Nico Rosberg says 'message has arrived' on no more teammate contact
Nico Rosberg says he accepts the new rules of engagement imposed on himself and Lewis Hamilton by the Mercedes management -- and has made it clear that he wants to move on from the Austrian GP controversy.
After meetings today Mercedes agreed to allow its drivers to race, but made it clear that any more incidents will have consequences.
"For sure this is a serious matter, which needs to be discussed," said Rosberg. "Because we are teammates in the end, and we must avoid contact and collisions and costing the team points in such a way. Definitely it must be discussed, and that's what we did, very constructively, and come to some conclusions, agreements, and now it's moving forward."
He joked: "For sure the message has arrived. They have done a very good job in bringing home the message."
Rosberg stressed that he is keen to look to the future.
"It's a thing of the past now, and now I begin, after speaking to you guys -- you're bringing me right back -- it is fully focused on what's in front and this weekend. I'm here in Silverstone, I'm excited to drive on this track because it's one of the most enjoyable tracks of the year, and I'm here because I want to win the race."
Meanwhile he insisted that he would not admit fault for the Austrian incident, despite receiving an FIA penalty: "It's not black and white, definitely. I respect the stewards' decision, for sure, I fully respect it because they came to that decision as a group. That doesn't mean that I have to agree with it, my view can be different. That's it."
He also said that, despite the verdict, it wasn't up to him to apologize to Hamilton or the team.
"It's not a question of apologizing. We are now moving forward, it's a thing of the past, and that's it. We've had our discussions, we've been through it, and together we've come to a conclusion on how best to move forward. And that's it. Now we're going racing again."
"The great thing for all of us is that we're definitely free to race, which is what we all want, we want to battle out there, I want to battle Lewis out there. So that still remains nearly unchanged. So that's the most important [thing] isn't it?"
Asked if team orders might actually help him, given that he is ahead in the championship he made it clear that he disagreed.
"I don't see first of all why it would be to my advantage, and why I would even want that. The exciting thing out there is to race, and to race Lewis, who is one of the best, and battle him and beat him in such a way. That's where I would get the biggest thrill. That's what I love, that's what I'm here for, so such a thought didn't come to my mind. I strongly dislike team orders if I may say. But it's a part of the game, and always will be, as we saw in Monaco."
He was also asked if under the new rules of engagement he would be expected to drive differently in Austria - or of he would expect Lewis to behave differently.
"That's a mind twister right there! We have modified rules of engagement now. Would you like to know the details? I'm very sorry, I can't give those to you! And so we need to follow these modified rules of engagement, which may or may not mean that you would approach things a bit differently."
Asked about being pushed wide by Hamilton in Japan and the USA last year he said: "That's really details now, which as we said I don't want to go into the exact written details on rules of engagement, because that is an internal matter. Sorry, please respect that."
Rosberg made it clear that the current situation will have no impact on contractual negotiations for 2017 and beyond.
"It doesn't have any impact on those. It's a momentary thing which doesn't have an impact on the long term happiness of the team with me and me with the team, and of being here and looking forward to racing many more years here. In the final warning matter, it's completely irrelevant. If you have a contract for 10 years or zero rules it's completely irrelevant."
