Nationality ![]() |
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Formula One World Championship career | |
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Active years | 1978 - 1986 |
Teams | Theodore, ATS, Wolf, Fittipaldi, Williams, McLaren |
Races | 128 (114 starts) |
Championships | 1 (1982) |
Wins | 5 |
Podium finishes | 17 |
Career points | 159.5 |
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 Rosberg (pronunciation) (born December 6, 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.
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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.[1] 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.
Despite this, Williams was interested in Rosberg, with the retirement of former World Champion Alan Jones leaving a seat open for the 1982 season.[1] 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[1] 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".
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.[1] 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.
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.
(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 |
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1978 | Theodore Racing Hong Kong | Theodore TR1 | Cosworth V8 | ARG |
BRA |
RSA Ret |
USW DNPQ |
MON DNPQ |
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 |
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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 |
CPL 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 |
DET 4 |
CAN Ret |
NED 3 |
GBR Ret |
FRA 5 |
GER 3 |
AUT 2 |
SUI 1 |
ITA 8 |
CPL 5 |
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1983 | TAG Williams Team | Williams FW08C | Cosworth V8 | BRA DSQ |
USW Ret |
FRA 5 |
SMR 4 |
MON 1 |
BEL 5 |
DET 2 |
CAN 4 |
GBR 11 |
GER 10 |
AUT 8 |
NED Ret |
ITA 11 |
EUR Ret |
5th | 27 | ||
Williams FW09 | Honda V6 (t/c) | RSA 5 |
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1984 | Williams Grand Prix Eng. | Williams FW09 | Honda V6 (t/c) | BRA 2 |
RSA Ret |
BEL 4 |
SMR Ret |
FRA 6 |
MON 4 |
CAN Ret |
DET Ret |
DAL 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 (t/c) | BRA Ret |
POR Ret |
SMR Ret |
MON 8 |
CAN 4 |
DET 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 (t/c) | BRA Ret |
ESP 4 |
SMR 5 |
MON 2 |
BEL Ret |
CAN 4 |
DET Ret |
FRA 4 |
GBR Ret |
GER 5 |
HUN Ret |
AUT 9 |
ITA 4 |
POR Ret |
MEX Ret |
AUS Ret |
6th | 22 |
Awards and achievements | ||
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Preceded by![]() |
Finnish Sportsman of the Year 1982 |
Succeeded by![]() |
Preceded by first winner |
Autosport International Racing Driver Award 1982 |
Succeeded by Nelson Piquet |
Sporting positions | ||
Preceded by Mikko Kozarowitzky |
Formula Vee Finland 1973 |
Succeeded by Harry Nurminen |
Preceded by James Hunt |
BRDC International Trophy winner 1978 |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
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 |
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