For better or worse, Lewis Hamilton is used to the Spanish Grand Prix being a game-changer in his season.
The F1 driver boasts an incredible record at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, but it is also the site of one of his lowest moments.
The 40-year-old is tied with Michael Schumacher for the most number of Spanish Grand Prix wins with six.
Hamilton is also one of only two drivers to have stood on the top step of the podium at the circuit in the past nine years.
The other is reigning four-time world champion Max Verstappen, who secured his first ever win in F1 at the 2016 Spanish GP.
In doing so, the Dutchman became the youngest driver to win a Formula 1 race, aged 18 years and 228 days.
Verstappen had been making his debut for Red Bull at the event, qualifying fourth in Spain before benefitting from a Mercedes crash.
Hamilton, who had taken a superb pole position on Saturday, saw his race end on lap one after colliding with teammate Nico Rosberg.
The pair were childhood friends, but their connection infamously broke down during their tenure together with the Silver Arrows.
The height of their rivalry came at the 2016 Spanish GP, with both drivers crashing out of the race following their early collision.
Rosberg had taken the lead into Turn One but found himself in the wrong engine setting two corners later.
As a result, Hamilton, who was travelling at 17kph faster, dived for the inside on the exit but lost control of his W07 after catching the grass and collected his teammate’s car as he spun back onto the track.
The Mercedes friends turned rivals’ epic crash in Spain helped Verstappen become F1’s youngest ever winner at 18YouTube Verstappen appeared in an F1 race before he was legally able to driveGettyMercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda slammed the incident as ‘stupid’ and blamed Hamilton for being ‘too aggressive’.
However, a subsequent racing stewards’ investigation disagreed and deemed the crash a racing incident with no one party at fault.
That concurred with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff’s verdict, who said: “It is a very difficult situation, a very difficult incident to analyse.
“It is definitely not clear-cut, so I wouldn’t want to blame any of them at that stage.
“Lewis had much more speed, Nico closed the door, Lewis was too wide on the inside and lost the car.
“It is definitely not a 100 per cent pro one and zero the other.”
Rosberg slammed the door in Hamilton’s faceYouTube And the Brit lost control Both cars were then wiped outHamilton himself said he had apologised following his crash with Rosberg, but did not accept blame for the collision.
“I have already apologised to the team,” he said.
“That was the most gutting thing when I stopped, just thinking about all these things that worked so hard in this team to give me an opportunity to race today.
“It was apologies from my behalf that I didn’t score those points for the team. These things happen in racing but it’s the right thing to apologise to all these guys, just like when the engine fails they apologise to me.
“To not deliver for them, I’ve been racing for them for a while so it’s not too often this happens, but whenever it does it’s a very painful experience for all of us. One thing is we’re united and we’ll all come back strong.”
“I don’t have a reaction to [Lauda’s comments],” Hamilton added.
“Everyone can have their opinions, whether or not they’re right or wrong it doesn’t matter. I did apologise to Niki as he is a part of this team and a huge supporter of mine for letting him and the team down.”
He continued: “I’m saying that’s how I drove, that’s what I did, and it wasn’t a case of the door was closed yet decided to go across the grass. I saw a gap and I went for it and that’s what racing drivers do.”
The pair supposedly cooled down, but another crash in Austria a few races later showed otherwiseYouTube The destroyed No.44 car showed just how bad the collision wasGettyThe incident prompted Mercedes to install new rules of engagement, with each driver threatened with the sack should it happen again.
“We put some regulations in, we told them – especially in Barcelona when they pushed each other off the track – we said this was unacceptable for Mercedes,” Lauda told Graham Bensinger.
“We have to win, one of you guys has to win, you cannot push each other off.
“We had some rules put in, that you are not allowed to and you have to pay a penalty if you do it again or we will think of releasing you from your contract, because we are team players here and we cannot destroy each other.
“Toto came up with some good rules and we had peace again. We fought hard and the accidents got reduced between them.”
Hamilton has a much better relationship with his current Ferrari teammateGettyThe fallout from Spain meant Hamilton remained 43 points behind Rosberg in the World Championship, which proved costly later on.
German-born Rosberg beat the Brit to the title by five points, before retiring 24 hours after the Abu Dhabi finale, citing exhaustion.
It was the only title that eluded Hamilton from 2014 to 2020, with the Spanish GP the potential venue again for an F1 championship to turn on its head – but this time in the F1 icon’s favour.
Technical Directive TD018 will finally come into effect this weekend, which Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur describing the upcoming rule changes as potentially being ‘a gamechanger’ for the Scuderia.
For Hamilton, his first podium of the 2024 season came in Spain, to set up his only two wins at Silverstone and Spa later that summer.
That is the type of history he hopes will repeat itself this Sunday, with the word sack being far from the race summary.
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