After a spectacular start to his Formula One career at the youthful age of 20, many expected Nico Rosberg to rapidly rise to fame, but instead has stumbled on his way up the F1 ladder. After becoming the inaugural GP2 champion, Rosberg graduated to F1 with Williams in 2006, scoring seventh place and fastest lap on his Grand Prix debut in Bahrain. Since then, other than an occasional podium finish, Rosberg has shown little to mark him out as a future champion.

Rosberg had already become the youngest driver to test a Formula One car when he stepped into a BMW-powered Williams at the end of 2002 as a reward for winning the German Formula BMW championship that year, and was unsurprisingly given the nod by Williams management for a race seat following his GP2 exploits three years later. In his first race, a first-corner collision put him to the back of the field early on, but bravely fought on, overtaking numerous cars on his way to seventh, staying on the leaders' pace throughout. At under 21 years of age, Rosberg became the youngest driver in the sport's history to set the fastest lap of a race.

At his second race, he achieved his best qualifying position to date with third place, but the team's inherent reliability problems soon took hold, and robbed him of a second consecutive points finish. Such retirements became a regular occurrence for him over the course of the year, failing to finish nine of the 18 races. In qualifying trim, he rarely matched team-mate Mark Webber for pace, and regularly fell further behind the Australian during races. The only other highlight of his season was taking seventh at his home race at the Nurburgring, rising from 22nd on the grid to heroically finish into the points.

With Williams switching to Toyota power for 2007, and the team keen to avoid the catastrophic reliability record of 2006, Rosberg was able to score points in over a third of the races, as he squared up to new team-mate Alex Wurz. This time the German had the upper hand, but was unable to take a podium finish on his way to ninth in the championship. Continual development on the FW29 allowed Rosberg to become a consistent points-scorer in the final third of the year, culminating in an impressive fourth place at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix, after seeing off Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica late in the race with a couple of daring overtaking manoeuvres.

Point-scoring finishes became a rarity for Rosberg in 2008, as Williams fell back on development and switched their focus to the 2009 regulations change, but the German nevertheless saved face by book-ending the season with two podium finishes. In Australia, two safety car periods played into his hands to take third place, his first ever F1 podium, before Nelson Piquet's infamous crash early in the Singapore Grand Prix propelled Rosberg to the front of the field to take second. Other than his podiums, Rosberg scored points in just three races by finishing eighth. Reliability wasn't a problem, and aore often that not he struggled to get inside the top ten, finishing a lowly 13th in the championship.

Having shifted their focus to 2009 early the previous year, Williams were confident of challenging regularly for points, and after a shaky start to the year, Rosberg soon found his feet to become a top-8 regular. In Australia, he blew his chance of a podium finish by pushing too hard on a new set of tyres before dropping hopelessly to sixth by the chequered flag, helped by the late-race safety car. In Malaysia and China, his wet-weather pace was found wanting, when he finished eighth and 15th respectively, while he wasn't quick enough for points in Bahrain either.

From Spain onwards though, he put together a string of eight top-eight finishes, twice finishing fourth. After qualifying third in Singapore, he looked set to take second for the second year running before he made a rookie error on the pit-exit, earning himself a drive-through penalty and dropping him outside the top ten. Although 2009 showed he could be a consistent points-scorer, he was unable to fully exploit the pace of the car early in the year, and his silly error in Singapore showed he is still prone to errors.

Although not yet officially confirmed, Rosberg will move to Mercedes GP next season as he looks to take his first F1 victory after four years in the cockpit. Anything other than a world-championship capable car will make it difficult for him, but having shown flashes of brilliance at times he could yet surprise.

Decade highs:
Fastest lap and points on F1 debut in Bahrain 2006
Maiden podium in Australia 2008

Decade lows:
Throwing away possible maiden victory with silly pitlane error in Singapore 2009

2010s?
While he is likely to score at least one F1 victory, a championship challenge is unlikely going to materialise. Without huge motivation and endless reserves of talent, Rosberg will need to be team-leader with a world championship winning car to have any chance of lifting the title.