Nico Rosberg will be treading familiar ground this weekend even though he is making his Monaco Grand Prix debut.

The German grew up in the Principality and while his racing rivals know the circuits as a 19-turn, Armco-lined race track, for Rosberg it is simply "my way to school".

Many of his more senior and better paid rivals have converged on Monaco for tax reasons but for Rosberg the millionaire's playground is home, and for him, there really is no place like home.

The 20-year-old driver for the Grove-based WilliamsF1 team said: "I grew up here and I know everybody here. If you've grown up somewhere you don't want to be anywhere else so I couldn't live anywhere else.

"I never went round the track when I was younger. The streets were never regarded as a Formula One track, they were always regarded as my way to school.

"It is so strange because it is my home and this week I went out for dinner in the restaurant where I always go and there were all these Formula One people. It's a very strange feeling."

Few drivers can truly say they were born and raised on Formula One but Rosberg, son of former world champion Keke, has been surrounded by the wail of engines from an early age.

He added: "I have lived here since I was one year old. Last weekend when the historic grand prix was on there were some cars from the 1990s racing and I remember it was the same sound from my childhood.

"My bedroom was always facing the sea so I had this sound coming in straight from the tunnel. I was always asleep when first practice started and I remember that sound so well, it was exactly the same."

Rosberg, the reigning GP2 champion, is the youngest driver on the grid by over two years and he has yet to fully enjoy the trappings of fame.

While Jenson Button can put his feet up in a luxury Monaco apartment and David Coulthard just needs to walk down the road to pop into his own five-star hotel, Rosberg's Monaco base is more down to earth.

"I just got my own apartment, but the problem is I have been a bit busy so it's still a bit empty," he said. "I have ordered all the stuff, but I am still living with my parents."

He may be the baby of the grid but Rosberg has outshone his fellow rookies, and a handful of more experienced campaigners, so far this season. He set a stunning fastest lap on his debut and has gone on to claim four points courtesy of seventh places at Bahrain and the Nurburgring.

Now he has more points in his sights in Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix, the seventh of his career, and believes Williams will be well suited to the twisty streets of his home town.

"In the recent couple of races we have been seven, eight, nine, ten, but I think here I think it will be more of a track that suits us as mechanically we are pretty strong," he added.

"I think we can come up a little bit from there so maybe five, six, seven, eight. With a bit of luck you never know."

Rosberg has made precious few rookie errors since his graduation to motorsport's elite category but in preparing for his home race, his inexperience taught him a painful lesson.

He is nursing wounded knuckles this weekend after his first attempt at boxing, explaining: "It was the first time in training and I didn't know I had to wrap my knuckles so I got friction burns."