“First of all, a roaring Toto came in": Nico Rosberg remembers the fallout after his clash with Lewis Hamilton at the 2016 F1 Spanish GP

The Lewis Hamilton-George Russell crash during the 2023 F1 Spanish GP brought back memories of the infamous crash that the Mercedes driver had with teammate Nico Rosberg in 2016. Ironically, even that crash was on the same track as this one although the relationship between the two drivers was far more toxic at the time.

Coincidentally, Nico Rosberg was a part of the commentary team for Sky in Barcelona and was hence asked what was the blowback of his incident with Lewis Hamilton in 2016. Looking back at the incident in 2016, Rosberg revealed that first of all, the two drivers had an earful from Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.

With both cars out of the race in the collision between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, a win was lost and the team was not happy about it. Remembering what happened, Rosberg told the Sky team:

“First of all, a roaring Toto came in. Rightly so, logically. He then has said the first word on Sunday, very consistently, and then there was absolute silence for us at first, that was very, very difficult.”

---

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg then had to go to Niki Lauda's home

After the first hearing with Toto Wolff, both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg had to go to Niki Lauda's home in Ibiza. The German remembered the meeting fondly as he revealed that Lauda was trying to find a common ground between the two drivers and allowed both of them to give their take on the turn of events.

About his meeting with Niki, Rosberg said,

“On Monday we still had to show up at Niki’s, in Ibiza. First one, then the other. But Niki did a very good job as a mediator. Then we got back together a bit. Niki always tried to find little concessions on each side, that you get closer. Until you are very close and then you can say ‘okay, now we can actually move on’.”

Talking about the 2016 F1 season, the crash ended Rosberg's seven-race win streak. He had won seven races in a row heading into the race in Barcelona but the crash did derail his momentum. The German and the British driver went hammer and tong for the rest of the season with the momentum switching to both sides.

In the end, it was Rosberg who prevailed as he won the title in the last race of the season and retired from the sport.