JOURNEY TO THE TOP
Nico Rosberg made his Formula 1 debut at the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix , winning for the first time at the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix and finally winning the World Championship on the occasion of his 206th grand prix start .
Nico was born in Wiesbaden , Germany on 27 June 1985 ( 31 years old ) and 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 .
Nico grew up in Monaco and still lives there with his wife Vivian and daughter Alaia . He speaks five languages but not Finnish .
He and Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton , a triple world champion , were team mates in go-karts in 2000 . Nico 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 .
Nico made his Formula 1 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 .
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 .
Nico 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 .