Keke Rosberg
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| Keke Rosberg | |
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| Nationality | |
|---|---|
| World Championship Career | |
| Active years | 1978 - 1986 |
| Team(s) | Theodore, ATS, Wolf, Fittipaldi, Williams, McLaren |
| Races | 114 |
| Championships | 1 (1982) |
| Wins | 5 |
| Podium finishes | 17 |
| Pole positions | 5 |
| Fastest laps | 3 |
| First race | 1978 South African Grand Prix |
| First win | 1982 Swiss Grand Prix |
| Last win | 1985 Australian Grand Prix |
| Last race | 1986 Australian Grand Prix |
Keijo Erik "Keke" Rosberg (pronunciation ) (b. 6 December 1948, Solna, Stockholm County, Sweden) is a former Formula One racing driver and winner of the 1982 Formula One World Championship. He was the first Finnish driver to compete regularly in the series.
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Keke had a relatively late start to his F1 career, debuting at the age of 29 after stints in Formula Vee, Formula Atlantic (and its Antipodean counterpart Formula Pacific) and Formula 2, then the "feeder" to F1. His first F1 drive was with the Theodore team during the 1978 season. He immediately caught the attention of the F1 paddock with a superb drive in the non-Championship BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone in just his second race with the team, emerging victorious after many of the big names had been caught out by a tremendous downpour. Rosberg wasn't able to qualify for a race afterwards, and was signed by another uncompetitive team, ATS, for 3 races after the Theodore team scrapped its unreliable car design. He returned to Theodore after they acquired old chassis from the Wolf formula 1 team, but these were also uncompetitive and Rosberg returned to ATS to end the season.
He next emerged onto the F1 stage with the Wolf team, midway through the 1979 season. However, the team was having difficulty staying solvent, and Keke had problems in finishing races. Rosberg soon had to change teams again when Wolf left F1, and signed with Fittipaldi Automotive which had bought the remains of Walter Wolf's squad. He had his first two point-scoring results in the 1980 season - including a podium - but often failed to finish or qualify; 1981 was worse — he failed to score at all.
Despite this, Williams had an interest in Keke in the 1982 season, with the retirement of former World Champion Alan Jones leaving a spot open. Given a competitive car, Keke was a revelation that year. Rosberg consistently scored points and earned his first victory in the Swiss Grand Prix at Dijon-Prenois late that year. Rosberg's first memorable season came in a year where no driver won more than two races, (though it must be said that the highly successful Ferrari season was damaged by the injuries to Didier Pironi and the tragic fatality of Gilles Villeneuve at Zolder, not to mention the astounding unreliability of the turbocharged Brabham-BMW and Renault cars) and consistency won Rosberg the Drivers' Championship, despite using the once ubiquitous Ford/Cosworth normally aspirated V8 against turbo-engined rivals.
Rosberg's post championship years would be hamstrung by both uncompetitive chassis from Williams, and the powerful but unreliable (until 1985) Honda turbo engine. Cruelly, the Honda engine began producing regular results just after Rosberg had signed for McLaren in mid-1985. Rosberg's pole position-winning lap at that year's British Grand Prix stood as the fastest (highest average speed) single lap in F1 history until 2001. The Williams-Honda team would go on to dominate grand prix racing through 1987- with both Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell benefitting from the work Keke had done to develop the engine in conjunction with Honda. At the time, Rosberg's move to McLaren for the 1986 season had seemed a master stroke - the team was coming off back to back championships in 1984/85. However, Rosberg found himself in an underpowered McLaren, was soundly beaten by teammate Alain Prost (who was favoured within the team for his smooth style), and retired at the end of the season. He would later admit that he retired "too soon".
In 1989 Keke made his comeback when entering the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in a Ferrari Mondial run by Moneytron (cf. Jean-Pierre Van Rossem), the same team that gave Keke's protege JJ Lehto his debut in Formula One. Keke was a key element of Peugeot's extremely competitive sportscar squad in the early 1990s. But after two years with the mark and varied successes (two victories and a failed attempt at the 24 Hours of Le Mans), he moved on to the German Touring Car Championship, the DTM, driving for Mercedes-Benz and Opel. Here he set up his own team in 1995 and at the end of that year withdrew from driving to concentrate on running it. After spells in Formula BMW, German Formula Three, the Formula Three Euroseries and A1 GP, Team Rosberg is back in the DTM series in 2006, entering two Audis.
Keke later spent a long time managing his countrymen Jyrki Järvilehto and future world champion Mika Häkkinen. Also managed by Keke is his son Nico, who entered Formula 1 in 2006 driving for WilliamsF1.
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
| Preceded by Mikko Kozarowitzky |
Formula Vee Finland 1973 |
Succeeded by Harry Nurminen |
| Preceded by Nelson Piquet |
Formula One World Champion 1982 |
Succeeded by Nelson Piquet |
| Preceded by Gilles Villeneuve |
Brands Hatch Race of Champions winner 1983 |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
| Preceded by James Hunt |
BRDC International Trophy winner 1978 |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
(1950) Nino Farina · (1951) Juan Manuel Fangio · (1952–53) Alberto Ascari · (1954–57) Juan Manuel Fangio · (1958) Mike Hawthorn · (1959–60) Jack Brabham · (1961) Phil Hill · (1962) Graham Hill · (1963) Jim Clark · (1964) John Surtees · (1965) Jim Clark · (1966) Jack Brabham · (1967) Denny Hulme · (1968) Graham Hill · (1969) Jackie Stewart · (1970) Jochen Rindt · (1971) Jackie Stewart · (1972) Emerson Fittipaldi · (1973) Jackie Stewart · (1974) Emerson Fittipaldi · (1975) Niki Lauda · (1976) James Hunt · (1977) Niki Lauda · (1978) Mario Andretti · (1979) Jody Scheckter · (1980) Alan Jones · (1981) Nelson Piquet · (1982) Keke Rosberg · (1983) Nelson Piquet · (1984) Niki Lauda · (1985–86) Alain Prost · (1987) Nelson Piquet · (1988) Ayrton Senna · (1989) Alain Prost · (1990–91) Ayrton Senna · (1992) Nigel Mansell · (1993) Alain Prost · (1994–95) Michael Schumacher · (1996) Damon Hill · (1997) Jacques Villeneuve · (1998–99) Mika Häkkinen · (2000–04) Michael Schumacher · (2005–2006) Fernando Alonso
