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 the interest from McLaren and Toyota, Nico will remain with Williams for 2008 and 2009, clearly feeling that the British team has the potential to give him a car capable of battling for podiums if not wins. However, the Grove outfit must ensure that it keeps its end of the deal and give the German youngster the necessary equipment.

Statistics - Prior to 2008 Season

Drivers' Titles: 0
Seasons in F1: 2
Grand Prix: 35
Wins: 0
Points: 24
Poles: 0
Fastest Laps: 1

Best result in 2007: 4th (Brazil)
Best qualifying 2007: 4th (Hungary)
Worst qualifying 2007: 17th (Britain)
Average grid position 2007: 9.41
2007: Out-qualified Alex Wurz 15 times
2007: Out-qualified Kazuki Nakajima 1 time
2007: Out-qualified by Alex Wurz 1 time
2007: Out-qualified by Kazuki Nakajima 0 times

2007: Completed 965 out of 1065 laps (90.61%)
2007: Finished 14 times from 17 starts (82%)