Nico Rosberg reaches 1,000,000 subscriber milestone on YouTube

Nico Rosberg can now add a Golden Play Button plaque from YouTube to his vast collection of trophies and awards after his channel hit one million subscribers on the platform.

An ecstatic Rosberg took to his Instagram page to share the news with his fans.

"We’ve cracked the 1 Million on my YouTube Channel… thanks for being such an awesome community!" he wrote. "Thank you @youtube for sending me the Golden Button…I just went live with a special celebration video on my YouTube channel – it’s a bucket list drive... Much more to come in 2022…"

The German's focus shifted from the track to the digital world shortly after his shock retirement from F1 in 2016.

Nico Rosberg was the only driver to best Lewis Hamilton in a drivers' world championship duel in the Turbo Hybrid era before Max Verstappen's triumph this season.

In that process, the 36-year-old fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming an F1 world champion in 2016, emulating his father, Keke Rosberg.

Rosberg made his F1 debut with Williams at the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix and had an F1 career that spanned 10 years. He joined Mercedes in 2010, shortly after they purchased Brawn GP and partnered countryman Michael Schumacher until 2012.

He was reunited with his childhood teammate and friend Lewis Hamilton in 2013. While the two remained teammates all the way through to 2016, their friendship was replaced by the hostility of competition. The pressure to keep competing at that level ultimately played a role in Rosberg's decision to walk away from F1 less than a week after his maiden world championship win.

Since then he has made a ton of content on social media, primarily on his aforementioned YouTube channel and found success in the virtual space.

In addition to his social media exploits, Nico Rosberg also features as an F1 pundit these days.

F1 needs to 'tighten up' and 'make progress', feels Nico Rosberg

Nico Rosberg feels F1 needs to 'tighten up' on its rules for the upcoming season in light of the controversial end to the 2021 campaign. The 2016 world champion feels that the gaps in the interpretation and implementation of rules in F1 are leaving room for criticism to seep in.

Nico Rosberg thinks that more airtight rules will eliminate the type of controversial discussions that have become synonymous with F1 in recent days.

F1 could fix this issue with the arrival of the new FIA President, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who replaced the departing Jean Todt. New rules and stricter punishments could soon be on the agenda for him and F1.