As a karting champion in France when only twelve and then youngest man to ever drive a Formula One car, aged just 17 in December 2002, Nico Rosberg's racing career has always 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.
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 Nurburgring, 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 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 is Sir Frank's belief in his young charge that he has signed up the youngster to a long-term contract confident that he has true world championship potential.
His debut season in F1 though was not easy, especially given that the Williams package was far from competitive. Indeed while he had a dream start, and finished seventh on his first outing in Bahrain to score two points and set the fastest lap, he would manage only one other points' finish during the year.
Furthermore while he was hyped as the next big thing in the early part of the year, as the season progressed, his inexperience began to tell and ultimately his next best results - after seventh in Bahrain and seventh at the Nurburgring - were two ninth places finishes in Britain and America. Nico eventually ended 2006 having scored 4 points in total and was classified 17th in the drivers' championship.
Rosberg remained with Williams for 2007, where he was joined by veteran Alex Wurz, promoted from the role of test driver. Eager to bounce back from a less-than-spectacular end to his first season in F1, the German opened his account with seventh in round one and benefited from improved reliability and Toyota power in the Williams camp to get miles under his belt. However, more often than not in the first half of the season, his results did not match up to either his or the FW29's potential, with only a solitary sixth to add to his tally before the mid-point at Silverstone.
Thereafter, things looked up, with successive scores sandwiched between DNFs in the European and Japanese GPs, and a season-high of fourth at the Brazilian finale to secure ninth in the standings.
Rosberg's combative displays made his a target for rival teams, notably McLaren and Toyota, but Williams moved swiftly to quell the rumours by confirming his services were required for 2008, and then announcing a contract extension to cover 2009 as well. Whether this was a shrewd move to bump up the release fee required of any hard-to-dissuade suitor remains to be seen, but the combination believes that it can go places in the next couple of years.
