Keke Rosberg: 'Even if I had fear I kept my foot down. That's what racing is about'

KR: It is! I have a photo, taken from the top of Eau Rouge, where I’m flat through the corner with three wheels in the air. In those days it was so bumpy you could see almost nothing – but of course now you can’t have a bump anywhere, because racing drivers don’t like bumps.

It’s like the area around the swimming pool in Monaco. These days it’s defined by marks on the road — it used to be defined by stone walls! And you’ve also got visibility through the corner, where before you hadn’t. You don’t glance the wall anymore going in and then bang into the wall at the exit no, you just take a bit too much kerb.

Life changes, doesn’t it? Who am I to say that life was better then or better now? The safety has increased tremendously, and for that we should be grateful. I’m sure if Stirling Moss had looked at us in the ’80s he would have said. ‘Oh look, these kids with their fireproof overalls and full-face helmets. They’re chicken, aren’t they?’

Having said that, which were your favourite circuits?

KR: Oh, the bad ones of course!  That’s the whole contradiction. I thought Brands Hatch was magic — there was nothing better than the old Paddock and it was the same with Eau Rouge at Spa. In fact, doing F2 at the old Nürburgring was probably the biggest thrill l ever had.  I was on pole by six seconds and I was totally carried away. All four wheels in the air, maximum speed, four times a lap. I was dead scared, but I-just-loved-it!

You once told me that, in races, you talked to yourself.

KR: Well, not exactly – but I thought aloud. I thought through every corner. In complete sentences. It was the same when I was coming up behind someone. I always approached every driver in a different way – because everyone has a different style of driving.

There were a few guys you could never read, like Andrea (de Cesaris),  but with Mario (Andretti) or Carlos (Reutemann) or Jonesy, you knew exactly what was coming. Same with Gilles…

Rosberg and Villeneuve had a lot of history, beginning, of course, with their Formula Atlantic rivalry in Canada in the mid-70s. Over time the pair of them had innumerable battles on the track, and Keke remembers them — and Gilles — with affection and relish.

It was always said of Gilles that he was hard but totally fair. Would you go along with that?

I loved racing with Gilles – he’d fight for the last inch

KR: Absolutely. I loved racing with him – he’d never make an incorrect move, never move over on you, but he’d fight for the last inch. That’s what motor racing was about or should be.

And you never chopped each other?

KR: No. We were too busy trying to keep on the road!

Was that the most intense racing you ever did?

KR: Atlantic with Gilles? Oh yes, for sure by a million miles – much more intense than F1 ever was. In Atlantic it was him and me, at each other all day long.

In fact. Gilles was too brave for my world, for the parameters I had set. He was fantastically quick, there was no one in our era as competitive as Gilles. Remember the Arnoux battle at Dijon in ’79? It couldn’t have been done with anyone else but Gilles. You think of them at the end of the race, embracing each other! Today two guys like that would be screaming at each other, and that’s the difference.

Back to Williams. Keke, always feisty, always honest, fitted the team to a tee and always had a good, straightforward relationship with Frank and Patrick. For some reason, Head seemed to produce cars that suited Rosberg’s style, just as they had his predecessor, Alan Jones.

KR: The FW08 was a lovely car in ’82. Front wings off, small rear wing as a flap, all the downforce coming from the underside. Jesus, it was quick! I felt I could do anything with it, and the ’83 car was the same just not as quick, because now we had the ‘flat-bottom’ rule.

I don’t know why it was, but Patrick just built cars that I liked to drive. I always needed a car with a front end – and then the back just followed. That was what really caught me – in a big way – when I went to McLaren.

I think of you and Williams, and a couple of races always particularly come back to me, both of which you won in adverse conditions. Let’s start with Monaco in ’83.

KR: Well, I’d say I was at my best from ’83 to ’85. And yes. I suppose that was a good win because it was so hard to finish the race, given the pain from my hands. The vibration through the steering was so bad it went through my gloves and then through two layers of skin.

Did you go to a doctor about that afterwards?

“When you think you’re finished, that’s when you start running on pure… adrenalin”

KR: What would have been the point? He would have said. ‘You’ve got blisters’. No. I remembered the old thing about salt water healing it very fast and I stuck my hands in the sea in Ibiza. But in those days that was normal – everyone had blisters because of the gear shifts, the vibration and all that. It was part of the game.

