Formula One is a team sport, something that Mercedes constantly reminded us of when their two drivers crashed into each other last time out in Austria. So you’d think being a team sport would mean you work together with your team to get the best result, right? Well it’s not that simple anymore.
The team radio ban… kind of ban, kind of not, kind of no-one-really-knows-the-rules rule, has caused all sorts of confusion since it was introduced at the start of this year and now it’s starting to affect the world championship.
We all saw Lewis Hamilton struggle in Baku as his team wasn’t allowed to tell him what engine setting he was meant to be in but at Silverstone, when Nico Rosberg suffered an gearbox problem near the end of the race, the Mercedes team told him exactly what to do to fix it. Confused? We all are.
Now the stewards have decided (almost five hours after the race!) that those instructions were not allowed and Rosberg’s been slapped with a 10 second time penalty dropping him to third place and promoting Max Verstappen to second.
Even worse for Rosberg is his championship lead has been cut to just one single point. Ouch.