Opinion: How toxic can teammates become before total meltdown?

So it’s happened again. Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg once more made contact during a Grand Prix, and again it’s put the spotlight firmly on their strained relationship.

After the race Red Bull Racing chief Christian Horner stirred the pot by musing how tenable it is for them to continue “as a team”. And that’s from someone who had to manage Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber…

Each camp has its own version of events of what happened on Sunday. Taking a long, hard look at Rosberg’s onboard camera does give away the fact he doesn’t turn in where he should, and even when he does it’s a gentle input on the wheel – unlike Hamilton’s harsher turn in, which actually invokes the contact that detaches Rosberg’s front wing.

But where was Hamilton meant to turn in? As he said, he left Rosberg “tons of room to make the corner”.

And then what about the near miss as Hamilton rejoined from the run-off?

“He didn’t leave any space,” stated Lewis. “He hugged the white line, so I had to take the grass. But that was OK.”

A history of violence

Hamilton and Rosberg have a long history together that stretches back to their karting days, and they became F1 teammates at Mercedes in 2013. Rosberg scored wins in Monaco and Silverstone, with Hamilton winning in Hungary but they were powerless to halt Vettel’s march to his final Red Bull title. In the final season of the V8s, Hamilton beat Rosberg (who had been with the team for three years previously) on points, 189-171.

Then we entered the hybrid-turbo era in 2014, and things ramped up. Following a streak of four Hamilton victories, Rosberg won at Monaco – but only after going off at Mirabeau on his final qualifying lap, ahead of Hamilton, and thwarting his pole chances.

Later that year came the infamous collision at Spa’s Les Combes in the Belgian Grand Prix. Rosberg got a great run on Hamilton, who defended, and Rosberg’s front wing clipped and punctured Hamilton’s left-rear tyre.

Rosberg said he “did not see any risk in trying to overtake.” But after a heated post-race briefing, Hamilton emerged claiming Rosberg had done it on purpose to “prove a point”.

The incident handed an unlikely victory to Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. Hamilton went on to dominate the next six races, and claim the title by 384-317.

Hamilton then claimed his third world title, and second with Mercedes, at Austin in 2015. This race featured him brushing wheels with Rosberg into Turn 1, sending Nico into the run-off area.

Hamilton had also been very robust at the exit of the first corner at Suzuka two races earlier, but at COTA claimed he “would never do something intentionally like that to my teammate”.

This year’s escalation

Nothing that had gone before quite equalled the magnitude of what happened in Barcelona this year, when Hamilton tried to pass Rosberg at the exit of Turn 3, was squeezed on to the grass where he lost control and skittered both Mercedes off the circuit and into retirement.

The issue was clouded by Rosberg being in the wrong engine setting, which robbed him of kinetic energy deployment. After fiddling with the steering wheel, he slammed the door on Hamilton, who was trying to pass down his inside.

After the race, neither blamed the other having seemingly got their stories straight before seeing the stewards to avoid future grid penalties with Monaco next up.

The only other flashpoint between them so far this year was Turn 1 at Canada, where again they brushed wheels in a similar style to Austin – with Hamilton again the aggressor.

And then, this weekend’s last-lap collision at the Red Bull Ring. Again, Rosberg’s car had a sudden failure of performance as his brake-by-wire system failed entering the final lap.

This time Hamilton attacked on the outside on the run to Turn 2, and yet again contact occurred – this time caused by Rosberg not turning in to the corner when he could have done, which fired Hamilton off into the run-off.

Stewards found Rosberg at fault, which he clearly disagrees with – saying “that sucks”. Hamilton went on to take victory, as Rosberg limped home in fourth, and so wasn’t perhaps as vocal as he might have otherwise been. What he did say was: “I’m pretty sure he hit me than the other way around.”

Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle post-race verdict was this: “I think Nico paid the price for something that was his fault.”

Conclusion

When you have a team with two drivers who believe they are the alpha male, fighting over the big prize, you’re always going to get conflict and occasional collisions.

So far, Mercedes has managed to juggle them fairly neatly – having a huge car advantage has certainly helped in this regard.

But even team chief Toto Wolff, who’s been somewhat of an apologist for his drivers in the past, admitted on Sunday night: “It was clear that it was going to happen eventually, and from my naive thinking I thought they had learned the lesson and it's not going to happen anymore. Here we go, it happens again.”

His coping strategy appears to be to make a huge statement in the immediate aftermath – “brainless” or “unacceptable” for instance – and then raise the spectre of imposing team orders (which nobody wants). As long as they don’t do it again for a while, that’s fine. But this time it’s a little more complicated…

Three-time champion Hamilton is sitting on a long-term contract, signed just last year, while Rosberg remains locked in discussion about his future with the team. That puts Rosberg in the weaker position – whatever Wolff claims to contrary.

If the Mercedes board decides that too many intra-team collisions is “bad for business” – as young Mercedes protege Pascal Werhlein continues to turn heads by dragging his Manor into places it really shouldn’t be – then suddenly Nico might have more on his plate than a slimmed-down points lead.

This year is crucial for Rosberg to finally nail a title, but his once-massive lead is now down to just 11 points. And you might think he’s in danger of backing himself into a Catch-22.

If he doesn’t put up a fight, he risks becoming subservient in the team’s hierarchy. If he fights Hamilton too hard, he risks getting himself sacked!

Fine margins, and more tough decisions to be taken in the heat of the moment lie ahead.