That was very surprising news to me, but I looked at it this way - he achieved his goal and also lived up to his father's reputation (huge pressure), toured the world and then there's testing etc. He's a young man and wants to probably settle down with his wife. It's tough to be a family man and be away so much and still compete at the highest level. Plus they move the goal posts every year, it's getting ridiculous.

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I think it takes lots of balls to do what he did - walk away from the best seat in F1.

But as you said, he has achieved his goal and that is all he wanted (and needed) to do to satisfy himself. From his account, it really took a toll on him and he wants to spend more time with his family. Reality check for all, more to life than driving around in circles as Niki Lauda once said.

It's not often you get personalities like Nico in F1, he has definitely left a really positive legacy.

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1977-1982
Gli Anni Della Febbre
Gilles Villeneuve

Bookies rate Valtteri Bottas (8/11) or Pascal Wehrlein (11/10) as the likely replacement for Nico