Nico Rosberg discloses the personal costs of his F1 collisions with teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were teammates from 2013 to 2016 at Mercedes F1. During this period, they collided multiple times, in 2014 in Belgium and several times in 2016. The most famous incident was their first-lap collision at the 2016 Spanish GP, which led to Max Verstappen’s first victory.
To minimize their accidents, Mercedes introduced a clause requiring both drivers to pay a portion of the costs in the event of a collision. The German disclosed that he had to pay a significant amount after an accident with his then-teammate.
“Because Lewis and I had an accident, the team eventually made us pay for the damages,” Rosberg revealed on the Business of Sport podcast. “We had to sign a contract stating that from a certain point, if we had an accident, regardless of the cause, we would pay for the damages.”
“I remember the amount I had to pay, which was 360,000 pounds, for one of these accidents. It was very painful. After that, we made sure not to collide again.”
Rosberg revealed that this wasn’t the first time he had to pay for damages following one of his accidents. The 2016 world champion had previously been required to reimburse the costs of a crash, and he had even taken out a bank loan for it.
“As soon as the 80,000 euros were deposited into my account, they were gone again because my father had taken out a loan to pay for an accident I had caused in Formula 2 at the time. I crashed my car, destroying the front wing and front suspension, which cost me 80,000 euros.”
“The goal at that time was not to pay for my races ourselves but to fund them through sponsors. But of course, that didn’t include the major accident. So, we had to borrow money from the bank, and my first paycheck went directly back to the bank to cover it.”
Rosberg’s Hefty Bill for F1 Collisions with Hamilton. Rosberg’s Hefty Bill for F1 Collisions with Hamilton
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