Brawn GP News

From the 2010 season, German driver Nico Rosberg will drive for the new Mercedes team in the Formula 1 World Championship, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport announced today.

Three years after his father Keke had won the Formula 1 World Championship, Nico Rosberg, 24, was born in Wiesbaden, Germany on 27 June 1985, inheriting his racing DNA from his father.

At the age of eight, Nico Rosberg began racing karts. From 1997 until 2000, he raced for the MBM team (the talent support programme of Mercedes-Benz McLaren); with this team, the two Formula 1 partners encouraged young talents. Nico’s team-mate at that time was Lewis Hamilton, McLaren Mercedes driver since 2007 and 2008 Formula 1 World Champion. In 2000, Nico was runner-up in the Formula A European Championship. Two years later, he entered his first car races in Formula BMW ADAC and clinched the title in his debut year with nine victories out of 18 races. A Williams Formula 1 test drive was the reward for the championship win – at the age of 17, Nico was the youngest driver ever to get such an opportunity.

In 2003 and 2004, Nico Rosberg participated in the then new Formula 3 Euro Series; in his first year he came home second in the rookie rankings and in 2004 he finished fourth overall. One year later in 2005, he moved up to the GP2 series which is staged alongside Formula 1 events and won the title.

The 2006 season opener at Bahrain on 12 March was Nico’s first Formula 1 race; he finished seventh and posted the fastest lap. To date, he has taken part in 70 Grands Prix, all for the Williams team; scoring a total of 75.5 points and achieving second place at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix as his best Formula 1 result. The 2009 season was Nico’s best in Formula 1 so far; finishing seventh overall with 34.5 points.

Nico Rosberg grew up in Germany, Monaco and at Ibiza; in addition to his mother tongue he is fluent in English, Italian and French.

Nico Rosberg: “I am really happy to be a part of the Silver Arrows re-launch in 2010 as a driver for Mercedes. No other brand in Formula 1 can look back on such a long and successful tradition in motor racing. I am very proud that I will now drive for the new Mercedes team and work with Ross Brawn. I am more motivated than ever and can hardly wait to start testing with the new Silver Arrow and for the first race of the new season at Bahrain on 14 March 2010.”

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: “We are delighted to welcome Nico Rosberg to our Mercedes team and are very much looking forward to working with him. Nico is a great talent, and with four years of experience in Formula 1, is a driver who will be able to make a valuable contribution to our team right from the outset. I had the pleasure of working with his father Keke during his Formula One career and it is great to see Nico following in his footsteps. 2009 was Nico’s best season in Formula 1 to date and we look forward to seeing his development continue with us at Mercedes next year.”

Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: “I saw Nico
racing karts alongside Lewis Hamilton and later in the support programme of the DTM events – I have known him since he was a young boy. Early on it was obvious that he would make his way as a race driver and we are glad that after four years with Williams he will now be one of our drivers at Mercedes. It makes our re-start even nicer, that we have as talented and sympathetic a driver as Nico in our line-up. Nico has positive ambitions, we have positive ambitions and together we want to achieve a great deal. I am really looking forward to working with him.”

After a disappointing qualifying session in Brazil, Jenson Button has proved should anyone doubt him that he is World Champion material.  He fought he way through the field with gutsy by precise overtaking manoeuvres to finish the race in 5th position and take the Formula One World Drivers Championship.

In doing this he and team mate Rubens Barrichello have also secured the Constructors Championship for Brawn GP.

Nelson Piquet Jnr confirmed today that he has been dropped by Renault with immediate effect.  Piquet has always spoken out that he felt Alonso had preferential treatment to him.  This is understandable to an extent as Alonso his teammate is a World Champion but does not account for the extent Piquet has gone to to air these grievencies.  This was his official statement on leaving Renault, leave a comment and let us know your thoughts!

I have received notice from the Renault F1 team of its intention to stop me from driving for them in the current F1 season.  I want to say thanks to the small group who supported me and that I worked together [with] at Renault F1, although it is obviously with great disappointment that I receive such news.  But, at the same time, I feel a sense of relief for the end of the worst period of my career, and the possibility that I can now move on and put my career back on the right track and try to recover my reputation of a fast, winning driver.  I am a team player and there are dozens of people I have worked with in my career who would vouch for my character and talent, except unfortunately the person that has had the most influence on my career in Formula 1.

I started racing at the age of eight and have broken record after record. I won every championship I raced in go-karts.  I was South American F3 champion, winning 14 races and getting 17 pole positions.  In 2003 I went to England, with my own team, to compete in the British F3 championship. I was champion there as well, winning 12 races and getting 13 pole positions. In fact I was the youngest ever champion.  I raced GP2 in 2005 and 2006, winning five races and scoring six pole positions.  I had a great season in my second year, only missing out on the championship to Lewis Hamilton due to technical mistakes of our team, which I take as my own as well, including running out of fuel during a race.  I set the record in GP2 for the first driver to have a perfect weekend, scoring the maximum points available, in Hungary 2006. No one matched that until July 2009 when Nico Hulkenberg did it at Nurburgring.

