In the 2001 Hollywood movie about street racing, The Fast and the Furious, Vin Diesel’s character Dominic Toretto said a line that is perhaps fitting of the current situation in the Formula One drivers’ championship: “Ask any racer. Any real racer. It don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning’s winning.”
That is an adage that Nico Rosberg is adhering to and will have fully embraced if he claims the 2016 world title on Sunday at the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix by finishing second or third behind Mercedes-GP teammate Lewis Hamilton.
That scenario would give Rosberg the title, but would not dampen the view of many in F1, particularly Hamilton, that the Briton has been the faster man over the season, and thus the more worthy champ.
Hamilton is on a roll. The triple world champion has won the past three races, with Rosberg second on each occasion.
But ever since he won in Japan last month to open up a 33-point lead, Rosberg has known he did not need to win another race this season and could still be crowned champion as long as he had three second places and one third in the final four races.
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• Schedule and grandstand information for the 2016 Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
He picked up runners-up spots in the United States and Mexico – failing to match Hamilton for speed at either race – and he was again well beaten by Hamilton in Brazil in wet conditions. His lead is now down to 12 points going into the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi.
The heavy rain in Sao Paulo made life very difficult for most of the grid with several experienced drivers, including former world champions Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, spinning. Rosberg had a big scare himself at one stage as he lost control of his car, but managed to regain control without hitting the wall.
Hamilton was well aware of Rosberg’s drama when he called the victory one of his “easier ones” and described himself as “chilling out” in the treacherous conditions.
Even a compliment to Rosberg had a loaded message in it: “I am happy that with the same car I beat Nico, and Nico is driving at his best right now but today he had nothing on me.”
The message was loud and clear. Hamilton believes he is the quicker driver, and though he may not end the year as champion, he wants to make it clear — in case you missed it – who is the faster Mercedes man.
It may also be an attempt to goad Rosberg into pushing hard in Abu Dhabi to beat him on track, rather than being content to finish second or third behind him.
Only Rosberg knows how hard he pushed in Brazil. He finished 11.4 seconds behind Hamilton despite the numerous safety car periods and race stoppages.
Imagine how daft Rosberg would have looked had he pushed too hard in Interlagos trying to beat Hamilton in a race he did not have to win, crashed out and handed control of the title destiny to the triple world champion.
Whether Rosberg has been the faster man over the season is open to debate, but if he does leave the UAE as champion, he will be a worthy winner, even if Hamilton does not agree.
If Hamilton misses out on a fourth drivers’ title, he will rightly point to having had the worst of the reliability problems in the Mercedes team. Engine problems resulted in grid penalties in China, Russia and Belgium when he would have otherwise started on the front row, and in those races he scored 39 points to 75 for Rosberg, who won all of them.
Then there was Malaysia last month, where Hamilton’s engine blew when he was leading and Rosberg was running fourth. Rosberg went on to finish third, and instead of gaining 13 points on his rival, Hamilton instead lost 15 – a 28-point swing.
What has often been overlooked when picking through Hamilton’s misfortune was that the only reason he was set to take a big chunk of points off Rosberg in Malaysia was because the German had gone to the back of the field on Lap 1 after being spun around by the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.
Without that Rosberg would have been running second behind Hamilton when the engine failure happened. He would have won the race, instead of being third, so in may ways it could have been much worse for the Briton.
Hamilton has not been shy to remind people of his bad luck, but he will not be the first driver who was probably the quickest over the season not to be crowned world champion. Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher are among the men who Hamilton would be emulating.
Rosberg has won nine races, the same as Hamilton, and unlike in 2014 and 2015, his previous two failed title bids, he has on occasion beaten the Briton in a straight fight.
His performances in Singapore and Japan were two of the very best of his career, and this has been comfortably the most consistent year of his F1 career.
He may not have had as much misfortune as Hamilton, but he still has had to take advantage of it, and other than his clumsy defensive move on his teammate in Austria, for which he came off worse, he has hardly put a wheel wrong in 2016.
He has qualified on the front row at every race so far, excluding grid penalties, something even Hamilton has been unable to match.
Most motorsports purists would love to see Rosberg, 31, win his fist F1 world championship by taking the chequered flag at Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday, but it will taste just as sweet if he finishes second or third, or if Hamilton fails to finish the race.
For Rosberg the ends justify the means. If Hamilton wins on Sunday he will have more victories in 2016, but as long as Rosberg is on the podium he will not care one iota, because the title is his focus.
The history books years will not have an asterisk against the winner of the championship explaining who had the most non-finishes and problems.
It will simply say the winning driver’s name and if that name is Rosberg then it will be fully deserved.
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