Author: David Bodapati

Vienna (Austria), 2 Dec 2016: 

• Nico Rosberg to stop racing in Formula One with immediate effect;
• The first reigning World Champion to end his career since Alain Prost in 1993;
• Nico Rosberg: “My proudest achievement to be World Champion with the Silver Arrows”;
• Toto Wolff: “A brave decision which proves Nico’s strength of character.”

2016 FIA Formula One World Champion elect Nico Rosberg today announced that he will stop racing in Formula One with immediate effect.

In an emotional address prior to the 2016 FIA Prize Giving in Vienna, Austria, Nico revealed the reasons behind his decision, which was reached following his crowning achievement in Abu Dhabi last Sunday.

Nico has competed in a total of 206 Grands Prix and won 23 of them, placing him joint 12th on the all-time list alongside Nelson Piquet. He has scored 30 pole positions (8th all time) and 20 fastest laps.

Last Sunday in Abu Dhabi, he became the first German driver to win a Formula One World Championship at the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrow.

Nico Rosberg:

“Since 25 years in racing, it has been my dream, my ‘one thing’ to become Formula One World Champion. Through the hard work, the pain, the sacrifices, this has been my target. And now I’ve made it. 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.

“This season, I tell you, it was so damn tough. I pushed like crazy in every area after the disappointments of the last two years; they fuelled my motivation to levels I had never experienced before. And of course that had an impact on the ones I love, too – it was a whole family effort of sacrifice, putting everything behind our target. I cannot find enough words to thank my wife Vivian; she has been incredible. She understood that this year was the big one, our opportunity to do it, and created the space for me to get full recovery between every race, looking after our daughter each night, taking over when things got tough and putting our championship first.

“When I won the race in Suzuka, from the moment when the destiny of the title was in my own hands, the big pressure started and I began to think about ending my racing career if I became World Champion. On Sunday morning in Abu Dhabi, I knew that it could be my last race and that feeling cleared my head before the start. I wanted to enjoy every part of the experience, knowing it might be the last time… and then the lights went out and I had the most intense 55 laps of my life. I took my decision on Monday evening. After reflecting for a day, the first people I told were Vivian and Georg (Nolte, from Nico’s management team), followed by Toto.

“The only thing that makes this decision in any way difficult for me is because I am putting my racing family into a tough situation. But Toto understood. He knew straight away that I was completely convinced and that reassured me. My proudest achievement in racing will always be to have won the world championship with this incredible team of people, the Silver Arrows.

“Now, I’m just here to enjoy the moment. There is time to savour the next weeks, to reflect on the season and to enjoy every experience that comes my way. After that, I will turn the next corner in my life and see what it has in store for me…”

Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Toto Wolff:

“This is a brave decision by Nico and testament to the strength of his character. He has chosen to leave at the pinnacle of his career, as World Champion, having achieved his childhood dream. The clarity of his judgement meant I accepted his decision straight away when he told me.

“It’s impossible to capture the essence of a person in a few short words. But Nico has a special combination of natural talent and fighting spirit that have brought him to where he is today. Throughout his career, people have thought he was on a golden path to success just because his father was a World Champion; in fact, I think in some ways that made the challenge greater – and meant he had to fight even harder with the weight of expectation on his shoulders.

“With Mercedes, Nico has been a relentless competitor, bouncing back from tough times in an inspirational way, and he earned the respect of the sport with his tenacity, his fighting spirit and his grace under pressure. Since 2010, he has poured competitive energy into our team and we have grown stronger because of it. We simply say ‘thank you’ for the incredible contribution he has made to our success, alongside two of the all-time great drivers, Michael and Lewis.

“For the team, this is an unexpected situation but also an exciting one. We are going into a new era of technical regulations and there is a free Mercedes cockpit for the seasons ahead. We will take the necessary time to evaluate our options and then find the right path for our future.”

From Amol S Gokhale

Yas Marina (Abu Dhabi), 27 Nov 2016: Nico Rosberg was crowned 2016 Formula One World Champion as he finished second behind team-mate and title rival Lewis Hamilton at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel was third for Ferrari.

