Feature

What Rosberg needs to do to win the title

All of the permutations which could result in Nico Rosberg winning the 2016 F1 Drivers' Championship this weekend at the Brazilian Grand Prix

Motor Racing - Formula One World Championship - Japanese Grand Prix - Race Day - Suzuka, Japan

Nico Rosberg can become 2016 F1 drivers’ champion this weekend in Brazil, with the German able to wrap up the championship with victory at Interlagos.

While he knows he will win the title if he is first on Sunday, it is easier to look at the other permutations from the view of where team-mate Lewis Hamilton will finish, as shown in the table below.

IF HAMILTON FINISHES	ROSBERG MUST FINISH
1st	Can't be champion
2nd	1st
3rd	1st
4th	2nd
5th	2nd
6th	3rd
7th	3rd
8th	4th
9th	5th
10th	6th

As Rosberg holds a 19-point advantage, he needs to finish at least sixth to have any chance of winning the title in Brazil. While seventh place is worth six points, if Hamilton failed to score in Brazil but won in Abu Dhabi (and Rosberg failed to score) it would leave the pair tied on wins and second places but would see Hamilton win the championship by virtue of having more third places. Complex!

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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.