Keke Rosberg

F-1 BIOGRAPHY BY CARLOS DE PAULA

Born 12/6/1948, Stockholm, Sweden (Finnish Nationality)

Starts:114

Points: 159.5

Wins:5

Poles:5

Fastest Laps:3

Sometimes Formula 1 feels like a soap opera. Such is the case of Keke Rosberg’s career, so full of anticlimaxes, ups and downs and sudden changes. One would consider the man finished in 1981, after a terrible season driving for Fittipaldi, and no one would expect the scoreless driver to be world champion the next year. Anticlimax or not, Rosberg was very talented, in fact his statistics don’t show half of it. They don’t show his acrobatic style and sheer speed as well. Rosberg rose to prominence driving Super Vees in Europe, eventually reaching Formula 2 in 1976, driving for Jopr Obermoser’s TOJ. He did the best he could with the novice team, and caught the attention of American Fred Opert, who ran Chevrons. In these cars, Rosberg won a few Formula 2 races, although he never challenged for the championship. This was enough for Teddy Yip to call Rosberg to drive for his budding Formula 1 team. Yip was a Macao millionaire, who had supported many drivers and teams during the course of the years, and had made the jump to Formula 1 in 1978. The ugly, Ralt designed car did not look fast. In fact, Rosberg only qualified it once in five outings. However, Keke astounded the racing world when he won the International Trophy under deluge conditions, heading Emerson Fittipaldi in the Copersucar. By Sweden Rosberg was called to drive the ATS, which was not a good car as well, but at least it qualified. He was back at Theodore for the German Grand Prix, driving the year old Wolf. His fortunes improved a bit, but the association was less than competitive all year. Rosberg was out of Formula 1 in early 1979, but then got called to replace the retiring James Hunt at Wolf. He only finished a single race, 9th in France, and did qualify 8th at Zandvoort, but the rest of the season was quite inconclusive and indifferent. The Fittipaldi team, which was beaten by Rosberg in the 1978 International trophy, decided to buy Wolf’s assets, retaining Rosberg as well. He had a superb 3rd place in his debut for the team in Argentina, after qualifying 13th, but then competitiveness slipped. There was a definite mid season slump, but in Germany Keke qualified 8th, finished 5th in Italy and qualified 6th in Canada. More tellingly, Keke proved faster than twice world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, who retired deciding to concentrate on team management (Emerson proved no slouch in Formula Indy, a few year’s later, so you can guess Rosberg’s Herculean efforts in the car). Keke continued in the Brazilian team, but in spite of a few good qualifying performances early in the season, after Monaco Fittipaldi proved to be hopelessly uncompetitive, as well as underfinanced. Having failed to qualify from Germany to Canada, Keke had a single chance to score a single point in the year, at Las Vegas and failed, thus going score less. Williams was the top team of the day in 1981, and had two top line drivers, Reutemann and Jones. Jones suddenly decided to retire after the end of the 1981 (a decision he would regret later), so a place was open at Williams. Frank decided to give Rosberg a shot, and the Finn obliged by finishing 5th in his debut, in South Africa. For all intents and purposes, Reutemann would remain number 1. Then the mercurial Carlos decided to quit too! So Williams, who had two top drivers the year before, now had a bet on his hands (Rosberg) and nothing else (eventually he hired Derek Daly). However, Rosberg performed admirably in the 3 races that ensued Reutemann’s departure, finishing all three in second place. He was disqualified in Brazil, so his points were stripped, but it did look as though Ferrari was the best bet to carry the championship. Then Villeneuve died, and Pironi assumed the role of number 1 at Ferrari, suddenly accruing a large number of points midseason. Meanwhile, Rosberg had gone into a little slump, managing a 4th in Detroit and 3rd in Zandvoort during midseason. Then in Germany, disaster struck Ferrari again: Prioni who was leading the championship with some margin, had a terrible accident, and was sidelined for the rest of the year. Soon after that Rosberg had three straight podium positions, culminating with a win in the novel Swiss Grand prix, his maiden Formula 1 victory. He came to Las Vegas as favorite, and John Watson failed to do what he needed to snatch the title away, which was winning and hoping Keke did not score. From rags to riches. So for 1983 Keke was finally considered a top F-1 driver, beginning the year scoring a pole in Rio, but was disqualified again. He then won at Monaco, and was second at Detroit, but the Cosworth engined Williams was by then a liability against turbo powered competition. By mid year Rosberg was qualifying closer to midfield, and it became obvious that Williams needed the Honda turbo engine as soon as possible. Keke debuted the engine in South Africa, qualifying 6th and finishing 5th. Keke would have a turbo engine for a full season for the first time in 1984, and proved competitive from the word go. He was 2nd again in Brazil, this time getting to keep the result, and qualified well for most races, but results were poor. He did give the Honda turbo engine its first victory in the grueling Dallas G.P., but after that he retired from all races, proving the Williams Honda combination was still unreliable. 1985 was a different story. Keke qualified in the top 5 for most of the races (with three exceptions), posted three fastest laps, got a couple of poles and won two races, at Adelaide and Detroit. He ended up 3rd in the championship, and was hired by McLaren for 1986. In the new environment Rosberg underperformed, although he did get another pole and led comfortably in Germany and also in Australia, but the best he could do was 2nd in Monaco. At the end of the year he retired, although eventually he did resume his racing activities, first with the Peugeot prototype team, and then with Mercedes Benz and Opel in touring cars. He did eventually settle in managerial roles, and is currently a happy dad overseeing the exploits of son Nico at this old home, Williams.

