Nico Rosberg

Nico Rosberg

Rosberg at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix
Born	27 June 1985 (1985-06-27) (age 26) Wiesbaden, West Germany
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	German
Team	Mercedes
Car #	8
Races	107
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	5
Career points	300.5
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	2
First race	2006 Bahrain Grand Prix
Last race	2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
2010 position	7th (142 pts)

Nico Erik Rosberg (born 27 June 1985 in Wiesbaden, West Germany) is a racing driver for the Mercedes GP Formula One team. He races under the German flag in Formula One, although he competed for Finland earlier in his career. He holds dual nationality of these two countries.^[1]

Rosberg won the 2005 GP2 Series for the ART team, having raced in Formula Three Euroseries previously for his father's team.

For the 2010 Formula One season, Rosberg joined the re-branded Mercedes team, formed by Mercedes' takeover of 2009 constructors' champions Brawn GP.

Early and personal life

The son of Finnish 1982 Formula One World Champion Keke Rosberg and his German wife Sina, Nico spent much of his youth in Monaco with his family, and still lives in the principality. Rosberg speaks fluent German, English, Italian, Spanish and French; but only a little Finnish, though he is learning the language. In lower formulae drivers race under the nationality of the country that issued their racing licence. Rosberg competed under the Finnish and German flags at different times during his early career.^[1] In Formula One, as for all FIA world championships, a driver's nationality is defined by his passport.^[2] Rosberg races under the German flag in Formula One.

Career

1996–2004: Junior Formulae

Rosberg won the 2002 German Formula BMW championship, an important milestone in his racing career.

Rosberg started out in karting in 1996, at the age of eleven, before moving up to German Formula BMW in 2002, where he won the title. His performances resulted in a move to drive for his father's team in Formula Three Euroseries, a combination of the several national Formula Three championships that had existed prior to its formation. Rosberg did well there, and stayed on for 2004. In early 2004, he got one of his first tastes of Formula One by doing a test session with Williams.^[3]

2005: GP2 – ART Grand Prix

Offered a place on the Aeronautical Engineering course at Imperial College London;^[4] Rosberg declined and in 2005 joined the ART Grand Prix team in the newly created GP2 Series. He went on to become the first driver to win the GP2 title.

Formula One

2006–2009: Williams

See also: Williams F1

2006

Rosberg at the 2006 Canadian Grand Prix

In late 2005, Rosberg was officially confirmed as a Williams driver for the 2006 season. In the Engineering Aptitude Test, administered to all new Williams drivers, Rosberg achieved the highest score in the team's history.^[5] In the first Formula One race of his young career in Bahrain, Rosberg was driving a car which was not considered competitive enough to get to the podium.^[6] and also had to fight his way through the field after losing his nose cone on the first lap. Nonetheless, he finished in the points, seventh behind teammate Mark Webber, and recorded the fastest lap, becoming the youngest driver to do so in F1 history. Following this he was linked with a move to teams such as McLaren.^{[citation needed]}

He qualified third at the next round Malaysia, but his Cosworth engine, on its second mandatory race, blew up after only seven laps. Rosberg did get into the points for the second time in the 2006 season at the European Grand Prix, benefiting from the hydraulic failure of his teammate.

The rest of the 2006 season went less well for Rosberg; he retired in four of the next seven Grand Prix, and in the ones he did finish he was outside the points. His closest attempt to get into the points was in Britain, where he was just one second behind eighth placed Jacques Villeneuve. Rosberg scored a total of four points, three less than teammate Webber, over the course of what was a disappointing season for both himself and for the Williams team.

2007

Rosberg at the 2007 British Grand Prix

Williams brought in new Toyota engines for 2007, along with a new team-mate, Alexander Wurz. Rosberg's old team-mate, Mark Webber, had moved to partner David Coulthard at Red Bull Racing. Initially, the Toyota powered FW29 showed potential in the pre-season test sessions.^[7] However, Rosberg remained realistic: "in F1 you cannot normally just jump back to the front [of the grid] from one year to the next".^[8]

Rosberg scored his best result of 2007 with fourth place at the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix, overtaking both BMW Saubers in the process.

