Keke Rosberg - WikiHQ

Keijo Erik "Keke" Rosberg (; born 6 December 1948) is a Finnish former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Rosberg won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Williams, and won five Grands Prix across nine seasons.

Born in Sweden and raised in Finland, Rosberg started his racing career in karting before graduating to Formula Vee in 1972. Upon winning Finnish Championship the following year, Rosberg progressed to Formula Super Vee, where he won the German Championship in 1975. He then moved to European Formula Two, competing from 1976 to 1979. Aged 29, Rosberg made his Formula One debut for Theodore at the 1978 South African Grand Prix. He spent the remainder of the season with Theodore and ATS, winning the non-championship BRDC International Trophy with the former in his second Formula One appearance. Rosberg returned in with Wolf, replacing the retired James Hunt from the onwards. After another non-classified championship finish, Rosberg signed for Fittipaldi in to partner Emerson Fittipaldi, scoring his maiden points and podium finish on debut.

After two years with Fittipaldi, Rosberg signed for Williams in . He secured his maiden victory during his first season with the team—at the —and his five further podiums saw him clinch the title at the final race of the season, becoming the first World Drivers' Champion from Finland. Rosberg was unable to defend his title in as Williams struggled to adapt to the turbo era, despite winning the and the final non-championship Race of Champions. He took further wins for Williams at the in , and the Detroit and Australian Grands Prix in , finishing third in the latter championship. Moving to reigning champions McLaren in to partner Alain Prost, Rosberg was unable to win all year as his teammate took the title, retiring at the end of the season with five race wins, five pole positions, three fastest laps and 17 podiums. Outside of Formula One, Rosberg achieved multiple race wins in the World Sportscar Championship with Peugeot from 1990 to 1991, and was a race-winner in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, competing from 1992 to 1995.

Since retiring from motor racing, Rosberg has moved into driver management, formerly managing two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner JJ Lehto and two-time World Drivers' Champion Mika Häkkinen. He also coached and managed his son Nico from karting at an early age to winning the World Drivers' Championship in . Since 1994, he has owned and managed Team Rosberg, leading them to championships in German Formula Three, Formula BMW, the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, and Extreme E.

Early life

Rosberg was born on 6 December 1948 in Solna, Sweden, where his father studied veterinary science. Rosberg's father Lars Rosberg and mother Lea Lautala were both natives of Hamina, Finland. The family moved back to Finland in the spring of 1950, originally settling in a Swedish-speaking village in Lapinjärvi, where young Rosberg had language problems with other children, because his family spoke Finnish. The family later moved to Hamina, Oulu and Iisalmi. He immediately caught the attention of the Formula One 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 was not able to qualify for a race afterwards, and was signed by another uncompetitive team, ATS, for three races after the Theodore team scrapped its unreliable car design. He returned to Theodore after they acquired chassis from the Wolf Formula One team, but these were also uncompetitive and Rosberg returned to ATS to end the season.

Rosberg next emerged with the Wolf team, midway through the 1979 season. However, the team was having difficulty staying solvent, and Rosberg had problems in finishing races. Rosberg soon had to change teams again when Wolf left Formula One, and signed with Fittipaldi Automotive which had bought the remains of Walter Wolf's squad. He secured his first two point-scoring results in the 1980 season, including a sensational podium at the season-opening race at Buenos Aires, but the uncompetitiveness of the Fittipaldi car meant that Rosberg often failed to finish or qualify. 1981 was worse as he failed to score at all.

The sharp end – Williams: 1982–1985

thumb|left|Rosberg won the [[1984 Dallas Grand Prix in a Williams FW09.]]

Despite this, Williams was interested in Rosberg, with the retirement of World Champion Alan Jones leaving a seat open for the 1982 season. (despite being called the "Swiss Grand Prix", the race was held in France due to Switzerland's ban on motor racing in effect since the 1955 Le Mans disaster).

In a year where no driver won more than two races, with Ferrari's season marred by the death of Gilles Villeneuve at Zolder and the career-ending injuries to Didier Pironi at Hockenheim, and the turbocharged Brabham-BMW and Renault cars suffering from poor reliability (and not helped by Brabham continually changing between the Ford V8 and the BMW turbo), consistency won Rosberg the Drivers' Championship. This was despite his Williams FW07C using the normally-aspirated Ford DFY V8 engine which was considered outdated and out-matched against the vastly more powerful turbo cars. Rosberg won the championship with a five-point lead over Pironi, who had missed the last four races of the season due to injuries sustained at the German Grand Prix. Rosberg's 1982 Championship proved to be the last World Championship win for the old Cosworth DFV engine which had been introduced to Formula One by Lotus in (the DFY was a development of the DFV). To celebrate the victory, Frank Williams gave Rosberg two days off from testing and allowed him to smoke in the team mobile home. As a result of winning just one race in his title winning season Rosberg equalled the record set by Mike Hawthorn in 1958 for the fewest number wins scored by a driver during a World Championship winning season, a record he still jointly holds with Hawthorn as of 2023.

thumb|right|Rosberg driving for [[WilliamsF1|Williams at the 1985 German Grand Prix.]]

