The suspicious retirement of Nico Rosberg 

Different gravy.

My favorite take: Rosberg hated Lewis so much he retired out of spite so Lewis could not get his revenge.

‘Nico Rosberg was created in a Lab by the FIA in order to challenge Lewis Hamilton and make it interesting’ That line killed me 😂

He had achieved everything you can at the highest level of motorsport. He was mentally and physically exhausted because of the commitment in 2016. He has a beautiful wife, perfect kids, millions of dollars, Heineken and Mercedes ambassador, RU-vidr with a million plus subscribers, and still young. I take my hat off to Nico, i would have done the same thing.

Honestly I think it was just family related, he refused to sleep in a bed with his wife or even perform any child care duties at all for a whole year, I think he agreed with his wife that he would have one year of being completely unavailable and would quit at the end no matter the consequence.

Rosberg went down the “Quit while you’re still ahead” route before he became an Alonso or Vettel in terms of champions losing their mojo

Nico just understood the energy and commitment levels needed to win a championship and decided he wasn’t going to do that again. Fair play. Also probably resented he was being paid half of his teammates salary when he had just become world champion.

Nico has admitted that it took all the energy he had and more to beat Lewis. He pretty much said that he was not prepared to sacrifice his personal life by repeating the intensity he had to apply a second year.

It was definitely an innocent retirement but more importantly I think the stress of having to battle Lewis drained the fun out of driving for him as well as how that competitive relationship soured there friendship.

Petition to make the conspiracy theories a series.

Imo if Nico hadn't retired in 2016, Vettel could've won the championship in 2017.

To add credibility to the conspiracy, just look at the man who replaced Nico. Valtteri Bottas. A different personality, cool headed, capable of scoring consistent 2nd place points for Mercedes, but not creating a hostile, combative mood in the team. Ensuring that Max Verstappen can’t seriously challenge Mercedes, and step into the 2nd place position.

Nico Rosberg was created by the FIA to challenge Lewis Hamilton Me: Yes, this theory is more believable

3:37 Lewis didn’t mean that it was the first time Nico won a title in 18 years, he meant that it was the first time Nico beat him. Nico and Lewis raced with each other for years, even in junior series. They were on the same karting team as kids. And Lewis always rose above Nico

You gotta remember that Nico did not just retire from F1, but from racing in any way! I think he was just at place where he had realized his dream of becoming F1 world champion, he had just become a father, and I think he was just ready to leave a dangerous career behind to focus on life as a dad and husband. I don't think there's any more to it

It makes perfect sense now, Nico was genetically engineered to fight Hamilton, but he was only a human. As soon as the FIA artificial intelligence and biomechanics program progressed far enough it was time to retire him and introduce plan Robottas into the mix

Well if I were him I would retire too because 1 championship fight is enough stress 😂

The only reason that the Malaysia failure doesn’t feel right as a “planned” move is Nico and Vettel colliding on lap 1 and punting Nico to the back of the field... Nico had to absolutely claw his way back up to 4th (inheriting 3rd when Lewis’ engine blew). I mean Mercedes had no way of knowing that specifically Malaysia would be so crucial to changing the championship, and all that work would have been a total waste had Nico been only 2 places back. Had Merc planned to kill any of Lewis’ races, they would have had to have it planned in advance, and planning that in advance would just be too risky, otherwise, if they had a theoretical kill switch, a race like Monaco would have made way more sense, since Nico was doing even worse, down in 7th.

I think Nico realised that the team he was in was team Hamilton. He won against the odds and decided that winning was the pinacle. Also he probable just wanted to spend the rest of his life with his family. Safer.

Nico has been very open post-retirement about how his time at Mercedes wasn't the most healthy (Michael Schumacher played a lot of mind games with him and we obviously saw what happened between him and Lewis). Maybe the thing that really pushed him into retirement was that he was burned out from all the toxicity and hyper-competitiveness and he needed to take time away from racing? Nico has been offered to return to racing as a driver in the years since (he got an offer to drive in DTM in 2019 but he declined it claiming that he didn't feel fit enough to race).

