Slow Burn: Interview with Nico Rosberg

Five 30-something mums have just appeared on a TV screen, and Nico Rosberg's train of thought derails completely.

"Ooh - who's that?" he asks. "The Spice Girls! Is this a reunion, or what? Are the Spice Girls singing again? No way! All of them? How cool would that be? That would be really cool, wouldn't it? Anyway, sorry, where was I?"

With his impeccable bloodline (son of the 1982 world champion Keke), his privileged upbringing in Monaco, his multilingual fluency, even his immaculate hairdo, few drivers are better qualified than Rosberg to live up to the popular perceptions that surround someone who is trying to establish themselves in Formula One.

But the best thing about public perceptions is when they break down. Rosberg is intelligent, articulate, and despite his best efforts to project the laser-like focus that everyone expects from F1 drivers, he is disarmingly capable of being distracted by a mid-90s pop group.

Rosberg also becomes increasingly genial when interviewed - to the point where, when the recorder is turned off, rather than making a beeline for his private quarters in the Williams motorhome, he sticks around for a couple of extra minutes because he has decided that it is his turn to ask a few questions of his inquisitor.

It's not so much that Rosberg is particularly interested in the background of the person that had just interviewed him, but more that he has a natural curiosity about his surroundings. So it was no great surprise to learn that if F1 hadn't worked out, a career in engineering beckoned.

"I really was good at school and engineering, and I enjoyed it," he says.

"All my school friends kind of went off to do more study; that was the next step in life. And I went a completely different way, which was racing.

"I wanted to keep the university option open, really. I don't know how serious I really was in my mind. But I mean, I went to visit the university [Imperial College in London] and everything.

"I was going to do aeronautical engineering. It is something that combined maths, physics and racing, so I was looking at that. And also because it was something that ... I think 60 percent of the class went into banking, after that.

"So it was a course that could really have a very widespread outcome. You didn't have to be an engineer. It was a course that prepared you globally. It was a very, very tough course and people who graduate are very competent.

"But we're speaking too much about that, because I don't know how serious I was. In the end I probably wasn't very serious, because I always thought I wanted to be a Formula One driver. And I always thought I would be.

"Would I have enjoyed it? I think so, yeah. I mean, student life is a cool life. If you're in London, studying - because the university would have been in London - that would have been a cool life, definitely. OK, not as cool as this one, but it would have been fun in its own way.

"I would be finished with my studies now, so maybe I would be here anyway as an aerodynamicist or something. Who knows?"

In the end, the decision was made for him. Winning the German Formula BMW championship in 2002 earned him a test in a BMW Williams in Barcelona at the end of the year, making him, at 17 years of age, the youngest driver ever to test a F1 car.

"That was actually the time when I had to make the decision of whether to go to university or not; right at that time when I first drove the Formula One car," he says.

"I sat in the F1 car and it was like, 'Jeeeez! This has got to be what you want to do!'"

More success followed. His move from the F3 Euroseries into the inaugural GP2 series in 2005 ended with Rosberg being crowed champion, and shortly afterwards Williams secured his signature to place him alongside Mark Webber for 2006.

Rosberg announced his arrival into F1 with a couple of points for seventh place on debut in Bahrain, and also posted the fastest lap of the race - again, making him the youngest driver ever to do so.

But since then, his results have not been in line with his effort. Inexperience has certainly played its part, but the fact he spent his rookie year wrestling with the diabolical Williams FW28 didn't help his cause.

"It's nice that you do see that part!" he says with a wry grin.

"Of course I have stepped up this year; I think that's normal after the first year, especially as it was such a difficult situation. But I think we have all stepped up together; the team has given me a much better car, and it is also more reliable. It just goes hand-in-hand."

Williams technical director Sam Michael, who was a driving force in Rosberg's recruitment, agrees that the German has taken a major step forward since last year.

"I think he has come on a lot, over the winter especially," Michael remarks.

"I think that as a rookie year, he had a good year. He only really made mistakes in two races, which was at Hockenheim [where he crashed in the stadium complex], and then he was 50 percent to blame in Brazil [where he tangled with Webber]. So that's not bad.

"But Nico is still learning. He's only 21, but he's learning a lot. He's probably sick of people saying he's only 21, but that's what he is. He can't deny his age. He is getting more and more experienced, but he doesn't have any trouble absorbing things technically."

As with any driver, as Rosberg's technical experience grows, he becomes more confident in offering feedback to his engineers, and the information that he gives becomes more valuable.

He is up against a tough yardstick in that regard - several years as a test driver have given his new teammate Alex Wurz an almost intuitive understanding of how a set-up change will affect the car, as Michael pointed out.

"Every time Nico does a front camber change, Alex has done it 10 times more than that," he says. "Whatever the change is, Alex just has a bigger database."

Rosberg, however, remains fiercely - almost defensively - independent.

"I don't think I have to hide behind Alex," he says flatly. "At the moment my set-up comes from me."

Gradually though, his experience is growing, and with that comes respect within the walls of the garage.

