James Vowles reveals important Michael Schumacher lesson led to Nico Rosberg’s F1 retirement

Williams F1 boss James Vowles has revealed that Nico Rosberg’s decision to retire at the end of 2016 stemmed from a valuable lesson he learned from former Mercedes teammate Michael Schumacher.

After beating Lewis Hamilton to the 2016 drivers’ championship, Rosberg shockingly called time on his F1 career.

The German made the decision to quit after he ‘gave up everything’ in 2016 to beat Hamilton to the title.

In a later interview, Rosberg revealed: "In a way, I gave up my identity. Everything in my life was racing: my mechanics, my engineers, my team-mates, even my social environment.

"To put all that to zero in one fell swoop was a shock to my system. Then there was the addiction to recognition and success.

"I had never asked myself what other passions I had. There was always just the next race."

Following Rosberg's retirement, Hamilton would go on to win four more world titles to equal Schumacher on seven overall.

Speaking on the latest episode of the High Performance Podcast, Vowles - who was at Mercedes from 2010 to 2022 - revealed what specifically Rosberg learned from Schumacher.

"Nico learned a tremendous amount from him,” Vowles said. 

“It formed the Nico that then became a world champion ultimately, which is squeeze everything out you can at the cost of everything else.

"The sacrifice that was painful to me where you let go of family and friends and loved ones, he did for that year.

"And he decided, and all the respect to him for it, but actually that’s not the life he wanted."