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The year of Rosberg?

Shubham Chaturvedi
Published

Source: gettyimages.com
Source: gettyimages.com

Nico Rosberg made his formula one debut in 2006 with Williams following in the footsteps of his father , the 1982 Formula One World Champion Keke Rosberg.  He started off with a disappointing debut season he finished 17th with only 4 points scored , partly due to the pressure of being compared with his father. After the struggling start , he gradually improved and put in some steady performances during his time at Williams , earning his first podium finish in the process in 2008, before moving to his current team Mercedes AMG Petronas, more commonly known as Mercedes GP, in 2010.

At Mercedes , he has always been under the shadow of his fellow teammates, for the first 3 years it was because of the legendary Michael Schumacher and since 2013 he has been teaming up with the now 3 time world champion, Lewis Hamilton.  During his first two seasons at Mercedes he didn’t manage a podium finish and at that time the sport was being dominated by fellow german Sebastian Vettel who won 4 consecutive world championships between 2010 and 2013.

However, engine changes in 2014 allowed mercedes to up their game and they have dominated for the past two years finishing 1-2 on the drivers standings and comprehensively winning the constructors title. All this time, Nico Rosberg has played his part in those constructor titles but in reality he has been a deputy to Lewis Hamilton, the past two seasons were completely dominated by Hamilton with rosberg winning when Hamilton had an off day, which brings us to 2016.

Source: gettyimages.com
Source: gettyimages.com

At the start of the season , everyone expected Ferrari with their improved engine to dominate and Sebastian vettel reclaiming the crown which he once owned. That didn’t happen and Mercedes’s domination continued , the only change however , is that Rosberg is dominating.

He has won the first 4 races of the season heading into the Chinese GP and has looked the most consistent driver and has finally moved out of the shadow of his fellow team-mates who always happen to be former world champions at Mercedes. He looks on course to having a superb season , and maybe at the end of the season could join Graham Hill and Damon Hill as the second Father-Son duo to win F-1 World championship.

The Spanish GP flags off this weekend with qualifying on Friday , if Rosberg can make it 5 out of 5 , the odds will be in his favor to finally win the championship.

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