Nico
Rosberg

Nico Rosberg was born in Wiesbaden on 27 June 1985 and grew up mainly in Monaco. His father, Keke Rosberg, was the 1982 Formula One World Champion. Nico started kart racing at the age of six and won regional and national titles in France at an early age. In 2002 he took the Formula BMW ADAC title with nine victories. That December he tested a Williams, and at the time he became the youngest person ever to drive a Formula One car. In 2005 he won the inaugural GP2 Series season with ART Grand Prix.

That same year he became a Williams test driver, and he moved into a race seat for 2006. In the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix he finished seventh and set the fastest lap, which made him the youngest fastest-lap setter at the time. He ended 2006 17th in the championship and 2007 ninth. In 2008 he took his first podium with third place in Australia and added second place in Singapore. In 2009 he led the first 15 laps in Malaysia and finished the year seventh in the standings.

Rosberg joined Mercedes for 2010, with Michael Schumacher as his team-mate. He finished third in Malaysia, China and Britain, and was seventh in the championship in both 2010 and 2011. At the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix he took his first pole position and his first win. From 2013 his team-mate was Lewis Hamilton. That year Rosberg won in Monaco and in Britain. He was runner-up to Hamilton in both 2014 and 2015, winning the last three races of 2015.

In 2016 Rosberg won the first four races and clinched the title by finishing second in the Abu Dhabi finale, five points ahead of Hamilton. He and his father thus became the second father-and-son pair to win the Drivers' Championship, after Graham and Damon Hill. Five days later he announced his retirement. In 206 starts he took 23 wins, 30 pole positions and 57 podiums. After retiring he worked in driver management and, from 2018, as a television pundit. His team Rosberg X Racing won the first Extreme E constructors' title in 2021.

Source: Wikipedia, “Nico Rosberg”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.