Nico Rosberg

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9/10/08 : iWitness in Japan - Thursday

Both of our drivers stayed in the Far East after Singapore. Kazuki Nakajima enjoyed some home comforts at home in Nagoya, Japan, while Nico did a bit of surfing and furniture shopping in Bali. “Yes, that’s right,” says Nico, “I went furniture shopping. There’s loads of great stuff in Bali; my girlfriend wanted to take loads of it home!” What Nico didn’t splash out on furniture in Bali, he spent on the Williams F1 marketing team last night. He took our six marketers to a restaurant close to the team’s Highland Park hotel as a ‘thank you’ for their hard work this year. What do you want, Nico?!

10/10/08 : iWitness in Japan - Friday

Nico Rosberg visited nearby Gotemba’s shopping mall this evening in search of a digital camera. “I go to all these great places,” he says, “and have no means of recording where I’ve been. I wish I’d had a camera when I was in Bali last week.” Well he found what he was looking for, so look out for his images on the AT&T Williams website soon.

12/10/08 : iWitness in Japan - Saturday

With dusk falling as early as 6pm at Fuji Speedway, Nico Rosberg has been wiling away the long evenings at his computer. Not working, you understand: playing poker. He refuses to say whether he’s up or down, which can only point to one thing…

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14/10/08 : Nico's Japanese GP Column

The Japanese Grand Prix was a tough race weekend for AT&T Williams. The FW30 wasn’t as competitive at Fuji Speedway as it has been at some tracks this year, so Kazuki [Nakajima] and I had a tough fight on our hands to bring home good results.

My progress in the race was hampered by a technical problem at the start. I was very slow away from my 15th position grid slot and cars literally streamed past me on the run to the first corner. I was back in 18th place by the end of the opening lap, which gave me a lot of work to do.

I was on a one-stop strategy, which meant the car was very heavy during these early laps and that made it very hard to pass the lighter two-stoppers ahead of me. I lost quite a bit of time behind slower cars, particularly Rubens Barrichello, but by the time of my only pitstop of the race on lap 42 I had climbed up to eighth place.

My pace on the option tyre towards the end of the race was good and I was able to lap at a similar pace to Nick Heidfeld, who was ahead of me on the road in 10th position. I set the 10th fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap, which demonstrated that the car was more competitive in race trim than it had been during qualifying.

We now move to Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix next weekend. Unfortunately, I think the Shanghai International Circuit is going to be another track at which we’ll struggle; but I’ll give my all, as ever. The weather forecast for the weekend is mixed, which could make for an unpredictable race – and that’s what we’re going to need to stand a chance of finishing in the points.

I fly to Shanghai on Monday morning, so I’ll get a couple of days to check out the city before I’m needed at the racetrack. I’ve just bought a new digital camera, so I might take a few pictures around the city while I’m there. The Nanjing Road, for example, is meant to be the busiest shopping street in the world and it could be a great place to get some images of people going about their daily chores.

I’ll catch up with you again next week, when I’ll let you know how I get on!

Nico

This is the link : Nico's column

Chinese GP Preview (17-19/10/08)

Formula One makes the short journey from Japan to China this week for Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix and the concluding Asian round on the 2008 calendar. The penultimate race of the season takes Formula One to another of Hermann Tilke’s signature tracks; located in the north-western suburbs of the city, Shanghai’s dramatic 5.4km circuit and associated infrastructure proudly showcases the country’s oriental charm to create one of the best facilities the sport visits all season. With the Championship still very much in contention, all eyes will be on China again this weekend.

Nico Rosberg : "I like the track in Shanghai, and I like the city, so I’m looking forward to this weekend. I don’t have too high an expectation for the race because, like Japan, the circuit doesn’t suit our car very well and we’re a little bit off the pace. We’ll be doing the best we can though, and there’s always the possibility of rain in China so you never know what could happen. I had some good fun overtaking in Fuji - Shanghai also has some good places to overtake, so I hope I can have another race like last Sunday. I arrive in Shanghai early, straight after Fuji, so I’ll be chilling out and doing a bit of training before another weekend of racing starts."

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iWitness in Shanghai 2008 : Thursday

Nico Rosberg is fluent in English, German, French and Italian, so you’d forgive him for thinking that he was a bit of a cunning linguist. Well, there is one language that he can’t get his head round: Mandarin. When asked to identify his name in a list of Chinese words, he picked the name of former AT&T Williams driver Alex Wurz. Doh!

