Formula 1: How did Nico Rosberg ever manage to defeat Lewis Hamilton?

The only driver to beat Lewis Hamilton in Formula 1’s V6 turbo hybrid era is Nico Rosberg, who did so in the 2016 season. How did he pull it off?

Since the start of the V6 turbo hybrid era in the 2014 Formula 1 season, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport have been dominant. They have won each of the last five constructor championships, and their drivers have combined to win each of the last five driver championships.

More specifically, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton has been dominant throughout the V6 turbo hybrid era. He has won four of the five championships that have been decided during this era, and he had earned 51 victories, which is an all-time Formula 1 record for a five-year span.

Hamilton has scored 1,916 points since the start of the V6 turbo hybrid era, which is by far the highest point total among the sport’s drivers. Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel ranks behind the 34-year-old Briton in second place, and he has scored 1,294 points since the start of this era. He drove for Red Bull Racing in the 2014 season, and he has driven for Ferrari since the 2015 season.

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Hamilton’s winning margins in the driver standings in his four championship-winning seasons were massive. He won the 2014 championship by 67 points, the 2015 championship by 59 points, the 2017 championship by 46 points and the 2018 championship by a career-high 88 points after scoring an all-time record 408 points throughout the season.

The only championship during this era so far that Hamilton did not win was the 2016 championship. Nico Rosberg, who was Hamilton’s teammate in the 2016 season, fended off the then three-time champion to win the championship by five points (385 to 380).

In the midst of an era that has been dominated by Hamilton and following two seasons during which Hamilton dominated Rosberg, how did the German driver ever manage to knock off his teammate?

Before we go any further, no, beating him in qualifying is not the answer. Hamilton won the qualifying battle with Rosberg in the 2016 season by qualifying ahead of him for 12 of the season’s 21 races.

Here is the answer.

Entering the 17th of 19 races of the 2015 season, the Mexican Grand Prix, Rosberg had earned eight victories since the start of the V6 turbo hybrid era. Hamilton, meanwhile, had earned 21, and he had just secured his second consecutive championship and the third championship of his career in the previous race, the United States Grand Prix.

Rosberg took advantage of the fact that neither he nor Hamilton had anything to drive for as far as the 2015 championship was concerned at this point by earning three consecutive victories to close out the season, thus giving him much-needed momentum heading into the 2016 season. Hamilton finished behind him in second place in each of the three races that he won.

Rosberg carried this momentum with him into the 2016 season, as he opened up the season by winning each of its first four races.

So after earning eight victories in the first 35 races of the V6 turbo hybrid era, Rosberg earned seven victories in a seven-race span, and the last four races of this span, of which he had combined to win only two times before, were the first four races of the 2016 season. Hamilton won all four of these races in the 2015 season, and he won three of them in the 2014 season.

Following the fourth race of the 2016 season, Rosberg had opened up a 43-point lead (100 to 57) over Hamilton in second place in the driver standings with four victories. Hamilton had recorded two second place finishes, a third place finish and a seventh place finish.

Hamilton earned 11 victories in the 2014 season while Rosberg earned five. Hamilton earned 10 victories in the 2015 season while Rosberg earned six. Throughout the remainder of the 2016 season, things were “back to normal” in this regard.

Hamilton won 10 of the season’s final 17 races while Rosberg won five of them, and Hamilton ended up finishing the season with more victories than Rosberg did (10 to nine) despite Rosberg’s hot start.

But the 43-point lead that Rosberg built up throughout the season’s first four races proved to be insurmountable for Hamilton, who resorted to trying to hold up Rosberg in the 2016 season finale, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, so that he would be passed by other drivers and lose points.

Rosberg did not cave to the pressure applied to him by Hamilton’s tactics in the 2016 season finale and ended up finishing the race in second place while Hamilton won it, and he won the championship by five points over Hamilton as a result of it.

So what does it take to beat Hamilton?

Rosberg is the only driver as of Hamilton who has earned more than two consecutive victories in the V6 turbo hybrid era, and he needed to earn seven consecutive victories, including four to open up the 2016 season, to give himself a chance to battle with and ultimately prevail against Hamilton to win the championship.

Even with that win streak, which is tied for the second longest win streak of all-time, Rosberg still only managed to beat Hamilton by five points.

The fact that no other drivers have earned more than two consecutive victories in the V6 turbo hybrid era shows that what Rosberg was able to accomplish in the 2016 season was special. If not for Rosberg’s stellar 2016 season, Hamilton would be set to enter the 2019 season as a six-time champion and as the five-time reigning champion. He would have a chance to tie Michael Schumacher’s all-time championships record this year.

It also shows that if another driver cannot singlehandedly deliver Hamilton a losing streak of several consecutive races, something that no one else has been able to even come close to doing so, Hamilton will likely continue to win championships, and he will likely continue to win them quite handily.

With Nico Rosberg having retired, will another driver ever be able to beat Lewis Hamilton in a championship battle before he retires from Formula 1? If so, who will beat him and when will he be beaten?