Nico Rosberg

- Published on Dec 18th, 2010 by The Badger

Life Before F1
The son of 1982 F1 world champion Keke Rosberg, Nico won Formula BMW ADAC in 2002 before progressing to the F3 Euro Series with his father's team. He remained there for 2004, taking three wins of his way to fourth in the standings, before moving up to the newly-created GP2 Series. Here he linked up with ART Grand Prix, and after a slow start emerged as Heikki Kovalainen's biggest title challanger. Rosberg eroded the Finn's lead as the campaign reached its conclusion, and a double win at the season closer in Bahrain gave him the title. F1 awaited.

F1 Career
Driving for Williams, Rosberg made an immediate impact in Grand Prix racing, finishing in the points on his debut (despite losing his nose at the start) and recording the fastest lap. However in the uncompetitive FW28 further results were hard to come by and one more points finish (seventh at the Nurburgring) was all he managed.

In 2007 he again scored in the opening race but this time managed to enjoy a strong finish to the campaign, scoring points in five of the final seven races. He was rewarded with ninth in the championship and was becoming one of F1's most highly rated young racers. Sticking with Williams for 2008 he assumed the role of lead driver - veteran Alex Wurz having been replaced with rookie Kazuki Nakajima - for what was an up and down campaign. He scored podiums in Australia and Singapore but only finished in the points on three further occasions and ended the year 13th in the standings.

2009 would be Nico's final year at Williams and it was a good one. There were no podiums but 12 points finishes from 17 races made him one of the season's most consistent performers. He took a career-best seventh in the standings and landed himself a drive with Mercedes, who under the Brawn moniker had won the drivers' and constructors titles in 2009.

2010 was probably the best year of Nico's F1 career, despite the results not living up to what he might have expected pre-season. There was no maiden win and no title push, but he did comprehensively out perform new team-mate Michael Schumacher, generally annihilating the seven-time champion both in qualifying and the races. He took three podiums to Michael's zero and, despite once again finishing seventh in the championship, would be right to feel he'd made great progress.

In 2011 he'll be hoping for a car closer to the '09 Brawn than the 2010 Mercedes, and if he does you have to believe wins will follow. The best driver on this year's grid yet to take his first race victory? We think that's a pretty fair assessment.

And another thing...

• Nico's once-golden-spun locks earned the nickname 'Barbie' among fellow F1 drivers.
• Born in Germany to a father who raced as a Finn (but was born in Sweden), Nico grew up and continues to live in Monaco. He races under the German flag but admits that the principality is his true home.