Nico Rosberg
As a karting champion in France when only twelve and then youngest man to ever drive a Formula 1 car (aged just 17 in December 2002), Nico Rosberg’s racing has certainly been running in the fast lane. Of course, being the son of the 1982 World Champion Keke, who shrewdly guides his career, has certainly opened doors for the cool and assured Rosberg, who has thus far passed all the hurdles in the junior formula with ever increasing assuredness. Indeed as the 2008 season opened, Nico scored his first podium place in the Australian Grand Prix to further reinforce the opinion that here is a potential World Champion.
With his parents domiciled in Monaco, the young Nico, was a very promising tennis player but opted to take up karting as it dovetailed neatly with his education. The youngster spent five seasons in the discipline before moving up to cars in 2002 to contest the BMW Formula series in Germany. The ease with which nine race wins and the title came as some surprise to the rookie, but it opened the door for an immediate graduation into the Formula 3 Euroseries with his father’s Team Rosberg for 2003.
In strong field, Nico driving an Opel powered Dallara took a win at Le Mans and placed eighth overall in his debut year, finishing second to Christian Klien in the Rookie Cup. Much was expected for the following season and a pair of wins in the opening round at Hockenheim seemed to signal a championship bid, but thereafter Rosberg’s challenge stuttered, and despite a win at the Nürburgring, the German passport holder, ended up somewhat a disappointed fourth in the standings.
It was the 2005 season in which Rosberg really came of age. Away from the familiar surroundings of his father’s team, Nico eventually decided to join Formula 3 graduates ASM, renamed ART, for the newly introduced GP2 series. He immediately gelled with his new team, and after a hesitant start by all concerned, the young Rosberg finally delivered a win at Magny Cours in July. This was followed by another victory following race at Silverstone and suddenly Rosberg was looking a championship contender. He eventually edged out the talented Finn Heikki Kovalainen with the pair of Formula 1 aspirants well clear of the rest of the opposition.
Having already hugely impressed in his 2005 test role for Williams, it came as no surprise when young Nico was chosen to partner Mark Webber in the team for 2006. Such was Sir Frank’s belief in his young charge that he has signed up the youngster to a long-term contract confident that he had true World Championship potential. Certainly he breezed onto the Grand Prix stage with a superb drive in Bahrain, taking seventh place after a pitstop to replace a nose cone.
Qualifying third at Malaysia indicated he was a top-draw driver in the making, but thereafter (apart from seventh place at the Nürburgring) his season slid downhill as the Williams-Cosworth became increasingly uncompetitive. The team remained convinced of his abilities and retained him for 2007 when the latest challenger from Grove gained Toyota power. His second season started to see the rough edges rounded off, and a much more assured performer emerged, particularly in the second half of the year with a string of well-judged drives into the points. His best race came in the season’s finale at Interlagos where Rosberg took his Williams into battle with the BMW Saubers and beat them to take a ten-career-best fourth place.
With Williams fortunes seemingly on the up in 2008, Rosberg’s career should have the opportunity to prosper, but one feels he may need to find a berth in a true manufacturer team sooner rather than later. Otherwise the race-winning promise that Nico possesses may well never be truly tested.
