Feature

Nico Rosberg: How the 2016 world title was won

F1i looks back at the key races in 2016 which saw Nico Rosberg become Formula One World Champion for the first time in his career

Nico Rosberg won the 2016 World Drivers' Championship with second place in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton by five points.

The title was won in dramatic fashion, with Rosberg under attack from Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen as Hamilton slowed the pace to try and fashion the opportunity to hold on to his title. Eventually Rosberg held on to second place and with it won his first championship.

Rosberg and Hamilton have engaged in a close battle throughout the year, with dominant runs of results for each, as well as a number of reliability issues and flashpoints between the two. Here, F1i looks back on how Rosberg became world champion in a record-breaking year.

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

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.

Recent Posts

Mercedes Allison’s big takeaway from F1’s Barcelona test

Mercedes technical director James Allison arrived in Barcelona last week bracing for chaos – and…

9 hours ago

Verstappen rules out F1 management role after retirement

Max Verstappen has made one thing crystal clear about life after Formula 1: don’t expect…

10 hours ago

Williams unveils bold new 2026 livery for FW48

Williams has officially pulled the wraps off the striking new look of its 2026 Formula…

12 hours ago

Newey sheds light on ‘aggressive’ Aston Martin AMR26 design

Aston Martin’s new-era Formula 1 challenger has barely turned a wheel in anger, yet it…

13 hours ago

The Midland M16 - Russia's first and last F1 car

On this day in 2006, the newly-christened Midland F1 Racing team unveiled its first car…

14 hours ago

Haas recruits Doohan as F1 reserve for 2026

Haas has added a fresh splash of Australian flair to its 2026 F1 plans, snapping…

15 hours ago