FIA rule out investigation into the Nico Rosberg-Lewis Hamilton clash at Spa
Governing body regard incident as closed; Wolff threatens to get tough after Hamilton scoffs about Rosberg receiving a 'slap on the wrist'
Tuesday 26 August 2014 17:06, UK
The FIA have confirmed they do not plan to launch an investigation into Nico Rosberg’s actions in the Belgian GP despite Lewis Hamilton's claim his team-mate confessed to causing their crash during a Mercedes debrief.
According to Hamilton, his solitary title rival Rosberg “basically said he did it on purpose” when the two drivers were called to account by their team after the race.
However, the FIA regard the incident as closed after the Spa stewards adjudged the second-lap crash, in which Rosberg punctured Hamilton's W05, as a racing incident. Hamilton’s explosive comments cast an altogether different interpretation on events, with close examination of the collision revealing that Rosberg suddenly swung back into the sister Mercedes in a second movement through the chicane, but the governing body have no plans to retrospectively review the clash.
FIA spokesman Pierre Regent told The Daily Mail: "The FIA will not intervene in this issue. Only a 'new element' that would have appeared after the results became final could justify us opening an investigation. A comment alleged to have been made in an internal briefing and later denied by the team itself does not constitute such a 'new element'."
Mercedes are yet to formally comment on Hamilton's allegations although a spokesperson for the team did confirm that the Englishman's account of their internal debrief was "broadly accurate".
Nevertheless, proving a case against the World Championship leader would be rife with difficulty. It is understood that Mercedes did not make a recording of Sunday evening’s summit meeting and according to team boss Toto Wolff, who immediately condemned Rosberg’s driving as “unacceptable” after the race, claims that the German admitted crashing deliberately “are nonsense”.
A critical distinction appears to rest between Hamilton’s testimony that Rosberg “said he did it on purpose” and Wolff’s insistence that the German merely acknowledged “he could have avoided crashing but didn’t to make a point".
With Mercedes refusing to elaborate further on what precisely was said inside the sanctuary of their motorhome, and a fine line existing between reputedly admitting to deliberately causing a crash and deliberately not avoiding a crash, there is no appetite at the FIA to launch a formal investigation. The tenure of President Jean Todt has already proved to be far less confrontational than that of predecessor Max Mosley while earlier this season the race stewards were themselves encouraged by the teams to adopt a more hands-off approach when adjudging incidents during races.
In retrospect, Mercedes themselves may regard that request with a degree of regret. The onus is now firmly on the World Championship leaders to put a lid on the fallout from the seemingly-irrevocable breakdown in relations between Rosberg and Hamilton, with the Englishman clearly sceptical about the prospects of the team punishing his title rival for a lapse that was, at best, an uncharacteristic aberration of judgement.
"It reminds me of being at school … teachers will talk but they don’t do nothing," Hamilton retorted when told of Wolff’s immediate post-race fury. "You just get a detention. They won’t even do that. There’s nothing you can do.”
Told of Hamilton’s response in a later interview, Wolff assured reporters: “If Lewis said there’s going to be a slap on the wrist and no consequence then he’s not aware o
