I was already super thin, so I couldn’t lose weight, but I still had these leg muscles to get rid of, so I got rid of those across a two-month period, and that proved enough to get me pole position in Suzuka. "One kilo is three-hundredths of a second per lap, so I was looking for an extra bit of performance, anything that could give me the slightest edge. Two hundredths, for me, was my leg muscles that I dropped in the summer break by stopping cycling. "Lewis was on provisional pole, and then I came round and I beat him by the smallest of margins. "The pivotal moment was in Suzuka where I got pole position by two-hundredths of a second," he explained.
Recounting the 2016 Japanese Grand Prix, where Rosberg just pipped Hamilton to pole position, he attributed that small victory to him letting his muscular legs atrophy. Rosberg has always maintained that the sheer strain of trying to beat Hamilton to the title was the catalyst for his departure from the sport, and has revealed some of the sacrifices he had to make to beat his storied rival. "There was about £100m going down the drain… but s**t happens," he laughed. Having just been crowned the World Champion, Rosberg was throwing away a lucrative pay-out as he had a valid contract with Mercedes for 2017. It was a question of do I want to continue to deliver and live in that intensity, and with my dream having come true - I'd fulfilled my goal of being World Champion - it just felt like a great moment to step away and have a new life, with different benefits." If you ask me, 'When did you decide to retire?' That was the moment," Rosberg told Squaremile. Rosberg beat Lewis Hamilton to the title after an intense year-long battle with his Mercedes teammate, and announced his shock retirement five days after the title finale in Abu Dhabi.Īt just 31-years-old, it was viewed as a premature decision by many of his colleagues and rivals at the time, but Rosberg has said he made a firm decision to leave and that moment came the instant he crossed the finish line in Abu Dhabi. Nico Rosberg has shed some light on the extensive sacrifices he made during the 2016 World Championship, which led him to make the decision to quit the sport just a few days after winning the title.
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