Nico Rosberg banned from McLaren garage with team desperate to protect Norris
Nico Rosberg has jokingly been banned from McLaren’s garage at the Belgian Grand Prix with team bosses fearful the 2016 champion could curse Lando Norris. F1 fans are convinced the ‘Rosberg curse’ is real after a series of incidents involving the ex-Mercedes star.
Rosberg took a selfie with Max Verstappen’s car ahead of qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix. However, just hours later the Dutchman was unable to secure pole despite Red Bull’s dominance in 2023.
A day later, Rosberg opted for a photo with Lewis Hamilton’s W14 before his ex-team-mate – who was the pole-sitter – dropped down the field just moments after the start. McLaren appear to have taken no risks with a photo of the former champion plastered on the side of the garage followed by the caption: “No Rosberg selfies.”
To ensure Rosberg saw the message, McLaren made sure to tag him in a social media post ahead of first practice for the Belgian Grand Prix. They wrote: “We’ve seen your jinxing powers, @NicoRosberg.”
After the race in Budapest, Rosberg addressed the curse and admitted he would “be careful” to not jinx teams at future races. He told Sky Sports F1: “Yeah, that’s not cool. That’s not cool at all.
“I post, like, on race weekends, I post a picture in the pit lane with a car or something, and that car has gone pretty poorly. So, I need to be careful with that in the future“. So the back of the back story here is that on Saturday I posted Max’s car, and of course he lost the qualifying.
“And then on Sunday I was like, ‘go Mercedes,’ and I posted Lewis’ car and that went completely wrong. So that’s the backstory behind this.”
However, Rosberg appears to have learned his lesson with the former champion accepting he would ensure his camera took a back seat at future events. He added: “Yeah that’s why I need to hit the pause button. I’m not doing that anymore.”
But it appears Rosberg’s curse is not just apparent in F1 after another incident during the World Cup. The German star cheered for Morocco to beat France in Qatar but the African nation was eliminated by Les Bleus.
Rosberg has joked about his jinx before and claimed it was now over after he correctly called Rafael Nadal to win the Australian Open in 2022. He tweeted: “Is my jinx career over…?! After jinxing Leclerc in Monaco and Germany’s football team at the Euros, I’m very happy that my “Good luck” for Rafa turned out well this time.”
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