Formula One world champion Nico Rosberg announces surprise retirement

German racer hangs his boots to make time for family

Formula One world champion Nico Rosberg on Friday announced his retirement from the sport in a Facebook post.

“Since 25 years in racing, it has been my dream, my ‘one thing’ to become Formula One World Champion. Through the hard work, the pain, the sacrifices, this has been my target. And now I’ve made it. I have climbed my mountain; I am on the peak, so this feels right. My strongest emotion right now is deep gratitude to everybody who supported me to make that dream happen,” he wrote.

The Mercedes driver then continued how he had to give up family to win this year’s championship.

“This season, I tell you, it was so damn tough,” he said. “I pushed like crazy in every area after the disappointments of the last two years; they fuelled my motivation to levels I had never experienced before.”

The German continued: “And of course that had an impact on the ones I love, too – it was a whole family effort of sacrifice, putting everything behind our target. I cannot find enough words to thank my wife Vivian; she has been incredible. She understood that this year was the big one, our opportunity to do it, and created the space for me to get full recovery between every race, looking after our daughter each night, taking over when things got tough and putting our championship first.”

The 31-year-old added that his retirement would put his racing family in a tight spot.

“The only thing that makes this decision in any way difficult for me is because I am putting my racing family into a tough situation. But Toto understood. He knew straight away that I was completely convinced and that reassured me. My proudest achievement in racing will always be to have won the world championship with this incredible team of people, the Silver Arrows,” he said.