Nico Rosberg lost a race and won a Formula One world championship on Sunday ... and a weight of history slipped from his shoulders.
From their days together as teenage karting team mates to mature Mercedes rivals, Britain’s Lewis Hamilton has been the implacable rival against whom the German has measured himself and come short.
For two years running he had fought the champion for the title and failed, with some suggesting 2016 could be a last throw of the dice. “It feels like I’ve been racing him forever and always he’s just managed to edge me out and get the title even when we were small in go-karts,”
Rosberg told reporters in a news conference punctuated by emotional pauses. “He’s just an amazing driver and, of course, one of the best in history so it’s unbelievably special to beat him because the level is so high and that makes this even more, so much more, satisfying for me.
“And I took the World Championship away from him which is a phenomenal feeling.” Rosberg has been at Mercedes since 2010, first as team mate to compatriot and seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher and then, from 2013, Hamilton.
Hamilton’s fans will say the German has been blessed with far better reliability but Rosberg has also displayed a remarkable calm and consistency. “Everybody does his own way; for me that feels best and I’ve really learned to focus hard.
It takes a lot of sacrifice also to stay so focused during a whole year. For sure that helped,” he said. Now, for the first time in months, he can relax. Sunday’s success under the Abu Dhabi floodlights made the Rosbergs only the second father and son combination to win the title and 1982 champion Keke became the first to actually see his offspring achieve the feat.
Britain’s double champion Graham Hill died before Damon won in 1996 which, as Rosberg senior said with a smile, makes him ‘the only alive one. Just.’ The older Rosberg was not physically present at the moment of glory, however.
He watched the race on television at a friend’s house in Dubai before joining the paddock celebrations some time later. For six years, the 67-yearold said, he has declined interviews about his son.
If ever there was a time to break the habit, it was now. “It’s a family sport and he knows what it means to me and to him.”
