Formula One News

Nico Rosberg Bio

Nico Rosberg is the son of 1982 World Championship Keke Rosberg, and began his racing career through the usual karting way, where he had a lot of success, winning various European karting championships between 1996 and 2001. In 2002, Rosberg switched to single-seater racing and in the same year he won the Formula BMW ADAC Championship before moving on to the F3 Euro-series. During his two-year stint in F3, Nico claimed four race wins.

2005 saw Rosberg land his big break in Formula One when BMW Williams signed him as their second test driver. Nico also competed in the GP2 series that year, and when he won the title at the end of the season, he was promoted to second driver at the Williams team for the 2006 season.

However, Rosberg’s rookie season in Formula One was a difficult one for the young German, which was largely due to Williams’ failures rather than his own. It did start well, when Rosberg finished his very first grand prix in the points and even took the fastest lap time of the race. But after that Rosberg and the team struggled with the pace and reliability of the 2006 car. Nico only had one other points-scoring finish that season.

Rosberg’s bad luck continued through the first half of the 2007 season, as he was forced to watch his team-mate Wurz score more points than him, although Rosberg had the greater pace. However, as the second half of the season progressed Rosberg’s luck began to change and he eventually racked up 20 points in his second season to finish in front of his team-mate in the drivers’ championship that year.

Rosberg stayed with Williams for the 2008 season, during which he was partnered with rookie driver Kazuki Nakajima. The young German got the best of his rookie team-mate over the season, although once again it was not the best of seasons for Rosberg. A podium finish at the very start in Australia and one in Singapore proved to be the highlights of an otherwise topsy-turvy season. Rosberg eventually finished the season 13th overall.

Rosberg warned the Williams team that if the 2009 season wasn’t any better, then he would have to consider looking elsewhere for a drive, and that’s exactly what he did. Another mediocre season without a podium finish saw Rosberg finish seventh overall, and so for the 2010 season the German driver chose to leave the Williams team in favour of a deal with the newly named Mercedes GP, the team who won both the 2009 drivers and constructors championship.

Mercedes GP teamed Nico up with seven times world championship Michael Schumacher. Taking the legendary status and F1 history of his team mate, Rosberg took it in his stride, and constantly outperformed the seven time world champ, who seemed to struggle in his first season back in the sport after a three year back. Rosberg finished the season seventh overall with twice the amount of points to tenth place finisher, Schumacher. Rosberg finished the season with 147 points, whereas, Schumacher finished with 72.

For the 2011 season Rosberg will again drive for Mercedes GP alongside Michael Schumacher.