Rosberg throws in the towel!!

[ShandyDrinker]

And the other 2 engine failures in qualifying put him down the field. He lost at least 35-40 points through reliability.

And if he had finished in front of Rosberg in those races - the championship would have been over by the start of October.

Rosberg got lucky - although he grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

But isn't that racing? Rosberg lost a number of races in 2014 through reliability. Hamilton won emphatically in 2015 so fair play to him there. I think they've both done very well over the last 3 years having the dominant car. Apart from the pay drivers in F1 any of Ricciardo, Verstappen, Räikkönen, etc could have won the world championship in the Mercedes over the last 3 years.

I really want to see someone who could properly challenge Hamilton next year - not a stooge who will allow Mercedes who pander to the whims of Hamilton as the de facto number one driver.

For me the mark of a true great would be someone who helps develop the car (from a complete dog) and then dominates or takes a car that isn't necessarily the best and can still challenge for the championship.

Considering the crap Rosberg has had to put up with over the last few seasons within his own team (Niki Lauda in particular), commentators and the general public alike telling him he's always inferior to Hamilton it's good to see he's proved them wrong and essentially stuck the Vs up to everyone and said he doesn't want to take that crap anymore. You only have to read the comments such as those by Niki Lauda in the last 24 hrs to know he's made the right decision. Perhaps if they looked after Rosberg in the same way they have done with Hamilton, he may not have done what he's done. Kudos to Rosberg.

[VectraMan]

And the other 2 engine failures in qualifying put him down the field. He lost at least 35-40 points through reliability.

And if he had finished in front of Rosberg in those races - the championship would have been over by the start of October.

Rosberg got lucky - although he grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

And if Rosberg hadn't had been knocked into a spin at the first corner in Malaysia he'd have won the race and been further ahead at the end. If he hadn't had a gearbox problem at Silverstone he'd have been second. If he hadn't been pushed off the track by Hamilton in Canada he'd have been at least second. If he hadn't moved over to let Hamilton through in Monaco Hamilton wouldn't have won that race, and for that matter if Red Bull hadn't screwed up Ricciardo's pit stop in Monaco Hamilton also wouldn't have won the race. All those things would have put Rosberg further ahead. And most of all if he hadn't been taken out by Hamilton in Spain Rosberg would have been one race win ahead. Hamilton may have had 3 engine failures, but then they abused a loophole in the rules to get 3 new engines with only one penalty. Everybody else had to make the season work with only 5 engines, he had 8.

A lot of things happen over the year.

[PurpleGorilla]

But isn't that racing? Rosberg lost a number of races in 2014 through reliability. Hamilton won emphatically in 2015 so fair play to him there. I think they've both done very well over the last 3 years having the dominant car. Apart from the pay drivers in F1 any of Ricciardo, Verstappen, Räikkönen, etc could have won the world championship in the Mercedes over the last 3 years.

I really want to see someone who could properly challenge Hamilton next year - not a stooge who will allow Mercedes who pander to the whims of Hamilton as the de facto number one driver.

For me the mark of a true great would be someone who helps develop the car (from a complete dog) and then dominates or takes a car that isn't necessarily the best and can still challenge for the championship.

Considering the crap Rosberg has had to put up with over the last few seasons within his own team (Niki Lauda in particular), commentators and the general public alike telling him he's always inferior to Hamilton it's good to see he's proved them wrong and essentially stuck the Vs up to everyone and said he doesn't want to take that crap anymore. You only have to read the comments such as those by Niki Lauda in the last 24 hrs to know he's made the right decision. Perhaps if they looked after Rosberg in the same way they have done with Hamilton, he may not have done what he's done. Kudos to Rosberg.

I agree, I'm a huge Hamilton fan, but Rosberg deserved it.

Nice to see Hamilton put the focus on for the last 5 races, but he needed that commitment all year to have won it.

[malvolio]

That all misses the point. Hamilton is simply the quicker driver of the two over a race distance, and usually the quicker over one lap. Rosberg settled down and did precisely what he needed to do in each race all season and got a well-deserved result, but that doesn't mean he's superior to Hamilton.

Verstappen, Ricciardo, Alonso and Hamilton are a class above the rest at the moment.