2016

The 2016 calendar had 21 rounds, from the Australian Grand Prix on 20 March to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 27 November. Mercedes won 19 of the 21 races and took their third Constructors’ Championship in a row with 765 points, wrapping it up early at the Japanese Grand Prix. The drivers’ title was fought out between team-mates: Lewis Hamilton took 10 wins and 12 poles, Nico Rosberg won nine races — yet it was Rosberg who became champion, by five points. The two races Mercedes did not win went to Red Bull: Max Verstappen won in Spain and Daniel Ricciardo in Malaysia, where the team finished one-two. Ricciardo was third in the Drivers’ Championship with 256 points, and Red Bull, on 468, beat Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship; Ferrari went the whole season without a win.

Rosberg won the first four races of the season: in Australia, Bahrain, China and Russia. Together with his three wins at the end of 2015, that made seven in a row. After Sochi his lead reached 43 points. In Spain the two Mercedes collided on the opening lap and both retired, and the race was won by 18-year-old Verstappen — in his very first race for Red Bull, who had promoted him from Toro Rosso in place of Daniil Kvyat. Verstappen became the youngest Grand Prix winner in history.

Hamilton then won six of the next seven races, from Monaco to Germany, and went into the summer break leading by 19 points. Rosberg answered with wins in Belgium, Italy and Singapore and took back first place. In Malaysia Hamilton retired with an engine failure, and after Rosberg’s win in Japan the gap grew to 33 points with four rounds to go.

Hamilton won the four remaining races — in the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi — from pole, but each time Rosberg finished second. Rosberg arrived at the Abu Dhabi finale on 27 November 2016 with 367 points to Hamilton’s 355, and third place would be enough whatever happened. Hamilton won that race too, with Rosberg second and Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen third and fourth. Rosberg became world champion with 385 points to 380 — 34 years after his father, Keke Rosberg, the 1982 champion. Five days after the finale he announced his retirement.

Haas, a new American team with Ferrari engines, made their debut: Romain Grosjean scored points for them in their very first race, with sixth in Australia, and finished fifth in Bahrain. Renault returned as a works team after buying Lotus, and Manor switched to Mercedes engines — Pascal Wehrlein scored them a point with tenth in Austria. In Brazil Felipe Nasr’s ninth place gave Sauber two points, lifting them above Manor in the Constructors’ Championship.

The first two races used a new qualifying format in which the slowest drivers were knocked out one at a time as the sessions went on; from the Chinese Grand Prix the old system returned. Baku hosted a World Championship race for the first time — Rosberg won the European Grand Prix there on 19 June 2016 — and the German Grand Prix returned after a year’s break. Red Bull raced with Renault engines badged as TAG Heuer.

At the Bahrain Grand Prix Stoffel Vandoorne stood in for Fernando Alonso at McLaren and scored a point in his very first race. Pascal Wehrlein and Rio Haryanto made their debuts with Manor; from the Belgian Grand Prix Esteban Ocon took Haryanto’s seat. Renault fielded rookie Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen. Rosberg left racing as the reigning champion. The 2016 season was also the last in Formula 1 for Felipe Nasr, Esteban Gutiérrez and Rio Haryanto, and for the Manor team. For Jenson Button it proved to be his last full season: in 2017 he started just once, in Monaco. Felipe Massa had announced his retirement from Formula 1, but after Valtteri Bottas moved to Mercedes he stayed at Williams for one more season.