Born in June 27, 1985 in Wiesbaden, Germany, Nico Rosberg is considered part of the elite modern Formula One drivers. He was born into a racing family with his father being the Finnish 1982 F1 World Champion and Detroit Grand Prix.
As a holder of dual citizenship, Rosberg has raced for both Finland and Germany. In Formula One, however he races under the German flag. Currently, the German is racing for Team Mercedes AMG and stands second behind Lewis Hamilton with 274 points.
Early Years of Racing
At the age of 10 years, Rosberg got the first taste of racing in go-karting. Surprisingly he started these early years racing with his current fierce F1 rival Lewis Hamilton. The two were later to connect at TeamMBM.com and had a one-two finish with Nico coming in second.
In 2002, the next milestone in Nico’s life as a racing driver came with a move to German Formula BMW where he won the title. The dominance in the races was nothing short of magical with nine wins out of 17 and beating the second driver by 81 points.
Nico went on to race for two years in the Formula 3 Euro series driving under his father’s tutelage. He later moved up the ladder by joining ART Grand Prix team and racing under the newly created GP2 race. After winning in GP2 in 2005, there was only one way for Nico to go and that was Formula One.
Formula One Racing
When Williams had a vacancy in 2006, they had to carry out an Aptitude Test and Rosberg went on to record the highest score in the team’s history. The team did not have a competitive car but the rookie driver even recorded the fastest lap to become the youngest driver in F1 history to achieve such a feat.
2006 was not the best season for Nico with four retirements and finished out of the points for most of the races. Come 2007, the rookie now understood the track better and throughout the season, he finished in the points an impressive 7 times.
However, even with the Toyota-powered FW29 engine, things were not all rosy for Williams in 2008. The next season was a bit more impressive for the younger driver despite the struggling car. The points were now flowing in at almost every race. However, obvious mistakes such as the one at the Singapore Grand Prix in 2009 continued affecting his rise.
The big move to Mercedes, which had just bought Brawn in 2010 was a game changer for Nico because he was able to team up with Michael Schumacher. The competition between the two showed the young driver had come of age because he was able to out-class the more successful German.
From 2011, Mercedes was able to improve its car and his performances started becoming more solid. With Hamilton’s arrival at Mercedes in 2013 things started getting even more thrilling for Rosberg because he now had better competition.
As usual, controversy has dogged the racing pair at Mercedes considering these two know each other well enough since their go-karting days. Rosberg had to apologize and pay a fine after the Hungarian clash that saw Hamilton failing to finish.
As a holder of dual citizenship, Rosberg has raced for both Finland and Germany. In Formula One, however he races under the German flag. Currently, the German is racing for Team Mercedes AMG and stands second behind Lewis Hamilton with 274 points.
Early Years of Racing
At the age of 10 years, Rosberg got the first taste of racing in go-karting. Surprisingly he started these early years racing with his current fierce F1 rival Lewis Hamilton. The two were later to connect at TeamMBM.com and had a one-two finish with Nico coming in second.
In 2002, the next milestone in Nico’s life as a racing driver came with a move to German Formula BMW where he won the title. The dominance in the races was nothing short of magical with nine wins out of 17 and beating the second driver by 81 points.
Nico went on to race for two years in the Formula 3 Euro series driving under his father’s tutelage. He later moved up the ladder by joining ART Grand Prix team and racing under the newly created GP2 race. After winning in GP2 in 2005, there was only one way for Nico to go and that was Formula One.
Formula One Racing
When Williams had a vacancy in 2006, they had to carry out an Aptitude Test and Rosberg went on to record the highest score in the team’s history. The team did not have a competitive car but the rookie driver even recorded the fastest lap to become the youngest driver in F1 history to achieve such a feat.
2006 was not the best season for Nico with four retirements and finished out of the points for most of the races. Come 2007, the rookie now understood the track better and throughout the season, he finished in the points an impressive 7 times.
However, even with the Toyota-powered FW29 engine, things were not all rosy for Williams in 2008. The next season was a bit more impressive for the younger driver despite the struggling car. The points were now flowing in at almost every race. However, obvious mistakes such as the one at the Singapore Grand Prix in 2009 continued affecting his rise.
The big move to Mercedes, which had just bought Brawn in 2010 was a game changer for Nico because he was able to team up with Michael Schumacher. The competition between the two showed the young driver had come of age because he was able to out-class the more successful German.
From 2011, Mercedes was able to improve its car and his performances started becoming more solid. With Hamilton’s arrival at Mercedes in 2013 things started getting even more thrilling for Rosberg because he now had better competition.
As usual, controversy has dogged the racing pair at Mercedes considering these two know each other well enough since their go-karting days. Rosberg had to apologize and pay a fine after the Hungarian clash that saw Hamilton failing to finish.
This year Rosberg beat Hamilton into second place at the Monaco GP. With 3 more wins this year in Australia, Austria and Germany clearly, Rosberg also has a chance to win this year considering his immense experience, but one can only wait and see.