Rosberg under fire: 'The minute he won he gave up, he had no passion for racing'

Comparing the various Formula 1 world champions throughout history, Jacques Villeneuve pointed out that, in his opinion, Nico Rosberg “the minute he won, he gave up.”

In 2016, after a season-long duel with his then-teammate Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, Nico Rosberg fulfilled his dream of becoming world champion, just like his father Keke in 1982, and announced his retirement from racing shortly after his victory in Abu Dhabi.

His seat was then taken by Valtteri Bottas, who stayed at Mercedes from 2017 to 2021 before handing the wheel over to George Russell, who still drives for the team following the seven-time world champion’s departure last year.

The German has never regretted his decision, despite having access to the most competitive car on the grid at the time and still being at an ideal age to race.

Nico Rosberg

Villeneuve takes aim at Rosberg

As a guest on the Red Flags podcast, Jacques Villeneuve, while comparing the various world champions throughout history, pointed out that, in his view, Rosberg didn’t have a genuine passion for racing.

''The minute he won, you could see he was completely spent,'' he said. ''He won mentally over, because he played the political game.''

''He was quick in that season against Lewis, but Lewis never saw it coming, so we didn't see the best Lewis. And the minute he won, he gave up. So you could tell that he had no passion for racing. And every time I see him, he doesn't miss racing.''

''He really doesn't care about racing. All he was wanting to do was win a championship like his dad and then move on. That's all. He did manage to win a championship, but then it didn't want it anymore.''

Villeneuve finally raised a series of questions: ''Why did you race in the first place? If you never had the passion, and what's sad is, even without that passion, you can still, once in a while, have a winner. And that just goes against my instinct, against the roots of racing. But it happened.''

Finally, he concluded: ''it's only after winning that you realize why were you doing it? And then you think, actually I don't like racing that much. I don't like spending all my life on the road and so on. So yeah, it's better to stop at that point, but it's a bit sad.''

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