Why motorsport’s key players run the risk of burnout
Striking a balance between racing and life is important for sustaining success, but it's not easy to say what that looks like.
When Nico Rosberg announced his retirement just days after prevailing in an epic season-long Formula 1 world championship duel with Lewis Hamilton, it sent shockwaves throughout the motorsport establishment.
'How could a competitive sportsman at the peak of his powers suddenly go cold turkey?' they cried. 'Clearly he was never all that interested in the first place,' others complained.
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James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.
In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.
After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award.
He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.
A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual, niche or random, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars as Autosport's British GT correspondent and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.
An expert in catching 40 winks on media centre floors, he lives with his wife and son in Plymouth, England.
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