Rosberg throws in the towel!!

[malvolio]

Don't ignore Wehrlein. He's on a Mercedes contract and is good enough to have taken a Manor up to 10th place...

[VectraMan]

Don't ignore Wehrlein. He's on a Mercedes contract and is good enough to have taken a Manor up to 10th place...

Not so good at turning the engine off though...

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Would give the fans a chance to see the top two of the last decade fighting it out

Personally its already pretty obvious who the better driver is...

[VillageContractor]

Massive shock - fair play to him.

I'd expect it be Werhlein, everyone else is in contracts. Bottas or Perez could be bought out, but neither have had an amazing yr. I think Werhlein has driven better this yr.

I bet Toto has changed his mind on disciplining Hamilton

[BrilloPad]

Nico Rosberg retires: World champion quits Formula 1 - BBC Sport

Well I suppose you may as well quit while you are at the top.

Its the best way. Driving F1 without 100% commitment is more dangerous than with.

I believe Jean Alesi jumped out of his car after a race and retired. But then he was impetuous. After one Manaco GP he could not pull away after a pit stop. He stormed off in a huff. An engineer slipped it into 2nd(only 1st was broken) and pulled away....

[d000hg]

None of those are going to happen without a very large exchange of cash.

I imagine they'll either buy Bottas out of engine customer Williams, or buy Perez out of engine customer Force India.

They do HAVE a very large amount of cash, they pay Lewis something like £30m a year.

Don't ignore Wehrlein. He's on a Mercedes contract and is good enough to have taken a Manor up to 10th place...

I thought they ended up bottom after Sauber squeaked 2 points in the penultimate race?

Mercedes seem to prefer established drivers, let the other teams develop the drivers for them. So I rather a expect a big-name signing for both the driving and press side of things. Although I don't know how they feel about two #1 drivers fighting.

The only drivers who have no reason car-wise to want the seat are Red Bull as they're expected to be challenging next year, but they could throw money at either Red Bull driver as both are great.

Vettel has not looked too happy and Ferrari are in a bad place going into next year so that could be a shout considering Alonso and Lewis have history.

[d000hg]

Personally its already pretty obvious who the better driver is...

Indeed. Vettel won 4 championships back to back in a car less relentlessly dominant that Mercedes was the last 3 years, Lewis could only had one person to beat and could only achieve it 2/3 years

I somehow doubt that's the way you'd play it and I'm personally a Lewis fan, but Vettel is overshadowed and overlooked FAR too much.

[northernladuk]

Has he got himself a very lucrative Indy car deal or something?

[d000hg]

Has he got himself a very lucrative Indy car deal or something?

I think he pretty much admitted his bonus for winning was 8 million though I don't know the currency?

He's either way very, very wealthy - he probably never needed to work in the first place - and it comes across as doing what many talk about but few do, deciding to enjoy his wealth while still young.

I'm sad he didn't get any kind of send-off by doing it this way though

[northernladuk]

I'm sad he didn't get any kind of send-off by doing it this way though

Indeed but I did see some comparisons over various stuff over the year that would indicate Hamilton was a better driver but got let down by stuff out of his control. If Rosberg goes now there won't be any chance for the nay sayers to say 'I told you so' and he'll just be know as the world champ. Clever but yes, an odd way to bow out.