Keke Rosberg rushes to Abu Dhabi with Champ son
F1 Update – With his raffish flamboyance, flowing grey hair and large Cuban cigar, Keke Rosberg could scarcely be more distinct from his son. Where Nico cleaves to a ferocious fitness regime and an efficient, risk-averse driving style, his father, who became world champion in 1982 by virtue of his overtaking bravado, is an incorrigible swashbuckler.
Together, though, they have become only the second father-son partnership to hold a Formula One world title apiece. And Keke, given Graham Hill’s death in a plane crash long before son Damon’s 1996 triumph, is the first to live to see his progeny prevail.
Now 67, he has refused to give an interview about Nico’s career for six years. It was not so much superstition as a stubborn avowal not to meddle unduly with Rosberg Jnr’s tense advance to a maiden championship. Come the final grand prix in Yas Marina, he decided to follow the drama 90 miles away, at a friend’s house in Dubai, before appearing in the paddock for some delirious celebrations.
He was quick, having arrived, to scotch any idea that his boy was an unworthy champion, even while trailing Lewis Hamilton in race wins this year by 10 to nine. Drawing comparison between Nico’s work ethic and Hamilton’s penchant for flying to California for showbusiness opportunities, he says: “Not many people on the outside appreciate the effort that went into this. There is one guy in Los Angeles, here, there and everywhere, and then another guy concentrating on only one thing. Nutrition, time differences, training, emptying the brain at the right time: it was all about performance.”
Category: Formula One