I just think he retired at his all time high and wanted people to remember him as a world champion and not as a back marker like vettel is nowadays

Mercedes wanted him to be wingman of hamilton and he refused . That's the only reason only hamilton fans will deny that.

Hot Take: Ferrari deliberately prevented Irvine from winning the '99 Championship

I think Nico quit F1 for family related reasons, but very reluctantly so, but had to because of family pressure. Also, once F1 drivers start families they also begin to lose their edge.

"strong team culture at Mercedes" yeah right, Bottas could give you his 2 cents about that

George Russell's Sakir race would be another interesting one to do. Plenty of scope for different ideas and reasons there.

Its actually James hunt repeat.... After winning championship Nico realised that he need not to prove the world he is best... He just needed to prove it to himself and already done that...

I think Nico retired after his title not only for familial reasons but also as a symbolic method. He knew that by retiring he would forever be on top of his rivalry, forever giving Lewis the feeling that he lost. Nico knew that doing that would be a total mindset change for Lewis for the rest of his career and definitely stuck it to him

I remember that race in Malaysia. I remember that Lewis was pumping in the lap times and I was thinking there's no point pushing it as you could blow the power train as F1 cars are built to run at certain temp tolerances and you're racing in Malaysia, one of the hottest races on the calendar at that time - better to pace it and finish the race in a measured way...........2 or 3 laps later Lewis's power train blew up. I always thought Rosberg was underrated though - not on the same level in terms of speed as Lewis (not many can claim to be that!) but definitely far better than many thought. Bottas has been there for now his 5th season and he has not reached the same consistency in qualifying or race pace as Rosberg did. I think it's fair that Rosberg bowed out when he did, he achieved what he wanted, no point in carrying on if you're not motivated to do it, and I don't think he would have retained the title because Lewis would have been super motivated to beat him

My father actually was saying during the 2016 season that Mercedes were sabotaging Lewis and Nico's retirement confirmed it for him 🤣

The real reason for Nico's retirement : he wanted to win the Oscar for editing.

When your father is Keke Rosberg you have some big shoes to fill. I always felt like Nico was not a born racing driver and probably would not even have moved up to F1 if he had a different father. So once he reached his ultimate goal of becoming F1 champion like his father, he instantly retired. I salute him for it. He had a goal, reached it, and realized he did not have the motivation to (probably fruitlessly) chase another championship for many years to come.

Haha, nice video mate! Really loved it! Being a newer fan (since the Italian GP 2018), it was interesting to hear about Nico's retirement. I still support his retirement as his YT videos are beautiful and he's enjoying time with his family (in all seriousness). Nonetheless, still enjoyed the conspiracy mate! No.3 was obviously my favorite xD

Rosberg is a young, multi-millionaire with a lovely wife and family, he decided to retire, at the top, of a very dangerous sport, after being worn down by the spiteful and childish antics of his former close friend, Hamilton, that in my opinion is the long and short of it.

Maybe Rosberg just wanted to be a youtuber instead of battling out the toxicity between him and Lewis

I'm wondering how bottas has so many "unfortunate" events. I think Mercedes is currently sabotaging bottas to make sure he can't change Hamilton. In my personal opinion they have proven themselves capable of this when they had to stop Russel from winning in Hamiltons car 1st time out in it. They could not have that cos it would take away to much from Hamiltons status.

Bro fighting with lewis was too stressful for him, if you watched his years against lewis, you will notice the stress never got to lewis as he was always calm under pressure, but it had a toll on rosberg, so once rosberg was able to win it, he didnt want to go through the stress again so after achieving his greatest desire, he decided to retire and spend time with his family. Dont forget formula 1 is a dangerous sport, so he choose his family and his own peace of mind.

I think CYMotorsport explained it best about why Nico retired after winning the Driver's Championship. Nico retiring was the best thing to do. I like to think of it as to finally overcoming the biggest hurdle in your life because who hates losing to your rival. I would also agree with what CYMotorsport said about Lewis after Nico won. Lewis had nothing to say because he let a Driver's championship slip away from his grasp. Nico retiring and now giving F1 fans his analysis and vlogs is awesome for the sport of F1. While I never watched Nico race live (I started watching F1 in 2018) I believe Nico is a lot happier without the stress of being an F1 driver.

