Turn three at the Red Bull Ring is adored by everyone in Formula 1, except Mercedes employees.
The uphill off camber right hander seems to create new pieces of history every season since the Austrian Grand Prix returned to the calendar, never more so than in 2016.
Austria is the home of endless F1 drama, including Barrichello being told to let Schumacher past at the finish lineGetty Turn three is the epicentre of chaos as Verstappen and Leclerc have shownAFPWe’ve recently had a clash between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen at the third corner in 2024, while the latter staged a battle for the ages with lifelong foe Charles Leclerc in 2019.
Inter-team drama is also nothing new in Spielberg, with Rubens Barichello ordered to slow before the finish line in 2002 to let Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher pass in shocking scenes.
Yet in 2016 we got a whole new storyline when teammates clashed and drew the ultimate wrath from their team principal and home hero Toto Wolff.
Wolff, born into relative poverty in Vienna and kicked out of school as his mother couldn’t pay fees, is now F1’s only billionaire, and came back to his home country with pride when the Austrian Grand Prix returned to the calendar in 2014.
Two wins followed with Nico Rosberg, but in 2015 things started to go wrong, and the executive released his fury like never before.
Mercedes were utterly dominant during the start of the turbo-hybrid era in 2014, meaning that the only person who had any chance of stopping Lewis Hamilton was his teammate.
Nico Rosberg didn’t make a great fist of it during his first two seasons alongside his old friend, but in 2016 things changed dramatically.
The German won four from four to start the campaign, and was looking unstoppable until he and Hamilton inevitably took each other out in Spain.
A fuming Wolff threatened team orders and seemed to have got his way, yet on his return home to Austria he was left as red as the country’s flag.
Hamilton and Rosberg were close throughout the Grand Prix and on the final lap of the race they finally overstepped the mark again.
Hamilton thought he’d found his way around the outside but Rosberg straightened upSky Rosberg was the loser from the tangle, ending up fourth as Hamilton took the winSkyHeading up to turn three Hamilton plotted a move around the outside, but Rosberg straightened up and went offline with the pair touching and sparks literally flying.
Forced off the track, Hamilton re-joined and nearly hit his teammate again out of fury, but quickly realised he didn’t need to as Rosberg’s car was falling to bits from the collision.
The Brit overtook with ease, and so did two other cars, and in an instant the title race and a rivalry for the ages was resumed.
Rosberg received a ten second penalty for the contact which didn’t impact his result but left him angered as it apportioned him the blame, something that was ‘really hard to get over’.
Hamilton on his part said he was ‘smiling now because I did everything I could in the right way’ but he was likely the only one in the team who was pleased.
Taking his post-race media rounds, Wolff hit out at both of his drivers, calling them ‘brainless’.
Wolff was livid in the garage and didn’t cool down speaking to the mediaSky“They need to face the consequences. Can you imagine a DNF [did not finish] like Barcelona?” he said.
“We’re looking like a bunch of idiots and it’s disrespectful to 1,500 people who worked their nuts off on the car.
“Talking has not brought us any further. We have to recommend team orders.”
Wolff was livid that he had to step in and stop his drivers battling, but the home embarrassment was enough.
“In Barcelona I was much easier with it because we had 29 races without any collision,” he said of their previous contact.
“From my naive thinking I said to myself ‘OK, that’s it, they’ve learned their lesson, they’ve seen the consequences and it’s not going to happen any more’. But here we go, it happens again.
Hamilton and Rosberg clashed repeatedly, including taking each other out in SpainGetty“So the only consequence is to look at all the options available on the table, and one option is to freeze the order of a certain stage in the race.
“It’s unpopular, it makes me puke myself because I like to see them race, but if the racing is not possible without contact, then that’s the consequence.”
There was certainly a touch of fate that the team orders were announced at the same track where Ferrari had used them to their worst degree back in 2002.
At least that time it worked, though.
Hamilton and Rosberg would clash again in Belgium for races later, and a rivalry between old friends turned into one of the most vitriolic of the modern era and Wolff forever scarred by it.
Now, nine years later, we could well see another repeat with McLaren’s title challenging duo of Norris and Oscar Piastri finally tangling in Canada last time out.
Verstappen and Norris had a spectacular clash in 2024, could this year be with teammate Piastri?SkyThe incident saw Norris retire and his championship chances damaged, just before returning to turn three where he tangled with Verstappen in dramatic scenes last year.
Norris tried to play down both incidents, but even with his best attempts fans in the grandstands at turn three in Austria will be in possession of one of the best tickets of the year.
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