According to the BBC and confirmed through other sources, Nico Rosberg retires from F1 with immediate effect after winning his maiden World Driver’s Championship.
Wow!
Did. Not. See. That. Coming. At. All.
You’ve got to give him mad respect for making the best of having better reliability this past season and pushing himself and Lewis to a thrilling conclusion of the season. And then being willing to bin it after winning the trophy to concentrate on being a father and a husband. Not many in sport would have the guts to make that call!
Guess this really puts Toto and Paddy behind the eight-ball if they were contemplating going full-on Hammer Time on Lewis for defying team orders in backing Rosberg up to his rivals in Abu Dhabi! And it really puts paid to the notion that there isn’t a number one lead driver at Mercedes…
With the other plausible replacements under contract, you’ve got to imagine that “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” has to be going through Pascal Wehrlein’s mind right now as he contemplates just how effusive his “ja” to the likely phone call will be… 😉