Biography

Being the son of a World Champion will have certainly opened doors for Nico, but that doesn't detract from his undoubted talent.

As is so often the case, the youngster started off in Karts, winning the Regional Côte d'Azur mini-kart Championship in 1996, aged 11, and followed this up with the French mini-kart (1997) and North American ICA Junior Karting (1998) titles.

In the years that followed, Nico finished runner-up in the Italian ICA Junior Karting Championship and fourth in the ICA Junior European Karting Championship (1999). He was runner-up in the 2000 Formula A European Karting Championship and in 2001 contested the Super A World Karting Championship, before switching to single-seaters for 2002.

At the very first attempt, the youngster won the Formula BMW ADAC Championship with 9 wins, a victory that secured the bond with BMW and also earned him a test drive with the BMW WilliamsF1 Team.

To prove that his Formula BMW victory was no 'flash in the pan', the youngster followed up with a strong performance in the 2003 F3 Euro-series, finishing runner-up in the 'rookie' class, and then finishing a strong fourth in the 2004 championship with 4 wins.

Following his F1 test in December 2002, when he declared that he found the car "easy to drive", Nico enjoyed further outings with the WilliamsF1 team in December 2003 and January 2004.

In 2005, having already secured a seat with Nicolas Todt's ART Grand Prix team in the inaugural GP2 Championship, Nico was named as second test driver, alongside Antonio Pizzonia, at WilliamsF1.

"We are delighted to have another talented Rosberg in the team," said team boss Sir Frank Williams at the time.

On only his second day with the Grove outfit, during testing at Silverstone, Nico posted the fastest time of the day, out-pacing Pizzonia and posting the second fastest lap of the year at the Northamptonshire track.

Back in GP2, Rosberg took the inaugural title in a series, which, despite some initial hiccups, turned out to be genuinely thrilling. The title fight went all the way to the wire, with Nico holding off Heikki Kovalainen.

With several sons of famous racers slowly rising through the ranks, not least Nelson Piquet Jr, son of another former Williams World Champion, it is said that Nico is the best of the lot.

Following the break up of the BMW WilliamsF1 partnership, it was thought that Nico might follow fellow-German, Nick Heidfeld, to the new BMW team, but instead the youngster opted to remain with the team that gave his father his title.

In 2006, Nico made his F1 race debut, partnering Mark Webber. We said at the time that it would be "a season of learning not just for the German, but also for his team", how right we were.

Patrick Head best summed up the situation in 2006, when, at the launch of his team's 2007 car, he admitted that both he and Frank Williams were "ashamed" at their team's performance.

The team took all the blame, admitting that it had focussed on the wrong things, opting for an overly complex gearbox and suffering from all round poor reliability. You name it, it went wrong, and usually when one of the drivers looked set to do well.

Depending on your point of view, seventh place and fastest lap in Bahrain - the season opener - and third on the grid in Malaysia, was the worst possible start to Nico's F1 career. For when one considers the appalling season that was to follow, it suggests that the German also suffered a loss of form.

Yes there were a few mishaps, and clouting his teammate from behind in the final race of the year just about summed up Nico's and Williams' season, but for the most part, and considering the equipment at his disposal, Nico did a sterling job. Certainly, Williams didn't hesitate when it came to renewing his contract.

"Nico will be one of the top drivers of the future," said Patrick Head at the launch of the FW29, the Grove outfit's 2007 contender. The fact that ten months later, following Fernando Alonso's departure from McLaren, the Woking team tried to secure Nico as the two-time champion's replacement suggests that Ron Dennis fully agreed with the Williams co-director.

Nico got his season off to the best possible start with a strong seventh in Melbourne. He looked odds on to follow this up with another points finish in Malaysia until succumbing to a water leak.

Though a vast improvement on the FW28, certainly in terms of reliability, the FW29 lacked pace. Furthermore, although reliability was nowhere near as bad as in 2006, the team still suffered its fair share of problems, with a further failure causing Nico to lose out on a certain points finish at Indianapolis and an engine failure in Japan putting the youngster back ten grid spots having originally qualified sixth.

In qualifying, Nico ruled, out-qualifying Alex Wurz fifteen times, and it was these performances that the youngster was able to convert to points finishes as the season progressed. However, it was the Austrian who scored the Grove outfit's only podium finish of the year, in Canada.

