Mercedes were concerned a disappointed Lewis Hamilton would not participate in the podium ceremony following his shock defeat in the Monaco Grand Prix this year.
Hamilton had led the race comfortably but lost his chance of victory when he pitted during a Safety Car period. He had twice questioned the team’s original decision not to bring him in.
After taking the chequered flag he stopped his car at the Portier corner before continuing on his way to the podium. Drivers are required by the rules to proceed to parc ferme at the end of the race “without any unnecessary delay”.
Radio messages which were not broadcast during the weekend, but can be heard in the official season review video, revealed Hamilton was bring urged by his team not to miss the podium proceedings.
Hamilton eventually complied, but knocking over the ‘3’ sign where he parked gave a further indication of his displeasure at losing the race to team mate Nico Rosberg. Although on that occasion Hamilton did take part in the formalities, later in the season at Interlagos he did not attend the top three qualifiers’ photograph after being beaten to pole position by Rosberg.
Another grievance between the two Mercedes drivers was revealed in a further previously unheard radio clip. After nearly running into his team mate when the Safety Car was deployed in Russia, Hamilton accused his team mate of driving dangerously.
“Just for info,” he told Bonnington on the radio, “Nico has slowed down so dangerously we all nearly crashed into him.”
Joe Former (@formerracer)
16th December 2015, 12:38
Cheer up, Lewis. You’re in Formula One!
pastaman (@)
16th December 2015, 12:50
I thought it was a miracle he didn’t hit Nico in Russia!
PMccarthy_is_a_legend (@pmccarthy_is_a_legend)
16th December 2015, 12:57
Ooooo big news… Lewis unhappy in the radio… Amazing….
lockup (@)
16th December 2015, 13:05
Surprised they didn’t broadcast the Sochi one. I was suspicious at the time that Rosberg wouldn’t have minded if Hamilton had knocked his front wing off.
Understeer (@abdelilah)
16th December 2015, 13:20
@lockup that stands as Nico’s trademark, win when you can even with dirty games to bring your team mate down, so far so good it did not succeed for him these three seasons.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
16th December 2015, 17:23
@abdelilah …
Understeer (@abdelilah)
16th December 2015, 17:37
@xtwl 2014 monaco cheat…
samouri
16th December 2015, 20:38
Yes….Nico cheated, judge for yourself.
https://vimeo.com/96710217
Mark in Florida
17th December 2015, 3:15
If Nico drove Hamilton off the track like Hamilton does to him, he wouldn’t have a job. Hamilton just likes to whine when it doesn’t all go his way. Big winner big loser.
Samouri (@samouri)
18th December 2015, 0:39
Lewis has challenged Nico for a corner, but never had pushed Rosberg off the track in such a reckless and dangerous manner. The way that Nico did, at the Bahrain GP in 2012.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqbljq_f1-bahrain-2012-rosberg-hamilton-and-rosberg-alonso-situation_sport
KeeleyObsessed (@keeleyobsessed)
29th January 2016, 12:34
@abdelilah
Yes. How dare Nico slow down for the safety car. How ridiculous of him.
What do you expect him to do? Carry on at normal, racing speed past the yellow flags and safety car boards?
Robbie (@robbie)
17th December 2015, 13:25
@lockup Ah yes the effort to undermine ‘cheating’ Nico continues now with suggestions/suspicions of what Nico would or wouldn’t have minded happening at a race. Wow…a driver getting slagged for what an armchair expert is suspicious of based on complete and utter personal bias. Too much. Or, lol, every day on an F1 forum.
Here’s some factual undermining. LH literally cheated in the last race by upping his settings to the point where the team not only told him they would simply let Nico do the same, he indeed ignored instructions and let it go so far that Nico indeed was instructed to crank his setting too. The same Nico that some armchair experts claim has been ‘on the outs’ with Merc for his evil cheating ways going back to 2014…so on the outs that he dominated the last 6 qualies and 3 races…so on the outs he is…you could just see the fury from the team at his late-season surge…oh sorry…that was strictly from LH who, imho, cheated himself and the team by giving up on the ones’ spending hundereds of millions on him, after winning the WDC…even gave up in races when he couldn’t have his own way via ridiculous alternate strategies…claimed he was partying too much and still felt deserving of extreme measures of necessary assistance by the team since he couldn’t do it himself, to beat Nico who had simply gone out and earned his spot those last 3 or more races.
Understeer (@abdelilah)
17th December 2015, 18:19
@robbie that’s not cheating, changing strat modes is disobedience of team orders, that is completely different.
Robbie (@robbie)
18th December 2015, 13:35
@abdelilah I have defaulted to the term cheating because others seem so quick to use the term when it applies to Nico, and whatever you prefer to call changing engine strat modes disobediently, it was still cheating his teammate in my eyes.
gary
16th December 2015, 13:33
Interlagos was even more ridiculous than Monaco tbh.
