Nico Rosberg reveals eye-watering six figure damage bill for Lewis Hamilton crash

Nico Rosberg has revealed he had to pay out £360,000 in accident damage after a crash with then Mercedes F1 teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Rosberg and Hamilton had several flashpoints during a fierce title rivalry as teammates at the dominant Mercedes between 2014 and 2016, but their biggest drama occurred at the start of the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.

The pair collided with each other while squabbling for the lead heading into Turn 4, wiping both Mercedes cars out of the race, and subsequently opening the door for Max Verstappen to claim an incredible victory on his Red Bull debut.

According to Rosberg, he and Hamilton were contractually obliged to foot the repair bill for any crash caused between them.

“Because Lewis and I crashed, eventually the team made us pay for the damage,” Rosberg, who beat Hamilton to the 2016 world title, said on the Business of Sport podcast.

“We had to sign a contract that from now on, if we crash, no matter whose fault it is, we will pay for the damage. I remember how much I had to pay, it was £360,000 that I paid for one of those crashes. That was very painful.

“We definitely made sure not to crash after that.”

It was not the first time Rosberg was forced to part with his own money to pay for accident damage.

The German recalled how one of his paychecks during his time as a Williams test driver was used to pay for repairs after a GP2 crash in 2005.

“As soon as the £80,000 hit my account, it went straight back out because my dad had taken out a loan to pay for my accident damage in Formula 2 at the time,” he explained. 

“I crashed my car, and my front wing and the front end was destroyed – and it cost £80,000.

“The goal was for him not to fund my racing. We really tried to fund it all through sponsors. But it didn’t include the big crash. So I had to take out a bank loan for the big crash.

“So the first salary went first to cover that.”