The early laps of that race were incredible the track was damp and you were on slicks, leading, with everyone else on wets…

KR: Well, I was proud of that race because we were smart. I was the only one – apart from Marc Surer – who did the warm-up lap on slicks. I mean, what was the downside? If it hadn’t worked then, OK, you go on wets. I knew exactly how much grip the slicks had — but the others didn’t, so they had to stay on wets.

The other race I always remember was the Dallas GP in 1984, the unbelievable heat, the track surface coming apart. You were in the most wilful car in the race, the Williams FW09, with ‘lightswitch’ power delivery from the Honda turbo. Was that perhaps your best win?

KR: No. not at all. It was a question of survival – being smart and staying away from the marbles at all costs. You had to go only at the speed the track allowed you to go.

You know, I used to get flak from Frank about smoking. Of course he was a health freak, always running like crazy, but he had to admit that I never showed any physical weakness during a race. And that wasn’t because I was so strong it was because I was able to handle the pain.

You did have incredible stamina…

KR: I did. yes. Once I got over the boiling point, which was painful, l could go on forever. About halfway through the race, when you think you’re finished, that’s when you start running on pure… adrenalin. I suppose.

Alain drove differently. I always braked in a straight line and then turned in, but Alain had this ability to drive deep into the corner with the car down on its knees, and because of that he had less understeer — I was already on the throttle with the nose going up! It was phenomenal, the way he took the performance out of that car.

I was never blown off by a team-mate like I was by Alain, but it was great working with him – I really like the guy. And, don’t forget, Ron was the same age as us.  Now these guys are approaching 60 and they’ve got young kids driving for them. We were all of one generation: the team owner didn’t have to see in the paper that his driver had been in a disco -– because he’d been there himself!

You’d made up your mind to retire at the end of 1986. Did you waver at all?

KR: I didn’t. Don’t forget that we lost Elio in June and that finally made up my mind – we were very close friends.

I remember the night before his funeral. I sat up, debating not if I should go, because I knew I should, but whether I could go or not —  and in the end I decided. ‘No. I cannot. If I go there I cannot continue racing’. I didn’t go to that funeral and I haven’t been to another one except my dad’s. I won’t go. Family, yes. Otherwise, no. I had my suit and everything ready, and at five in the morning I decided I wasn’t going. Even today it’s something I don’t like to think about.

The two worst things I remember in racing were the accidents to Gilles and Elio. I remember leaving Zolder on the Monday morning and  I had to pass the track. There was nothing but a ton of rubbish and Gilles’s helicopter. That was when it really hit me hard.

After Elio’s accident I drove back from Marseille with Nigel, and I’ll never forget that either. Not much was being said, you know. Nigel spoke one sentence during the whole trip: ‘How long is a piece of string?’

And that’s the single sentence l’ve heard in my life that I remember better than anything else.

A particularly fascinating aspect of Rosberg’s career was its variety, and some of his most memorable stories come from the days before he was a full-time grand prix driver. In Can-Am, for example, he drove for Paul Newman, and remembers the time with great affection.

KR: I loved the guy – in fact I think he’s the best single person I met in my career. There’s an aura around him – and it has nothing to do with the fact that he’s an actor or whatever. He’s so uncomplicated, so warm.

And did you like the cars?

KR: Oh. they were shitboxes — but they were quick! And they sounded great. They were men’s cars. We went to some great circuits:  Elkhart Lake, Riverside, Watkins Glen and so on – that were incredibly dangerous but wonderful to drive on.  And the cars themselves were lethal, with that great V8 lump in the back and just a little tub at the front.

I had a huge shunt at Laguna Seca at the first corner — which in those days was flat. I blew the offside front tyre and went into an earth bank at what felt like the speed of sound. That happened in qualifying on the Saturday and I raced on the Sunday!  I can’t even remember if I went to the hospital or not.  I had a lovely hotel room in Carmel, complete with fireplace. I was dating an American stewardess at the time and she looked after me, and I didn’t feel too bad at all… On Sunday, though, I was so out of it that, after the warm-up, I went back to the hotel and slept until the race. I should never have raced — I had concussion! But the medical checks in those days were sort of: ‘Are you OK’? ‘Yes, I’m OK’. ‘ All right then….

