“I remember my father’s last race very clearly when he drove at Hockenheim in front of 100,000 people and I was sitting next to him on the roof of his car and waving to the fans. That was the moment when I thought: ‘One day I want to do the same.”
 

PERSONAL:

 
Born: 27/06/1985 in Wiesbaden, Hesse, West Germany
Height: 5’ 10”
Spouse: Vivian Sibold
Children: Alaia Rosberg (aged 1)
Salary: £10.5 million
 

nico rosberg formula one driver
 

F1 RACING STATS:

 
Team: Mercedes
Car No: 6
Wins: 22
Grand Prix starts: 200
Career Points: 1482.5
Podiums: 51
World Championship Wins: 0
Pole Positions: 29
Fastest Laps: 19
 
Nico is the son of Finnish Formula 1 driver and 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg, he had achieved more race starts by the age of 20 than his father made in his entire career. His mother is Sina Rosberg.
 

MULTI LINGUAL ENGINEER

 
He is a hardworking driver of superb consistency and speed. Certainly one of the more cerebral figures in Formula One – he turned down a place on the Aeronautical Engineering course at Imperial College, London to compete in the GP2. He also speaks French, Italian, German, English and Spanish fluently.
 
Rosberg’s helmet used to be yellow, a nod to his childhood hero (like Lewis Hamilton), it is now dark grey.
 
“My first memories were of watching Ayrton Senna here with his yellow helmet, and one day dreaming to win the Monaco GP.”
 
When the drivers were able to pick a car number to use for the rest of their career, Rosberg chose number 6: “My future wife’s and my dad’s lucky number. So it has got to work for me too.”
 
He currently holds the record of being the driver with the most victories (22) without winning a drivers’ championship.
 

Nico Rosberg in Action at Monaco

CAREER:

 
2002: Formula BMW aged 17, won 9 races out of 20 to win the championship. He went on to compete in the Formula 3 Euroseries.
 
2004: Test session for Williams.
 
2005: Rosberg joined the ART team and competed in the GP2 Series. He took 5 wins and beat Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen to become the first driver to win the title.
 
2006: F1 with Williams (the team his father won the World Championship with) and team mate Mark Webber. In the William’s Engineering Aptitude Test that year he achieved the highest score in the team’s history. He finished 7th at his debut in Bahrain where he became the youngest driver to set a fastest lap: 20 years, 258 days. The season started well, but ultimately the FW28 was not competitive enough to get a podium place – Rosberg finished 17th.
 
2007: This year, Rosberg emerged a more accomplished driver, having learnt from the mistakes made in his rookie season. He scored all of Williams’ points ahead of team mate Alex Wurz. Rosberg achieved a career best, coming 4th in Brazil Grand Prix.
 
2008: A season of firsts and struggles. Rosberg took his first podium coming 3rd in Australia and led his first Grand Prix in Singapore – finishing 2nd. The FW30 however, could not compete with the other cars and much of the rest of the season was a struggle. Rosberg finished 13th in the drivers’ championship.
 
2009: Failed to get a podium place, despite scoring all of Williams’ 34.5 points. He finished in the top 8 11 times and came 7th in the drivers’ championship.
 
2010: Seeking a more competitive car he moved to Mercedes; just as their dominance vanished – following a ban on double diffusers. He did however, achieve 3rd place in Malaysia, China and at Silverstone – outperforming team mate Michael Schumacher. But he couldn’t improve on a 7th place finish in the championship.
 

Driving in the Rain at Silverstone 2011

Lorenzo Bandini Trophy

 
2011: No podium. The MGP W02 had been very fast in winter testing. But for the first time in his career he failed to get points in the first 2 races of the season. Eventually finished 7th. He won the Lorenzo Bandini Trophy this year.
 
2012: Still the more successful Mercedes driver, his win in China was the first for Mercedes since Juan Manuel Fangio in 1955 (before the team withdrew from the sport). He finished 9th.
 
2013: Team mate is former karting rival Lewis Hamilton. Rosberg won twice at Monaco and Silverstone. He finished in 6th place, 2 places below Hamilton.
 
2014: The F1 W05 Hybrid was to heighten the rivalry between the Mercedes team mates – as it became apparently that this car would make one of them World Champion. Although Rosberg took an early advantage, it was Lewis Hamilton who eventually won the title – with Rosberg 2nd. Rosberg was awarded the FIA Pole Position Trophy.
 
2015: He became the 4th driver to win at Monaco 3 years in a row (Graham Hill, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost), It was also the first time in a season that he had won successive races. After a closely fought championship battle with Hamilton – a mistake during the final 10 laps at the US Grand Prix – cost him the race and the World Championship.
 
2016: With 8 wins so far this season, Rosberg is now 8 points ahead of Hamilton with 6 races to go. Has the balance shifted? He dominated the Singapore Grand Prix (his 200th race).
 
“..that is the best Nico Rosberg I have ever seen throughout a weekend.” (Toto Wolff)
 
Can he hold on to win his first World Championship? Is this his year?