When you started after the intro. I was setting up my dinner and when i heard you speak. “Wait a minute, that’s exactly like buzzfeed unsolved’s videos” and when i got back on my phone, i saw the timeline format. Hahahaahha! I love it. I always watch their videos. This is like a collabz This is GOLD. Just great content.

I saw this and I knew I had to click this instantly...btw your video production is overpowered

It's rare that you hear 'different gravy' on Buzzfeed Unsolved ahahah

My opinion on rosbergs retirment is that hed had enough hed been racing in f1 since the early 00s and after the toxicity he had went through with mercedes and hamilton he finally achieved his lifelong dream win an f1 wdc then he was able to walk away with no regrets

Fantastic idea for a series. We will watch your career with great interest!

He wanted to start his youtuber career. Then imagine him posting Among Us gameplays 🤣🤣🤣

He looks like he just left a Backstreet Boys convention

For some sportsmen and women, achieving your goal, even if it’s just the once is enough. This is not a criticism, far from it, to reach the pinnacle in a sport you have dedicated your whole life to, is a wonderful and tremendous achievement. Plenty of great F1 drivers never achieve that world championship and some truly great drivers have only won the title once. For some it was enough. Winning the title multiple times demands not only tremendous skill and determination but also some luck, the right team and car but most importantly an unbelievable hunger to keep winning. Nico like many other one time champs, Damon Hill, Mansell and James Hunt were also driving in a time when, arguably, all time greats were racing. To keep that hunger for another world championship, against someone who you know has done it time and time again, when you’ve given your all so many times before and come up short, to have had to deal with the disappointments of losing the title in close battles, to keep going when you think maybe the chance has gone, to keep all that when you finally get your hands on it, must be incredibly difficult, and so hard to keep yourself motivated to go through it all again. This in no way dismisses their achievements, like the others, a little more luck, one different decision and they could of all won at least another. It does however show the absolute ruthlessness, unrivalled determination and insatiable hunger that multiple championship winners possess. I can see why Nico retired. He finally achieved his dream, after some close calls, a fractured friendship, the crushing blows and disappointments, and against a driver who statistically has broken all the records. He had nothing left to give, and nothing left to prove to himself. He probably knew deep down he either couldnt or didn’t want to, go through it all again. So he retired as the world champion.

Just having a think about it I have a theory on why seb won the 2010 title

Please keep the conspiracy theories coming!! This was a really interesting and well-researched video :)

Don't think there was anything untoward. Gotta remember about the second theory, Lewis entered that season having dominated Nico in 2015. So there was very little rivalry in actual fact as they were rarely on the same piece of tarmac. Nico then came into 2016 ready to attack and Lewis struggled to come to terms with it until July, when he won some 4 races in 1 month. I think it was just destiny at Malaysia. 2016 was destined to be Nico's year, and everything fell his way. He knew he probably could not repeat his effort, so he decided to leave at his peak, which is admirable, as everyone else would keep fighting for more wins in what was without doubt the best team, and still is.

He didn’t need the stress of being Hamilton’s team mate anymore. He lucked into a championship due to the unreliability of Lewis’s car that year. He leads a charmed life. His father is wealthy, he is wealthy, lives in Monaco and still coins it in by doing commentary for Sky Sports. If I were him I’d probably have done the same, he’s just one lucky guy but extremely likeable. Fair play to him.

Loving how far the "Buzzfeed unsolved mysteries" format is parodied, the attention to detail is incredible.

Nico Rosberg conspiracy theory: Nico left F1 to start a boy band called The Britneys.

Hey, can you please not put in the really high pitch sound effect between segments, I've got tinitus and it really fucks with my hearing when im wearing surround sound headphones too. Just a minor thing but I love your content and that one little noise being used made it difficult for me to watch.

