When I saw Rosberg and Dad in the Heineken commercials, I thought it was odd because I seemed to recall Nico left Formula One in some sort of disgrace. But I can't quite confirm that. Perhaps I'm thinking of another young driver.
The australian actor?
As for "sir", Australia used to hand out their own but stopped a while back. So we have Sir Jack, but not Sir Mick Doohan!
Quite a few other motorsports people got OBE or CBE (or OA for aussies).
Also plenty of sirs in cricket across numerous Commonwealth countries.
Rosberg meme is fire
I don't think Nico left in disgrace, exactly.
He retired immediately following the 2016 season, in which he won the world championship. This was entirely his own decision (surprising Mercedes who had to pull rank to take Bottas away from Williams to fill their suddenly empty seat).
One could criticise some of Nico's actions in his intense battle against Lewis during the years 2014-16 when they were battling for championships, which didn't make life at all easy for Mercedes. However I don't think any of that amounted to disgrace, and certainly there weren't any investigations or penalties hanging over him when he left.
Another son-of-a-champion, Nelson Piquet Junior, was dropped halfway through his second F1 season by Renault for being useless. He then revealed that he'd agreed with Briatore to deliberately drive into a wall at Singapore in 2008, in order to bring out a safety car and allow his teammate Alonso to arrange a beneficial pit stop strategy, resulting in him winning the race. So maybe you're thinking of him ? He is definitely considered disgraced.
Yeah, Nelson Piquet jr. was definitely the other younger driver left in disgrace. Nico left as a champ, didn’t return to defend it, probably knew he won’t ever beat Hamilton again so why not leave while on top! But anyway, for sure no disgrace involved.