ROSBERG: WORLD CHAMPION KARTING DRIVER

TKART Staff

05 December 2016

Everyone knows that Rosberg won the 2016 F1 World Championship. Everyone knows that he started his career with karting, in the Dino Chiesa camp. But perhaps not everyone knows that Nico, when he can, still races in karts. Always with Dino Chiesa. Like that time in Muro Leccese... And now that, everyone knows, Rosberg says goodbye to F1, who knows if we will not see him more often in karts

With his fashion-model looks, the physique of a triathlete, and a cool popstar haircut (more tasteful than most...), there’s no reason why this man should be anywhere close to a kart track on a Saturday morning, in late January. It’s cold, it takes effort, and someone like him could well be basking in the sun on an island beach with his wife. Instead, on the last weekend of January, Nico Rosberg, flew all the way to Italy to be in La Conca; as its over 1,200 meters turned stage to the WSK collective tests. In a sense this is the worst place to go karting for a F1 driver: it means racing amidst young lads who are in the thick of their karting careers and ready to give their lives for a chance to lay tire in front of a racing VIP. It’s the perfect place to catch a cold, considering the temperature, and receive a few tenths from guys who spend all their days on kart in the most competitive championships around the world.
But Nico could care less and at 9 am he’s already on track. Even though it’s cold and it just rained. He could care less that the boxing ring he’s stepping in to warm his muscles back up after who knows how long of a break is not exactly one of the easiest. He doesn’t care because he is quite familiar with the world of top level karting.The memories date back to over a decade ago, when he used to race with team MBM and a guy called Dino Chiesa as manager.

The kart driven by Rosberg in La Conca had graphics customised by Lucky Design. However, the material was the proven (and winning) Zanardi KZ3 chassis, with 28 mm diameter tubes. The engine, instead, was a Parilla Reedster KF.

The team had been built precisely around him, the son of F1 world champion Keke Rosberg, and Lewis Hamilton, probably the first “private” karters to receive such a strong and substantial support in terms of means and availability. The two didn’t race with your standard factory team, like Birel or CRG, but with a karting outfit created ad hoc by AMG (Mercedes). And the man called on to manage the show back then was precisely Padua-born Dino Chiesa, who a few years later, at this point with his own team, Chiesa Corse, and his own chassis, Zanardi, is finding himself once more on track with the “blondie”.

Except the goal this time around is not the European title, but only having fun and stripping some rust from the winter months.
Too bad it’s raining. Although, if one hasn’t been karting for a long time, the rain can actually help, rather than hurt. In fact, when it’s wet, there’s less grip and the kart slides, sparing arms from excessive strain. And ribs too, which seem to be Nico’s weakest spot on this revival run. When he wakes up on race day, his aching chest immediately reminds him of the practice laps done the day before. So the team guys search for a solution to make the run less painful.