He is not mediocre compared to the general population obviously but Rosberg has always been an average driver within the F1 grid, which is what mediocre means. That is why he is grabbing this title that fell on his lap and running away with it retiring after it.
Only reason he won this year is because his car's performance has such a gap over the rest of the grid that no amount of driver skill can close it, not by a long shot, and the rest of the cars are just like extras in a movie to fill the grid line and there are only two real actors in the movie, the two Mercedes.
Its understandable that everybody is bitter from this years championship.
Hamilton fans are not happy because they think they driver should have won because he is clearly faster than Rosberg (true), however being faster is only part of the equation. Hamilton lacks the mental fortitude and maturity of the greats to perform flawlessly and consistently no matter the situation or the pressure and always make the right moves at the wheel. In the beginning it was attributed to his young age, but now its clear its a flaw of his, he is his own worst enemy.
And Rosberg fans are not happy because he is not given any respect after wining the title, but they have to realize that without the Mercedes he would be just one of the bunch like he always was, and he really only beat Ham because let him win due to his inconsistency.
Then there are the rest of the fans that cannot be happy when there are clearly other drivers that could have won the title but had no chance to show their skills because of the performance gap. A only two car championship is ridiculously boring and doesn't say much of the merit of who ever of the two wins it.
The story of F1 in most of the last 2 decades, just before Mercedes we all saw it happen with the RBR car who gave Vettel 4 titles making him look much better than he was until his teamate changed and got owned by Ricciardo on his first year in a RBR and now can barely beat Kimi in Ferrari, and will likely never win another title on his own merit.
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⇒ Carlos - Porsche 991 Carrera GTS