This guy needs some freaking subs amazing dude keeeeep thissss upppp!!!! Hopefully one day u will get 1 million subs baby!

4 theory: nico wanted to became a full time youtuber

Can't get the thought out of my head that if Nico had raced for mercedes till 2018 he could have taken enough points from Hamilton that Vettel could have won either the 2017 or 2018 title.

So if Nico had stayed until 2018 when his contract ran out, then they would need a driver for the 2019 season. Could that have been George Russel? Is Nico Rosberg retiring the only reason Russel is still at Williams?

You forgot to mention one very, very important fact. There was also someone else who left F1 that same year...

Ha! Love the disclaimer at the start. Just a point of order; after winning a championship or title, you never "defend" it the following year because regardless of whatever the outcome of the following year, your winning championship always stands and never gets taken away. Defending has connotations that one could lose something such as the championship you've won but this is clearly not the case.

It wasn't that surprising he retired after winning. Plus he was paid out.

You have to remember that Hamilton didn't just suffer the infamous engine failure in Malaysia 2016. He also had engine problems which caused him to start from the back in China and Belgium, and from tenth in Russia. The only reliability problem Rosberg suffered all year was a five-place gearbox penalty in Austria (which only ended up dropping him four places). Lewis already took 12 poles and 10 wins to Nico's 8 poles and 9 wins. Without these reliability problems, Lewis may well have taken up to 15 poles and 14 wins, breaking records in the process, and would almost certainly have won the title. Whilst its impressive that Nico managed to get as close as he did to one of the greatest drivers of all time, there's not much doubt that all things being equal Lewis would've beaten him, and would already be an eight-time Champion.

Nico's retirement was a psy-op by Christian Horner knowing that 5 years later, Bottas would not have the pace at Abu Dhabi to be LH's wingman, thus allowing Checo to delay LH enough for MV to win the championship after an SC brought on by NL's crash.

Okay, point number 3 really, really made my laugh! Though I would have appreciated a little more of that silliness.

And PPL shit on BOTTAS what would happen if he were to pull an actual Nico. Blessed hamilton gonna kill his career.

Your second theory makes so much sense. Even throughout that season I had a gut feeling that Mercedes did in fact put Nico ahead and wanted him to win. But the way Lewis fought the title was beyond what they expected.

loving this sort of content, more please mr perspective

I love these videos, it’s like buzz feed unsolved but f1

History channel “true” documentaries be like

0:51 We found the secret 3rd brother of Mario, Morio

Netflix: Write this down, WRITE THIS DOWN!

"I'll try my best buzzfeed unsolved voice" Proceeds with the heaviest British accent possible. All jokes great video mate!

HAM Proved to be super petty, He knew he pulled off a miraculous win and it would not repeat itself... good enough! Nico is all friendly and amicable, doesn't seem like he'd be enjoying a constant tussle, and it's good to end on a high note.

I have a feeling when Hamilton retires Rosberg will want to make a comeback

Hey I think this is a good idea for a video, ''F1 final championship standings since 1950's to 2018 if the fastest lap in every race was counted as a point.''

Stoner in the video:"I dont want to take anything away from Nico... But i actually do"

Love this video and it was indeed suspicious, I can't wait to buy Hamilton's book.

18 years of being beat by Hamilton when he realised the level he would have to go to, to do it again he didn't have the energy so he left.

The pressure was too much he couldn't take another season of that.

I think Rosberg retired because he'd had enough of the mind games from Hamilton, after he was backed up into the clutches of Verstappen and Vettel in the closing stages in Abu Dhabi. Either that, or he truly retired to be there more for his family.

AN INNOCENT RETIREMENT, OR IS IT A FORMULA ONE CONSPIRACY? (442oons intensifies)

I would love to believe this Conspiracy. But Retiring while still on your prime and on top is a real hard and tough decision to make and need to be respected. He decided enough is enough. I achieved what I want. Now onto the next challenge. He is actually step out of his Comfort zone in F1.

Amazing job with the unsolved voice!!!