Rosberg's post-championship years would be hamstrung by both uncompetitive chassis from Williams, and the powerful but unreliable Honda turbo engine. For his title defense in , Rosberg was again using the reliable Ford DFY V8. However, by this time, the reliability of the Ferrari, Renault and BMW turbo engines was starting to match their speed and power output. Rosberg still put his Williams FW08 on pole for the opening race of the season in Brazil (where he was disqualified from 2nd place because he was push started in the pits after he was forced to abandon his car in his pit bay due to a fuel vapor fire), and then won both the non-championship Race of Champions at Brands Hatch and in Monaco thanks to a choice of slicks at the start when all others started on wets, but it was increasingly obvious that without a turbocharged engine, results would be scarce. To that end, Frank Williams concluded a deal to run the Honda V6 turbo engine in his cars. Honda had come back into Formula One that year with the Spirit team and results had been slow with unreliability, but they were enthusiastic about joining Williams who had a reputation as a Championship-winning team. Rosberg and teammate Jacques Laffite first got their Honda turbos in the season ending South African Grand Prix at Kyalami and immediately the new Williams FW09 was on the pace. Rosberg finished in 5th place to give him 5th place in the championship.

Despite the powerful Honda engines, Williams and Rosberg struggled in mostly due to the FW09B chassis not being rigid enough to handle the power delivery of the V6. The Finn managed to tame both the car and engine long enough to win the Dallas Grand Prix, but his only other podium for the year was a second at the season opener in Brazil (the third time in succession he finished second in Brazil, but the only one from which he was not disqualified). After a frustrating year he finished the championship in eighth place with 20.5 points.

In November 1984 following the Formula One season, Rosberg, along with fellow Formula One drivers Niki Lauda (the 1984 World Champion), Andrea de Cesaris and François Hesnault, travelled to Australia for the non-championship 1984 Australian Grand Prix at the Calder Park Raceway in Melbourne. Rosberg managed to qualify 4th in his Ralt RT4 Ford despite spending most of the day with fellow aviation enthusiast Lauda (his teammate for the race) attending an air show at the nearby Essendon Airport. After an early race dice with Lauda and a clash with Terry Ryan while lapping the young Australian which put him off the short 1.609 km (1.000 mi) circuit, Rosberg went on to finish 2nd behind the Ralt RT4 Ford of Brazilian driver Roberto Moreno who won his 3rd Australian Grand Prix in 4 years (having also won in 1981 and 1983).

would prove better for both Rosberg and Williams. The Finn had a new teammate in Nigel Mansell and the all carbon fibre Williams FW10 chassis was a big improvement over the FW09B. For the first few races the team used the 1984 engines until Honda introduced an upgraded version which improved power delivery, fuel economy and most importantly, reliability. Rosberg used the new engine to good effect, winning the Detroit Grand Prix and claiming pole in the next two races in France at the Paul Ricard Circuit and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Rosberg's pole-winning lap at Silverstone created history when he lapped the 4.719 km (2.932 mi) circuit in 1:05.591 for an average speed of 259.01 km/h (160.94 mph). This would remain the single fastest lap of a circuit in Formula One until broken by Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya at the 2002 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Rosberg's fifth and final Grand Prix victory came at the 1985 Australian Grand Prix on the brand new Adelaide Street Circuit. As it was the final race of the season, it was also Rosberg's final race for Williams. Keke gave the winners trophy to his race engineer, Frank Dernie. The win enhanced Rosberg's reputation as a street circuit specialist, as four of his five championship Grand Prix wins (Monaco, Dallas, Detroit and Adelaide) had come on street circuits. Rosberg handled the 35°C heat better than most and won by 43 seconds from the Ligier Renaults of Jacques Laffite and Philippe Streiff.

Just as the Honda engine began producing regular results, Rosberg decided to leave Williams at the end of 1985 and signed for McLaren, winners of the 1984 and 1985 Drivers' and Constructors' championships. The Williams-Honda team would go on to dominate Grand Prix racing in and through .

The final year – McLaren: 1986

At the time, Rosberg's move to McLaren for the 1986 season had seemed a master stroke as they were the championship team of the previous two seasons, having done so (especially in 1984) in dominating fashion.