Hamilton took the win he needed in the race but despite a hugely tense finish in which the leading Mercedes drivers were hunted down Sebastian Vettel, Rosberg clung on to second to win the title by just five points.

Both Hamilton and Rosberg got away well at the start and the pair slotted into first and second respectively. Behind them Daniel Ricciardo bogged down at the start and was quickly passed for third place by Kimi Raikkonen.

There was trouble too for the other Red Bull driver, Max Verstappen. The Dutchman collided with Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg in Turn One and the Red Bull was pitched into a spin. Verstappen dropped to P22 but quickly began to fight back, rising to P15 by the end of lap four.

As the first round of pit stop began, triggered by leader Hamilton who took on soft tyres, Verstappen flew up the order and by the time Rosberg made his stop for soft tyres the Dutchman was in P2 behind Hamilton.

Lapping around half a second off the pace of the race leading Mercedes, Verstappen began to hold up Rosberg, resulting in the German starting lap 17 2.8s adrift of his team-mate. Behind the top three Raikkonen now held fourth ahead of Ricciardo, Vettel, the Force Indias of Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez, Williams’ Felipe Massa and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.

Earlier, on lap 14, Jenson Button, in the second McLaren, had the 305^th and, according to him, final race of his F1 career ended by a steering fault.

On lap 20 Mercedes informed Rosberg that he needed to pass Verstappen to keep his race under control and the German responded immediately ROS diving down the inside of Verstappen’s car in Turn 8. The Dutchman resisted the attack but ultimately Rosberg, carrying a bit more speed, got the job done as they head for Turn 11.

Verstappen promptly made his first stop, for soft tyres. That resulted in Mercedes then informing Rosberg that they believed Verstappen would attempt to run to the end of the race on the set and that to guarantee P2 Rosberg would need to up his pace over the following three laps. Again the German obliged, immediately setting the fastest tour of the race to that point.

By lap 28, as leader Hamilton made his final stop, for more soft tyres, Rosberg has 25s in hand over Verstappen. That was deemed enough to call the German in for his final stop and after taking on more soft tyres on lap 30 he emerged behind Hamilton, but crucially was 3.9s ahead of Verstappen.

With only one pit stop made, Vettel led the race, and the German decided to go long on his second set of tyres. He nursed the soft compound set until lap 37 and then took on supersofts in the hope of catching strugglers in the final part of the race. He emerged in P6 and set off after team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

In the meantime Hamilton’s pace began to flag. The Mercedes pit wall questioned his lap times and the defending champion briefly ran quicker but a few laps later he again began to slow, with the result that Rosberg was slowly being pushed back towards Verstappen. On lap 38 the gap between the Red Bull driver and the Mercedes man was 3.4s.

It wasn’t Verstappen who was the threat though. On new supersofts Vettel’s began to surge forward. He quickly claimed the scalp of Raikkonen and lapping up to two seconds quicker than those ahead he swiftly caught up to the front four.

On lap 46 he was inside DRS range of fourth placed Ricciardo and Mercedes were on the radio telling Hamilton to increase his pace due to the “imminent threat”.

The messaging became more insistent as Vettel’s loomed, with Hamilton being told: “Ok Lewis, this is an instruction: we need a 45.1 for the win.” The terse response was “suggest you let us race”, but Rosberg was now on the other channel asking why the pace was so slow and requesting that he be allowed to pass Hamilton.

The situation became even more critical when Vettel blasted past Verstappen and with four laps remained edged inside half a second of Rosberg.

Hamilton was told by Mercedes engineering chief Paddy Lowe that he needed to up the pace. Hamilton responded that he was leading and quite comfortable. The final laps became ever more tense.

Vettel attacked on the penultimate lap, trying to overtake Rosberg into Turn 11. The German resisted though and that was it. Vettel stood off on the final lap and a little under two minutes later Hamilton took his 10^thwin of the year but the bigger prize – the FIA Formula World Championship title – went to the man in second place, Nico Rosberg.

Vettel finished the season with his seventh podium of the season, while Verstappen finished fourth ahead of Ricciardo. Sixth place went to Raikkonen, while Hulkenberg signed off on his time with Force India with seventh place ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez. Ninth place went the retiring Felipe Massa and the final point went to McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.

eom/FIA press release