Nico Rosberg

In a starting grid that contains other drivers with Formula One's championship winning blood, Nico Rosberg is another driver who has had a Formula One championship winning dad. The son of Keke Rosberg, Nico has huge shoes to fill as he enters into the arena where his father had been a dominant force at one time.

Nico has also spent a long time in Karting championships where he produced a lot of strong performances. His Karting career started in 1996 and he continued to dwell in Karts till 2002, when he shifted to the single seater category. He won the Formula ADAC Championships by clinching nine wins along the way. This win earned him a chance to test with the Williams F1 team, thus becoming the youngest person to drive a Formula1 car at the age of 17.

He moved to the Formula3000 Euro Series with Team Rosberg and got one race win that got him to the eighth place in the championships. His second season in the series was much better as, with his father's team, he took three victories. That was all that he needed to win a chance for Formula One and Williams, with whom he had tested for these years, came back with an offer to drive at the highest level. On the drivers' aptitude test conducted by Williams, it was rumoured that Rosberg scored the highest ever in the history of the team's long list of champions.

He debuted at the 2006, at the Bahrain Grand Prix, and despite losing his nose cone in the very first lap, he fought his way through the field, in a less than competitive car, to get to seventh place in the final finish. Not just that, he also got the fastest lap for the race, becoming the youngest in the history of Formula One to do so. He qualified in third place for the next race in Malaysia but his engine couldn't take the brunt of his driving ability and blew up after just second laps into its second race. Rosberg ended the season with quite a few retirements and just one more points finish, ending 2006 with 4 points.

In 2007, he had a much better time with the Williams team as the team had new Toyota engines which lasted longer and were slightly better powered. He finished the season with 20 points and had a best of a fourth place finish in Interlagos.

In 2008, he is teamed up with his third partner in as many years, Kazuki Nakajima. The team has high hopes from the young driver and considering his past performances, they will not be left high and dry as the talented young man looks to emulate his father. Even at such a young age, Rosberg has shown the maturity of knowing that it will take more than just one season for someone to jump from the back of the grid to the front. His driving ability has shown that although he pushes the car to the edge, he understands the importance of driving with a cool head in Formula One.