Born in Wiesbaden, Germany on June 27, 1985, 31-year-old Nico Rosberg 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.
Back in 2000, he and Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton, a triple world champion, were team mates in go-kart championship. Rosberg declined a place to study aeronautical engineering at London University's Imperial College as he tested for Williams in 2004, aged 17 and before he had his driving licence.
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.
Also read: Nico Rosberg Beats Lewis Hamilton to Clinch Formula One World Title
Rosberg 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.
In 2013, Rosberg won the Monaco Grand Prix exactly 20 years after his father had triumphed there. In 2014, he had five wins -- the same number that Keke had in his entire career -- from 11 pole positions and finished overall runner-up to Hamilton.
Rosberg was again championship runner-up to Hamilton in 2015 but ended the year strongly with three straight wins. He picked up where he left off in 2016 by taking the first four races, the first driver since Schumacher in 2004 to do that, while Hamilton suffered various problems.
He is only the second son of a Formula One champion to win the title, after Damon Hill. Hill took his 1996 title 34 years after father Graham first became champion in 1962. Rosberg's comes 34 years after Keke's success.
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