While 40-year-old racers were relatively common in the sport's early days, they are a rarity in modern Formula One with an increasing emphasis on youth.
The German, whose bid for a fifth crown petered out last year in mistakes and misfortune, had already been facing questions about whether he was making too many errors to win the championship.
Ferrari won the race in one-two formation, with Sebastian Vettel leading Charles Leclerc, for their third successive victory.
Is Lewis Hamilton sufficiently appreciated at home?
'I could never have dreamed of being where I am today.'
Mercedes Formula One boss Toto Wolff has dismissed plans for the world's first driverless motor racing series as having little to do with sport, despite the German carmaker's interest in the technology.
Formula One world champion Nico Rosberg hailed Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton as one of the greatest drivers of all time on Wednesday but ruled out forging any friendly ties with the Briton as long as they raced each other. Rosberg, who lost out to Hamilton in the previous two years, made it third time lucky when he clinched his maiden title with a second-place finish behind the triple world champion at the season finale in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
Hamilton has won half of the season's 20 races so far, propelling his team to an unprecedented sixth successive title double, but Brazil was a disappointing weekend with Valtteri Bottas retiring.
Formula One's governing body is to investigate an incident that saw cars cleared to race while a marshal was still on track following a Singapore Grand Prix safety car period on Sunday.
Hamilton wrapped up his record-equalling seventh title in Turkey last month and picked up his 11th win of the season in Bahrain on Sunday. Mercedes have already won the constructors' title for an unprecedented seventh year in a row.
Lewis Hamilton turned a nightmare into a dream on Sunday with his worst race of the season ending with a fourth Formula One world championship.
The youngest Ferrari race driver since 1961 proved he has what it takes to handle the weight of expectation that comes with driving for the sport's most successful and glamorous team.
Lewis Hamilton is planning to get plenty of rest over the next few days
British ace racer Lewis Hamilton has said that he expects to be at Mercedes for years to come after he was crowned world champion on Sunday for the second time.
Valtteri Bottas knows he needs to step up his game from last season if he is to have any chance of keeping his place at Mercedes.
Formula One's struggling teams played down talk of a possible boycott of Sunday's U.S. Grand Prix on Friday as argument over division of the sport's revenues grew more heated on Friday.
Niki Lauda pondered the mystery of the disappearing Mercedes on Sunday after Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg finished one-two in the Japanese Grand Prix but barely featured in television coverage.
Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton polarises opinion and may not get the recognition he deserves but history will appreciate his greatness, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said on Friday.
British racer Susie Wolff has defended Bernie Ecclestone after he doubted whether women would physically be able to drive a Formula One car fast and in any case would not be taken seriously.
Lewis Hamilton's Formula One rivals should beware the backlash because the four-times world champion's dip in form will not last long, his former Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg has warned.
Ferrari are closer to Mercedes than results have suggested in this season's two races and look like posing a real challenge, according to Formula One world championship leader Nico Rosberg.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, winner of 52 races, has gone more than a year since he tasted victory at last year's Belgian race.
Formula One title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are under huge pressure as they enter the final straight, however much they try to hide it, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said on Friday. "I think that generally, all of us, we underestimate the pressure that is on these guys," Wolff told reporters at the U.S. Grand Prix. "It's a couple of races towards the end of the season, there is all to win and all to lose," added the Austrian in response to a question about triple world champion Hamilton's behaviour towards the media in Japan two weeks ago.
Lewis Hamilton collected his champion's trophy at a glittering gala in Paris after ending the year in touching distance of Michael Schumacher's records for wins and titles.
The German's hopes of winning a fifth Formula One title this season moved away from slim and closer to non-existent at Suzuka.
The pole was a record-extending 88th of Hamilton's career and fifth of the season.
Sebastian Vettel may need to rely on a stroke of luck at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday if the German wants to keep alive his diminishing hopes of claiming a fifth Formula One title.
Reaction to the death of three-times Formula One champion Niki Lauda, who died on Monday at the age of 70
The Briton's fourth victory in five races suggests that once again the 33-year-old is hitting a purple phase just as the season enters its critical stages.
Hamilton already has plenty of records, including 87 pole positions and 33 successive scoring finishes, and his 83 wins put him on course to surpass Schumacher's record tally of 91 next year.
Formula One breathed a sigh of relief on Sunday after the sport's new 'halo' head protection device saved Charles Leclerc from what might have been a potentially serious impact.
The proposed return of refuelling to Formula One in 2017 will only happen if it is affordable, according to Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff.
Formula One's post-season shake-up took another spin on Tuesday with Williams announcing the departure of technical head Pat Symonds while Valtteri Bottas moved closer to Mercedes and Felipe Massa's retirement looked to be coming to an end.
Triple world champion Lewis Hamilton and team mate Nico Rosberg will be given more freedom to race each other this season, Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff said on Friday.
World champion Nico Rosberg's retirement announcement on Friday came as a complete surprise even to the man who knows most of Formula One's best-kept secrets, commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone.
Max Verstappen was compared to Formula One greats Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher on Sunday after the Dutch teenager's sensational drive to third place in a wet and chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix. Even father and former racer Jos, the 19-year-old Red Bull driver's biggest fan and fiercest critic, was astonished. "What Max showed here today was really special," he said of a race likely to go down in the sport's annals as one for the ages. In the last 15 laps, after a change to extreme wet tyres, Verstappen passed more than half the starting grid as he went from 16th place to the podium.
French driver Esteban Ocon will race for Force Indianext season after agreeing a multi-year deal, the Silverstone-based Formula One team said in a statement at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Thursday. Ocon replaces experienced German Nico Hulkenberg, who is moving to Renault, alongside Mexican Sergio Perez at a team co-owned by Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya and currently fourth in the championship. The 20-year-old is contracted long-term to Mercedes, Force India's engine provider, and made his debut this year with the lowly Manor team as a mid-season replacement for Indonesian Rio Haryanto.
The France-Austria-Britain sequence of races poses a fresh logistical challenge for teams hitherto committed only to back-to-back weekends, with the 21-round season hurrying to the halfway point.
Michael Schumacher's son Mick has followed in his father's footsteps by signing a contract with Ferrari to join the Formula One team's young driver academy. The 19-year-old German, whose father won five of his record seven championships with the Italian team, will be competing in Formula Two this year after winning the European F3 title in 2018.
Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes on pole position for their 200th race at the German Grand Prix on Saturday while engine problems dashed Ferrari's hopes.
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