From Hungary, Nico enjoyed a run of points finishes, enabling him to finish ninth in the Drivers' Championship. While ninth might not sound that impressive, one has to consider that the 'big four', Ferrari, McLaren, BMW and Renault were always going to take the lion's share of the points. Therefore, ninth in the drivers' standings and eighth in the Autocourse Top Ten seems about right.

Despite interest from McLaren and Toyota, Nico inked a new deal with Williams for 2008 and 2009, clearly feeling the British team has the potential to give him a car capable of battling for podiums if not wins. He was wrong, certainly in 2008.

Despite a strong start to the season, finishing third in Melbourne, it was a mostly disappointing year for the Grove outfit and Nico.

The FW30, though reliable, lacked the pace of its rivals, while it was only competitive on certain circuits. In addition, the team lost focus on 2008 instead opting to look ahead to 2009, when a raft of new rules are due to be introduced.

Having picked up a point in both Bahrain and Turkey, it wasn't until Canada that Nico looked like adding to his tally. Unfortunately however, the German ran into the back of Lewis Hamilton, who had already taken out Kimi Raikkonen, subsequently taking a ten-place grid penalty to France.

The highlight of Nico's season, indeed, Williams season, has to have been Singapore where he finished second in spite of a 10-second drive-through penalty. An excellent drive from the German, combined with a decent strategy and a little bit of luck, saw Nico double his tally in one fell swoop.

Despite being continually linked with other teams, Nico remained with Williams in 2009, even though the team was overshadowed by doubts about its finances, the Grove outfit having taken a major hit as a result of the global financial crisis, with sponsors Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Baugur both particularly badly affected. The situation certainly wasn't helped with the last minute loss of sponsors Petrobras and Lenovo.

Points-wise, 2009 was Nico's best season, the German scoring points in 11 rounds and eventually finishing seventh in the Drivers' Championship. However, four years into his F1 career there was widespread feeling that Nico should be doing more than picking up the 'crumbs' left by his rivals.

While the FW31 wasn't a bad car, it certainly wasn't any great shakes and though the Grove team worked hard throughout the season in an attempt to keep in touch with the front runners the team was to lose ground following late improvements from McLaren, Ferrari, Toyota and BMW which subsequently demoted it to seventh.

That said, superb reliability saw the team complete 92% of the racing laps over the course of the season, and while teammate Nakajima's performances failed to win a single point, instead showing how tight the field was, many feel that Nico could have achieved more.

The German's season got off to a great start in Australia where, having qualified fifth, he finished fourth the following day, posting fastest lap of the race into the bargain. There was another points finish in Malaysia where the race was brought to an early close due to the atrocious conditions.

Between Spain and Belgium Nico enjoyed a run of 8 races in which he scored 27 points, following disappointing outings in China and Bahrain.

A lacklustre performance at Monza was followed by another excellent drive in Singapore - scene of Nico's best result in 2008 - before the German, who seemed destined for second, perhaps his maiden win, ruined it all by crossing the white line at the pit-lane exit and picking up a needless drive through.

Having scored 4 points in Japan, Nico subsequently suffered his first retirement of the year when his Williams suffered gearbox problems in Brazil.

It is said that having learned of Nico's intention to leave at the end of the season, Frank Williams lost interest in the youngster and subsequently pre-empted the situation by telling him that he wouldn't be needed in 2010. It is unlikely we shall ever know the truth.

However, what we do know is that on November 2, the day after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Williams announced Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg as its 2010 drivers. It was exactly three more weeks before Nico signed for Mercedes.

While 2009 was Nico's best season in terms of results, some claim he could and should have achieved more.

In 2010 he heads from the family environment of Grove to Mercedes which is already working hard to revive memories of the legendary Silver Arrows of the 1930s. To add to the mix, Nico will not enjoy the number one status he had at Williams, indeed, he finds himself partnered by seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher who has come out of retirement and claims to be biting at the bit to return to racing.

2010 will either be the making or breaking of Nico. It remains to be seen which it will be.

Statistics - at the end of 2009 Season

Drivers' Titles: 0
Seasons in F1: 4
Grand Prix: 69
Wins: 0
Points: 75.5
Poles: 0
Fastest Laps: 2

Best result in 2009: 4th (2 times)
Best qualifying 2009: 3rd (Singapore)
Worst qualifying 2009: 18th (Italy)
2009: Out-qualified Kazuki Nakajima 14 times
2009: Out-qualified by Kazuki Nakajima 3 times

2009: Completed 941 out of 988 laps (95.2%)
2009: Finished 16 times from 17 starts (94%)