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Daimler names Bernd Pischetsrieder to supervisory board

Some executives in the automotive industry stay with one company for their entire careers, while others bounce from one to the other, often leaving their indelible mark on each automaker at which they serve. Bob Lutz is certainly an example of the latter. So is Lee Iacocca, having presided over Ford and later charing the Chrysler board. Carlos Tavares was chief operating officer of Renault before being nominated as chief executive at PSA Peugeot Citroën. But as far as the Germans go, nobody's jumped from the leadership of one automaker to the next quite like Bernd Pischetsrieder - especially now that he's been named to the supervisory board of Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler.
An engineer by training, Pischetsrieder started his career at BMW in 1973, eventually rising to the office of CEO after twenty years. There he remained until 1999, only to be dismissed after orchestrating BMW's takeover of the Rover Group (of which only the Mini brand remains in the company's portfolio, the other brands having been sold off after his dismissal).
The next year he was named chairman of Volkswagen's Seat brand, and rose to the chairmanship of the entire Volkswagen Group two years later. Despite a largely successful four-year tenure (that gave birth, incidentally, to the Bugatti Veyron), disagreements with supervisory board chairman Ferdinand Piëch saw him leave the helm at VW AG, focusing his attention on the Scania truck division. He's since been touted as a potential chief executive for Opel and for Continental, but neither potential was apparently realized.

Race Recap: 2015 Canadian F1 Grand Prix is better behind the front

As of Saturday afternoon in Montreal, Canada, it was all about the number four. Lewis Hamilton put his Mercedes-AMG Petronas on pole position for the fourth time at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and now his tally of pole positions matches his race number: 44. Nico Rosberg lines up beside him, which is the fourth time that particular one-two combo has occurred this season. Ferrari spent three engine development tokens to try and close the gap to Mercedes, Kimi Raikkonen making the most of it with third position on the gird. His teammate Sebastian Vettel got the worst of it, however, when the MGU-K unit failed during Q1, leaving him 160 horsepower down and out at the first hurdle. Valtteri Bottas put a revitalized Williams on the grid at fourth, ahead of a Lotus lockout of the third row with Romain Grosjean leading the way in fifth, Pastor Maldonado just beside. Nico Hulkenberg got the first Sahara Force India into seventh – the team is still waiting on the upgraded B car that should be available for Austria – ahead of Daniil Kvyat in the first Infiniti Red Bull Racing and a "pissed off" Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull. Sergio Perez made it two Force Indias in the top ten, a welcome result from a team performing below expectations of late. When the lights went out, at the very front it was much ado about not that much at all. Hamilton got away clean and stabbed across the track to close the door for Rosberg, giving Raikkonen a chance to take the inside line into Turn 1 in an attempt to clear Rosberg for second place. That didn't happen, leaving the two Mercedes' to run in grid position for the entire race. It wasn't boring – Rosberg stayed close, rubber-banding the time gap to the leader from a little more than one second to just under four seconds, and Montreal is famous for race-rearranging safety cars and on-track incidents. But none of those occurred, so Hamilton crossed the line 2.285 seconds ahead of Rosberg after 70 laps to earn his fourth victory in Canada and the first-ever victory for the Brackley, UK-based Mercedes team. Valtteri Bottas drove his Williams to third position, the first podium place for the team this year and a welcome salve to heal the team's wounds from a poor showing in Monaco. That placing came courtesy of being in the right place at the right time, which was not far behind Raikkonen when the Ferrari driver spun at the hairpin on Lap 28 after his first pit stop.

A weird end to a weird F1 season | 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix recap

The 2016 Formula 1 season ended with a bang that came from a direction no one expected. Lewis Hamilton put his Mercedes-AMG Petronas on pole position and then got away clean to start the race. Teammate Nico Rosberg did the next best thing, lining up in second and following right behind Hamilton for most of the race. Other than Rosberg's wicked pass on Red Bull's Max Verstappen to retake second place on Lap 20, things stayed all quiet at the front. Come Lap 32 of the 55-lap race, however, observers began to wonder why Hamilton was driving so slow. The Brit, working every trick he could think of to win the Driver's World Championship instead of just the race, dogged it out front trying to push Rosberg back into the chasing mix of Red Bulls and Ferraris. Over the next 15 laps Hamilton's race engineer repeatedly radioed ideal lap times. Hamilton only occasionally hit the times until finally saying, "I suggest you let us race." When the one-stopping Sebastian Vettel blasted his Ferrari from sixth to third, nosing up to Rosberg's gearbox, Mercedes team honcho Paddy Lowe got on the radio to instruct Hamilton to go faster. Hamilton replied that if he wasn't going to win the championship he didn't care about winning the race. Hamilton repeatedly zoomed through the first sector to keep everyone behind, then clogged up the works through Sectors 2 and 3. The problem with his plan was that the Red Bulls in fourth and fifth couldn't get close enough to threaten the trio at the front; even if Vettel had got by Rosberg, Rosberg would still win the Championship with a third-place finish. As it happened, Rosberg finished second behind the disconsolate Hamilton. Vettel took third, followed by Red Bull drivers Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, then the second Ferrari piloted by Kimi Raikkonen in sixth. Nico Hulkenberg took seventh, beating Force India teammate Sergio Perez for the last time as an intra-team rivalry. Felipe Massa closed his F1 career with ninth place in a Williams chassis that he got to take home as a gift from the team. Fernando Alonso scored the final point for McLaren, a touch of sweet for the team after the bitterness of Jenson Button retiring on Lap 12 with suspension damage. Rosberg's second place earned him 385 points for the season, enough to take the World Driver's Championship from Hamilton by just five points. Some have put the title down to Rosberg's consistency, others to his car's reliability.