In 2007, Rosberg finished in the points seven times, including a career best fourth at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix. He also placed seventh in the Australian, Hungarian and Turkish Grands Prix and came home sixth at the Italian and Belgian Grands Prix. At the Canadian Grand Prix, Rosberg qualified seventh and moved up two places from the start:

"Early in the race I thought I was set for a good result because I was running fifth and the car felt really good, but then the Safety Car came out on lap 21... I had to stop for fuel on lap 23, which meant I missed the re-fuelling window by 13 seconds and that effectively ended my race. New rules punish people who pit immediately after the Safety Car comes out, so I was given a 10s stop-go penalty and all I could manage after that was 10th place."^[9]

He suffered only three retirements during 2007; hydraulic failure 14 laps from home in Malaysia and an oil leak at the US Grand Prix five laps from the finish (although classified 16th), where he was on course for sixth place. He had started the race 14th having "glazed" his brakes during qualifying, therefore damaging his confidence. An electronics glitch also put him out of the Japanese Grand Prix.

During the first half of 2007 season, Rosberg saw his teammate Alexander Wurz score more points, but later in the season Rosberg passed Wurz in world championship points, eventually more than quadrupling his 2006 points haul with 20 points.

2008

Rosberg secured the first podium finish of his career with a strong drive to third place at the 2008 Australian Grand Prix. However, the remainder of the season was more of a struggle. He was given a 10 place grid penalty for the French Grand Prix, as a result of crashing into the back of Lewis Hamilton in the pit lane at the Canadian Grand Prix, despite only his race being affected by the incident as Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen were already eliminated.

In September he finished second to Fernando Alonso in the floodlit Singapore Grand Prix after leading a Grand Prix for the first time in his career. This result was despite incurring a 10-second stop-go penalty for pitting while the pitlane was closed immediately after the deployment of the safety car. However, as what appeared to be a simple administrative formality took ten laps to issue, and the slow car of Giancarlo Fisichella was between Rosberg and the next competitive car during those laps, he did not lose much time and rejoined fifth, whereas Robert Kubica dropped from fourth to last on the same penalty for the same offence.

2009

Rosberg driving for Williams at the 2009 Turkish Grand Prix

Rosberg had a solid season in 2009, scoring points at almost every race and also consistently qualifying in the top ten. He opened the season with a solid 6th place in Melbourne, before fading somewhat in the next three races. From China onwards however, he has only improved, finishing 8th, then 6th, then 5th twice. At his home race in Germany, he put in arguably the best drive of his career, when he overcame fuel problems to climb from 15th on the grid and finish 4th ahead of championship leader Jenson Button. He then followed this up with another 4th place in the Hungarian Grand Prix and 5th in the European Grand Prix. Despite scoring a point in the Belgian Grand Prix, Rosberg's effort to score points at every race in the European season was ended by a lack of pace at Monza. Despite this, Rosberg returned to competitiveness at the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix by qualifying 3rd and putting in the fastest lap of the weekend in Q2 (1:46.197). Despite overtaking Sebastian Vettel off the line, and being on course for 2nd place or even a maiden victory, Rosberg undid all his good work by crossing the white line out of his first pit stop and incurring a drive-through penalty just in time for the safety car. With the field bunched, he dropped to the back, effectively ruining his race. Rosberg apologised to the team afterward, calling his mistake 'silly' and 'stupid'. Rosberg managed to claim 5th place at the Japanese Grand Prix after qualifying 11th and starting in P7 on a good strategy after a number of grid penalties. Soon after the race Jenson Button reported Rosberg to race stewards for speeding under yellow flag conditions, but Rosberg was cleared after stewards discovered that his dashboard display was only showing that he had low fuel. This bagged Rosberg 4 points, putting him in 7th place in the Drivers Championship with 34.5 points and Williams 6th in the constructors. Rosberg scored every point for the Williams team during the 2009 season.