"Oh definitely, the respect grows," he agrees. "As you give more and more good information, the respect grows. I think that's normal.

"I'm someone who I think is quite capable. I mean, of course I see that I need to progress a lot, and there are some things that I do well, and some things that I do not so well. I'm aware of that. But there are many things that I can contribute now, and I can have a lot of input on set-up and things like that."

Helping his cause considerably, of course, is that at the end of the day, drivers are judged by what they do on the track. And for much this year Rosberg has kept his more experienced team-mate in the shadows, particularly in qualifying.

It all points to someone who is comfortable in his surroundings, both within the team, and more broadly in Formula One. But achieving the latter, Rosberg admitted, took some time.

"When you first come in, you're not prepared for the whole world," he says. "It's a new world, and that is what you are not really prepared for. You can't prepare for that, you just have to get used to it. There are so many things."

In some areas however, he had a head start - not least in dealing with the media.

"I was lucky - because of my name, I got used to talking to the media pretty early on. I have had many, many interviews over the years thanks to my name, so that helped me a lot," he said.

"Actually, this year is a nice change. [In the past] I was always talking about my Dad, and this year I always have to speak about Lewis Hamilton. So it's a nice transition, really ..."

SIDEBAR: Avoiding the Tennis Trap

Athletes recruiting their fathers as managers have a long and often ugly history in sport - you need look no further than the likes of Mary Pierce and Jelena Dokic in the tennis world for that.

Nico Rosberg's situation was a little different, not least because his father Keke had a history of driver management long before Nico came on to the scene, most notably with Mika Hakkinen.

Nevertheless, the decision between Nico and Keke to combine their personal relationship with a business one has not been easy, and Nico admits that the lines between father and manager sometimes become blurred.

"Yeah, it is hard," he says. "Even in normal life, I am sure that there are a lot of people who work for their father in the family company or whatever, and it often is not easy. Especially because my father is a very successful person, and very wise and everything, and he has quite a dominant personality. So it is often not very easy.

"But we have found a good way to do it now, and it really works out well. He helps me a lot with various things, and I have someone close by who is really in between me and my father - someone who gets along well with both sides.

"My father has created a bit more distance this year, too. He doesn't come to all the races, only half the races. So it's nice. And also, I am maturing and I understand more about the way he thinks and the way he goes about things. I understand more how to handle him, because he's a complex person. So it's not easy."

Sidebar: Frank Williams on Nico

Q: Amid all the talk of Lewis Hamilton, do you think Nico is flying under people's radars a bit?

Frank Williams: "I think you're right. Lewis is a big story, and quite rightly, too. Nico's problem is that he is driving an average-to-good car. If his driving is going to be noticed he really needs a winning car, like everyone else does.

"Lewis has got everything going for him, and he is clearly a phenomenon. It's quite remarkable, what he has achieved in such a short space of time.

"As with all drivers, Nico's abilities are coloured, good or bad, by his car; his equipment. Last year, in his first year, our car was really in the rearward third of the field, and now it is generally in the middle pack, behind the first three teams.

"Our target is to make it into the first four teams, or to displace one of the first three teams. It's not impossible, but very, very difficult.

"And then certainly, Nico will become ... not necessarily a superstar, but the next big thing. Which he would have been if he'd been in a Ferrari or a McLaren last year or this year."

MG: Does it make it harder or easier for a young driver like him to come in with an uncompetitive car? In once sense, having a slower car removes some of the pressure.

Williams: "Probably, but to be honest if he'd had a choice when he came into F1 and was asked whether he'd like to drive a Williams or a McLaren, he'd have said a McLaren, because he has got the right attitude. He wants a winner."

MG: There is an element of risk in a sense when you take a young driver on, but does it also give you the opportunity to mould them a bit into your way of doing things?

Williams: "Mould them ... that's kind of fanciful. It's a matter of whether a driver has got it or hasn't got it. If he wants to work very, very hard then he can, like Carlos Reutemann did. I watched him all those years ago, as he hauled himself to the top. He was talented, but it took him a while to find it - and his experience helped him as well.

"Nico and Lewis are very, very gifted, the pair of them. To Ron Dennis's full credit, he spent a lot of money - and I think some of it was his own money, too - on bringing Lewis on for all these years, and now it is payback time.

"Nico has come along a different route, but if we or somebody else can give him a McLaren equivalent, I would think F1 racing would be very interesting.

MG: You said that drivers either have it or they don't, but there is an element of how they fit into the team culture, too. In the past few years Williams has taken on some well-credentialled drivers, and the results have not been what either side would have hoped for.

Williams: "There is a truth in that, yes. But that's because, at the end of the day, they couldn't deliver - and that's assuming that our car could deliver."

MG: People have often spoken in the past about certain guys having particular qualities that make them quintessential 'Williams drivers'; most recently when Mark Webber first joined the team. Is there any such thing as a 'Williams driver'?

Williams: "No such thing at all. All the best drivers have a few things in common - they have the talent, they have a good racing brain and they have the ability, the wish and the desire to work very hard."

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