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At yesterdays launch of the 2006
WilliamsF1 FW28 Nico Rosberg
would join his more experienced colleges on the stage. For the GP2 champion
2006 will see him join the Formula one circus as a rookie but even so Nico
is confident that he can have a "great" maiden season.
 At
the launch of the new car Nico spoke of how he viewed the upcoming season.
Nico said:
"I have a lot of belief in myself so I hope that I can have a great year. Honestly now I have to wait for the new car which comes out next week.
"So I am going to have to wait for that and I am really looking forward to
trying that because for a long time now I have been driving the old car. And then we can see where we are."
For the GP2 champion his rise to in ranks of been a F1 driver has been
helped by the fact that he is the son of 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg.
Nico added:
"It has been a great help to me during my career. It has helped
me find sponsors and the media is interested in me because of my name. Also
it's been big even with F1 teams showing interest in me. It even goes that
far.
"When I first got into the Williams team back in 2002 it was because of my
name, so it has helped a lot. On the other hand it has been a bit of a
burden in the fact that people always compare me to my father. In every
interview there is at least a quarter of it about my father. It does become
a bit heavy so I try to see the positive side.
"It's a great thing for me to have such a father especially since he can
give me a lot of great advice. He is a very clever person and he has been
through a lot so he can give me good advice.
"Not in the car because you can't make someone go fast, you either have the
talent or you don't, but outside the car the way I go about things like
interviews he can give me a lot of great help."
Comparisons have already been
made between Nico's joining the WilliamsF1 team and that of Jenson Button,
who is now an established full-time driver with Honda. As for whether Nico
can produce the same results as Jenson, who ended his rookie season
with WilliamsF1 with twelve points. Their paths into Formula One were
somewhat different with Nico coming from GP2 while Jenson came from Formula
3. His time in GP2 saw Nico race at tracks used by the Formula One
championship.
WilliamsF1's Patrick Head spoke of this aspect of Nico's career. He said: "I
would hope that Nico would be well ahead of that. When Jenson drove for us
it was our first year with the BMW engine so there was no question that the
car was a leading car.
"I think the Bridgestone tyres
will be competitive, I think the Cosworth engine will be competitive and
therefore it's just down to us whether the whole package is competitive."
Head added: "From everything we've seen of Nico he seems to be cool and
calm. I'm not saying his father was completely the opposite, but he used to
get a bit more agitated than Nico when things went wrong.
"Nico always seems to have his thoughts well under control and in testing
he's made very few mistakes, if any. He's also been pretty quick."
Rosberg, who was also a test driver for Williams last season, will have done
more than 15,000 km in testing before the season starts in Bahrain on March
12.
WilliamsF1 Technical Director Sam Michael added his views on Nico's chances
in 2006 and the future. Michael said: "He's got a very strong head on his
shoulders and he's also very good at listening to people. No matter how you
look at it, he's a future star."
"He's only 20 and he's going to make mistakes, like everyone does in their
first year, but in terms of the medium to long term we can definitely see
something very special in Nico."
Team boss Frank Williams agreed: "His overtaking in GP2 was masterful, like
carefully-planned choreography...We have a strong long-term grip on him."
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