2010–: Mercedes GP

2010

Rosberg driving for Mercedes at the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix

On 29 October 2009 Rosberg announced he was leaving the Williams team at the end of the season. He commented that Williams "have really supported my career over the years and I'd like to say a big thank you to them. However, I'm not sure they can win races at the moment and I would like to".^[10] On November 16, 2009, Brawn GP was bought by Mercedes and re-branded as Mercedes GP for the 2010 Formula One season. On November 23, 2009, Rosberg was announced as the team's first driver.^[11] On December 23, 2009, Michael Schumacher was announced as Rosberg's team-mate, and was given Rosberg's car number (3) because of superstitious reasons.^[12] Despite much hype concerning Schumacher's comeback, Rosberg has currently managed to successfully out-qualify and out-race his team mate at most races. In Malaysia, Rosberg achieved his first front row grid start, having qualified second in a qualifying session disrupted by rain; again out-qualifying Schumacher. He eventually finished third in the race; Mercedes' first podium as a works team since their comeback. His third place at the Chinese Grand Prix provided Rosberg with his second podium in succession, and he momentarily moved into second place in the drivers' standings.

He finished seventh at Monaco, fifth in Turkey and sixth in Canada, but only tenth in the European Grand Prix. However, in the British Grand Prix, Rosberg managed a podium finish in third place by holding off Alonso and then Button. But at the German Grand Prix, Mercedes were once again off the pace, and Rosberg could only finish eighth, ahead of teammate Schumacher. Hungary looked more promising, but he lost a wheel while exiting his pit stop and was forced to retire from a point-scoring position. His race at Spa was more successful, and a race-long duel with Schumacher left Rosberg narrowly ahead of his team mate in sixth. The Italian Grand Prix yielded another consistent finish in fifth, achieved mainly by passing both Red Bulls at the start, and took another fifth place finish in Singapore.

However, he was hit by bad luck in Japan, when under pressure from Schumacher, a wheel detached itself from his car and put Rosberg into the wall. At the inaugural Korean Grand Prix he was even more unfortunate, when while running a strong fourth, he retired from the race after being collected by Mark Webber. Webber had spun into the wall and momentum took him back onto the racing line and left Rosberg with nowhere to go and the two collided. The race at Interlagos was more positive, with Rosberg finishing sixth, despite three pit stops, two of which were taken under safety car conditions which minimised a loss of track position. The following week in Abu Dhabi, Rosberg again pitted under the safety car and this allowed him to finish fourth, a result that secured him seventh in the Drivers' Championship. Rosberg finished 16 of the season's 19 races, of which 15 were points-scoring finishes.

Rosberg at the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix.

2011

The new Mercedes MGP W02 proved to be very fast in winter testing. In Australia, Rosberg showed his speed until retiring due to a collision with Barrichello. In Malaysia, Rosberg started 9th and finished 12th, meaning that for the first time in his career he failed to score a single point in the opening two races of a season. Rosberg took his first points finish of the season in China, having qualified fourth and finishing fifth, as well as leading fourteen laps during the race.^[13] Rosberg also praised the newly-introduced Drag Reduction System, stating that it could turn out to be one of the best rules in Formula One history.^[14]

Records and achievements

• Youngest driver to set the fastest lap: 20 years, 258 days in 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix
• Scored first podium for Mercedes GP Petronas at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix
• Most points without a win in 2011 German Grand Prix