Other cars raced:

Formula 2: TOJ, March, Chevron

Formula 5000:

Formula Super-Vee: Lola

Formula-Atlantic: Chevron

Sports-Cars: Porsche (962), Peugeot

Can-Am: Spyder, Lola

Touring cars: Mercedes-Benz, Opel

An impossible dream

After a brilliant season in 1969, with a Brabham-Ford driven by Piers Courage (two second places), Frank Williams embarked into what seemed to be an eternal career as a back-marker in Formula 1.

In fact in the next season, not even Piers Courage's brilliance could make the De Tomaso-Ford competitive, and other great drivers, Brian Redman and Tim Schenken also failed to make the car fast, after Piers' untimely death.

In 1971 and 1972, Frank fielded Marches, experimenting with the first Williams designed car in 1972, the Politoys. In spite of having good drivers, such as Henri Pescarolo and Jose Carlos Pace, Williams' cars were mostly back-markers.

Having attained sponsorship from Iso-Rivolta and Marlboro, in 1973, Frank fielded upgraded versions of the Politoys, then a revamped car, which still used bits and pieces from the original Williams. In spite of the theoretically good sponsorship deal, the Iso-Marlboros were again back-markers, and got two points in the championship. Frank could be seen in race tracks carrying tires, and the team was most decidedly at the bottom of the food chain as far as F1 was concerned.

Arturo Merzario was retained for 1974, and actually had some outstanding performances with the Iso-Marlboro, starting 3rd in South Africa and finishing fourth in Italy. Notwithstanding, things were not all that well within Williamsland, for Arturo was not being paid as agreed. Merzario continued in the team in the early part of 1975, but when the promised payments did not materialize, he left the team 1/3 into the season. Jacques Laffite was lucky enough to post a second place in Germany, but Williams was mostly a laughing stock of the F1 fraternity by then.

A liaison with Walter Wolf, the purchase of the latest Hesketh design and hiring of Jacky Ickx as a driver failed to bring glories to Williams. In fact, for the first time since 1970, the team failed to score a single point in 1976, and looked more like the De Tomaso days. At the end of the season, Williams parted company with Wolf.

In 1977, while Wolf was winning races as a renamed team, Frank went back to the March route, and fielded a slow March-761 for Belgian driver Patrick Neve, with little or no impact on the circus.

The first iteration of Williams as a team, especially 1970 and 1976, and the first year of the reborn Williams team, 1977 looked more like the 3 teams that have become part of the F-1 fraternity since 2010, Caterham, HRT and Marussia.

I suppose these teams dream having a turn of events that lead Williams, in a short period of two years, to become a top team, in fact winning a championship 3 years after fielding the unsuccessful March for Neve. Of course, the millions brought by Saudi sponsors helped Williams leave its status a a laughable back-marker, turning it into a top team. At the proper time, incidentally. For within two years, the turbo revolution would make teams that could not attract engine partners, such as Fittipaldi and Ensign, irrelevant, causing their ultimate demise. Had Williams failed to produce that much speed when it did, it would likely die a certain second death.

The problem is that it was that much easier, in the late 70s, to turn things around. When Williams won its first championship, most teams still used the Cosworth-Hewland combo, and the difference was basically in chassis design. Williams was so successful in 1979, because it managed to improve on the Lotus 79 concept, like Ligier. Additionally, Williams linked up with Alan Jones and Patrick Head, largely responsible for the team's success.

How can a Marussia improve, with a Cosworth engine these days? Even Caterham, that has the benefit of Renault engines, is unlikely to surge ahead of teams that have a tremendous technological and financial edge over it.

Sure their dreams is to turn things around like Williams did way back when, but I reckon this is pretty much impossible these days. Their choice of drivers only compounds the problem.

They will remain at the bottom of the food chain, and the best they can do is scrap for 10th place.

Carlos de Paula is a translator, writer and motorsport historian, based in Miami