The 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 70th season of the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. The season featured 21 races, marking the longest season in Formula One history at the time. Nico Rosberg won his first and only World Drivers' Championship, while Mercedes secured their third consecutive World Constructors' Championship.
Nico Rosberg won the Australian Grand Prix, the opening race of the season, ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. The race was notable for a terrifying crash involving Fernando Alonso and Esteban Gutiérrez, which resulted in both drivers emerging unharmed.
At the Spanish Grand Prix, Max Verstappen became the youngest ever Formula One race winner at the age of 18 years and 228 days, driving for Red Bull Racing in his first race after being promoted from Toro Rosso. This followed a first-lap collision between the two Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
Lewis Hamilton won the Austrian Grand Prix after a last-lap collision with his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, who was leading the championship at the time. Rosberg was penalized for causing a collision, dropping him to fourth place.
Lewis Hamilton won the Italian Grand Prix from pole position, but faced controversy when his Mercedes team instructed him to make an incorrect engine setting change at the start, allowing Rosberg to take the lead before Hamilton recovered to win.
Nico Rosberg won the Mexican Grand Prix, extending his championship lead over Lewis Hamilton. However, Hamilton's third-place finish meant that the championship battle would go down to the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
Nico Rosberg finished second in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which was won by Lewis Hamilton, to secure his first World Drivers' Championship. Five days later, on December 2, Rosberg announced his retirement from Formula One.
