Template:F1 driver

Nico Rosberg (born June 27, 1985 in Wiesbaden, Germany) is a Formula One race car driver who drives for the Williams team.

He won the 2005 GP2 Series for the ART team, having raced in Formula Three Euroseries previously for his father's team.

The son of Finnish 1982 Formula One world champion Keke Rosberg and his wife Sina, Nico races with a German racing license therefore under the German flag because of his mother's nationality.

Although born in Germany, the family spent much of his youth in Monaco, and now live in Austria. Nico speaks fluent German, English, Italian and French; but only a little Finnish, though he is learning the language.

Rosberg 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.

Offered a place on the aerodynamics course at Imperial College, London;^[1] he turned it down and in 2005 Rosberg joined the ART Grand Prix team in the newly created GP2 Series. He 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]}

In late 2005, Rosberg was officially confirmed as a Williams 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.^[2] In the first Formula One 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,^[3] but that he also had to fight his way through the field after losing his nosecone on the first lap. Following this he was linked with teams such as McLaren.^{[citation needed]} He qualified third at the next round Malaysia, an impressive performance from the rookie driver, considering that this was his third Grand Prix. But his Cosworth engine, on its second mandatory race, blew up after only seven laps. Rosberg did manage to get into the points for the second time in the 2006 season at the European Grand Prix, benefiting from the hydraulic failure of his teammate. 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. Rosberg scored a total of four points, three less than teammate Webber, over the course of what was a disappointing season for both himself and the Williams team.

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. Initially, the Toyota powered FW29 showed potential in the pre-season test sessions.^[4] However, Rosberg remained realistic, "in F1 you cannot normally just jump back to the front [of the grid] from one year to the next" he said in an interview with Formula1.com.^[5]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nico Rosberg.

• Official Nico Rosberg site
• Profile and statistics
• Racing career