Wolff: Rosberg will stay

Spielberg: Nico Rosberg has been assured that his ongoing contract negotiations with Formula One champions Mercedes will not be affected by Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix collision with teammate Lewis Hamilton.

“The contract is a long-term decision and isn’t influenced by a race incident. Rosberg will stay” team boss Toto Wolff told reporters at the Red Bull Ring.

An exasperated Wolff, who has a 30 per cent stake in the team as well as being Mercedes motorsport director, had earlier slammed the latest clash between the two title rivals as “brainless.”

Stewards blamed Rosberg for causing the last lap incident, imposing a meaningless time penalty and reprimand.

The German, who has been at Mercedes since 2010 and turned 31 last week, finished fourth while triple world champion Hamilton won to cut Rosberg’s overall lead to 11 points with 12 races remaining.

While Hamilton has a contract till 2018, Rosberg’s future is in discussion. Austria’s former McLaren and Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger is negotiating with Mercedes on his behalf. He said that no deal had been reached yet and whether Rosberg stayed was up to Mercedes. “It would be very short-term thinking of everybody,” he added when asked about a possible negative impact of a collision that denied the team a one-two finish.

“We are seeing here a race where somebody did an outstanding job, and then a couple of circumstances happened in the last lap.”

Rosberg has won five of nine races so far this season and despite some speculation about a possible Ferrari move, he said he expects to remain at Mercedes for years to come. “It feels great to be here and the team is also very happy with me,” he said.

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