Maro Engel: “Nico had the talent, but he was already a hard worker”

In our last issue of 2016, we decided to retrace the footsteps of Nico Rosberg, whose childhood was shaped on the Côte d'Azur, between Monaco and Nice. Among the various privileged witnesses of these first years of the life of the 2016 world champion F1, Maro Engel did not hesitate to tell us his memories.

The winner of the 2015 FIA GT World Cup also takes a look at the more than successful career of Nico Rosberg. The latter never left anything to chance according to the pilot of the fold Mercedes AMG in the GT categories.

“He is someone who has always been able to analyze situations very well and who has always been able to draw the right conclusions, explains Engel. During his career, he always progressed by eliminating the faults he saw one by one.

In terms of character, he has never changed since his young years. He’s a guy who has his feet on the ground, calm. He had a great career. He worked for it, and he got what he deserves.

Our generation of drivers is rich in Nico, Lewis Hamilton, But also Sebastian Vettel who is a year younger, by Robert Kubica, by Nicolas lapierre, by Alex Prémat, by Nico Hulkenberg, by Lucas di Grassi, etc. It was impossible to say who among us would one day become world champions, but it was certain that this group of very good drivers growing up together would produce at least one.

Our generation is very successful in F1, WEC, GT, Formula e... Nico had the talent, but he was already a hard worker, already someone who worked a lot on himself. He was very strong, but others were just as strong. I think I can say that he learned from all these teammates and all these competitors. »

Discover our return to the footsteps of Nico Rosberg's youth, in issue 2094 of AUTOhebdo, always available in digital version and on newsstands.