The only child of Finnish 1982 Formula One World Champion Keke Rosberg and his German wife, he was born in Wiesbaden but was raised primarily in Monaco.

[24] Rosberg's father asked CRG executive Dino Chiesa in late 1999 to establish a separate karting team for his son and fellow driver Lewis Hamilton for a period of two to three years.

[37] In the off-season, he passed an interview for acceptance into Imperial College London,[38] a university where several Formula One designers were educated, to study aeronautical engineering.

[42] ART Grand Prix founders Nicolas Todt and Frédéric Vasseur used a sales presentation to persuade him to race for their squad;[42] he paid around £850,000 to drive for the team.

[28][44] He took the Drivers' Championship lead with a third-place finish in the feature race at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps when previous leader Heikki Kovalainen took eighth.

[53] Autosport reported Rosberg signed a contract that month to race for Williams in 2006 allowing the team to provide him with as much car acclimatisation as possible.

[64][65] Rosberg's performances improved greatly from 2006 due to Williams restructuring itself and employing more experienced and capable personnel,[66] making his FW29 car reliable and more efficient with the installation of a less complex seamless transmission.

[66] Rosberg also gained experience in controlling his emotions without losing speed,[61] frequently qualified ahead of Wurz and took points seven times with a season-best of fourth at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix.

[70] Rosberg was occasionally outperformed by Nakajima, and driver errors lost him chances to score more points;[71] he was able to adapt to a ban on traction control from Formula One.

[28] In mid-to-late 2009, Mercedes-Benz vice-president of motorsport Norbert Haug discussed with Rosberg the possibility of driving for the manufacturer in 2010 pending its acquisition of Brawn GP.

[28][39] He was better able than Schumacher to cope with a terminal understeer affecting the MGP W01's handling due to Mercedes forgoing much development work on the car because of Brawn GP's title focus the previous year.

Rosberg won the Monaco Grand Prix for the second year in succession to regain the points lead after qualifying on pole position in contentious circumstances.

[101] Victories in Austria, Germany,[28] followed by contact with Hamilton in Belgium made it appear he would win the championship,[28] until a short circuit on his car in Singapore nullified his points lead.

[e][106] During the off-season he sought to correct a body deficiency, which caused him to hold his breath against g-forces in high-speed corners, since he did not want to limit the flow of oxygen to his brain and muscles.

[108] Retirements in Italy and Russia and two errors on a wet track at the United States Grand Prix stopped him from taking the championship,[109] but wins in the final three races in Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi and six consecutive pole positions placed him runner-up overall with 322 points.

[114] Rosberg eschewed Facebook for five months, studied philosophy, meditated to stay concentrated, and received detailed technical input from Mercedes's mechanics at its headquarters in Brackley, England.

[115] Rosberg mulled over how to further improve his performance; to avoid the strain of starting a diet,[120] he refrained from cycling, losing 1 kg (2.2 lb) of muscle in both his legs.

[121] He went on to win in Belgium, Singapore and Japan, and achieved three-second-place finishes in a row to enter the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix leading Hamilton by 12 points.

[122] He won the WDC by five points with a second-place finish after withstanding Hamilton's attempts to back him into the chasing pack and encourage drivers to pass Rosberg to claim the title for himself.

[125] Rosberg, who had signed a two-year contract extension with Mercedes to 2018 in mid-2016,[126] began to contemplate retirement from motor racing when he considered the possibility of a championship win after the 2016 Japanese Grand Prix.

[131] He used his celebrity status to advance the industry,[129] beginning with a fact-finding visit to Silicon Valley,[130] where he tested and observed the construction of electric and self-driving vehicles.

[112][136] He had the idea to launch the annual Greentech Festival trade fair,[131] which he did with the entrepreneurs Sven Krüger and Marco Voigt in February 2019 to showcase sustainable technologies from around the world in Berlin.

[112][137] He replaced Frank Thelen as an investor on the German television programme Die Höhle der Löwen (The Lions' Cave) in late 2019.

Rosberg assisted in Kubica's desire to return to Formula One after a severe 2011 rally accident left the latter with partial movement in his right arm.

[151] Journalists describe Rosberg as articulate,[28] one who speaks with "Germanic precision" and has "more than a hint of canny PR-iness, distributing praise with diligent equality and seasoning his narrative with caveats when required.

"[26] He has avoided appearing to be courageous to impress others,[152] and some saw him as detrimental to Formula One's goal to attract new fans due to a perceived lack of personality and his commitment to fitness.

[158] Will Buxton, a motorsport commentator and pundit, described him as "quick from the outset" and a driver who "was so impressive; seemingly effortlessly rapid and blessed with a precision that was metronomic.

[166] Rosberg is an ambassador for Mercedes-Benz,[134] Laureus,[171] the investment bank UBS, the Tribute to Bambi Foundation,[172] and the electric car manufacturer Schaeffler Group.

[175] Rosberg has worked for the Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli charity,[48] which supplies water and basic sanitation to individuals in developing countries.

[112] On 5 June 2011 Rosberg received the Lorenzo Bandini Trophy, which honours a recipient "for their dedication to motor racing, spirit of competition and achievements".