The team should be celebrating the culmination of another dominant season of Formula One, but instead Mercedes are having to respond to more criticism of their drivers and their behaviour. Lewis Hamilton attempted to back up the field in the closing stages of the Abu Dhabi race, hoping to put his teammate under pressure and perhaps have another car overtake Rosberg and drop him out of contention.

Nico Rosberg shocked the F1 world with his retirement announcement, less than a week after becoming world champion. His resolve is clear, however, so it’s up to Mercedes now to find a replacement for the best seat on the grid. Naturally, every driver has been linked with the team already, but Toto Wolff has shot down some of the bigger rumours.

Rosberg may not have ended the season in style, finishing runner up to Lewis Hamilton in the final few races, but he got the job done and claimed his first F1 title in the final round in Abu Dhabi. The German driver admitted that the pressure of the competition did start to get to him. Talking after his victory, Rosberg said: “It’s been my best season and I’ve done my best ever races this year."

Lewis Hamilton took victory in Abu Dhabi, but despite his best efforts, it wasn’t enough to keep Nico Rosberg from securing the 2016 World Championship. With Hamilton easily out front and in control of the race, all Nico had to do was finish third, but that was by no means easy. Max Verstappen initially put himself out of the battle by spinning on the first lap and dropping to the rear of the field, but converted to a one stop strategy that saw him finish fourth.

Although the balance of power in the battle for the championship remains with Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton has so far done everything he can to increase his chances of grabbing it back. The Mercedes driver scored pole position for the season finale race in Abu Dhabi, beating teammate and rival Rosberg to the top spot. Behind them, the fight between Ferrari and Red Bull endured, with Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Räikkönen locking out the second row. Max Verstappen was disappointed in his work to end up in sixth place.

Sauber has been very busy trying to regroup after a disappointing year in 2016, and they are one of the few teams with race seats available for the coming season. It had been rumoured that current Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson was looking for an exit strategy from the Swiss squad but with the rest of the grid filling up fast, he has opted to remain with his current team for another year.

Ron Dennis has barely vacated the building but McLaren are keen to show they are moving on, with the appointment of Zak Brown as executive director of the McLaren Technology Group. The organisation’s efforts to find a CEO of the McLaren Group as a whole are ongoing, but Brown will take up his post towards the end of the year, focusing on the racing squad.

Ron Dennis has been in charge of the McLaren Group for over three decades, but his position as boss of the successful sporting organisation came to an abrupt end this week. Dennis owns 25% of McLaren, but the other 75% is owned by a Bahrain investment group and businessman Mansour Ojjeh – both of whom have decided that Dennis’ tenure at the top is over due to a lack of confidence in his style of leadership.

The Brazilian Grand Prix took just over three hours to be completed, with a delayed start due to the pouring rain, five safety car periods due to rain and crashes, and two red flags for similar reasons. Lewis Hamilton got off to a good start behind the safety car, and he managed to control the race from the front despite the stop start nature of the event. He took race victory from Nico Rosberg, narrowing the championship gap to just 12 points going into the final round in Abu Dhabi.

There was rain threatening the skies above Interlagos during qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix, but the weather had no real impact on proceedings except catching some teams out with the cooler conditions. Manor and Sauber dropped out in Q1, as well as Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button, who was complaining about a lack of grip.