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2001	Formula BMW Junior Cup Iberia		3	0	0	0	0	38	18th
2002	Formula BMW ADAC	VIVA Racing	20	5	9	1	13	264	1st
2003	Formula Three Euroseries	Team Rosberg	20	1	1	2	5	45	8th
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
	Macau Grand Prix	Carlin Motorsport	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
	Korea Super Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	11th
2004	Formula Three Euroseries	Team Rosberg	19	3	2	2	5	70	4th
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	6th
	Bahrain Superprix		1	0	0	0	1	N/A	2nd
2005	GP2 Series	ART Grand Prix	23	5	4	5	12	120	1st
2006	Formula One	AT&T Williams	18	0	0	1	0	4	17th
2007	Formula One	AT&T Williams	17	0	0	0	0	20	9th
2008	Formula One	AT&T Williams	18	0	0	0	2	17	13th
2009	Formula One	AT&T Williams	17	0	0	1	0	34.5	7th
2010	Formula One	Mercedes GP Petronas	19	0	0	0	3	142	7th
2011	Formula One	Mercedes GP Petronas	18	0	0	0	0	83*	7th*

^* Season in progress.

Complete Formula Three Euroseries results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2003	Team Rosberg	Dallara F303/005	Spiess-Opel	HOC1 1 Ret	HOC1 2 3	ADR 1 Ret	ADR 2 2	PAU 1 15	PAU 2 17	NOR 1 8	NOR 2 Ret	LMS 1 1	LMS 2 11	NÜR 1 Ret	NÜR 2 3	A1R 1 8	A1R 2 3	ZAN 1 18	ZAN 2 8	HOC2 1 7	HOC2 2 14	MAG 1 6	MAG 2 Ret	8th	45
2004	Team Rosberg	Dallara F303/006	Spiess-Opel	HOC1 1 1	HOC1 2 1	EST 1 Ret	EST 2 4	ADR 1 5	ADR 1 Ret	PAU 1 Ret	PAU 2 Ret	NOR 1 4	NOR 1 17	MAG 1 6	MAG 2 2	NÜR 1 1	NÜR 2 3	ZAN 1 Ret	ZAN 2 DNS	BRN 1 4	BRN 2 11	HOC2 1 8	HOC2 2 8	4th	70

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	DC	Points
2005	ART Grand Prix	SMR FEA 8	SMR SPR Ret	ESP FEA 9	ESP SPR 4	MON FEA 3	EUR FEA 3	EUR SPR 4	FRA FEA 7	FRA SPR 1	GBR FEA 1	GBR SPR 4	GER FEA 1	GER SPR 4	HUN FEA 5	HUN SPR 2	TUR FEA 17	TUR SPR 3	ITA FEA 2	ITA SPR 2	BEL FEA 3	BEL SPR 5	BHR FEA 1	BHR SPR 1	1st	120

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
2006	WilliamsF1 Team	Williams FW28	Cosworth CA2006 2.4 V8	BHR 7	MAL Ret	AUS Ret	SMR 11	EUR 7	ESP 11	MON Ret	GBR 9	CAN Ret	USA 9	FRA 14	GER Ret	HUN Ret	TUR Ret	ITA Ret	CHN 11	JPN 10	BRA Ret		17th	4
2007	AT&T Williams	Williams FW29	Toyota RVX-07 2.4 V8	AUS 7	MAL Ret	BHR 10	ESP 6	MON 12	CAN 10	USA 16	FRA 9	GBR 12	EUR Ret	HUN 7	TUR 7	ITA 6	BEL 6	JPN Ret	CHN 16	BRA 4			9th	20
2008	AT&T Williams	Williams FW30	Toyota RVX-08 2.4 V8	AUS 3	MAL 14	BHR 8	ESP Ret	TUR 8	MON Ret	CAN 10	FRA 16	GBR 9	GER 10	HUN 14	EUR 8	BEL 12	ITA 14	SIN 2	JPN 11	CHN 15	BRA 12		13th	17
2009	AT&T Williams	Williams FW31	Toyota RVX-09 2.4 V8	AUS 6	MAL 8‡	CHN 15	BHR 9	ESP 8	MON 6	TUR 5	GBR 5	GER 4	HUN 4	EUR 5	BEL 8	ITA 16	SIN 11	JPN 5	BRA Ret	ABU 9			7th	34.5
2010	Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes MGP W01	Mercedes FO 108X 2.4 V8	BHR 5	AUS 5	MAL 3	CHN 3	ESP 13	MON 7	TUR 5	CAN 6	EUR 10	GBR 3	GER 8	HUN Ret	BEL 6	ITA 5	SIN 5	JPN 17	KOR Ret	BRA 6	ABU 4	7th	142
2011	Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes MGP W02	Mercedes FO 108Y 2.4 V8	AUS Ret	MAL 12	CHN 5	TUR 5	ESP 7	MON 11	CAN 11	EUR 7	GBR 6	GER 7	HUN 9	BEL 6	ITA Ret	SIN 7	JPN 10	KOR 8	IND 6	ABU 6	BRA	7th*	83*

