Rosberg relishing his freedom after quitting F1

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Formula One world champion Nico Rosberg has spoken about how much he's enjoying life since dramatically quitting the world of motorsport just five days after clinching the 2016 title.

"Life has more to offer than driving around in circles," said the 31-year-old this week, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he revealed that insurance coverage meant that he hadn't even been allowed to go skiing in 11 years because of the risk of suffering a season-ending injury.

"Now all of a sudden it's freedom," he continued, adding that he was taking his time looking at what he would do next in terms of business and charity work.

I'm going to go visit children who are quite ill, and especially children of an age who will be really happy to see me," he said. "Renewable energy is something that could be quite interesting. There's so many possibilities, electrical cars as well."

Rosberg takes on ambassadorial role for Mercedes

Rosberg admitted that he didn't know how his former Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton managed to maintain his drive and determination alongside a busy celebrity lifestyle away from the track.

Rosberg revealed that he had turned to a sports psychologist for help on boosting his mental preparedness ahead of races in 2016 to help him secure the long-sought championship.

"[Meditation] is a big word and often misinterpreted," Rosberg explained. "The way I did it was more a concentration practice and learning to control your mind a little bit, which you really do with spending a bit of time on it.

"Also learning to be more aware of your emotions and thoughts. Because if you are aware of them, you can slow them down and move your mind into other things and more positive thoughts.

"That really was one of the ingredients to me being even stronger," he concluded. "It really was beneficial."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.