Formula One Sports is all set to ring in New year braced for change on and off track even if Lewis Hamilton will again start as top dog at Mercedes and from favorite to take his fourth world championship. Team Mercedes have a great record this year and after winning 19 of a record 21 races this year and starting all but one on the pole and retaining both titles for the third year in a row. The Team is absolutely confident on starting the New Year with a high and it is just a chance that Mercedes will be less dominant.
One thing is definitely for sure that that team is going to miss their newly crowned champion Nico Rosberg after his retirement announcement which was a bombshell that dropped jaws around the world only days after he won his first title. The German came good as never before this year where he went ahead to win the opening four races and nine in total on his way to joining Britain’s Damon Hill as only the second son of a champion to take the crown. If that success was a shock to those who expected him to finish runner-up again as might have been the case without Hamilton’s blown engine in Malaysia and other issues, it was nothing to what followed next.
To which Rosberg said after telling stunned team bosses that he was calling it a day “I have climbed my mountain, I am on the peak, so this feels right.”
Team Mercedes are not really prepared to announce a replacement until January at least with Finn Valtteri Bottas favorite move from Williams for the hot seat. Rosberg was not the only one who headed for the exit with Ron Dennis ousted as McLaren boss and 2009 champion Jenson Button making what at the team for Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne. Felipe Massa also announced and started his retirement which could be short lived as Rosberg’s retirement announcement can make Williams coax the Brazilians back in Botta’s place.
Lewis Hamilton won more races with more poles than any other driver and became the first to take 10 victories this season and not the title. He had a roller coaster year with bizarre meltdown with the media in Japan.
Let’s hope the new racing season for F1 starts with good things and many new beginnings for racing teams.