^* Season in progress.
^‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance completed.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Shedding a father's shadow: the new GP2 champion's route to the top 5th chapter
2. ^ FIA International Sporting Code paragraph 112
3. ^ http://xserve2.com/ns/ns12402.html – GrandPrix.com – "The fourth driver at Williams"
4. ^ McRae, Donald (2006-03-07). "New kid on the grid follows his father's formula". London: sport.guardian.co.uk. http://sport.guardian.co.uk/formulaone/story/0,,1725017,00.html?gusrc=rss. Retrieved 2007-06-01. 
5. ^ "The Talented Mr. Rosberg" Autosport.com. Retrieved 26 September 2006
6. ^ "Williams Admits Humiliating Season" Yahoo.com. Retrieved 26 September 2006
7. ^ "First impressions – Williams is quick". GrandPrix.com. February 7, 2007. http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns18023.html. Retrieved 2007-02-07. 
8. ^ "Exclusive interview – Williams' Nico Rosberg". formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 22 February 2007. http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews/2007/2/5675.html. Retrieved 20 October 2010. 
9. ^ "Nico's Notes from Montreal". attWilliams.com. February 7, 2007. http://www.williamsf1.co.uk/. Retrieved 2007-06-26. 
10. ^ "Rosberg announces Williams exit". BBC Sport (BBC). 2009-10-29. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8331563.stm. Retrieved 2009-11-03. 
11. ^ http://www.brawngp.com/readstory.asp?bgp=j%C1%AA%C0rZ%7D%5F
12. ^ "Schumacher to be number 3 at Mercedes". SportNetwork.net (Durham Associates Group). 20 January 2010. http://www.f1network.net/main/s169/st153289.htm. Retrieved 25 June 2011. 
13. ^ "Mercedes 'optimistic again' about pace". Yahoo! Eurosport (TF1 Group). 17 April 2011. http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/17042011/66/mercedes-optimistic-pace.html. Retrieved 21 April 2011. 
14. ^ Noble, Jonathan (19 April 2011). "DRS hailed as 'best idea ever'". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90876. Retrieved 21 April 2011. 

External links

• Nico Rosberg official website
• Profile – from Mercedes GP official website
• Profile and statistics
• Racing career

Sporting positions
Preceded by None	German Formula BMW Champion 2002	Succeeded by Maximilian Götz
Preceded by Vitantonio Liuzzi (F3000)	GP2 Series Drivers' Champion 2005	Succeeded by Lewis Hamilton
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Lewis Hamilton	Lorenzo Bandini Trophy 2011	Succeeded by Incumbent
Records
Preceded by Fernando Alonso 21 years, 321 days (2003 Canadian GP)	Youngest driver to set Fastest Lap in Formula One 20 years, 258 days (2006 Bahrain Grand Prix)	Succeeded by Incumbent

Persondata
Name	Rosberg, Nico
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	27 June 1985
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death