Keke Rosberg

Keke Rosberg

Nation:	Finland
Automobile / Formula 1 world championship
First start:	1978 South African Grand Prix
Last start:	1986 Australian Grand Prix
Constructors
1978  Theodore  • 1978  ATS  • 1978–1979  Wolf  • 1980–1981  Fittipaldi  • 1982–1985  Williams  • 1986  McLaren
statistics
World Cup balance:	World Champion ( 1982 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 114 5 5 3
World Cup points :	159.5
Podiums :	17th
Leadership laps :	503 over 2,119.5 km

Keijo Erik "Keke" Rosberg  [ ˈkɛkɛ ˈruːsbærj ] (born  December 6, 1948 in Solna , Sweden ) is a Finnish entrepreneur and TV commentator as well as a former racing car driver . He competed in the top motorsport class, Formula 1 , between 1978 and 1986 and became world champion there in 1982 .

Driver career

Keke Rosberg was born in Sweden as the eldest of three children to the veterinarian Lars Erik Rosberg and his wife, Lea Aino Marjatta Rosberg, née Lautala. He spent his childhood in Oulu in Northern Finland and in Iisalmi . He got enthusiastic about racing at an early age, as his parents drove rallies . His original intention was to become a dentist. From 1965 Rosberg also took part in automobile races himself and finally made the leap into Formula 1 relatively late in 1978 using various junior formulas, where he stayed until 1986 before turning to other racing series such as the DTM .

formula 1

Rosberg 1979 in Imola

Rosberg in the Williams FW09 at the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix

In his first season, Rosberg started for three different teams. First he drove a race for the Theodore team, before hiring for five races with the German entrepreneur Günter Schmid and his ATS team. He then moved again, this time to Walter Wolf Racing , where he also contested the following 1979 season. After two years and 16 Grand Prix, there was not a single point result for Rosberg. Nevertheless, the team around ex-world champion Emerson Fittipaldi signed him as the number 2 driver for 1980 and 1981. In fact, Rosberg was now able to score his first points, but remained without much success.

With the end of the 1981 season, Rosberg's connection with Fittipaldi ended. Rosberg offered himself to Osella for the 1982 season , but was not accepted by the team's French sponsor. After ex-world champion Alan Jones had announced his resignation at Williams at the end of the 1981 season , Frank Williams brought Rosberg into the team at short notice as a "stopgap". He was supposed to support the Argentine Carlos Reutemann in the hunt for the title. But when Reutemann suddenly didn't feel like racing any more after two races in the new season, Rosberg unexpectedly found himself in the spotlight. He justified the trust and became world champion in 1982 with just one win out of 16 races. With this achievement he equalized Mike Hawthorn's record from 1958, which is still standing today.

In the following years, Rosberg remained loyal to the Williams team and won other grand prizes. In 1985 he finished third again before joining McLaren - TAG - Porsche in 1986 alongside world champion Alain Prost . In his last season he finished second in Monaco and announced his retirement from Formula 1 after a pole position at the German Grand Prix . In his last race, the Australian Grand Prix , he retired while in the lead after a puncture, helping his team-mate Prost to win the world championship. In total, Rosberg completed 114 Grand Prix, of which he won five.

DTM

The Finn remained loyal to racing as a promoter and manager until he returned as a pilot in 1990. In 1990 and 1991 he competed in the sports car world championship for the Peugeot team . From 1992 he started in the German Touring Car Championship (DTM) for the AMG-Mercedes team and in 1993 he switched to Opel within the series before founding his own team in 1994 . His last assignment as an active driver was on October 15, 1995 at the DTM season finale in Hockenheim in an Opel Calibra. In his honor there was a Keke Rosberg edition of the Opel Calibra in addition to the DTM special model.

Manager, racing team owner and TV commentator

As a manager, Keke Rosberg placed his Finnish compatriots JJ Lehto and Mika Häkkinen as drivers in Formula 1. Until March 2002, Rosberg worked as the manager of Häkkinen, who won the Formula 1 World Championship twice with McLaren-Mercedes.

Today he is also active as the owner of the Team Rosberg racing team in the DTM and Formula 3 Euro Series .

With the start of the Formula 1 World Championship 2008 Keke Rosberg was elected to succeed Hans-Joachim Stuck Formula 1 expert at the Munich pay-TV transmitter Sky . Keke Rosberg has also been an ambassador for the Nürburgring since April 2009 . As such, it represents the traditional race track and its offers worldwide.

Private

Keke Rosberg has been married to his wife Sina since 1983. Their son Nico (* 1985) is also a racing driver and competed in Formula 1 from 2006 to 2016, in which he also became world champion in 2016.

Rosberg speaks Finnish, English and German.

statistics

Statistics in the automobile / Formula 1 world championship

These statistics include all participations of the driver in the Formula 1 World Championship , which until 1980 was known as the Automobile World Championship.

Grand Prix victories

1982 Swiss Grand Prix ( Dijon-Prenois )  1983 Monaco Grand Prix ( Monte Carlo )  1984 US Grand Prix ( Dallas )

1985 US East Grand Prix ( Detroit )  1985 Australian Grand Prix ( Adelaide )

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16
1978
			DNF	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNQ	DNQ	15th	16	17th	10	NC	DNF	DNPQ	DNF	NC
1979
								9	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNQ	DNF
1980
	3	9	DNF	DNF	7th	DNQ	DNF	DNQ	DNF	16	DNQ	5	9	10
1981
	DNF	9	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNQ	12	DNF	DNF	DNQ		DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	10
1982
	5	DSQ	2		2	DNF	4th	DNF	3	DNF	5	3	2	1	8th	5
1983
	DSQ	DNF	5	4th	1	5	2	4th	11	10	8th	DNF	11	DNF	5
1984
	2	DNF	4th	DNF	6th	4th	DNF	DNF	1	DNF	DNF	DNF	8th	DNF	DNF	DNF
1985
	DNF	DNF	DNF	8th	4th	1	2	DNF	12 *	DNF	DNF	DNF	4th	3	2	1
1986
	DNF	4th	5 *	2	DNF	4th	DNF	4th	DNF	5 *	DNF	9 *	4th	DNF	DNF	DNF

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1991	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Peugeot 905	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Yannick Dalmas	failure	Shift hydraulics

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9
1983	Canon Racing	Porsche 956	MON	SIL	ONLY	LEM	SPA	FUJ	KYA
					3
1990	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Peugeot 905	SUZ	MON	SIL	SPA	DIJ	ONLY	DON	MOT	MEX
										DNF	13
1991	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Peugeot 905	SUZ	MON	SIL	LEM	ONLY	LIKE	MEX	AUT
			DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	1	1	DNF

Web links

Commons : Keke Rosberg  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Keke Rosberg Fansite (Engl.)
• Keke Rosberg in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gianni Tomazzoni: Enzo Osella, Schena, 2011, ISBN 9788882299217 , pp 200th
2. ↑ Ex-world champion Keke Rosberg becomes the new Formula 1 expert at Premiere