Michal (@michal2009b)
16th December 2015, 13:44
I think Hamilton might have been upscaled by all this. He has everything, a car on another planet to his rivals, a dream environment to work with, he is doing what he loves and behave like this at Interlagos. Pathetic in my opinion.
petebaldwin (@)
16th December 2015, 14:50
@michal2009b – He’s already said a few years ago that winning a title in a car miles faster than the rest is easy and that he wants to be fighting with people, not winning because of his car. Perhaps that’s why he’s so unhappy at the moment.
I can see his point. 3 overtakes all year – he’s overtaken more than that in a single lap in other season! Any excitement has been created (or taken away) artificially by his team who don’t want the drivers to race each other.
Michal (@michal2009b)
16th December 2015, 15:03
@petebaldwin – But hey, Hamilton denies F1 is boring and demands more positive image of the sport!
Martin
16th December 2015, 17:38
He denied that Mercedes are making it boring, not that it is or isn’t boring itself.
sonia luff (@sonia54)
16th December 2015, 18:25
+1
Arnold Triyudho Wardono (@ernietheracefan)
16th December 2015, 14:07
Toto, let Lewis skips the podium. I’m sure that he’ll able to pay the penalties..xD
Ian Stephens (@ians)
16th December 2015, 17:25
I am not sure there are any penalties for violation of podium rules. Certainly organisers whose trophies fail to meet the specification are never punished.
His_majesty
16th December 2015, 19:07
2002 Austria
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
16th December 2015, 14:11
And Nico “seriusly dislikes comming second to Lewis.”
What being in title fight brings out in those two… Hilarious. Imagine Vettel and Raikonen in same position or Alonso and Button? For sure they would act with a little bit more class.
Or something. I seriusly dislike top sportsmen behaving this unsporting.
Totto is right to be angry about it.
petebaldwin (@)
16th December 2015, 14:52
@jureo – Alonso? Really? Last time he was in a title fight with Hamilton, he managed to come out of it looking the more childish of the two – not an easy feat!
And Vettel!? Multi-21…..?
Fletch (@fletchuk)
16th December 2015, 15:05
@petebaldwin nailed it
Samouri (@samouri)
16th December 2015, 20:50
petebaldwin surely did!
Chad (@chaddy)
16th December 2015, 15:35
Multi-21 wasn’t an act showing a lack of class or dignity. You could say he was being a bad teammate or team member, but it wasn’t disrespectful to the sport, or beneath the expected behavior of a racer.
Samouri (@samouri)
16th December 2015, 21:02
Webber’s action after the race, and showing his displeasure with Vettel, was truly dangerous, and very reckless.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyhic6_furious-webber-cuts-up-vettel-after-malaysia-gp-has-finished_sport
CashNotClass (@cashnotclass)
17th December 2015, 10:57
Indeed, I was surprised nothing was made of it at the time. It wasn’t just petulant and childish, but quite dangerous as well as it’s not at all uncommon for drivers to accelerate again after briefly slowing down to cross the finish with a little celebration of sorts.
Ian Bond (@ianbond001)
16th December 2015, 16:21
Multi21 made me a Vettel fan!!!
Veteran
16th December 2015, 17:18
Vettel multi21, was the result of Webber ignoring a multi12, you know this right?…
kanan
16th December 2015, 18:47
I’m sure he has a very good reason to ignore that fact. They always do. Not to mention that incident has nothing to do with being “childish”.
AceAce
16th December 2015, 18:25
Multi21 was beautiful in my eyes.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
16th December 2015, 21:10
When i said Button and Alonso, clearly I meant Button would never succumb so low. Alonso proved many times he would.
Vettel probably too but he is more manly now, but Kimi wouldnt…
What we have here at Mercedes is Nico Kerdashian and Lewis Kerdashian… Drama soon follows.
Addie
17th December 2015, 2:31
Alonso always dragged into it. He, nor any other current F1 driver, is as immature, egotistic and unsportsmanlike as Hamilton. His days at the top are numbered.
lockup (@)
16th December 2015, 15:12
It’s entirely Toto’s fault @jureo. He had the tyre load data in Monaco that told him Rosberg cheated his childhood friend, he knew Spa was deliberate that’s why he fined him, but only fined him, then he watched Malaysis Q3 impeding this year and Sochi.
He watches Rosberg behaving like this but leaves him in place, what does he expect? As @petebaldwin says he’s very lucky it’s Hamilton not Alonso or Vettel. Or JB either probably. As for Kimi – Rosberg would have been punched in the face long since!
