Good for Nico Rosberg. Not many winners know when to leave

What you need to know:

  • No one who drives in or watches F1 doesn’t love cars and engines and the beautiful sound of revving up on a track.
  • It’s a deeply instilled love, bred by years of faithfully watching these people turn into stars.
  • I admire Rosberg for seeing that it was time to leave at the pinnacle of the pinnacle, if you will.

The F1 season started this week, with a few changes that most people knew about last year.

To begin with, the biggest change, in my opinion, is that Nico Rosberg is no longer a Formula One driver.

The surprising thing here is that he won his first championship at the end of the season last year. It was a race to glory which, if you are an F1 fan, was as arduous and tiring as Hamilton was petty -  let’s admit it, towards the end, Hamilton was surprisingly petty for a three-time world champion. Other changes include the entry of Valtteri Bottas as Nico’s replacement.

To be honest, one would have hoped that maybe Hamilton would be playing first - or second – fiddle to someone like Fernando Alonso of McLaren Honda, who had a pretty dismal year last year, considering that they were one of the only two teams that had previous world champions on their roster (the other being Ferrari, with Vettel, and The Iceman, Kimi Raikkonen).

Alonso’s partner, Jenson Button, went into retirement last year, as did Felipe Massa, who had been brought out of retirement after announcing his leaving, due to his love for the sport.

Perhaps after all this drama (let’s not even start on the Kvyat-Vettel rivalry, or the great hopes I have for Max Verstappen, the youngest driver on the grid), the two things that stayed for me were Rosberg’s reaction to winning the championship, and Massa’s reaction to being called back.

WHY NOW

No one who drives in or watches F1 doesn’t love cars and engines and the beautiful sound of revving up on a track. It’s a deeply instilled love, bred by years of faithfully watching these people turn into stars.

There’s a reason that F1 is called the pinnacle of motorsport – it isn’t a game. To get into it, you have to be starting very young, probably about the age of five, and convince your parents – or your parents need to convince you – that this is a good idea. And the funding! Just looks at what our own Tejas Hirani and Jeremy Wahome have gone through just to get into the lower, and cheaper, echelons of the sport.

Several internationally renowned racers have dropped out, or indeed gotten into F1, because of money alone. Money, though a lot less so with recent developments, has greatly steered the course of championships.

As I said, you have to start racing very young. Hamilton and Rosberg, for example, former teammates for Mercedes, have been racing against each other since they were children, an ongoing hamster’s wheel that Rosberg has never quite gotten to the front of – until now.

So when he won, making his father, himself a former champion, proud, and fulfilling one of his decades-long ambitions against probably his biggest nemesis, many asked "why now?" Why in the world did he quit instead of defending his title?

I have a theory about quitting while you’re still ahead, which is why I am viewing Massa’s return with some trepidation.

I understand it is hard to leave the track that has become a life for you, but why embarrass yourself further when you’re clearly not going to improve on this? Is it not arguable that Massa will be remembered more for his past brief flings with the championship, when he came second to Lewis Hamilton’s first championship in 2008? Why not quit when you’re so behind?

CHILD MOVIE STARTS

I admire Rosberg for seeing that it was time to leave at the pinnacle of the pinnacle, if you will. Holding on to something as competitive and taxing as F1 can be a blessing and a bane, especially if you lack focus, support, or backing, and the fortitude to give up everything that you will have to.

Rosberg is now living a life he knew he wanted, and has been denied for a number of years, much like child movie stars or musicians are denied. He talked of being happy with not really having anything major to do, and finally having the time to spend with his family.

Hopefully he won’t pull a Michael Jordan and return, but things seem promising for now.

In competitive sport and indeed, with most things, to me it makes more sense to stop when you’re still ahead and learn to smell the roses, to use the clichés that are so because they hold truth.

These championships, these promotions, these material things that we ascribe value to are not the most important things in life – indeed, they are not life in its entirety. And when you do leave, your legacy will thank you for having the wisdom to simply stop when the season is over.

Twitter: @AbigailArunga