Nico Rosberg reveals only food he could eat before Lewis Hamilton F1 title showdown: 'It's not healthy'

Nico Rosberg has admitted he was so nervous before the 2016 F1 title showdown in Abu Dhabi he could only eat one thing he hadn't eaten in years.

Rosberg headed into the race at Yas Marina looking to pull off the mighty achievement of beating Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to the world championship.

Heading into the final race, the Mercedes driver held a 12-point lead over his rival, who had beaten him to the title the two previous seasons in 2014 and 2015.

But once arriving at the circuit, nerves over what he thought would be his best ever chance to win the title quickly got hold of the German.

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Rosberg: I could only eat Frosties!

On F1's Beyond the Grid podcast, Rosberg admitted that he could not even eat regular foods, and that the only thing he could stomach was the cereal Frosties, which essentially are corn flakes coated in sugar.

Rosberg said: "I couldn't even eat properly anymore. I was so scared. So the only thing that would go down was my childhood memory food from when I was a child, which was Frosties.

"I hadn't eaten Frosties in in 20 years. I hadn't eaten Frosties because it's not really healthy. It's not very good. That is the only thing that my brain would tell me, 'yes, this would go down.'

"I tried pasta, wouldn't go down. Like it literally would not go in. So tried pasta, tried everything. Frosties. My brain somehow found its way to Frosties. So that's what it was.

"That's what I was living on, was Frosties, which is not really good either, because that's not a very solid food to let you perform for a whole weekend, which is an endurance. You know, a weekend is a long time."

Rosberg felt sick inside the car

Rosberg admits though that his childhood treat soon backfired once he got into the car ahead of the free practice session, admitting for the first time in his career he felt like he was going to be sick.

When asked how he felt when getting in the car, he said: "Nauseous in the car, I'm going out in the car because I'm living on Frosties. Can you believe that? I've never had nausea in a race car in my life.

"Can you believe that? I've never had nausea in a race car in my life. And here comes I'm going out and I feel nauseous.

"That's just.. and then the demon [in his head] tells you, 'Ok, you're nauseous, you cannot drive a race car if you're nauseous'. So the demon starts going and you get more nauseous. It's a complete mess. It went away fortunately. I don't know how, but it went away."

Rosberg eventually held his nerve to finish second behind Hamilton in Abu Dhabi, who had tried to back him into the chasing Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, clinching the world championship before announcing his retirement just days later.

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