MERCEDES GP PETRONAS Formula One Team
2010 FIA Formula One World Championship

Driver Profile: Nico Rosberg

Born in Wiesbaden, Germany, Nico Rosberg is the son of the 1992 Formula One World Champion Keke Rosberg. Though he began his racing career competing under the Finnish flag, he now competes under the German flag in Formula One.

Having spent much of his youth in the glitzy principality of Monaco, Nico Rosberg is also a multi-linguist speaking German, English, Italian, Spanish and French fluently and is currently learning Finnish.

Racing DNA
Courtesy of a strong racing heritage, motorsport is part of the young Rosberg’s DNA make up. Starting with go-karts, the talented youngster spent a few years dominating the kart scene before moving up to the German Formula BMW series in 2002. There he stamped his authority almost immediately winning the championship in his debut year.

His emphatic performance was what netted him a drive with his father’s team to compete in the Formula Three Euroseries.  Created as a merger of several national Formula Three championships, Rosberg spent two seasons in the championship before making his next career move.

In addition to raising eyebrows amongst the motorsports fraternity with his on-track talent, Rosberg was also academically brilliant. The young German was offered a place to pursue a degree in aerodynamics from the Imperial College of London, ranked amongst the most prestigious engineering colleges in the world.

Preferring to pursue his racing career, he declined the academic offer and opted to instead sign for the ART Grand Prix team to race in the then newly-formed GP2 series. Rosberg did not just etch his name onto the trophies he collected, he also became GP2 series’ first ever title winner.

Formula One
The same year with ART, Rosberg’s talent earned him a test with the Williams Formula One team in early 2004. An impressive test outing was enough to earmark him for a seat in the 2006 season. This also signalled the return of the Rosberg name to the sport.

However, his debut season was far from an easy one for Nico. Despite struggling through, Rosberg did not leave the year empty handed and was still able to score points. On top of that, he did not leave the year empty handed either. At the age 20 years and 258 days, Nico Rosberg took home the accolade of being the youngest driver ever to set the fastest lap of a race at the 2006 Grand Prix of Bahrain.

His sophomore year was by comparison better with points finishes in seven races including a career best fourth place finish at the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix. That momentum carried through to the start of the 2008 season, one that saw Rosberg secure his first podium finish with a spirited drive to third place at the Australian Grand Prix.

Though the remainder of the season left him struggling for pace, Rosberg’s best result would come under the Singaporean flood lights with second place, this despite incurring a penalty and a flurry of activities up and down the grid.

Though there were no podiums in 2009, the season was about consistency for Rosberg. In addition to making into almost every top-ten Q3 qualifying shootout, he was also consistently scoring points at almost every round.

His tenacity, will and determination to succeed did not go unnoticed towards the end of the 2009 season. Barely a month after announcing his departure from Williams, Rosberg signed for the Mercedes GP team (formerly the Brawn GP team). Teammate Michael Schumacher would join Rosberg a month later completing the silver arrow’s works team driver-line for the 2010 Formula One season.

Factbox: Nico Rosberg

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- Driver Profile: Michael Schumacher