Nico Rosberg submits McLaren request as ‘silver rules’ revisited

Back in 2016, as Nico Rosberg raced Lewis Hamilton for the F1 World title, the German obeyed team orders in Monaco in much the same manner as Oscar Piastri ceded second place to Lando Norris in Monza.

However, in Abu Dhabi, in what could yet be a situation that McLaren finds itself in, Lewis Hamilton tried to throw Rosberg to the wolves – or in that case Sebastian Vettel, close behind the Mercedes pair in third – with the championship at stake.

Nico Rosberg weighs in on McLaren’s Monza team orders

Having found itself in the midst of an intra-team title fight, McLaren’s racing ethos was put to the test at the Italian Grand Prix when the team issued team orders in Norris’ favour.

The teammates had been running first and second, although Max Verstappen in third who had already stopped was the defacto race leader, when Piastri pitted a lap before his teammate after Norris was told there’d be “no undercut.”

Alas, a slow pit stop for the British racer due to a wheel nut issue meant he was undercut as he was stationary four seconds longer than his teammate.

McLaren ordered Piastri to give the position back to Norris, and he did so after briefly arguing his case with his race engineer Tom Stallard.

It’s a call that has divided the paddock and fans alike as some believe it was right and fair, while others reckon it was a case of McLaren favouring Norris in the championship fight.

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Rosberg, who knows all about team orders from his time at Mercedes, says there is “no right or wrong”, there’s just the team way and that has to be communicated to the drivers beforehand.

“The first step is, is it clearly defined in the rules?” he told the Sky F1 podcast. “And I can tell you that it’s not defined in the papaya rules, because it’s not something that you can put down in a rule.

“It’s so hard because where’s the cut-off point to that?

“The undercut is not what played the dice here. The problem is just the time lost in the pit stop, it’s not the undercut.”

The 2016 World Champion went on to explain that Mercedes also had clear rules during his time at the Brackley squad when he went wheel-to-wheel with Hamilton for the World title.

But while he obeyed team orders in Monaco, allowing Hamilton through to prevent Daniel Ricciardo from claiming the win for Red Bull, Hamilton didn’t listen to the team in Abu Dhabi and instead tried to throw Rosberg under the Vettel bus.

But by Abu Dhabi, it had come down to a title-decider and Hamilton needed Rosberg to lose a position. Rosberg hung on to win by five points.

“We had very clear silver rules, not papaya rules, silver rules [that],” he continued. “If we risk losing the race win to a competitor, we need to work together as a team to secure the race win.

“Monaco Grand Prix 2016, I’m racing against Lewis for the championship. I’m second, he is third, and Ricciardo is disappearing in the distance because I’m too slow.

“There’s a threat that we as a team are losing the race win. It’s clear. So the team comes on the radio and tells me: ‘You need to let Lewis pass because we might lose the race win here otherwise.’

“So I moved over and waved him past because it was clearly defined and, of course, it’s hard in the moment, but it’s then clear and easy to understand and you just got to do it.

“Lewis didn’t do it in Abu Dhabi, which was the same situation, but also that is understandable that you would then. If you’re an assassin, you want to try and maximise the grey areas.

“But it all depends how clearly it’s written down in the rules, but you cannot write something like that down in the rules because pit stop times are always a part of racing and the team cannot assure that everybody’s always going to have the same pit stop times.

“It’s just like, at which point is it really unfair? It’s really hard.

“McLaren chose the better way, which was to redo the positions like before, because they messed up as a team and it’s not fair to get involved in that way into the Drivers’ Championship. So they took the route that was definitely better, but both routes were bad.”

Rosberg reckons it is a good thing for McLaren that neither Piastri, who leads the championship by 31 points, nor Norris have found their inner assassin.

But that doesn’t mean it won’t come to the surface should the championship go down to the wire.

“I think McLaren has been a bit lucky that their two drivers are not yet proper assassins,” he explained. “They’re just getting there, but they’re haven’t arrived yet.

“I think that’s what’s been holding up the whole situation so far, but still, the intensity still lies ahead of us, because World Championship is so big, it’s your childhood dream that’s at stake there. It’s so huge.

“They’re going to be fighting every weekend, so there’s still plenty of action ahead of us.”

But it does beg the question: what happens if the margins are tighter the closer Formula 1 gets to Abu Dhabi?

Rosberg has urged McLaren to sit down with Piastri and Norris to hash that out before they are faced with a situation.

“It’s just these are horrible situations,” he said. “What I would really ask McLaren is please sit down, take time to plan ahead for as many possible situations as possible and clearly define them amongst your drivers. That’s really what they have to do.

“And even though some situations like this are just really hard to plan for, but it’s really their duty to do that.”

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