Tag: Nico Rosberg

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

Suzuka, 9 Oct 2016: Nico Rosberg took a comfortable Japanese Grand Prix victory to extend his championship lead over arch-rival Lewis Hamilton, after the defending champion’s race was compromised by a poor start that left him eighth at the end of the first lap.

The Briton recovered to finish third behind Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen but Rosberg now leads his Mercedes team-mate by 33 points with four races to go. Rosberg’s win and Hamilton’s third-place finish means that Mercedes now have an unassailable lead in the Constructors’ Championship.

At the start of the race Rosberg made a clean getaway, but Hamilton’s start was dreadful. He bogged down badly and was immediately overrun by rivals. Verstappen moved to second, Force India’s Sergio Perez flew past into third and Daniel Ricciardo held fourth. Hamilton dropped to eighth place.

Vettel, who had started sixth due to the grid penalty had had incurred after the previous race in Malaysia, was soon on the march, however. He muscled his way past Ricciardo on lap one and on the following tour breezed past Perez to take third place.

Hamilton, too, was attempting to make his way forward and on lap seven he overtook Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg to claim sixth place. He now had two seconds to make up to P6 man Kimi Raikkonen.

Verstappen and Ricciardo were the first of the top-10 starters to shed their opening stint soft tyres, with Red Bull Racing pitting their drivers at the same time at the end of lap 11. Both took on hard compound Pirelli tyres.

Their halt for tyres triggered a steady stream of pit stops as the main contenders all filed towards pit lane over the following few laps. All took hard tyres.

After 23 laps Rosberg was comfortably in the lead, holding a four-second advantage over Verstappen. Vettel was 2.7s further back in third place, while Hamilton had worked his way back up to fourth ahead of Ricciardo and Raikkonen.

That order was maintained through the second stint but while Rosberg maintained control ahead of Verstappen, Hamilton managed to pass Vettel in the next and final round of pit stops.

Perhaps anticipating the move, Vettel took on soft tyres in his second stop and set off in close pursuit of Hamilton in the opening laps of his final stint. The Briton, though, defended resolutely in the opening laps of the stint and then began to pull away from the Ferrari as the German’s tyres began to drift from their optimum performance level.

After the second stops and behind the front four, Raikkonen was now looking comfortable in fifth, six seconds behind Vettel but 14 seconds clear of Ricciardo. Perez was now seventh ahead of Hulkenberg, Massa and Bottas.

The biggest battle in the closing stages was between Verstappen and Hamilton. The Mercedes man closed to within DRS range of the Red Bull Racing driver and at the end of the penultimate lap he launched an assault around the outside of the Dutch driver. Verstappen was not for moving, however, and Hamilton was forced to overshoot the chicane and he lost ground to the Red Bull driver.

Ahead, Rosberg was comfortable and after 53 laps he crossed the line to take his ninth win of the season with almost five seconds in hand over Verstappen.

Hamilton’s third place, meanwhile, was enough to give Mercedes an unassailable lead in the battle for the Constructors’ title and they are now set to pick up their third crown in a row at the final round in Abu Dhabi.

Ferrari secured fourth and fifth, with Vettel ahead of Raikkonen, but Verstappen’s second place and sixth for Ricciardo means that Red Bull Racing extend their advantage over the Scuderiato 50 points in the battle for second place.

Perez and Hulkenberg sealed seventh and eighth places respectively and with Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas only managing ninth and tenth, Force India extend their lead over Williams to 25 points in the battle for fourth place.

2016 Japanese Grand Prix – Race
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 53 laps – 1h26m43.333s 2
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +4.978 2
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +5.776 2
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari +20.269 2
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +28.370 2
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing +33.941 2
7 Sergio Perez Force India +57.495 2
8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India +59.177 2
9 Felipe Massa Williams +97.763 1
10 Valtteri Bottas Williams +98.323 1
11 Romain Grosjean Haas +99.254 2
12 Jolyon Palmer Renault +1 lap 1
13 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso +1 lap 2
14 Kevin Magnussen Renault +1 lap 1
15 Marcus Ericsson Sauber +1 lap 1
16 Fernando Alonso McLaren +1 lap 2
17 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso +1 lap 2
18 Jenson Button McLaren +1 lap 2
19 Felipe Nasr Sauber +1 lap 1
20 Esteban Gutierrez Haas +1 lap 2
21 Esteban Ocon Manor +1 lap 2
22 Pascal Wehrlein Manor +1 lap 2