Chinese GP Practice (17/10/08) :

After three hours of intensive homework at the Shanghai circuit today, the AT&T Williams team completed much of the groundwork in preparation for tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix qualifying session. While the routine tyre compares and other necessary preparatory work was undertaken, set-up changes and improving track conditions allowed both drivers to find over a second a lap from the start of the day to the close of play. Fine tuning will be the order of the third and final practice tomorrow, before the afternoon’s all-important qualifying session.

Nico Rosberg:"I am broadly okay with how things went today as I remember how difficult we found it here with our car working the tyres last year, but this time round the tyres are performing well. That said, we are still not quick enough, but we have progressed the car well since this morning, working on the weight distribution which positively affected the balance, which in turn helped the tyres. We’ll just have to wait and see how qualifying will shape up tomorrow."

iWitness in Shanghai: Friday

Nico Rosberg discovered today that Shanghai hasn’t in fact all been built in the last 10 years. He was taken to the Yuyuan Gardens, which date back to the 14th century, by German TV station RTL for an interview. “It was fun,” says Nico. “We even drank lots of green tea in one of the traditional tea houses there.”

Chinese GP Qualifying (18/10/08) :

The AT&T Williams team endured a difficult qualifying session, with neither Nico Rosberg nor Kazuki Nakajima progressing into Q3. With one sector on the circuit proving particularly problematic, it was impossible to maintain a consistently strong pace across a lap and as a consequence, Nico will start tomorrow’s race from 15th and Kazuki from 17th.

Nico Rosberg:"It’s very dispiriting to be starting the race in 15th place like last weekend in Japan. I gave everything in the sessions and extracted the maximum out of the car, but it just didn’t come together today. As a consequence, tomorrow’s race will be difficult starting from this far back. Apparently it may rain, and if that happens, it may help us to achieve a better result. We will all be doing our best to have a stronger performance tomorrow."

Chinese GP Race (19/10/08) :

The AT&T Williams team’s race prospects in the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai today were tempered by a poor qualifying outcome on Saturday which gave the team limited opportunity to compete for a good finish. Given the qualifying result, the team deployed a one-stop strategy for Kazuki Nakajima and a two-stop strategy for Nico Rosberg to retain the widest degree of flexibility for differing race scenarios. Ultimately, the absence of any major weather or safety car events and the timing of pitstops meant that the one-stop option for Kazuki proved to be the more fruitful. He advanced from 17th on the grid to 12th at the finish, a position he strongly defended on the run to the flag. Nico Rosberg was less able to progress with his two stop programme and finished P15.

Nico Rosberg:"My race was not good today, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. We ran a different strategy to Kazuki just to see if we could generate some advantage, but it didn’t pay off and it wasn’t a lot of fun driving at the back. It didn’t really represent our capability as our pace was okay and we were the tenth fastest car. I made a few passes but it was quite difficult to overtake as our top gear was too short. From here we can look forward to Brazil which should be a bit better for us, and then after this season working with the team on a positive winter in order to move us forward for next year."

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iWitness in Shanghai: Sunday

All weekend Nico’s driver has been promising great things for Sunday, and he delivered in spectacular style this morning. With minimal traffic on the road, he whisked Nico from the Sheraton to the Shanghai International Circuit in 32 minutes. A record.

Nico’s next task was to get from the racetrack to Pudong airport equally quickly on Sunday evening because he had to catch an early flight to New York. “I’m in a hurry to get out of here,” he says, “because I’m going to join my girlfriend in the Big Apple. I’ve never spent any time there before, so I’m looking forward to it – a lot!”

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Nico's Chinese GP Column

There’s not much to report after Shanghai, except that I wish I’d finished higher up! To come home in 15th place was disappointing and I’m already focusing on Brazil, which should be a little better for us.

My problems in the Chinese Grand Prix actually began before the race had even started, when Mark Webber dropped 10 places on the grid following an engine change. That promoted me to 14th, on the dirty side of the grid, and that made it difficult to get good traction away from the line.

