Little did
the team members who cheered him in the Mercedes factory on Thursday Dec 01,2016
know that the new champion was about to call time on his Formula One
career at the age of 31.
Nico Rosberg with father and former F1 Champion Keke Rosberg, his wife Vivian and mother Sina
.
About Nico Rosberg
1) Born: Wiesbaden, Germany on June 27, 1985 (31 years old)
2) Rosberg is the son of Finland's 1982 world champion Keke Rosberg, who won his title with Williams, and German mother Sina. He was born four days after Keke won the 1985 USA-East Grand Prix in Detroit.
3)Rosberg grew up in Monaco and still lives there with his wife Vivian and daughter Alaia. He speaks five languages but not Finnish.
4) He and Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton, a triple world champion, were team mates in go-karts in 2000. Rosberg tested for Williams in 2004, aged 17 and before he had his driving licence. He declined a place to study aeronautical engineering at London University's Imperial College.
5) Rosberg made his Formula One race debut with Williams in Bahrain in 2006, scoring points with seventh place and setting the fastest lap, after becoming the first GP2 champion the previous season. He ended 2006 in 17th place overall.
6) In 2007 he was ninth overall. The following year he stood on the podium for the first time, a third place in Australia, but ended up 13th at the end of the season. In 2009, his last year with Williams, he finished seventh overall.
7) Rosberg joined Mercedes - who had bought champions Brawn GP - for the 2010 season and partnered seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher. The younger German scored 142 points to Schumacher's 72.
8) Rosberg also outscored Schumacher in the following two seasons, taking his first pole and grand prix victory in China in 2012. In 2013, Lewis Hamilton replaced Schumacher and finished the season fourth overall to Rosberg's sixth.
9) In 2013, Rosberg won the Monaco Grand Prix exactly 20 years after his father had triumphed there. In 2014, he had five wins - the same number that Keke had in his entire career -- from 11 pole positions and finished overall runner-up to Lewis Hamilton.
10) Rosberg was again championship runner-up to Hamilton in 2015 but ended the year strongly with three straight wins. He picked up where he left off in 2016 by taking the first four races, the first driver since Schumacher in 2004 to do that, while Hamilton suffered various problems.
11) He is only the second son of a Formula One champion to win the title, after Damon Hill. Hill took his 1996 title 34 years after father Graham first became champion in 1962. Rosberg's came 34 years after Keke's success.
12) Stunned the sport on Dec. 2 by announcing his retirement.
13) "I have climbed my mountain, I am on the peak, so this feels right. My strongest emotion right now is deep gratitude to everybody who supported me to make that dream happen," he said in a statement.
Champions who quit abruptly while at the top - A List
Alain Prost(France)
Frenchman Alain Prost was the last driver to quit Formula One at the very top having stepped down from the cockpit for the last time as world champion in 1993. It was his fourth world crown. Like Rosberg with stablemate Lewis Hamilton, Prost had his own contretemps with Ayrton Senna while the Brazilian's team-mate at McLaren. Prost also had run-ins with Nigel Mansell at Ferrari.
Mark Spitz(USA)
"Mark the Shark" Spitz was still a youthful 22 when he left the Olympic pool -- but the job was done to perfection after the US swimmer bagged seven gold medals at the Munich games. That was it for top competition, although he did try, aged 41, to qualify for the 1992 Games in Barcelona. He failed to make it.
Lennox Lewis
London-born Lewis, who won a super-heavyweight Olympic gold for Canada, beat the feared Mike Tyson in 2002 then memorably defeated Vitali Klitschko a year later on a technical knockout before stepping out of the ring in 2004.
Rocky Marciano
The Rock from Brockton went undefeated for a career record 49-0 with 43 knockouts as he made six successful heavyweight title defences. He needed a split decision to see off Roland La Starza and went to the canvas against Archie Moore in his final defence before calling it quits
Bjorn Borg(Sweden)
The ice-cool Swede had the tennis world at his feet after five straight Wimbledon crowns, plus half a dozen French Open successes. But after he lost the 1981 Wimbledon final to John McEnroe he barely played professionally again, saying when he lost to McEnroe -- who beat him in the US Open final also -- he realised the emotional fire had gone out.
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