Five Points, Then Five Days

Two Mercedes teammates fought across a record twenty one rounds, Nico Rosberg took the title by five points, and five days later he walked away.

Nico Rosberg was world champion for five days before he announced his retirement. The season that gave him the title was the longest yet, twenty one Grands Prix from Australia on the 20th of March to Abu Dhabi on the 27th of November, and the championship was a private matter inside the Mercedes garage. The grid grew around it. Haas arrived and scored points at its very first race, Renault came back as a works constructor after taking over Lotus, Germany returned to the calendar, and Baku staged the first Grand Prix in Azerbaijan under the European Grand Prix name. A new elimination format for qualifying lasted two rounds.

The calendar

• Australian Grand Prix, won by Nico Rosberg
• Bahrain Grand Prix, won by Nico Rosberg
• Chinese Grand Prix, won by Nico Rosberg
• Russian Grand Prix, won by Nico Rosberg
• Spanish Grand Prix, won by Max Verstappen
• Monaco Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• Canadian Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• European Grand Prix, won by Nico Rosberg
• Austrian Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• British Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• Hungarian Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• German Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• Belgian Grand Prix, won by Nico Rosberg
• Italian Grand Prix, won by Nico Rosberg
• Singapore Grand Prix, won by Nico Rosberg
• Malaysian Grand Prix, won by Daniel Ricciardo
• Japanese Grand Prix, won by Nico Rosberg
• United States Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• Mexican Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• Brazilian Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton