Nico Rosberg banned from Spanish GP: Former Mercedes driver reprimanded by Liberty Media because of cameraman fiasco
Nico Rosberg who shocked the F1 universe by retiring immediately after winning the F1 championship in 2016, has pulled off another shocker and gotten himself banned for 2 races.
Rosberg who has been a pundit with British and German media for F1 picked up a 2 race ban in the Chinese GP in the most comical way possible. Rosberg as a former world champion is issued a separate Champions pass that allows access to certain areas that a broadcaster isn’t allowed into. This pass is strictly for the person it is issued to and not for him to give to another person on his behalf. That is pretty much a rule for any person that gets a pass to any place.
But Rosberg passed his pass on to a media member who entered a restricted area using the said pass and had to be removed by officials who refused to let the incident pass and have banned Rosberg from passing through the paddocks in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and also the upcoming Barcelona Grand Prix.
Rosberg will next be seen at the Monaco Grand Prix resuming his work with Sky F1 and the German Channel he works for. Liberty Media, the owners of F1, have been strict with it’s rules and is proving to be a regime different from that of the one under Bernie Ecclestone which was much more lax and tolerant of overstepping by former drivers and friends of the management.
Valtteri Bottas won the Azerbaijan GP today, with Mercedes getting another 1-2 of the season. While Ferrari did look strong going into raceday, nothing could stop the Mercedes duo from keeping them at bay.
The Italian team will have to dig deep and really come up with a strong update for Barcelona, else Mercedes could end up running away with it early on in the season.