The path to F1 was always going to be tricky, and my father and I therefore signed a management contract with Flavio Briatore, who we believed was an excellent option with all the necessary contacts and management skills.  Unfortunately, that was when the black period of my career started.  I spent one year as a test driver, where I only did a handful of tests, and the next year started as a race driver with Renault.  After the opening part of the season, some strange situations began to happen.  As a beginner in F1, I could only expect from my team a lot of support and preparation to help me in getting up to the task. Instead, I was relegated as “someone who drives the other car” with no attention at all.  In addition, on numerous occasions, 15 minutes before qualifying and races, my manager and team boss (Briatore) would threaten me, telling me that if I didn’t get a good result, he had another driver ready to put in my place.  I have never needed threats before to get results.  In 2008 I scored 19 points, finished once on the podium in second place, having the best debut year of a Brazilian driver in F1.

For the 2009 season Briatore, again acting both as my manager and team boss of Renault F1, promised me everything would be different, that I would get the attention I deserved but had never received, and that I would get “at least equal treatment” inside the team.  He made me sign a performance-based contract, requiring me to score 40% of Fernando Alonso’s points by midway through the season.  Despite driving with Fernando, two-time world champion and a really excellent driver, I was confident that, if I had the same conditions, I would easily attain the 40% of points required by the contract.

Unfortunately, the promises didn’t turn into reality again.  With the new car I completed 2002km of testing compared to Fernando’s 3839km. Only three days of my testing was in dry weather – only one of Fernando’s was wet.  I was only testing with a heavy car, hard tyres, mostly on the first day (when the track is slow and reliability is poor), or when the weather was bad. Fernando was driving a light car with soft tyres in the dry, fine conditions.  I never had a chance to be prepared for the qualifying system we use. In Formula 1 today, the difference between first and 15th position is sometimes less than a second. It means that 0.2s or 0.3s can make you gain eight positions.

In addition to that, car development is now happening on a race-to-race basis due to the in-season testing ban.  Of the first nine races that I ran this year, in four of them Fernando had a significant car upgrade that I did not have. I was informed by the engineers at Renault that in those races I had a car that was between 0.5s and 0.8s a lap slower than my team-mate.  If I look at Germany (where I outqualified my team-mate despite that), if I had that advantage in qualifying I would be fifth and not 10th. If we had that difference in the race, I would have finished ahead of my team-mate, which I did in Silverstone despite him having upgrades that I did not have.

I believe without doubt in my talent and my performance. I didn’t get this far by getting bad results. Anyone who knows my history knows that the results I am having in F1 do not match my CV and my ability.  The conditions I have had to deal with during the last two years have been very strange to say the least – there are incidents that I can hardly believe occurred myself.  If I now need to give explanations, I am certain it is because of the unfair situation I have been in the past two years.  I always believed that having a manager was being a part of a team and having a partner. A manager is supposed to encourage you, support you, and provide you with opportunities.  In my case it was the opposite. Flavio Briatore was my executioner.

Being under pressure is not new to me. I have had criticism throughout my career, and have also had a lot of expectations put on me due to my name.  Up until now I always met those expectations – surpassed them even. I have never before felt the need to defend myself or fight back from rumours and criticism because I knew the truth and I just wanted to concentrate on racing – I didn’t ever let it affect me.  Fortunately, I can now say to those people who supported me through my career that I’m back on the good tracks and considering the options for a new start in my F1 career in a fair and positive way.

In an announcement today Formula One 7 times World Champion Michael Schumacher has confirmed he will stand in for Felipe Massa in the coming races.  Massa was hospitalised during the Hungarian Grand Prix after a spring from Rubens Barrichello’s car came unattached and struck Massa’s Helmet.

Michael Schumacher has said that while “the chapter Formula 1 has been closed for me since long and completely, it is also true that for loyalty reasons to the team I cannot ignore that unfortunate situation.”

His full press release reads…

“The most important thing first: thanks God, all news concerning Felipe are positive. I wish him all the best again.

I was meeting this afternoon with Stefano Domenicali and Luca di Montezemolo and together we decided that I will prepare myself to take the place of Felipe. Though it is true that the chapter Formula 1 has been closed for me since long and completely, it is also true that for loyalty reasons to the team I cannot ignore that unfortunate situation. But as the competitor I am I also very much look forward to facing this challenge.”

The last time Michael Schumacher drove the current Ferrari was in April 2008 (source Formula1.com)