Hamilton’s race came with controversy over his Mercedes AMG team’s strategy calls.
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Rosberg has appeared even more single-minded since being beaten to the championship in Austin in October, when he was furious with Hamilton for being “extremely aggressive” on the opening corner of the US Grand Prix.
Rosberg converted his sixth consecutive pole position into a third straight win to see out the 2015 season, while Hamilton could only get close ahead of the final pit stops. The Briton pitted 10 laps after Rosberg to extract the maximum out of his stint, but claims his team gave him no choice over tyres. The two Force India’s finished 4th and 7th.
Asked whether it was too risky to allow Hamilton a free rein in the race, Mercedes’ head of motorsport Wolff replied: “You were all criticising us [and saying] we were remote-controlling it too much last time around”.
Despite a brief flurry of fastest laps, Hamilton was unable to find the second-a-lap speed he needed to catch his teammate, and after getting the gap down to less than seven records, Rosberg actually increased it in the final stages of the 55-lap race.
“There has been so much discussion about whether he [Nico] has stepped up his game, or has the auto come towards him development wise?” he said.
But while the Spaniard said ahead of yesterday’s race that he will be on the grid next year, his mind appeared to be elsewhere on the run down to turn one after going in too deep and crashing into the side of Pastor Maldonado.
The future of Formula One engines continues to be high on the agenda this weekend in Abu Dhabi.
You have to rely on the engineers to give you the optimum strategy at that point. But it was down to the team which tire we went to for the final stint. “Or, has Lewis taken it a bit easy, sub-consciously perhaps, after winning the championship?” said Wolff. So I honestly felt I could have potentially taken them to the end.
“Next season could start tomorrow for me – I don’t need any holidays”. The re-emergence of Ferrari following a few hard seasons, as Vettel settled down well with his new team with three race wins.
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Last time out in Brazil, a frustrated Hamilton bemoaned a “boring” race after following Rosberg home and being denied a different strategy to that of his team-mate from the Mercedes pit wall. Sergio Perez and Force India were best of the rest in fifth, but the Mexican was a long way behind. We take the Ferrari threat very seriously. It was my thinking last year, and it was my thinking the year before that. “We will all now have a well-deserved break with our families and I look forward to spending some more time with my wife and my little daughter”. I will try to keep it going for the start of next year.