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
16th December 2015, 17:55
@lockup I think you’re going a bit far in your anti-Rosberg propaganda.
ireni
16th December 2015, 18:50
Yeah. The part with Raikkonen punching was an especially funny ending to his ridiculous story.
lockup (@)
16th December 2015, 18:58
Kimi talked about punching Perez in the face at Monaco 2013. That was just for a bit of divebombing, and after Kimi had already put him in the barriers…
lockup (@)
16th December 2015, 19:11
Just going with the evidence @xtwl. Rosberg was fined by his team. Mark Hughes wrote about Monaco. We saw the impeding. We saw Lewis and Kimi nearly run into the back of Rosberg when he braked on the exit of a corner. That’s not even getting into the engine modes or histrionics after being outmanoeuvred. Toto lets it go on, and of course Lewis doesn’t like it or respect the driver who behaves like it.
So afaic it’s Toto’s responsibility. And I really don’t see any wdc-level driver being any cooler about it. But who knows. Perhaps Toto’s laying the groundwork for a Max + Lewis show in 2017.
Johannes (@johanness)
17th December 2015, 7:41
Give it a rest already
lockup (@)
17th December 2015, 8:25
Just discuss the story civilly with your fellow F1 fans @johanness, or not.
Robbie (@robbie)
17th December 2015, 13:46
@lockup Yes please civilly discuss the engine modes personally selected by LH in the last race of 2015. Let’s consider that the team fine last year was just as likely due to him costing the team points as for doing anything deliberate, which I’ll add the stewards didn’t see it as anything other than a racing incident. Let’s consider that one author’s opinion does not make it a fact but rather one person’s opinion. Let’s consider that backing the field up is something commonly done leading up to every grid setup and something that all drivers are aware of and should be prepared for by simply not following so closely or assuming a driver will accelerate out of a corner as normal, when on the formation lap.
Thank goodness Wolff understands this rivalry and let’s these drivers race in spite of both their indiscretions, in an atmosphere created by allowing two racers to race when the rest of the field can’t keep up, and deals with the fallout once we the fans have at least seen the rivalry on track and not determined in the boardroom.
Johannes (@johanness)
17th December 2015, 14:20
@lockup I’ll choose ‘not’ in your case.
lockup (@)
17th December 2015, 15:21
But @robbie if he cost the team points at Spa in a way the team felt so strongly about that they fined him, surely they did not think it was accidental.
As for Pirro, he admitted he decided in 10 seconds not to investigate, which isn’t even enough for a replay. Considering they investigate more or less every damaging contact like that it was pretty disgracefully prejudged.
Sochi was at racing speed when the VSC was thrown. It’s not conclusive in itself, it’s just part of a pattern.
I have to agree Hamilton shouldn’t have been using Mode 10 or whatever it was.
Robbie (@robbie)
18th December 2015, 13:31
@lockup No I don’t think the team thought it was accidental, I think the team would have known full well what had gone on leading up to Spa, as in, a highly charged atmosphere, and I think they saw a Nico that was going to be stubbornly forceful to show LH and the team he was not going to back down. He deliberately was forceful, akin to what the likes of LH has said you have to be, but he did not deliberately steer into LH and cut his tire. He was just trying to control his car at that point when he jinked the wheel to the right. I think they felt they had to make the point to Nico that costing the team points was not on, but at the same time were fully understanding of the rivalry that they themselves were and still are promoting.
If Pirro didn’t see cause to investigate further it is probably because he too understands rivalries, and probably knew the world would not want this rivalry manipulated in a boardroom. Let the team sort it out in this case since it was not between two drivers from different teams.
Didn’t know the Sochi incident you referred to was for a VSC and I’d have to see it again and then see the other incidents you must have in mind to determine said ‘pattern’.
lockup (@)
18th December 2015, 21:42
Hmmmm, I didn’t notice the back end moving right. Left, yes… but I sense we may not be going to agree on this one @robbie :)
Lewis believes it, and he wasn’t like that when Jenson pulled Turkey 2010 or Canada 2011. Anyway let us see if there are any more. I do hope not. Nico was unlucky not to be closer this year, so like a certain someone he doesn’t need it in his repertoire.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
16th December 2015, 18:03
Hamilton just wanted to sulk a bit like his hero Senna used to when he lost.
N
16th December 2015, 18:28
“Hamilton just wanted to sulk a bit like his hero Senna used to when he lost.”
That’s what winners do. If you’re content with finishing 2nd, you’ll lose more than you win.
David-A (@david-a)
17th December 2015, 18:37
I hope you’ll remember that when it’s someone who isn’t your guy that’s sulking.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
16th December 2015, 21:18
If Ferrari wasnt gaining ground Id send those two to Marrusia and hire some young guns who do not even know what primadona is let alone dated one…
Several teams have ok teamwork between drivers… While Mercedes pair is far
olly
17th December 2015, 1:24
…that’s why you’re not a team principal.
SauberS1 (@saubers1)
16th December 2015, 23:39
Mercedes troubles everywhere.