Ohhh myyy goddd I love these series keep on going champ

all of them are possible and likely because i honestly believe that toto has more shit going on than he shows like he looks all simple sweet and funny but is as cunning as a jackal. nicos one of the greatest in my book simply because of when he retired. he will power it must have taken to go out in your prime mustve been mental. plus his family needed him. no hate to lewis but my man's sacrifices are seen. nico imo though won the title on his merit and lewis will forEVER be pissed about that.

I think Rosberg was smart, retiring at his peak

Only thing missing is "just let me know..." as an intro

What a great idea for a video! Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Why are people defending Nico? Champions defend their championship. “He did it so he could take care of his family” he wasn’t the only driver on the grid taking care of family. Point blank... he didn’t want to face Hamilton again.

Nico Rossberg retired to Cover up the fact that Roland Ratzenberger never died and that nico Rossberg was Roland Ratzenberger All alone

Fascinating! I remember well that during the 2016 season, watching each GP live on TV from the US, it often seemed instinctively to me that Mercedes was "trying" to make Nico win. So that they could send him off and hire a more appropriate "mule" to help Lewis win many more Championships. And Bottas sure proved the perfect choice for that role. I had forgotten all that, but now you revived this feeling powerfully. I think you got something there. 😉

Love your videos man

The mechanic switch theory is hilarious as it basically is saying that this move was the difference and the reason why Nico won that championship although Hamilton fans fail to then realise the flip side of that coin which would obviously follow that, if that was the case then the 2 championships Hamilton won against Nico was also down to the mechanics. In short. When Hamilton wins his because of talent, when he loses it’s a conspiracy and sabotage against him. He is nothing more than a top10 driver in an unbeatable car. Something Max will put right this season only for Hamilton fans to come out an say, oh the Redbull was the faster car. Hypocrisy at it’s finest!

Nico knew he got lucky in 16 and that the pressure to repeat it would be intolerable for him so he quit on top.

They started by swapping his mechanics, which was crazy, and some how he had engine problems and his starts were really bad. Don't forget at azerbaijan when lewis mysteriously had a steering wheel setting out of place and couldn't be told what was wrong with his car under the new regulations, but nico was told at the british GP when he had trans problems. And please don't forget austrian GP when lewis started ahead of nico and thew pit stops nico jumped lewis. O and for the final pit stop they put nico on faster tires ahead of lewis. And man, in the last race of the year, telling lewis to speed up and let nico win. I think lewis knew because he only tried to back nico up after the last pit stops. Also after lewis's motor blew up in china in the lead , his statement after was" someone doesn't want me to win". I think the whole season was bent and I can't wait for the book.

I also found it suspicious that paddy Lowe left Mercedes after 2016. During Abu Dhabi Lewis and paddy got heated during the race. Even though Lewis was slowing down to try win the championship while leading , paddy was telling Lewis to speed in order to "win this race". But this was a clear message to Lewis that Rosberg is underthreat from the driver behind him. But this is a championship fight which made no sense . Something definitely got heated after that season.

Nico knew that everyone in Mercedes camp was in Lewis' corner especially Toto and Lauda, i mean we all remember everytime something happened on track it was always Nico's fault and never Lewis' fault, not even once and both Toto and Lauda were very vocal about it in front of media, so how do you move ahead as a champion and defend your title when your team principal is playing favorites and wants to see your team-mate/rival succeed at all cost, so he figured out that he was there for Racing not Politics.

Time and time again I've said that Hamilton's season had been sabotaged. Switching engineers, and an inordinant number of engine malfunctions were anough for me.

These two had been rivals since karting, Lewis had been beating Nico for most of their lives, Nico finally beat Lewis in the ultimate way - wining the F1 championship. He retired so Lewis could not beat him again and will never have a chance to, Nico will always have the last straw over Lewis

Lmao you weren’t kidding when you said you were channeling unsolved

Yh Mercedes defo messed things around for Lewis. The mechanics switch was just unnecessary and the amount of failures and bad luck he had, majority in the beginning of the season was a bit suspicious. This all ultimately knocked Lewis confidence and focus. Leading to his poor starts and lack of motivation. For example Singapore.