Picture this. A Formula 1 driver, locked in a championship battle with his teammate, collides with him ‘deliberately’ to push him out of the race and ensure a podium for himself.
The script is so 1980s. And we can’t really imagine anyone who does not love the 80s. Prost vs Senna, anyone?
For a racing series, which settled into the mundane with back-to-back titles for Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull, the Rosberg-Hamilton drama is exactly what was needed to snap the competition out of the routine and even the contrived.
The fans didn’t need a highly technical argument over lack of engine noise. They didn’t need Pirelli to engineer exciting race action.
They needed characters and high-class drama and action to get hooked on.
Whatever Formula 1 has seen of the 21st century, there have been champions — statistically the greatest ever, the youngest ever, and what have you.
But it is 2014 that has served action that has got the juices of the fans going.
And when you look into the history books, the past of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton only adds to the intrigue and drama of this season.
Hamilton himself tweeted a picture of the two on unicycle from the karting days as proof of their camaraderie, saying, “We’ve been friends a long time & as friends we have our ups and downs.”
Hamilton was forced to retire from Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix after suffering a puncture when Rosberg drove into him on the second lap, said he was uncertain how to approach the next race, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on September 7.
He had claimed that Rosberg admitted he had deliberately hit him ‘to make a point’ in their collision, but the German, who now leads the title race by 29 points, said it was only a racing incident.
“Well, when you’re out there you have to trust the people to think with their heads and don’t do things deliberately,” said Hamilton.
“I don’t really know how to approach the next race, but all I know is that I’ve got to push, I’ve got a long way to come back from it.”
Hamilton and Rosberg have been involved in a series of incidents this season, but none raised the stakes as high, or so dramatically, as Rosberg’s decision to hold his line and allow his front wing to clip Hamilton’s left rear tyre.
Whether it is Hamilton who wins or Rosberg, or even the fast-rising Aussie Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull, what the fans will be assured of is a taste of Formula 1 how it should be. Kudos to that.
