Rosberg retires!!!!

[mario]

Well... that happened.

I just hope he doesn't look at F1 in a couple of years and think: "Damn, I wish I was still doing that."

With rule changes that might potentially shake up the grid next season I think Mercedes will want to have a clear #1, so I don't see them going for Alonso. Wehrlein's Christmas has come early.

Ricciardo has more or less asked the same question - when asked, he said that he wouldn't be satisfied with just achieving one title and wondered whether Rosberg might be left with the feeling that he could, and perhaps should, have achieved more.

To be honest, the sheer abruptness of his decision is such that I'm still confused as to what to make of it. I can only assume that he must have been planning this in advance - however, if it is true that he made the decision only a few hours after winning the title (he claims he made the decision the day after the race), it feels so quick as to almost feel a little rash.

Equally, whilst some have wondered if this had anything to do with his clashes with Hamilton, Rosberg has also said that he would have kept going if he had come second, so evidently he wasn't that deterred - let's not forget, only four months earlier he happily signed a two year contract extension and, given how closely both his career and that of Hamilton's have been intertwined, it isn't as if he didn't already know what he was like.

Perhaps it is not that he was worried about, but rather the fact that winning the title would have come with expectations to do more to publicise the sport and to undertake more advertising work for his team, something that Rosberg traditionally has been rather loath to do. In some senses, he is a bit like Kimi - tending to be more reluctant to put himself into the spotlight in that way - and perhaps he felt that the flip side of being a champion wasn't of interest to him.

[Salamander]

Rosberg mentioned that the first time he was thinking about retiring was after the Japanese GP, when his title chances were firmly in his own hands. As much as I think Hamilton was a git for saying this is the first time Rosberg's won (against him) in 18 years, he does have a point in that, in all likelihood, this was the perfect storm for Rosberg. There's no guarantee that he will have the same amount of luck against Hamilton, that he will be able to dig as deeply as he has at certain points during this season, or that Mercedes will have such a margin over their competitors. And Rosberg's taken a lot of time to accomplish things in his career - first from the Williams days, trying for 4 years just to prove himself worthy of a top-level drive, then having to wait another couple years before actually getting a car capable of winning Grands Prix, then another couple years before finally getting a car that could deliver a WDC, and another 2 years before he was able to turn the tables on Hamilton. Given everything, even considering that every F1 driver believes themselves to be the best, you have to believe that there were quite a few times when Rosberg doubted he would ever get the chance to be World Champion. But he's pulled it off, against all odds. Why hang around when the odds are almost assuredly against him to repeat that feat?

[Aguaman]

Some athletes don't have that hunger to do more like an Alonso, a Schumacher, a Federer, a Serena, a LeBron, a Kobe and so on. Some just want to reach their goal which is to win 1 and just call it. Maybe he is just mentally spent.

[mario]

Well, Lauda has now revealed his opinion on Rosberg's decision to quit, and it seems that he is, along with the people who were working on Rosberg's side of the garage, rather upset at Rosberg's decision to walk out of the team so abruptly.

“At first I didn’t believe it. ‘Nico, what you told us, are you kidding by any chance? It’s a joke?’ But he said it was all true. Quite incredible.

"When I won the first title I immediately thought about how I would win a second. Not the case with Nico.

“Rosberg’s decision has left us disorientated and unprepared, and all those who contributed to Nico winning the world title took it very badly."

He's also rather angry at the fact that, when Rosberg signed up to his contract extension with the team, he gave them no hint that he would retire if he won the WDC and has left the team in disarray and seemingly not caring about what he has done to them.

To a certain extent, I do sympathise with his position - as some posters have said, it is true that he has had a decent career and may well feel that bowing out of the sport now whilst he is on top is the best time to leave, especially given the effort that he put in this year.
On the other hand, I can see why Lauda and the team would feel a bit bitter too - most of those mechanics will have poured a considerable amount of effort into helping him, and you could see what winning the title meant to those mechanics in his half of the garage. When you consider that quite a few of them will have developed a close relationship with Rosberg whilst working for him over the years, I can see why some of them might feel a bit hurt and that the way that Rosberg kept them out of the loop before abruptly walking out on them is a bit of an insult to them and their efforts.

[watka]

Rosberg mentioned that the first time he was thinking about retiring was after the Japanese GP, when his title chances were firmly in his own hands. As much as I think Hamilton was a git for saying this is the first time Rosberg's won (against him) in 18 years, he does have a point in that, in all likelihood, this was the perfect storm for Rosberg. There's no guarantee that he will have the same amount of luck against Hamilton, that he will be able to dig as deeply as he has at certain points during this season, or that Mercedes will have such a margin over their competitors. And Rosberg's taken a lot of time to accomplish things in his career - first from the Williams days, trying for 4 years just to prove himself worthy of a top-level drive, then having to wait another couple years before actually getting a car capable of winning Grands Prix, then another couple years before finally getting a car that could deliver a WDC, and another 2 years before he was able to turn the tables on Hamilton. Given everything, even considering that every F1 driver believes themselves to be the best, you have to believe that there were quite a few times when Rosberg doubted he would ever get the chance to be World Champion. But he's pulled it off, against all odds. Why hang around when the odds are almost assuredly against him to repeat that feat?

Can't help agreeing with this. It does seem that Rosberg has had to work very hard for his title. Whilst he did show a lot of raw talent early on in his career, it wasn't as explosive as say Hamilton or Vettel. He's instead built for himself a reputation as a very dependable driver, almost a perfect #2 who was just patiently waiting for their chance. I think a lot of people would put him perhaps in the lower echelons of top tier drivers and wouldn't be about to recall as many "great drives" as for other drivers (even with 23 wins). Compare this to Hamilton and Vettel who had a leg up from an F1 team supporting them throughout the junior formulae and expect to win all of the time. I think Nico knows that this season was the season that he was dealt a better hand than Lewis and that he might not get a similar chance again in the future to win, a sort of recognition of his own limits. Being relatively recently wed and with a newborn, you can see how the motivation might not be there.

[Yannick]

This comes as quite a surprise.

However, Rosberg's decision shows the human being beyond the well-oiled machine that is both Mercedes GP and F1 in general. This human element is a storyline that has seemingly been absent from F1 for a while because it's largely been covered up by PR statements that require the use of an instrument called the publicocrap-o-meter which should be no stranger to folks who have followed Jamie & Enoch's podcasts over the past (how many actually?) years.

Looking at it in this way, Rosberg's decision is a reality check for everyone who seems to think there isn't any stuff that's more important than their love for the sport. It's great to know that he's ready for life outside of F1 and I'm looking forward to seeing him reappear in motorsport competition on the pit wall as a guest of his dad's Team Rosberg.

Here's wishing him a good life!

[CoopsII]

I do have a slight concern that, as many others have pointed out, 31 is quite young to retire from anything, let alone something like motorsport, and I hope Nico doesn't "try his hand" at some other lower form of it to get his buzz in a few years and end up getting injured as a result.

But, hey, as MSCs accident proved, shite can happen anytime. Live every day like it's your last etc etc.