Mercedes extend Rosberg deal
July 16, 2014
Nico Rosberg has signed a new "multi-year" contract extension with Mercedes, the German Formula One team have confirmed. Rosberg leads the driver's championship by four points ahead of the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.
The 29-year-old, seeking his first world championship, has claimed three race wins this season. Prior to his retirement at Silverstone earlier this month, Rosberg had finished first or second in every race. Rosberg has been with the Mercedes team since the German carmaker purchased the Oxfordshire-based "Brawn GP" team, returning to the F1 grid as a manufacturer.
"With his performances in 2014, Nico has demonstrated to the outside world what we knew already in the team: that he is one of the very top drivers in Formula One," the executive director of the Mercedes team, Toto Wolff, said in an official statement.
Despite several successes during its time as an F1 engine supplier, and formerly as part-owner of McLaren, no driver has won a title in a purely Mercedes-labeled car in more than half a century.
With Mercedes since the start
German newspaper Bild reported on Wednesday that the contract would be extended with Rosberg until 2017 and be worth 55 million euros ($74.6 million). Since joining Mercedes in 2010, he has won six races, with 17 podium finishes and eight pole positions.
"I'm looking forward to the next years together, when we will keep pushing to win even more races - and, hopefully, championships," Rosberg said. "It has been a difficult road to get to where we are now, but everybody kept believing and, thanks to the fantastic support from Mercedes-Benz, we are now leading the way in F1."
"This new contract brings us important stability and continuity for the future and I am delighted to be able to make the announcement in time for the home race of Mercedes-Benz and Nico in Hockenheim." Wolff added.
The Monaco-raised Rosberg has already won one of his "home" races this year, finishing first around the principality's city streets for the second year running. At Hockenheim on Sunday, he will seek his first ever F1 race win on German soil. To commemorate Germany's World Cup win on Sunday, he will be deviating from his usual, mainly-black helmet for the race at Hockenheim.
Home driver Sebastian Vettel won last year's German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring; Germany's two largest racetracks alternate in hosting the country's F1 race.
The Mercedes driver could be the first German to win on home soil in a nominally German-manufactured car since 1939. The Mercedes F1 team's base remains in the English Oxfordshire town of Brackley. The all-important Mercedes engines, a key component in the team's domination of the 2014 season after a major regulation overhaul, are also built in the UK, in Brixworth, Northamptonshire.
rd/msh (AFP, AP, SID, Reuters)