A trend has emerged in 2016 and 2017 of drivers ‘retiring’ yet still making their way back into the driving seat, whether that be for an entire season in the case of Felipe Massa or a one off for Jenson Button. It has emerged that the trend will not extend to 2016 world champion, Nico Rosberg, who has categorically stated that he will not be making a return to the sport in the future.
Rosberg, 31, recently announced that he and his wife, Vivian, are expecting their second child and appears to be enjoying the quiet family life enough to never entertain a return to Formula One, despite his relatively young retirement age.
Speaking to the BBC as a spectator at last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, Rosberg commented that “I completely fulfilled in that [retirement] sense. The chapter is closed for me and I am just looking forward now. I am really excited about what is to come and I am really excited looking back. It was the perfect ending, the perfect career in what I wanted to achieve.”
“I am lucky in a sense also to have that feeling and to have the opportunity at 31 to open up another career with the goal of being just as successful again and reaching out to people in a different way. That would be cool.”
With his seat becoming vacant at the beginning of December last year, Finn Valtteri Bottas stepped up and has so far been impressive. Whilst he is behind Lewis Hamilton in the standings, he appears to be within touching distance of Rosberg’s old adversary. The world champion thinks that Mercedes “have found a very good replacement. But it is going to take him a bit longer in terms of experience to have a big impact on car set-up and development.”
The German is also excited to see how the rest of the season plays out, with an interesting battle brewing between Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.
“My hopes are it goes to the wire. That’s what all of us fans want to see.”
It seems that currently, Rosberg is happy to be just that. A fan.
