Rosberg: Being a Formula 1 CEO ‘not for me’

Henry Valantine
Nico Rosberg

Nico Rosberg

Nico Rosberg says he enjoys the balance he has in his current life, and that taking over the running of a Formula 1 team “would not be for me”.

Alongside his increased online presence that led Daniel Ricciardo to jokingly dub him “Nico Vlogsberg”, the German also runs Rosberg X Racing, a team in the newly-launched Extreme E series.

His former team-mate and rival Lewis Hamilton also runs a team in the off-roading series, with Rosberg’s outfit currently leading the championship in its inaugural season.

Rosberg admitted recently he now empathises with his former boss Toto Wolff with the amount of things he has to think about while running a team, but says the constant demands placed upon him by Formula 1 would probably be too much to ask of a man whose retirement came partly as a result of wanting to spend more time with his family.

“No, I’m quite happy that there aren’t 23 races,” the 2016 World Champion told City A.M about Extreme E.

“I don’t really want to go back to being this full-on, every single day, all-day-long job like if you were a CEO of a Formula 1 team or something. That would not be for me.

“I’m happy with this. You can be really intense on the case as a CEO but also calm down in between races. I like the balance.”

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Away from the rigours of a Formula 1 team, Rosberg says he still takes a hands-on approach within Rosberg X Racing – revealing that he recruited drivers Molly Taylor and Johan Kristofferson by messaging them on social media.

While he remains adamant his driving days are behind him, Rosberg has thrown his weight into running his team.

“I’m involved every single day,” he said. “We have a project-collaborating tool called Asana, and there are Asanas flying about for Rosberg X Racing every single day because there are so many topics – sponsorship, finance, communication, social media, PR, the actual operational team, the drivers.

“Most of my time will go into the sponsorship front. And then I like to get involved hands-on, particularly at the races, with my own experience – so on the technical side, engineering, challenging the team on where they can do better. That I quite enjoy.

“The personal touch makes a big difference and is the only way to create partnerships – that’s also how we managed to sign our drivers. I reached out to them personally. I wrote them an Instagram direct message.”

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