eom/FIA press release

Singapore, 18 Sept. 2016: Nico Rosberg once again took control of the F1 Drivers’ Championship standings as he sealed his eighth win of the 2016 season just half a second clear of Red Bull’s Daniel Riccirado who almost overhauled the German in the final stages of the race. Lewis Hamilton was third.

The race got off to a dramatic start as a hard charging Nico Hulkenberg powered forward from eighth on the grid. Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz was also trying to get ahead, however, and as the Spaniard moved across the pair collided. Hulkenberg was pitched into the pit wall. With his Force India heavily damaged and with debris strewn across the track the Safety Car was

deployed, neutralizing the race.

At the front, pole position man Rosberg had made a good start and held the lead ahead of Ricciardo who had also made a good getaway. Behind them, Lewis Hamilton held third place.

However, fourth-on-the-grid Max Verstappen in the second Red Bull made a poor start and dropped back to eight place under the safety car. The Dutch teenager would spend the rest of the race toiling on the fringes of the top 10, mostly with Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat, before hauling himself up to P6 in the final third of the race.

When the safety car left the track Rosberg began to cement himself into the lead and by the time of the first round of stops, the German was seven seconds ahead of the Australian, Hamilton a further four seconds back. At the rear of the field Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who had started in P22 due to a mechanical issue in qualifying, was already up to P10 as he passed slower cars and his soft tyres allowed him to stay out longer than rivals.

For the drivers at the front the second stint saw Mercedes losed some ground as Ricciardo, on a second set of supersofts reduced Rosberg’s advantage to less than three seconds. Hamilton, struggling with brake issues, was chased down by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and on lap 34 the Finn muscled his way past to claim P3 just before they made their second stop

Vettel, meanwhile, was continuing to scythe through the order and by the time of his second stop he was sixth.

As the final third of the race approached Hamilton made a last roll of the dice, making a third tyre stop on lap 45 for ultrasoft tyres.

Fearing that Raikkonen might be overahauled in the final laps if he stayed out on old tyres, Ferrari reacted. The stop was not smooth, however, and the Finn emerged behind the champion, leading him to question the mechanics of the stop.

At the front Rosberg was looking secure, but on lap 47 Red Bull too gambled. With the gap back to Hamilton now more than safe thanks to his stop, Ricciardo pitted for supersoft tyres.

The Australian emerged some 27 seconds behind Rosberg and after briefly considering a reactive stop, Mercedes opted to leave Rosberg out on track.

Across 14 intensely exciting laps Ricciardo almost succeeded. Within five laps he had taken more than 10 seconds out of Rosberg’s advantage and the seconds continued to fall away. He continued to press and by the final sector of the final lap he was inside DRS range as he and Rosberg hit traffic. The German held his nerve, however, and he kept Ricciardo at bay to cross the line just 0.488s ahead of the Red Bull.

With Hamilton third ahead of Raikkonen, Vettel’s superb driver from P22 led to a deserved fifth place. Verstappen passed McLaren’s Fernando Alonso in the final third to take sixth place and behind the Spaniard Sergio Perez was eighth for Force India. The final points positions were taken by Kvyat and Renault’s Kevin Magnussen.

eom/FIA press release

Singapore, 17 Sept. 2016: Nico Rosberg set a blistering pace to claim pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix finishing half a second clear of Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo and seven tenths ahead of championship-leading team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

FP1 got underway with Mercedes making the first move, both Hamilton and Rosberg taking to the track early on ultrasofts. Rosberg drew first blood with a time of 1:45. 316, but that was quickly bettered by Hamilton who went 1500ths of a second quicker.

