For the first time in the history of Formula One, teams and drivers scored double the number of points awarded for race finish positions.

[9][10][11][12][13][14] As a result of the double points offered for the race, Lewis Hamilton needed to finish in the top two to guarantee the championship.

[15] They had made a last-minute attempt to race in Abu Dhabi, with rumours that they were being sought after by a potential investor.

[20] 24 Hours of Le Mans winner André Lotterer, who also drove for Caterham in the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix, was originally linked towards the role, but he turned down the offer.

The FIA again tested its Virtual Safety Car system, proposed for the 2015 season, to better deal with race track emergencies following the incident suffered by Jules Bianchi during the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.

The champion permutations were as follows: For Rosberg to win the championship, he would need to: If none of the previous results happened, the title would be awarded to Hamilton.

[27] Red Bull Racing drivers Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo were excluded from qualifying after their cars were found to have front wings that flexed under an aerodynamic load in contravention of the sporting regulations which prohibit movable aerodynamic devices.

[27] Lewis Hamilton got a good start from second on the grid and got ahead of polesitter and championship rival Nico Rosberg by the first corner.

On lap 25 Rosberg had dropped to 7.1 seconds behind Hamilton, and he was told over the radio that his ERS had failed.

[29] Ahead of the podium ceremony, Nico Rosberg entered into the cooldown room to congratulate championship rival Lewis Hamilton on winning the title.

[30] Although Rosberg suffered an energy recovery system (ERS) failure and dropped out of the points during the race, he acknowledged that his problem did not make a difference to the championship outcome in the end, as Hamilton would have had to finish 3rd or lower for him to have a chance of winning the title anyway.