Rosberg Suffers Flashbacks of 'Brocedes' Crash Watching Ferrari Teammates Battle at Chinese Grand Prix

During the first Sprint race of the 2024 Formula 1 season on Saturday at Shanghai International Circuit, Ferrari teammates Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc participated in the most aggressive racing. Against each other.

The two settled for fourth and fifth position, both clearly wanting to make it to the early weekend podium. While battling with two laps remaining in the 19-lap sprint, the two touched tires, and it was unclear if it would be an incident that the stewards would call upon.

Upon the conclusion of the race and broadcast, longtime F1 commentator David Croft informed his booth-mate Nico Rosberg that there would be no infractions brought to Sainz for his aggressive battle with Leclerc.

Rosberg, hearing this, was immediately pulled back to his 2016 battle year, the grand finale of his very public fallout with his then–Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.

"That's not very consistent then, compared to eight years ago," Rosberg said of the stewards.

During the Austrian Grand Prix in 2016, Rosberg was issued a 10-second violation after a collision with Hamilton. The Finnish-German driver carries a chip on his shoulder to this day. It's important to note that at the time, the 10-second penalty did not affect his finishing position or his place in the championship race.

"You're still a bit miffed about it?" Croft asked.

"That's not fair. How is that fair?"

"You've got to let that go for your own health," Croft warned his broadcast partner who is since on better terms with his old teammate.

"[Sainz] was miles away from the apex. He never even tried to turn into the apex."

Croft made the observation that one of the reasons for the steward to stay out of the racing incident was because the team was happy with fourth and fifth place finishes.

Once Leclerc made it by Sainz, he was heard on the team radio venting that his teammate was racing him harder than the rest of the field.

Team Radio: "Let's speak. We're fighting more. He's fighting me more than the others."

While the two are still teammates, Sainz is driving every Grand Prix weekend like it's an interview as he continues to search for a ride for 2025. Sainz's outing at Ferrari has come at the hands of Rosberg's old teammate/friend/foe, Hamilton. The British driver is set to move to Ferrari in 2025 and recorded his best finish of the year with second in the sprint.

Sky Sports met up with both drivers after the sprint, and both gave measured responses.

"I think so. But to be honest, I've crossed the line myself in the past," Leclerc said when pressed about whether Sainz went too far. "When this happens, we normally have a discussion, and we clear the air. We've gone through that in the past already, and it went really well. I have no worries that it will be the case also this weekend, but today he went a bit over the limit.

A contact between us two, being in a different race situation, because I had saved quite a bit of tires. I had a good pace at the end. It's a bit of a shame that we lost that gap to Perez and couldn't go and take him. It's like this at the end. P4, it could've been P3 at one point; you can always do better."

While Leclerc was surging into the four-car battle at the end of the race, Sainz was the first to battle Fernando Alonso for third and momentarily pulled ahead with five laps remaining.

The Aston Martin and the Ferrari touched and Alonso suffered a puncture that sent him sinking through the field before ultimately being the only car to retire from the sprint. This incident is under review by the stewards.

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