I couldn’t hold the steering wheel because I was so badly bruised, so we put double-sided tape on it and I just stuck my gloves on it!  Of course it got away from me – I spun in the Corkscrew, but I still finished fourth. When the tail came out I just didn’t have the strength to correct it.

I don’t think I broke anything, but then for two weeks I lay in bed, unable to move, in a house in LA belonging to Michael Brockman, a good friend of Paul’s. Michael would come home every lunchtime from the movie studio to feed me. I felt completely destroyed.

Then one day it was beautifully sunny and I thought I’d go out on roller skates which I found in the cupboard!  I’d never been on roller skates in my life, but I stuck them on my feet and they seemed OK. Thing was, Michael’s house was on a hill which led down to the beach. I got out of the door and this sidewalk was going down and I suddenly thought, ‘Hey, I don’t know how to stop these things!’ I’d been ice-skating all my life, and those you can put sideways to stop. These rollerblade things today have brakes but roller skates didn’t…

Anyway, I went flat-out straight across a four-lane highway – on a red light –  somehow got missed by all the traffic, and then fell over on the other side. I had a cigarette lighter in the back pocket of my jeans and I sat on it, from a height of about two metres. Had a black mark on my bum for weeks after that. So that was my first day of fresh air. For many years after that accident I had to warm up my feet in the morning because I’d crushed the heels so badly. Different days…

Last thing. Being Finnish, why did you always want to race rather than rally?

KR: I never even thought of being a rally driver. My dad had a kart and I started driving that, and then Formula Vee came along, offering a cheap way of getting into racing. I was just a little computer trainee at the time.

I remember in your house in Cookham Dean you had your business card, framed, on the wall…

KR: Yes. ‘Keijo Rosberg. Systems Analyst’. I still have my last business card and my wife’s on the wall, framed, to remind us of the last day when we did honest work!

Keke Rosberg — From Formula Vee to DTM

1965-71 — Karting: won Finnish and Scandinavian titles.
1972 – Formula Vee in Veemax: third in Finnish championship, fourth in Scandinavian.
1973 – Formula Vee in Hansen MkIVB: won European, Finnish and Scandinavian titles.
1974 – FSuper Vee in Kaimann: third Gold Cup, second in Castrol series (both Euro-based).
1975 – FSuper Vee in Kaimann: won Castrol GTX and German titles, fourth in Gold Cup.
1976 – Formula Two in Toj-BMW, 10th in Euro championship.
1977 – F2 in Fred Opert Racing Chevron-Hart: sixth in Euro championship. FAtlantic/Pacific in Opert Chevron: winner of New Zealand title, fourth in North American championship.
1978 – F1 in Theodore ATS and Theodore Wolf: winner of International Trophy. F2 in Opert Chevron-Hart: fifth in championship. FAtlantic/Pacific in Opert Chevron: winner of NZ title, second in North American
1979 – F1 in Wolf. Can-Am in Newman-Freeman Racing Spyder: fourth in championship. Some F2 in ICI March-BMW.
1980 – F1 in Fittipaldi: 10th in championship. Some Can-Am in Newman Lola.
1981 – F1 in Fittipaldi.
1982 – F1 in Williams: World Champion, one win. Various touring car/saloon races.
1983 – F1 in Williams: fifth in championship, one win. Some sportscars in Porsche/Lancia.
1984 – F1 in Williams: eighth in championship, one win. Some FPacific (second in Australian GP).
1985 – F1 in Williams: third in championship, two wins.
1986 – F1 in McLaren: sixth in championship.
1987/88 – In retirement.
1989 – Races Ferrari Mondial in Spa 24 Hours
1990 – Two World Sportscar rounds in Peugeot.
1991 – World Sportscar Championship in Peugeot, two wins.
1992 – DTM in AMG Mercedes: fifth in championship.
1993 – One DTM round in Joest Opel.
1994 – DTM in Joest Opel: 14th in championship.
1995 – DTM in Rosberg Opel: 23rd in championship.

Rosberg has rallied on occasion from the 1970s to date. He also did some ice racing in the early days!