Nico Rosberg's remarkable 2016 is drawing to a close -- a year he started as an outsider in the eyes of many for the title, but finished not only as world champion but as retired from Formula One altogether.
Reflections on Rosberg's achievement have been drowned out in the chaos which followed his retirement and the frantic search for his replacement at Mercedes. But, given the fact 2016 is the last of the German's storied F1 career, it is fair to look back at the other yardstick he will be measured against: career wins, and just how many of his drives will stand the test of time.
This feature was inspired by a lingering doubt about Rosberg's win record, one which then returned when considering a '10 best wins' style lookback on his career after his shock decision to retire. The simple fact is this: naming more than one memorable victory -- let alone ten -- is a stretch when it comes to our most recent world champion.
And this is not to cast doubt over his remarkable achievement this year -- Rosberg deserved the title after a superb drive to second under unbearable pressure in Abu Dhabi. As we at ESPN said all season, the winner at the end of a 21-race season cannot be considered to have lucked into it. But it is also fair to wonder why a man with 23 career victories next to his name has so few that can be considered truly memorable. It does little to shake the notion that Rosberg could only win when in the best car or when circumstances fell into place for him.
It is important to note here the difference between memorable and deserved -- winning from pole position is a valid way to win and all the greats have done it in their time. But they've also been able to win from adverse situations.
Rosberg's first win came at China in 2012, a weekend which saw Mercedes dominant. A superb pole lap put Rosberg in the best possible position and a routine drive the next day followed for the first win of his grand prix career. Hamilton, driving for McLaren, had qualified second before a gearbox penalty, while Mercedes fluffed Michael Schumacher's chance of at least a podium during the pit-stop window. Two wins followed in 2013, the first from pole in Monaco and the second after Hamilton, by now his Mercedes teammate, suffered a huge tyre blowout while leading the British Grand Prix. The latter is remembered better for the issues that hit Pirelli than who stood on the top step.
In 2014 Mercedes unveiled the W05, the all-conquering V6 turbo beast which started the team's domination of the new era. Rosberg won the first race of that era, too, but only after polesitter Hamilton had engine issues off the line. Rosberg had to wait five races until he won again, the controversial Monaco Grand Prix victory -- which followed Rosberg's much-debated stoppage in Q3 that prevented Hamilton from beating him to pole. He went on to win from pole but that weekend is remembered more for what Rosberg did on Saturday rather than Sunday.
Rosberg then won in Austria from third on the grid -- the only time he would do so from a starting position off the front row -- by beating the Williams' at the first round of pit-stops, with Hamilton starting down in tenth. He would then win comfortably from pole in Germany in a race which saw Hamilton start down in 20th after a brake failure caused a heavy crash in qualifying. In a year which saw Mercedes so dominant, any failure for one car tended to be good news for the other. His final win of 2014 came in Brazil, where a Hamilton spin on his out-lap ultimately became the decisive factor, allowing Rosberg to take the title fight to the final round in Abu Dhabi.
In 2015, Rosberg won a bland Spanish Grand Prix, before inheriting victory at the Monaco Grand Prix when a botched Mercedes pit stop robbed his teammate of a comfortable lead. Rosberg then beat Hamilton off the line to win in Austria -- his final win until his crucial run at the end of the season. By the time he was next on the podium's top step Hamilton had wrapped up the championship: winning from pole in Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi to finish the season on a high. Rightly or wrongly, the fact Hamilton had relaxed after winning the championship soured those final wins somewhat.
The story of this year is well known; a rejuvenated Rosberg came into the season believing he could finally beat Hamilton. And it seemed fortune was on his side, too. Mercedes recovered from a slow start to win in Australia but Ferrari's strategy blunder became the overriding storyline, handing the initiative back to the world champions. In Bahrain Sebastian Vettel's engine failed on the formation lap before Hamilton was clouted at Turn 1 by Valtteri Bottas. Rosberg, who had beaten Hamilton off the line, then eased away to victory in a race which had looked set to be another classic desert duel.
Engine drama followed in qualifying for Hamilton at the next two races in China and Russia, forcing him into recovery drives and giving Rosberg what the Brit himself would scathingly call "Sunday drives" on both occasions. As stated earlier, there's nothing wrong with winning from pole, but China and Russia had a simple, routine feel which has followed Rosberg for much of the later part of his career.
Mercedes should have had a one-two in Baku but Hamilton faltered in qualifying, leaving Rosberg unchallenged for another solid drive to victory from pole position. The turning point in the season would come after the summer break in August, as a Hamilton engine penalty gave Rosberg another great chance to win -- a race which became a lot easier when Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen collided behind him at Turn 1. Rosberg then pounced on Hamilton's poor start to win at Monza.
The win which stands out from 2016 was Singapore, an utterly dominant weekend from a man who clearly had the self-belief to win the championship. That and another assured drive at Suzuka two races later -- as it turned out, the last win of his career -- are arguably the two strongest in his collection of 23 and were among the most important moments in his championship season. These two would have made the list mentioned earlier, but it would have been a short list.
Once again, as stated earlier, this is not doubting his worthiness as a world champion. It is also not giving him unfair treatment because he had the fastest car. Hamilton has had several easy wins since joining Mercedes, but he has also had great drives in the same period: winning the epic in Bahrain duel in 2014 despite having a tyre disadvantage to Rosberg, catching and passing Rosberg in Italy, the U.S. and Japan in the same season, passing both Williams' and mastering rain and a late safety car at Silverstone in 2015, his sublime performance in Canada and Brazil (from pole, yes, but in horrid conditions) this season, just to name a handful. Much like his best drives at McLaren, Hamilton has a record of snatching wins from other drivers Rosberg just does not have.
And it's not just Hamilton's record that makes Rosberg's look bad. Each of Daniel Ricciardo's four wins are a masterclass of snatching a win from others -- even if Malaysia this year followed Hamilton's engine failure, it still involved an epic wheel-to-wheel duel with Verstappen, from which the Australian emerged victorious. Fernando Alonso's victory at Valencia in 2012 ranks as one of the best in recent F1 history, as does Jenson Button's classic win in Canada a year earlier. For Kimi Raikkonen there's Abu Dhabi 2012, or even his sublime drive at Suzuka in 2005, while Sebastian Vettel has Italy in 2008, a handful from his time at Red Bull and Malaysia, Hungary and Singapore at Ferrari last season.
For Rosberg, it was two races where he did not win this year which truly earned him the title; his spirited fightback from contact at Turn 1 in Malaysia to finish third (which included a brilliant aggressive move on Kimi Raikkonen late on), before sealing the title in dramatic style in Abu Dhabi. Had he won from sixth on the grid in Austria it would have easily been the standout win of his career, only for his questionable last-lap defensive manoeuvre on Hamilton to cost him a place on the podium.
Unfortunately, we will never see Rosberg add to his list of wins following his decision to retire. His reasons for doing so are noble, but they also deny him the opportunity to win in a car which might not be the class of the field. Though a respectable decision it also hints at a lack of fight in the 2016 world champion, a strange reluctance to defend the culmination of his life's work. His victory record outlined above unfortunately suggests the same is true, though his decision to retire early reveals something else about the 2016 world champion -- courage, mental fortitude and the knowledge of how to finish a job in the perfect and easiest fashion. And those traits, more than anything else, are how we should remember the career of Nico Rosberg.