US GP: remember when… a baseball cap changed the course of F1 history?

It’s the US Grand Prix at COTA this weekend, which has got us reminiscing about our favourite F1 moments since the race made a home for itself at the Austin circuit back in 2012.

You can’t have forgotten the titanic tactical tussle here between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen back in 2021. Or Kimi Raikkonen’s feelgood win in 2018, ending a top-step dry spell that had lasted for almost six years.

Heck, F1 only ended up at COTA years after the 2006 race at Indianapolis descended into farce… when only six cars lined up on the grid. Tough day for the PR team, that one.

But the standout moment in more than a decade of racing in Texas? It didn’t even happen on the racetrack. And no, we’re not referring to one of the many concerts that the organisers have tacked onto the bill over the years. Wassup fellow Swifties?

No, Austin’s most memorable contribution to F1 lore thus far took place in the cool down room in the immediate aftermath of the grand prix in 2015. Allow us to set the scene.

Before the lights go out, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton is miles ahead in the race for the world title: all he needs to do to clinch the championship here - with three rounds to spare - is outscore Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel by nine points, and teammate Nico Rosberg by three. Simple.

Except it wasn’t simple. With the rain hammering down (it got so bad, Q3 was cancelled) it was Rosberg who started from pole, and even though Lewis managed to barge past him at the start, the Briton lost the lead to the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo on lap 15 and on the drying track was passed by Nico three laps later.

From there the momentum swung this way and that, with the changeable conditions, a virtual safety car and two actual safety cars changing the picture up front throughout the race. The last of them bunched the pack up and gave Hamilton a tyre advantage over Rosberg, with 10 laps left to shoot down his title rival and claim the championship.

It took him less than two. Heaping the pressure onto the German, Rosberg had an off on lap 48 that allowed Hamilton to sail into the lead, which he never relinquished. And with Vettel’s recovery drive limited to P3, Hamilton’s third world championship was sealed. Cue tears and many celebratory donuts.

But the drama didn’t end there. In the cool down room before the podium ceremony, Rosberg was clearly furious with himself for having let the win and the title slip away. So he sat motionless in the corner, quietly stewing over his error.

Hamilton… did not compute this. And before he’d Velcro’d the first place cap onto his sweaty bonce, he grabbed the second place hat and casually tossed it into his teammate’s lap… as if to say ‘Here you go, enjoy P2 again’. Without actually meaning to. The awkwardness was intense, and a meme was born.

Joking aside, lobbing that cap was a mistake. And a biggie at that. Quietly enraged, Rosberg chucked it back in Hamilton’s direction and fuelled by unbridled fury, he immediately went on a seven-race winning streak that - bookending the winter break - lasted seven whole months and eventually propelled him to a world title of his own in 2016.

Imagine if Lewis had just left it alone? Rosberg might not have won in 2016, so he wouldn’t have mic-dropped his retirement, Valtteri Bottas would’ve stayed at Williams and Vettel would be a six-time champion now. Proper butterfly effect stuff.

Super awkward. Super consequential. We give you the most iconic cool down room moment since ‘Multi 21’.