Biography

It was in 2005 that Nico, now aged sixteen, switched to single-seaters, opting for the German Formula BMW series. It was a remarkable debut, the youngster in many ways emulating the achievements of the previous year's champion, Sebastian Vettel. From twenty races, Nico took eight poles, scoring nine wins. However, his season was slightly overshadowed when he was stripped of victory in the Formula BMW World Final, following claims that he had brake-tested his rivals during a safety car period.

The following year he entered the highly-regarded German F3 Championship with Josef Kaufmann Racing, augmenting this with A1 Grand Prix. While he scored three race wins in the German F3 series - finishing fifth overall - he scored nine wins for Team Germany in A1 GP, winning the second (2006/2007) series for his country almost single-handed.

With Willi Weber, Michael Schumacher's long-time manager, being seat-holder for the German A1 team, and also managing Nico, it came as no surprise when the seven-time World Champion attended the prize-giving in London. Schumacher was generous in his praise of Nico, who many believe has the potential to emulate the former Benetton and Ferrari star.

In 2007, Nico moved to the F3 Euroseries with ASM, the team with which Lewis Hamilton and Paul di Resta had previously won the title.

There were some amazing performances, not least at the Norisring, when he started from eighteenth on the grid. Then there were also fine drives at Zandvoort and the Nurburgring.

However, there was silliness once again, this time at Magny Cours, when he was penalised, first for a misdemeanour in qualifying and then crashing into a rival (Filip Salaquarda) in the race.

Finishing third in the F3 Euroseries with four wins, Nico also won the Ultimate Masters of Formula 3 race at Zolder, beating team mate (and F3 Euroseries championship leader) Romain Grosjean, who subsequently found employment as test driver with Renault.

Late in 2007, Nico tested with the Williams F1 team at Jerez, and out-paced Kazuki Nakajima. With Renault said to be watching the youngster, the Grove outfit made its move and signed the German as test and reserve driver for 2008.

The new testing rules meant that Nico got limited time in the Williams in 2008, however, he enjoyed more outings than most other test drivers. In addition to the pre-season tests in Jerez, Valencia and Barcelona, he also drove the car at Paul Ricard during the season and in the post-season tests in Jerez and Barcelona.

In addition to his F1 activities, Nico was kept busy with the Formula 3 Euroseries, taking the title with 7 wins and 6 poles.

In January, having been confirmed as Williams test driver for a second successive season, Nico also made a dramatic debut in the GP2 Asia series with ART Grand Prix, taking pole position at his first attempt and finishing fourth in both races.

While only taking part in 2 of the 6 rounds that comprised the series, such was Nico's form the German finished sixth in the final overall standings.

In the main GP2 Series, Nico scored points in every single round except the season opener in Spain.

His first win came in Germany, his home race, where the youngster won both the Feature and Sprint events, the first driver to do the double on home soil since Giorgio Pantano at Monza in 2006.

Third place at Monza was enough for Nico to secure the 2009 GP2 title with one round still remaining. However, rather than sit back and take it easy, in Portugal Nico scored his fifth win of the season thereby taking his points tally to 100, 25 points clear of runner-up Vitaly Petrov.

Due to the F1 testing restrictions Nico had few outings during 2009 his running mainly limited to a few straight-line runs and two days at Jerez at the end of the season.

On November4 however, it came as no great surprise when Nico was officially confirmed as a Williams driver in the 2010 world championship, the German to be partnered by Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello.

Nico made his debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix, recovering from an early spin to finish in fourteenth. In Australia, he was involved in a first-lap incident with Kamui Kobayashi, after the Japanese driver's front wing failed and sent him into the barrier and rebounding into the path of the German.

In Malaysia, having made it to Q3 for the first time, qualifying fifth and out-qualifying Barrichello for the first time, Nico looked set to finish eleventh until Fernando Alonso blew his engine three laps from the end, thus promoting the German to tenth and into the points.

He was tenth again at Silverstone, while in Hungary he finished sixth, a career best. He also picked up points finishes in Italy, Singapore, and Korea.

In the Japanese Grand Prix, Renault driver Vitaly Petrov misjudged a move at the start and cut across Nico's nose thereby taking them both out of the race.

It was at this time that reports began to emerge suggesting that Nico might lose his seat to GP2 champion Pastor Maldonado in 2011, the Venezuelan able to bring much needed backing to the Grove outfit.

At Interlagos, the penultimate race of the season, Nico took his first F1 pole position, beating Sebastian Vettel by 1.049s. It was Williams first pole position since the 2005 European Grand Prix.

To prove it was no fluke, the youngster completed a final lap having already secured pole, increasing the gap to the rest of the field. Unfortunately, after losing the lead on the opening lap, he eventually finished the race in eighth place.

Days after the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Williams confirmed that Nico would not be with the team in 2011, his seat, as predicted, going to Maldonado.

While he was unable to secure a race seat for 2011, he was handed the role of test and reserve driver at Force India.

Courtesy of the deal struck with the team, Nico was one of the few test and reserve drivers to actually have any serious mileage, replacing Paul di Resta in all the Friday morning sessions apart from Monaco and Hungary, where he replaced Adrian Sutil.

In mid-December, Force India ended weeks of speculation when it confirmed that Nico would partner Paul di Resta in 2012, the Silverstone outfit having dropped Adrian Sutil in favour of his countryman.

Statistics - at the end of 2010 Season

Drivers' Titles: 0
Seasons in F1: 1
Grand Prix: 19
Wins: 0
Points: 22
Poles: 1
Fastest Laps: 0

Best result in 2010: 6th (Hungary)
Best qualifying 2010: Pole (Brazil)
Worst qualifying 2010: 17th (Turkey)
2010: Out-qualified Rubens Barrichello 6 times
2010: Out-qualified by Rubens Barrichello 13 times

2010: Completed 923 out of 1129 laps (81.8%)
2010: Finished 15 times from 19 starts (79%)