Keke Rosberg

Infobox F1 driver
Name = Keke Rosberg
Nationality = flagicon|Finland Finnish
Years = F1|1978 - F1|1986
Team(s) = Theodore, ATS, Wolf, Fittipaldi, Williams, McLaren
Races = 128 (114 starts)
Championships = 1 (1982)
Wins = 5
Podiums = 17
Poles = 5
Fastest laps = 3
Points = 159.5
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 Rosberg (Audio|Fi-Keke_Rosberg.ogg|pronunciation) (born 6 December 1948 in Solna, Stockholm County, Sweden), nicknamed "Keke", is a Finnish former racing driver and winner of the 1982 Formula One World Championship. He was the first Finnish driver to compete regularly in the series. Rosberg grew up in Oulu and Iisalmi, Finland.

Minor teams

Rosberg 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 counterparts Formula Pacific) and Formula 2, then "feeder" series to F1. His first F1 drive was with the Theodore team during the 1978 season.Cite web|url=http://www.formula1.com/teams_and_drivers/hall_of_fame/204/|title=Keke Rosberg|accessdate=2008-01-13|work=formula1.com] 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 Rosberg 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.

The sharp end

Despite this, Williams was interested in Rosberg, with the retirement of former World Champion Alan Jones leaving a seat open for the 1982 season. Given a competitive car, Rosberg 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 Rosberg 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 and was soundly beaten by teammate Alain Prost (who was favoured within the team for his smooth style). On top of that, the fatal crash of Elio de Angelis while testing a Brabham in France deeply affected him (Rosberg and de Angelis were close friends) and he retired at the end of the season. He would later admit that he retired "too soon".

Racing after Formula One

In 1989 Rosberg made his comeback in the Spa 24 Hours in a Ferrari Mondial run by Moneytron (cf. Jean-Pierre Van Rossem and Onyx), the same team that gave Rosberg's protege JJ Lehto his debut in Formula One. Rosberg was a key element of Peugeot's extremely competitive sportscar squad in the early 1990s. But after two years with the marque 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, Team Rosberg, in 1995 and at the end of that year withdrew from driving to concentrate on running it.

Team Rosberg ran for another year in the DTM, until the series collapsed, and has been present in Formula BMW, German Formula Three, the Formula Three Euroseries and A1 GP since. Team Rosberg returned to the revived DTM in 2000, entering two Mercedes. Success, or even just scoring points, became harder with each passing season and Team Rosberg quit the series after their 2004 campaign, only to return in 2006, this time with Audi.

The next generation

Rosberg later spent a long time managing his countrymen Jyrki Järvilehto and future world champion Mika Häkkinen. Until 2008 he also managed his son Nico, who entered Formula One in 2006 driving for WilliamsF1.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

() (Races in bold indicate pole position)

References