Nico Rosberg
Nico Rosberg (born June 27, 1985 in Wiesbaden, Germany) is a Formula One race car driver who drives for the Williams team. He is the son of Finnish 1982 Formula One world champion Keke Rosberg, but races under the German flag because of his mother's nationality. Indeed, he speaks little Finnish. Nico does, however, have the citizenship of both Germany and Finland. He won 2005 GP2 Series for the ART team, having raced in Formula Three Euroseries previously for his father's team.
Career
Pre-Formula One
1996-2004: Junior Formulas
Nico started out in karting in 1996, at the age of eleven, before moving up to German Formula BMW in 2002. He won the 2002 title confidently and became the youngest man ever to drive a Formula One car when, aged just 17, he tested for Williams BMW that year. His performances resulted in a move to drive for Keke's team in Formula Three Euroseries, the series being a combination of the several national Formula Three championships which had existed previous to its formation. Nico did well there, and stayed on for 2004.
2005: GP2 - ART Grand Prix
In 2005 Rosberg joined the ART Grand Prix team in the newly created GP2 Series. Nicolino had an excellent year, and went on to become the first driver to win the GP2 series. GP2 is supposed to be a level playing field, with all cars equal. Some claimed that Nico was aided by his team being able to find speed in the car that others could not. Patrick Head of WilliamsF1 discounts that claim however, having stated that he has heard from "someone in authority" that ART had no car advantage.[citation needed]
Formula One
2006-Present: Williams
- 2006
Rosberg is tipped to have a bright future. In November 2005, Rosberg was officially confirmed as a WilliamsF1 driver for the 2006 season, in the Engineering aptitude test, administered to all new Williams drivers, Rosberg scored the highest score in the team's history.[1] In the first Formula 1 race of his young career in Bahrain, he not only placed in the points, seventh behind teammate Mark Webber, he also recorded the fastest lap, becoming the youngest driver to set a Formula One fastest lap. This was a notable achievement considering that this was not only his first ever F1 race and that he was driving a car which was not considered competitive enough to get to the podium,[2] but that he also had to fight his way through the field after losing his nosecone on lap 1. Following this he was linked with teams such as McLaren Mercedes. He qualified third at the next round Malaysia, a very good performance from the rookie driver, but his Cosworth engine (on its second mandatory race) blew up spectacularly after only seven laps. Rosberg did manage to get into the points for the second time in the 2006 season, which was at the European Grand Prix, finishing ahead of his more expierienced teammate, who had retired after a hydralic failure. The rest of the 2006 season didn't go well for young Rosberg, retired in four of the next seven Grand Prix, and in the ones he did finish, he was outside the points in those Grand Prix, his closest attempt to get into the points was in Britain, where he was just one second behind eighth place, Jacques Villeneuve. Unfortunately for young Nico, he raced brilliantly at the 2006 Turkish Grand Prix reaching up to 5th but another failure from the Williams car - lost water pressure in engine - declined him the chance to pick up valuable points.
- 2007
Williams brought in new Toyota engines for 2007, along with a new teammate, Alexander Wurz. As Rosberg's old teammate, Mark Webber, had moved to partner David Coulthard at Red Bull Racing.
Career stats
GP2 Series Record
| Season | Team Name | No. | Races | Poles | Wins | Points | Final Placing |
| 2005 | ART Grand Prix | 09 | 23 | 5 | 5 | 120 | 1st |
Complete F1 Results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
| Yr | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Team | WDC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Williams | BAH 7 |
MAS Ret |
AUS Ret |
SMR 11 |
EUR 7 |
SPA 11 |
MON Ret |
GBR 9 |
CAN Ret |
USA 9 |
FRA 14 |
DEU Ret |
HUN Ret |
TUR Ret |
ITA Ret |
CHN 11 |
JPN |
BRA |
Williams | 17th* | 4* |
* Denotes present season standing.
Footnotes
- ^ "The Talented Mr. Rosberg" Autosport.com. Retrieved 26 September 2006
- ^ "William Admits Humiliating Season" Yahoo.com. Retrieved 26th September 2006
External links