I ran as high as 11th during my first stint, despite getting stuck behind Rubens Barrichello early in the race. I then made my first pitstop on lap 15 and my second on lap 39, after which I sat on the gearboxes of Heikki Kovalainen and Mark Webber until the end of the race. I was quicker than them through some sections of the track, but my top gear was too short and that meant I wasn’t able to attack them at the end of the long back straight.

My team-mate Kazuki Nakajima proved that a one-stop strategy was the way to go if you were starting outside the top 10, but we decided to spread our bets as a team in case there was a Safety Car period. We thought there might be a Safety Car when Adrian Sutil parked his Force India on the outside of the final corner, but it didn’t happen.

I’m now heading to New York to spend time with my girlfriend, Vivian, who’s working over there. The city’s on pretty much the same time zone as Sao Paulo, so I’ll be able to acclimatise for the next race while I’m there. I think we’ll have a good time because I’ve never spent any time in the Big Apple and I’ve heard great things about it.

While I’m there, I’ll do a lot of training because Interlagos is one of only three tracks on this year’s calendar that runs in an anti-clockwise direction. That makes it very tough on the neck and the track is also very bumpy, so your body gets shaken around a lot.

I’m looking forward to Interlagos because it’s an interesting track to drive and was the scene of one of my best races last year, when I finished fourth. The layout seems to suit Williams and, unlike many teams, we don’t seem to have any problems with tyre wear. Unfortunately, Bridgestone are going one step harder with their compounds this year, but we’ll see what we can do. I want to end the season on a positive note.

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video : Preview GP Brazil 08

Brazilian GP Preview : The 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship will reach its conclusion on Sunday as this season’s battle for the title is fought out at Brazil’s Interlagos circuit. Located on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, the Carlos Pace Autodromo has provided the venue for over a quarter of a century of Grand Prix racing since its introduction onto the calendar in 1973 and in recent years has staged some of the most dramatic Championship deciders on its 4.3km, anti-clockwise track. As the majority of Championship positions within the Drivers’ and Constructors’ tables are still undecided following the Chinese Grand Prix, so this year’s race will be no different. Tailing its closest rivals by just three points, the AT&T Williams team travel to Brazil with a clear objective of improving their final standing in the Constructors’ Championship.

Nico Rosberg : "Interlagos is a really fun track to drive as it has a bit of everything – gradient changes, a complete mix of corners and it runs in an anti-clockwise direction which presents a different challenge for the drivers. We had a strong race there last year and I finished fourth. As we haven’t had a great showing in the past two races, it would be nice to do well again here and end the season on a positive note. It’s going to be difficult with this year’s harder tyres, and we’ll have to cover a lot of ground with the car on Friday to get to the optimum set-up. After the long trip to Asia, I’ve spent the past week in New York training and spending time with my girlfriend who’s over there working at the moment. As the Big Apple is in a similar time zone to Sao Paulo, and I'm now over any jet-lag after the trip to Asia, I’m in a good position going to Brazil later this week. It will be busy for me as I have several sponsor commitments to cover before the race weekend routines start, but I'm ready for the final round!"

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iwitness brazil 2008 - thursday : Nico Rosberg appeared at breakfast this morning wearing a black trilby. Strange behaviour, you might think. “I’m having a bad hair day,” he said while pouring himself some Cornflakes. “I didn’t really have a choice!”

Brazilian GP Practice (2008) : The last Friday practice sessions of the season saw the AT&T Williams team run through their usual set-up procedures and tyre comparisons in preparation for Saturday’s qualifying session and the concluding round of the Championship, the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday. On an unusually cold day for this time of year at Interlagos, both drivers finished practice inside a close top ten, with Nico Rosberg ending his afternoon’s session in P8 and Kazuki Nakajima in P10.

Nico Rosberg: "I think we’ve shown ourselves to be a little bit more competitive here than we have at other tracks. That doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll be further up the grid tomorrow, but we might be a little bit closer. We carried out some productive set-up work today which has given us some interesting results. In terms of tyres, it’s pretty clear which way we’ll go, which is positive as well. The direction we’ll go with other variables like rear wing level will depend on the weather forecast and the likelihood of rain."

Brazilian GP Qualifying : AT&T Williams’ participation in this afternoon’s qualifying for the final race of the season, the Brazilian Grand Prix, was short lived with both Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima forced out of the session in the first knockout zone. The promising pace shown by both drivers in the weekend’s earlier practice sessions was not realised in qualifying; as such, Kazuki lines up in P16 and Nico will take to the ninth row of the grid in 18th place.

