Frustratingly, we now have to wait more than three months for the answers to those questions, but Hamilton, who finished second on Sunday, made it clear on Sunday night just where he felt the power in his partnership with Rosberg stood.
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“At the end of the day, for Lewis the World Championship title mattered, but then those last couple of races were really great driving from Nico”.
Rosberg maintained the lead for the reminder of the race, and goes into the off-season with much confidence, but still can remember the low point of the season.
While Mercedes are way of the threat posed by Ferrari next year, it is the all-conquering Silver Arrows who will remain the team to beat. He will have a while now to take stock of his superb end to the season, but the success in Abu Dhabi may be just what Nico Rosberg needs to drive him on to title glory.
But Hamilton said in Brazil that his work for the year is already done and gleefully accepted another chance to make the point on Sunday.
He said: “After I pitted I was 11 seconds behind and had a mountain to climb”.
Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari completed the podium and his Scuderia team-mate Sebastian Vettel produced a fine display to finish fourth from 15th on the grid. I tried as hard as I could in the first stint, keeping a decent gap to Nico, looking after the tires. I am so happy that I found some performance at the end of the season. I wouldn’t be standing here as World Champion without them. He said: “I think in hindsight once Nico pitted I should probably have backed off a little bit and I would have made those tyres go a lot longer”.
“We could go to Melbourne tomorrow”. “But we gave it a try and did the best job I could with it”.
Sergio Perez and Force India were best of the rest in fifth, but the Mexican was a long way behind. “Whatever the outcome is we will discuss and see what we can do”.
Brazilian Felipe Massa took eighth place for Williams, ahead of Frenchman Romain Grosjean in ninth in his final race for Lotus before moving to 2016 newcomers Haas.
There were, however, a number of battles behind the race leaders between the Williams, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Lotus. Maldonado retired immediately with broken suspension, while Alonso could continue, but had to pit for a new front wing.
As Bottas was released – unsafely according to the stewards as he was penalised with a five-second time penalty – and as Button cut across into his pitbox, the Finn caught the rear of the Briton.
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He did not, but he finished one lap down and ahead of only the Manor pair of Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi.
