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DRIVERS: NICO ROSBERG

Name: Nico Rosberg
Nationality: Germany/Finland
Date of birth: June 27, 1985 - Wiesbaden, Germany

Nico Rosberg grew up with motor racing, the son of 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg. He grew up visiting DTM races, in which his father raced in the 1990s. At the age of 10 Rosberg tried out a kart for the first time at a track in the south of France and in 1996 he began competing in the regional mini-kart series. He won the French title in 1997 and soon became a successful kart racer at international level. In 2002 he switched to cars, competing in the Formula BMW series, winning nine races and the title. At the end of his first season in cars he tested for the Williams-BMW team, becoming the youngest ever F1 driver. He then moved up to Formula 3 with his father's Team Rosberg and won a race at Le Mans. He ended the year as the second best rookie of the year (behind Christian Klien). At the end of the year Williams gave him another test but he stayed in European F3 in 2004, winning three races and finishing fourth overall. Moving up to GP2 in 2005, he joined the ART Grand Prix operation and quickly found his feet and was soon winning races. He was hired to be the second test driver at Williams and at the end of the year was confirmed as Mark Webber's team mate at Williams in 2006.

The year started well but as the races progressed Rosberg had too many accidents but he was retained in 2007 alongside Alexander Wurz.

The team had new Toyota engines and the FW29 seemed to have good pace and Rosberg finished in the points seven times, including fourth in Brazil. He outshone Wurz and became Williams team leader in 2008 when Kazuki Nakajima joined the team. Nico scored his first podium finish with third in Australia but had a disappointing season after that, although he lucked in to second place in Singapore when a Safety Car intervention gave him a huge advantage and he was even able to overcome a 10-second stop-go penalty.

On several occasions he was beaten by Nakajima, but Williams retained him for 2009, hoping that he would have a better year.

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