Nico Rosberg responds to McLaren F1’s paddock ban - “Heading to your factory for a selfie”

Nico Rosberg has responded to his ban from the McLaren garage during the Belgian Grand Prix. The F1 icon jokingly warned the team that he would defy the team's orders and attempt to jinx them during the Belgian Grand Prix after the supposed ban from their team paddock.

He replied to McLaren's tweet, saying:

"@McLarenF1 haha...heading to your factory for a selfie"

McLaren then replied to this hilarious threat by the German with a picture of a worried Oscar Piastri.

The 2016 F1 World Champion and former Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg's presence around a team's garage is believed by some to be cursed.

Reality or the mother of coincidences, but it is said that the F1 pundit brought terrible luck to drivers whenever he took selfies in front of their garage. Ahead of qualifying for the Hungarian GP, he clicked a selfie in front of Max Verstappen's garage, and the Dutchman lost his pole position to Lewis Hamilton.

On Sunday, he took a picture outside Hamilton's pit lane, and the Briton finished fourth, narrowly missing a podium.

Taking no chances, McLaren put up an A4 sheet outside the garage that said in capitals, NO ROSBERG SELFIES. After the Hungarian GP, Rosberg addressed the issue and said he would be careful not to bring bad luck to teams at future races by taking selfies outside their garage.

In an interview with Sky Sports F1, he explained:

"I post, like, on race weekends, I post a picture in the pit lane with a car or something, and that car has gone pretty poorly. So, I need to be careful with that in the future."

Even without Rosberg in the McLaren paddock, Lando Norris had it rough in qualifying on Friday at Spa

Lando Norris

Friday was bad for McLaren's Lando Norris at qualifying as he picked up severe floor damage in Q1. He managed to finish seventh. Norris felt he could've driven better had the car been in better shape, given Spa is a suitable race track for the team for its high-speed corners.

Meanwhile, rookie Oscar Piastri finished ahead of his teammate and will start his race on P5 because of Max Verstappen's five-place grid penalty. The Australian also outclassed Norris in the sprint race, finishing P2, while Norris settled at P6.

Nevertheless, both drivers of the Papaya team look forward to making a podium finish at Spa - Francorchamps, emulating the rocket speeds they had at Silverstone and Budapest.