Former Formula One world champion Nico Rosberg has revealed that he walked away from a mega Mercedes deal at the end of 2016 when he announced his retirement from the sport.
After a nail biting, edge of your seat season where the championship fight came down to the last race of the 2016 in Abu Dhabi, Rosberg shockingly announced his retirement from the sport after winning one title. At the time he stated that he wanted to spend more time with his young family.
That was five years ago, and the former driver has now turned his hand to punditry on Sky Sports on race weekends and is also a sustainability champion, but in an interview with The Times Magazine,the German has revealed the timing around his retirement and what he left behind at Mercedes.
“I wanted to avoid going out as a has-been or someone who is not wanted anymore,” said Rosberg. “I mean, there was $100m on the table that I gave up on. I longed for a different kind of life. You don’t have flexibility when you’re racing. It was the best decision for my family – I didn’t think about the money for one second.”
The 2016 season provided us with an exciting championship fight between Rosberg and his Mercedes team mate, seven time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton. The rivalry between the pair was electric, with the pair resorting to playing mind games with each other to see who would be forced into a mistake first. It was intense to watch, but Rosberg has admitted that the fans could be just as intense.
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“There were the two camps, the Nico camp and the Hamilton fans. And all the Hamilton fans were against me, of course,” he continued. “There were these four-year-old girls right in front of me with their dads, and they were booing me and giving me the thumbs down. Their dads told them I was bad and that they needed to boo me.”
Despite the grief from the fans, Rosberg won the 2016 world title by five points. He announced his retirement at an FIA Prize Giving Ceremony in December 2016, claiming he had reached the “pinnacle” of his career.