Kimi Raikkonen then took over at the top of the order with a lap of 1:44.964. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen then slotted into P2, just seven hundredths of the a second behind the Finn.  As the team’s prepared for final runs Daniel Ricciardo hit the top of the timesheet with his first hot lap of 1:44.255.

Sebastian Vettel was in trouble, however. “I think the front anti-roll bar broke,” said the German as he headed to the pit lane in P21, with six minutes to go.

Ahead of the final runs the drop featured Renault’s Kevin Magnussen in P17, followed by Sauber’s Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson, the Manors of Pascal Wehrlein and the unfortunate Vettel in P22.

And despite frantic work in the Ferrari garage, the team could not get Vettel out for a final run and the four-time Singapore Grand Prix winner exited qualifying in P22.

Prior to the final runs it was Renault’s Jolyon Palmer who was the target man in P16 with a lap of 1:46.960 and in the final shake-up it was Sauber’s Ericsson who best beat the Briton’s benchmark to claim a Q2 berth. Out then went Magnussen in P17, followed by Nasr, Palmer, Wehrlein, Ocon and Vettel.

Q2 again saw the Mercedes drivers take to the track early and Rosberg quickly hit the front, with a quick lap of 1:43.020, followed by Hamilton who was four tenths back.

However, Red Bull Racing’s drivers took to the track with supersoft tyres and Ricciardo soon jumped to P3 with a time of 1:43.933, almost two tenths ahead of team-mate Max Verstappen in P4. That put them ahead of the ultrasoft–shod Ferrari of Raikkonen and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz.

Meanwhile, in the drop zone ahead of the final runs were: McLaren’s Jenson Button, Force India’s Sergio Perez, the Haas of Esteban Gutierrez, the second McLaren of Fernando Alonso, the second Haas of Romain Grosjean and Ericsson. The target man this time was Williams Felipe Massa in P10 with a time of 1:44.991.

But the quest to beat him was only afforded to a few as Grosjean crashed his Haas to bring out the yellow flags. Alonso and Perez managed to get a time in, however, and their times meant that out went Williams’ Valtteri Bottas and Massa, Button, who also broke his steering in a scrape with the barriers on his final run, Gutierrez, Grosjean and Ericsson.

Grosjean’s crash led to a 10-minute delay to the start of Q3 as repairs were done to the barriers at Turn 10.

When the final session got underway it was Rosberg who took command, with the German setting a blistering lap of 1:42.584 to take P1 0.7s ahead of Hamilton in second. Raikkonen was third ahead of the Red Bulls of Ricciardo and Verstappen, with the Dutch driver saying poor grip had resulted in a “terrible lap”. Sainz was sixth ahead of Alonso, Hulkenberg, Perez and Kvyat.

In the final runs the only drivers to make steps forward though were the Red Bulls. Ricciardo put in an excellent lap of 1:43.115 and when Hamilton failed to better his time from his first run the Australian took P2 to claim his second front-row start in a row in Singapore. Verstappen too improved, posting lap of 1:43.328 to take P4.

Behind them, Raikkonen was fifth for Ferrari, ahead of the Toro Rossos of Sainz and Kvyat. Eighth place was taken by Hulkenberg, with Alonso ninth ahead of Perez.

2016 Singapore Grand Prix – Qualifying
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:45.316 1:43.020 1:42.584
2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:44.255 1:43.933 1:43.115
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:45.167 1:43.471 1:43.288
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:45.036 1:44.112 1:43.328
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:44.964 1:44.159 1:43.540
6 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:45.499 1:44.493 1:44.197
7 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:45.291 1:44.475 1:44.469
8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:46.081 1:44.737 1:44.479
9 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:45.373 1:44.653 1:44.553
10 Sergio Perez Force India 1:45.204 1:44.703 1:44.582
11 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:46.086 1:44.740
12 Felipe Massa Williams 1:46.056 1:44.991
13 Jenson Button McLaren 1:45.262 1:45.144
14 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:45.465 1:45.593
15 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:45.609 1:45.723
16 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:46.427 1:47.827
17 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:46.825
18 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:46.860
19 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:46.960
20 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:47.667
21 Esteban Ocon Manor 1:48.296
22 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:49.116

eom/FIA press release