Nico Rosberg

Rosberg spent four seasons at Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton's team-mate, in the most openly hostile pairing of the hybrid era — the two had been friends as teenage karters, and their rivalry consumed both the championship and the relationship.

He won the 2016 title by five points, taking nine races to Hamilton's ten, and having led the championship for most of a season that turned on a collision between the two in Spain and Hamilton's engine failure in Malaysia.

Five days after winning it he retired, at thirty-one, as reigning world champion — something only Fangio had done before. His father Keke won the 1982 championship, making them the second father-and-son pair of champions.