possibly the best inter-team rivalry since Prost and Senna battled it out for the Championship. Bare this in mind next time you’re about to tweet or post about a driver, in years to come you could be looking back and saying “I remember when” and not regretting letting your passion, patriotism or bias ruin the memories for you.
Whatever team or driver you support, be passionate. But remember, these are people at the top of their sport, under immense pressure. They are making history, stories that we will pass on to the future generations of race fans.
History only remembers the winners.
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