Replacement fears melting away?

©NicoRosberg/Twitter

Nico Rosberg's contract is up at the end of this season and Mercedes insisted it would not start talks until this summer, perhaps adding a bit of pressure after some tense incidents with team-mate Lewis Hamilton. However, with comments from Niki Lauda suggesting a deal is as good as done (and the above picture from the weekend would suggest Niki would know...) Rosberg can probably afford to relax a bit more during the summer break.

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.