Nico Rosberg : "On the option tyre, my car was really tough to drive. I just generally lacked grip on the rear. This was possibly because I couldn’t warm the tyres up properly due to traffic on my out lap. It could also have been caused by a compromise we made to the set-up before the session in order to help with our race performance."

Brazilian GP Race : In front of packed grandstands, today’s Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos delivered a thrilling Championship decider and produced a new British World Champion in Lewis Hamilton. Predicted rain fell earlier than anticipated when a heavy shower drenched parts of the circuit before the formation lap and delayed the start by ten minutes. Both AT&T Williams drivers were subsequently caught up in a first corner incident prompted by the wet conditions, although neither suffered terminal damage. From 18th on the grid, Nico Rosberg climbed six places over the course of the race, finishing the last Grand Prix of 2008 in 12th. Driving an accident damaged FW30, Kazuki Nakajima crossed the line in 17th place. Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton on his maiden Drivers’ crown and to Ferrari for another victory in the Constructors’ Championship.

Nico Rosberg : "I am generally quite pleased with my race. Starting 18th on the grid and finishing 12th in such difficult conditions is ok. I think I drove a good race, I had a great start and everything worked well. A long season is over and I am now really looking forward to the winter. Thanks to the whole team for their efforts in a difficult year and congratulations to Lewis for winning the Championship, he really deserved it."

Nico's Brazilian GP Column : While I was pretty happy with my race performance at Interlagos, the weekend was very disappointing overall. We expected the FW30 to be more competitive in Brazil than it has been at recent races, but that wasn’t the case; I qualified 18th, which was equal to my worst qualifying position of the year.

The car lacked grip on the option tyre during Q1. That might have had something to do with me being unable to warm up my final set of tyres properly because I was stuck in traffic, but I think most people had traffic because Interlagos is the shortest lap of the year in terms of time and it gets pretty crowded when 20 cars are on it.

I was really aggressive in the race and that helped me to make up a lot of positions. I found really good traction away from the grid, despite the slippery conditions, and made up five places on the opening lap. I made contact with David Coulthard at Turn 1, but the impact didn’t affect the handling of my car and I was able to continue unabated.

On lap seven I gained more positions when I became only the second driver to pit for dry tyres. I then planned to make just one more stop, but when rain started to fall eight laps from the end of the race I made an unscheduled stop for wet tyres. Still, 12th place from 18th on the grid wasn’t too bad when you consider our level of competitiveness.

The battle at the front between Ferrari and McLaren looked pretty intense and I’m really happy that Lewis Hamilton won the World Championship. We were team-mates in karting, so we’ve known each other for a long time and I think he deserved the title this year.

That brings to an end a pretty intense season. AT&T Williams has had highs and lows this year, but we’ve learnt from every situation and I hope that will make us stronger in the future. My first Formula One podium in Melbourne was an amazing way to start the year and I was also pleased with my drive to second place in Singapore. I guess the lowest points of the year were my crashes at Monaco and Montreal because the FW30 was competitive in both of those races and we should have scored lots of points.

I’m now going to take a bit of holiday before returning for winter testing. There’s a lot of work to be done between now and Melbourne, both at the factory and on the test track, and I’m very excited about next year’s car. The new rules are going to present quite a challenge for all the teams and drivers, but I think they will make next year a very exciting season.

I’m looking forward to racing on slick tyres again. I grew up using them in karting, Formula BMW and Formula 3 and they are much more forgiving than grooved tyres because there’s a larger contact patch. Roll on the first test!

Thanks to all our fans for your continued support. Let’s hope 2009 turns out to be a better year.

All the best,

Nico

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For me Nico is just the nicest racer in F1. I like him from the german racers the most.

Here my absolute favourite photos of him:

Nico as a kid

Nico & Lewis Hamilton

Nico with his father

Nico alone

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Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), 2014

 

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Bahrain GP 2014

 

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Mercedes Benz SLK-Class 2011 Campaign

 

Director: Antony Hoffman

Photographer: Mitchell Jenkins

Fashion Editor/Stylist: Martine Menthon

Model: Fan Bingbing and Nico Rosberg

 

Source:mercedes-benz.com/en/