Where Rosberg needed a thousand laps, Lewis could do it in two"

It seems like ages ago but considering it will be Valtteri Bottas' fifth season with Mercedes, that also means Nico Rosberg has been gone from the sport for five years. He did what most athletes can only dream of doing: stopping at the peak.

After a long struggle, Rosberg finally managed to beat his former best mate and now arch-nemesis Hamilton in 2016 to take the world championship. Much has been said and written about the sudden departure of the son of Keke Rosberg, who decided to the sport after winning his title.

In the Beyond The Grid Podcast Mercedes colleagues, including Andrew Shovlin and James Vowles, discuss that special moment when suddenly confronted with the question of who was actually better, Rosberg or Hamilton? James Vowles: "If you give Nico a thousand laps, he slowly moves towards an incredible performance level. If you give Lewis two, he’s there, if that makes any sense. Where Nico was excellent is that you give him time in the car to see what his teammate is doing, he’s incredible, what he achieves."

The men also briefly discuss the departure of Rosberg. The news obviously came out of the blue to the team. "Toto called us into the office. And we didn’t really know what to expect. But if Toto asked us to list five things that he was going to say, Nico retiring wasn’t on that list. And it was just a bizarre moment. And even now it’s kind of hard to work out why he asked to be released from his contract. Because even if he wasn’t going to beat Lewis again, he was in a good car, he’d be winning races, he’d be part of a team that was doing something amazing."