2011 end of term report – Nico Rosberg

On the eve of the 2011 season, Nico Rosberg had high expectations and hoped to be given a car that would help him to finally take his first win. Unfortunately, the Mercedes MGP W02 was not competitive enough to get on the podium. He still had the satisfaction of outperforming his teammate Michael Schumacher.

Season review

After a promising 2010 campaign, Nico Rosberg was positive at the start of the year. After some really good performances in winter testing, he had every reason to be optimistic. Unfortunately, come the start of the season, the situation was quite different.

Rosberg qualified 7th for the season’s opener at Melbourne and was 8th in the race when he was hit by Rubens Barrichello. His car was too badly damaged to continue. Two weeks later, in Malaysia, the German qualified in the top ten but took the chequered flag in 12th position. For the first time of his career, Rosberg was empty handed after the first two races.

He had an excellent weekend in China, qualifying on the second row of the grid and finishing the race in the top five. A podium may have been on the cards, had he not been forced to save fuel in the closing parts of the race. He also qualified on the second row in Turkey and took a second consecutive fifth-place finish.

He couldn’t maintain this form in Spain and crossed the finish line in 7th place. He was out of the points at Monaco and Montréal. After seven Grand Prix, Rosberg had scored 26 points and was 10th in the championship. He came back in the top ten at Valencia and consistently finished in the points in the second part of the season.

In Belgium, he made a good start and managed to keep at bay some more competitive cars. Fifth on the grid, he stormed in the lead in the opening lap. As the race went on, he lost some positions and finished in 6th place behind his teammate. In Italy, he was taken out of the race by Liuzzi at the first corner.

Conclusion

2011 marked Nico Rosberg’s sixth season in Formula One. With 108 Grand Prix under his belt, the German is considered one of the best drivers on the grid. However, he is still chasing his first Grand Prix win.
He made the most of his MGP W02 but couldn’t challenge the top teams’ drivers. His consistency helped him to 7th in the drivers’ championship.

Performance-wise, Rosberg did better than his seven-time World Champion teammate. He out-qualified him 16 times out of 19. On Sundays, the Mercedes drivers were closely matched and had some interesting fights. Rosberg came out on top but the gap was much closer than in 2010.

Highs
—  Outshone Schumacher in qualifying
—  Took the best out of his car
—  Solid

Lows
—  Scored no point in the first two races
—  Couldn’t finish higher than 5th
—  Crashed in FP3 at Monaco

Nextgen-Auto.com marks :
— Olivier Ferret : 15/20
— D.Thys : 15/20
— Sandrine Bouchard : 14/20
— Jean-Michel Setbon : 14/20
— Average mark on the forum Nextgen-Auto.com : 15/20
—  Total : 73/100