Already in his first race in Formula One Nico Rosberg turned some heads by doing the fastest lap. But the son of former World Champion Keke had already proven his speed several times before.

At the age of eleven the German was Cote d'Azur mini-kart Champion and he continued to show strong performances in the karting classes he competed in the following years. In 1997 he was French mini-kart Champion, in 1998 North American ICA Junior Karting Champion and he finished 1999 as runner-up in the Italian ICA Junior Karting Championship.

In 2002 Rosberg moved to single seaters and competed in the German Formula BMW taking the title in his first season there. By that he also became the youngest driver ever to test a Formula One car when Williams BMW invited him at the age of 17. Rosberg progressed to the F3 Euroseries where he stayed for two years before he moved up to the newly installed GP2 Series.

He competed for ART and won the title ahead of Heikki Kovalainen. In October of 2005 he signed a contract as race driver with Williams and finished the 2006 season with four points after having several reliability problems on his car. He stayed at Williams for four years, before he signed as the first German to drive a Mercedes-Benz works Silver Arrow since 55 years.