Nico Rosberg grew up watching Michael Schumacher win his seven Formula 1 world championship titles. Rosberg was lucky enough to share a garage with his fellow countryman between 2010 and 2012. The 2016 F1 world champion discusses how Schumacher inspired him to improve.
"Schumacher was a huge inspiration for an entire generation. His dedication to the sport, his passion and commitment was phenomenal. However, I was rooting for his opponent, Mika Häkkinen. So I was not the Schumacher fan growing up. " Rosberg told WELT.
Rosberg started to appreciated how Schumacher operated when the two paired up inside the Mercedes garage. Schumacher made his return to the sport, and Rosberg is thankful for all the lessons he was taught.
“As a teammate, I learned so much from him. That certainly helped me to become world champion myself later. I mainly learnt how to gain respect within a team. What position you have to take and how to be a 'team player'. Those are the most important things I learned from him," Rosberg added.
After Schumacher departed the team, it took Rosberg another four seasons before he finally picked up the world championship in 2016 after some intense battles with then-teammate Lewis Hamilton.
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