Nico Rosberg

No doubt, many people believed F1 would be an inevitable career path for the son of a former world champion. But Nico, whose father Keke won the championship for Williams in 1982, was under no pressure to follow the family business.

He enjoyed a normal childhood in Monaco and was encouraged by his parents to pursue all possible academic and vocational options open to him. He completed his schooling with strong grades and was offered a place at London's Imperial College to read for a degree in aeronautics.

Of course, given his family background, motor sport had always been important too. Born in 1985, Nico first tested a single-seat racing car at the age of 11 and, after several years karting around the world, he was runner-up in the 2000 European Championships. These racing credentials were further enhanced when he won the Formula BMW Series in 2002 by taking the chequered flag nine times in 18 starts.

So, when the choice came to continue his studies or pursue a racing career, it was a tough decision. However, the final decision was vindicated when, at the end of 2005, he claimed the inaugural GP2 championship with a dazzling display of race craft and intelligence.

In truth, the decision to choose a racing future had probably been made at the end of the 2002 season, when Nico won the Formula BMW title. The reward for his endeavours was a Formula One test with the BMW WilliamsF1 Team in 2002, aged just 17.

"The step from 140BHP to 930 BHP was just amazing," he said after 38 laps at the wheel. "It felt like a rocket; something like a computer game, because everything kept coming and going at an unreal velocity. Now I don't want to drive anything else."

The full transition from GP2 to Formula One came in 2006 and seemed effortless for the young German. His start could hardly have been more explosive, claiming seventh place in the first race of the season in Bahrain and recording the fastest lap of the race on his debut.

In the next race in Malaysia, Nico qualified third and soon established himself as a capable rookie, able to adjust to the demands of new circuits and confident enough to lock horns with his experienced team-mate, Mark Webber.

The season, however, was a fight for Williams. The team struggled with reliability issues, and was unable to develop and progress the FW28 for the young German as much as they would have liked. However, it was a character-building maiden season for Nico, and gave him a valuable insight to the delicate inter-dependencies between driver, trackside team and the wider company workforce back at base.

2007 was therefore a re-building season, in which Nico informally took the role as lead driver, helping the team recover from eighth in the Championship in 2006 to a more creditable fourth.

His personal progression was impressive and he improved his average qualifying position from 14th in 2006 to ninth. From only three entries into the final round of qualifying in 2006, Nico made it into the top ten knock-out round 11 times in 2007. And in the 13 races he finished, he gained 24 places and averaged eighth place. A measured drive to a career-best fourth place at the final race in Brazil concluded a successful season for Nico, and he improved to ninth in the drivers' standings.

Nico has signed an extended contract with Williams until the end of 2009. "Nico represents the new generation of Formula One drivers," said the Williams team's Director of Engineering Patrick Head. "He is one of the hopefuls who will fight at the front of the sport in the near future."