Racing record

Career summary

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%; text-align:center"

!Season

!Series

!Team

!Races

!Wins

!Poles

!F/Laps

!Podiums

!Points

!Position

!rowspan=2|1976

|rowspan="2" style="text-align:left"|European Formula Two

|align=left|Team Warsteiner Eurorace

|rowspan=2|5

|rowspan=2|10th

|align=left|Fred Opert Racing

!1977

|align=left|European Formula Two

|align=left|Fred Opert Racing

|11

|25

|6th

!rowspan=3|1978

|align=left|European Formula Two

|align=left|Fred Opert Racing

|16

|5th

|rowspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Formula One

|align=left|Theodore Racing Hong Kong

|rowspan=2|0

|rowspan=2|

|align=left|ATS Racing Team

!rowspan=2|1979

|align=left|European Formula Two

|align=left|Project Four Racing

|12th

|align=left|Formula One

|align=left|Olympus Cameras Wolf Racing

!1980

|align=left|Formula One

|align=left|Skol Fittipaldi Team

|11

|10th

!1981

|align=left|Formula One

|align=left|Fittipaldi Automotive

!1982

|align=left|Formula One

|align=left|TAG Williams Team

|15

|44

|style="background:#FFFFBF"|1st

!rowspan=2|1983

|align=left|Formula One

|align=left|TAG Williams Team

|15

|27

|5th

|align=left|World Sportscar Championship

|align=left|GTi Engineering

|12

|25th

!1984

|align=left|Formula One

|align=left nowrap|Williams Grand Prix Engineering

|16

|20.5

|8th

!1985

|align=left|Formula One

|align=left|Canon Williams Honda Team

|16

|40

|style="background:#FFDF9F"|3rd

!1986

|align=left|Formula One

|align=left|Marlboro McLaren TAG Turbo

|16

|22

|6th

!1990

|align=left|World Sportscar Championship

|align=left|Peugeot Talbot Sport

!rowspan=2|1991

|align=left|World Sportscar Championship

|align=left|Peugeot Talbot Sport

|40

|13th

|align=left|24 Hours of Le Mans

|align=left|Peugeot Talbot Sport

|N/A

!1992

|align=left|Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft

|align=left|AMG Motorenbau GmbH

|23

|147

|5th

!1993

|align=left|Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft

|align=left|Joest Racing

|18th

!1994

|align=left|Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft

|align=left|Opel Joest Racing

|22

|27

|14th

!rowspan=2|1995

|align=left nowrap|Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft

|rowspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Opel Team Rosberg

|14

|17

|18th

|align=left|International Touring Car

|20th

!colspan="10"|

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:85%"

! Year

! Entrant

! Chassis

! Engine

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! 10

! 11

! 12

! 13

! Pts

|rowspan=2|

! nowrap| Team Warsteiner Eurorace

! nowrap| Toj F201

! nowrap| BMW

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| HOC

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| THR

|style="background:#FFCFCF;"| VAL

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SAL

| PAU

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| HOC

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| ROU

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| MUG

|style="background:#FFCFCF;"| PER

|colspan=2|

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| HOC

!rowspan=2| 10th

!rowspan=2| 5

! nowrap| Fred Opert Racing

! nowrap| Chevron B35

! nowrap| Hart

|colspan=9|

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| EST

| NOG

|colspan=2|

|rowspan=2|

!rowspan=2 nowrap| Fred Opert Racing

! nowrap| Chevron B35

!rowspan=2 nowrap| Hart

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| SIL

|colspan=12|

!rowspan=2| 6th

!rowspan=2| 25

! nowrap| Chevron B40

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| THR

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| HOC

|style="background:#FFDF9F;"| NÜR

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| VAL

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| PAU

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| MUG

| ROU

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| NOG

|style="background:#FFFFBF;"| PER

| MIS

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| EST

|style="background:#DFDFDF;"| DON

! nowrap| Fred Opert Racing

! nowrap| Chevron B42

! nowrap| Hart

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| THR

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| HOC

|style="background:#DFDFDF;"| NÜR

|style="background:#FFFFFF;"| PAU

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| MUG

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| VAL

| ROU

|style="background:#FFFFBF;"| DON

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| NOG

| PER

| MIS

| HOC

! 5th

! 16

! nowrap| Project Four Racing

! nowrap| March 792

! nowrap| BMW

| SIL

|style="background:#FFFFBF;"| HOC

| THR

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| NÜR

| VAL

| MUG

| PAU

| HOC

| ZAN

| PER

| MIS

| DON

! 12th

! 9

!colspan="19"|

† Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.

‡ Race was stopped with less than 75% of laps completed, half points awarded.

Formula One non-championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

(Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:85%"

! Year

! Entrant

! Chassis

! Engine

! 1

! 2

! 3

! nowrap| Theodore Racing Hong Kong

! nowrap| Theodore TR1