Keke Rosberg

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Keke Rosberg

Nationality Flag of Finland Finnish
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
Keke Rosberg (on the left) with Wolf Racing Crew at Monaco GP 1979
Keke Rosberg (on the left) with Wolf Racing Crew at Monaco GP 1979

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.

Contents

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)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 WDC Points
1978 Theodore Racing Hong Kong Theodore TR1 Cosworth V8 ARG
BRA
RSA
Ret
USW
DNPQ
MON
DNQ
BEL
DNQ
ESP
DNPQ
- 0
ATS Racing Team ATS HS1 SWE
15
FRA
16
GBR
17
Theodore Racing Hong Kong Wolf WR3 GER
10
AUT
NC
Wolf WR4 NED
Ret
ITA
DNPQ
ATS Racing Team ATS D1 USE
Ret
CAN
NC
1979 Olympus Cameras Wolf Racing Wolf WR8 Cosworth V8 ARG
BRA
RSA
USW
ESP
BEL
MON
FRA
9
GER
Ret
ITA
Ret
- 0
Wolf WR7 GBR
Ret
Wolf WR9 AUT
Ret
NED
Ret
CAN
DNQ
Wolf WR8/9 USE
Ret
1980 Skol Fittipaldi Team Fittipaldi F7 Cosworth V8 ARG
3
BRA
9
RSA
Ret
USW
Ret
BEL
7
MON
DNQ
FRA
Ret
GBR
DNQ
10th 6
Fittipaldi F8 GER
Ret
AUT
16
NED
DNQ
ITA
5
CAN
9
USE
10
1981 Fittipaldi Automotive Fittipaldi F8C Cosworth V8 USW
Ret
BRA
9
ARG
Ret
SMR
Ret
BEL
Ret
MON
DNQ
ESP
12
FRA
Ret
GBR
Ret
GER
DNQ
AUT
NED
DNQ
ITA
DNQ
CAN
DNQ
LVS
10
- 0
1982 TAG Williams Team Williams FW07C Cosworth V8 RSA
5
BRA
DSQ
USW
2
SMR
1st 44
Williams FW08 BEL
2
MON
Ret
USE
4
CAN
Ret
NED
3
GBR
Ret
FRA
5
GER
4
AUT
2
SUI
1
ITA
8
LVS
5
1983 TAG Williams Team Williams FW08C Cosworth V8 BRA
Ret
USW
Ret
FRA
5
SMR
4
MON
1
BEL
5
USA
2
CAN
4
GBR
11
GER
10
AUT
8
NED
Ret
ITA
11
EUR
Ret
5th 27
Williams FW09 Honda V6 RSA
5
1984 Williams Grand Prix Eng. Williams FW09 Honda V6 BRA
2
RSA
Ret
BEL
4
SMR
Ret
FRA
6
MON
4
CAN
Ret
USE
Ret
USA
1
8th 20.5
Williams FW09B GBR
Ret
GER
Ret
AUT
Ret
NED
8
ITA
Ret
EUR
Ret
POR
Ret
1985 Canon Williams Team Williams FW10 Honda V6 BRA
Ret
POR
Ret
SMR
Ret
MON
8
CAN
4
USA
1
FRA
2
GBR
Ret
GER
12
AUT
Ret
NED
Ret
ITA
Ret
BEL
4
EUR
3
RSA
2
AUS
1
3rd 40
1986 Marlboro McLaren Int. McLaren MP4/2C TAG V6 BRA
Ret
ESP
4
SMR
5
MON
2
BEL
Ret
CAN
4
USA
Ret
FRA
4
GBR
Ret
GER
5
HUN
Ret
AUT
9
ITA
4
POR
Ret
MEX
Ret
AUS
Ret
6th 22
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
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