Gary Anderson's verdict on Mercedes clash

It was always going to happen. Given how closely matched Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton are up front, it was only a matter of time before there was a repeat of the Spa 2014 collision that cost Mercedes a victory. And it finally did happen in last Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.

I agree with Niki Lauda that Hamilton was at fault. There have been a few occasions where the world champion has been a bit brutal with Rosberg, who on this occasion held his own.

But what both drivers need to remember is that the throttle works both ways - you push it down to go faster and you release it to go slower.

Quite a few times over the past couple of years, one or the other releasing it might have been the correct thing from a team perspective.

I've been there when my drivers have hit each other and it's not a great place to be. Neither of them will believe or accept they are wrong, and to be honest that's part of what makes them racing drivers.

But the management will have their own opinion and will have sat down with the drivers to talk it over. Once in a season can be classified as an accident, but for it to happen twice would be downright irresponsible.

The case I always think back to was when I was at Jordan in the 1997 Argentinian Grand Prix and Ralf Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella collided.

There are some similarities to the Spain crash because Giancarlo made a small error in a corner - a bit like Rosberg did getting his power unit setting wrong - so Ralf got a run at him. They collided and one car was out. Although Ralf survived and finished third, which was a good result, that's a race that might have been winnable given leader Jacques Villeneuve was ill and faded badly in the closing stages.

I wasn't happy with Ralf for what he did, but again the drivers needed to give each other leeway and Giancarlo could have given him the corner. After all, the opportunity was only there because of his error.

It did have consequences and the two didn't work well together after that. That's what Mercedes needs to avoid.

You see the quality of a team's management when its two drivers collide. You can't beat up the drivers too much, but you need to make very clear the team is bigger than either of them. You could see that was done, because both Hamilton and Rosberg apologised to Mercedes and accepted they had let down the people working hard to give them the best car.

After all, while they might be fighting for a world championship they are still employees of Mercedes. And they aren't directly bringing money to the team. So when they hit each other, it hurts everyone involved all the way up to the Mercedes board.

The collision did set the stage for a very interesting race. Max Verstappen is living the dream at 18 and taking his first grand prix victory is an incredible achievement.

I bet he has woken up every morning since and pinched himself just to make sure it really happened and that he really did win the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix on his Red Bull debut.

His father, Jos, will be a very proud dad. Helmut Marko will also be a proud 'dad' having made the ruthless decision to put him into that seat at the expense of Daniil Kvyat. Red Bull deserves credit for its commitment, but Max is the guy who took his opportunity and delivered the result.

He withstood a huge amount of pressure from Kimi Raikkonen, didn't panic when that red car was large in his mirrors for many laps and did a great job of looking after his tyres to ensure his two-stop strategy worked to its optimum potential.

Perhaps this will make some other teams open their eyes to some of the very talented young drivers that are out there and give them the chance to show their worth. A year of investment can bring you years of success, as Red Bull has proved with Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel in the past. So with two winning grand prix drivers in its car, you could say the future looks very 'bullish'.

Red Bull remains in something of a holding pattern because of the power unit situation and during this period it needs the best possible drivers to capitalise on opportunities when in a winning position. That's what Verstappen did in Spain, and what Ricciardo did in 2014.

And it was also great to see two teams with similar performance slogging it out in the race. There was none of that runaway stuff that we have got used to over the last few years and it's a reminder of how close things can be.

Having said all that, I wasn't able to watch the Spanish GP live and had to catch up later. This was because I had the opportunity to go to Monaco for the Historic Grand Prix. I'm very glad I did.

It brought back many memories, both good and bad, of when I started in F1 in the 1970s. My first time in Monaco was 1973, when I drove a transit van and trailer there with a Brabham F1 car on the back!

That year I arrived and there was a row of cones just outside our small hotel - called the Diana. I thought it was very kind of the other mechanics to have arranged that, so I parked up in the space.

In the morning, I woke up to lots of noise outside my window. When I looked out, there was a fruit and vegetable market where the cones were placed the night before. They were actually selling vegetables off my trailer.

Watching these older F1 cars sliding around Monaco brought back the memories of why I fell in love with F1 all those years ago.

It's very different today, but for the two historic F1 races, the driver on pole went on to win the race. So perhaps there's not so much difference!

It's very enjoyable and a real trip down memory lane. So if you ever have a chance to go to Monaco to see it in the flesh (it will next be held in 2018 as it runs every other year) you won't be disappointed.