“I liked Frank (and Patrick Head), so I was very happy to go back there eight years on from when I last drove for him; he had given me my first chance in Formula One way back in ’74. He had nothing back then — I wasn’t even paid! In fact, Count Zanon bought one or two engines for me to give to Frank to help us, but otherwise I had no money. But what was really good about Frank was that all his thinking was about racing. Even with no money, he wanted to go testing and do the right things.
“Keke had been the world champion in 1982, so I thought it was a good time for me to go back to the team. The FW08C we had in ’83 was a good car, but often I had a Cosworth DFV that wasn’t quick enough. I’d say to Frank, ‘Why do you pay me so much, and then don’t give me the best equipment?’
“I didn’t have such a great qualifying at Monaco, and I was seventh. It had been raining before the start, and Keke and I both started on slicks when most of the turbo guys went for wets. Keke got into the lead early on and, after about eight laps, I got up to second.
“After a while I caught him up a bit; I really felt that I was quicker than him. Maybe he was not going as fast as he could because he was leading the race. And at Monaco at that time you really had to take care of your clutch, gearbox and brakes — no over-revving and so on.
Rosberg was being caught by Laffite until gearbox issue intervened
Grand Prix Photo
“You cannot believe what it means for a driver to win at Monaco. When I started racing I just wanted to win the big races: Monaco, the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Indianapolis 500. I wanted to win them all. So I was prepared to overtake Keke, for sure…
“I was catching him very quickly towards the end, but I got a pit signal saying ‘Go slow!’ Finally, I was going too fast and I had a problem with my gearbox. At this time you could shift the gears without using the clutch, and at Monaco you had 4000 gearchanges or something. So it was my own fault.
