Keke Rosberg is struggling with the long-term effects of the pandemic: In a rare interview, he talks about isolation, loss of energy, and his son’s legacy
Former Formula 1 world champion Keke Rosberg has largely withdrawn from public life. But recently, the 76-year-old made a rare media appearance and told Finnish magazine Apu how much his health has suffered in recent years.
According to Bild, Rosberg said that the coronavirus pandemic had hit him particularly hard. Like many other people, he is suffering “severely” from the consequences and is struggling with a secondary illness “that has been exacerbated by isolation,” Rosberg said.
He now has “hardly any energy” and has to restrict himself: “I used to have a list of things that needed to be done. I still have a list – but now it’s full of things I can no longer do.”
The father of Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg is also struggling with declining eyesight.
Demonstration laps with son Nico in Monaco
Keke Rosberg made one of his last public appearances in 2018 at the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix alongside his son Nico Rosberg: The Rosbergs each drove a few demo laps on the traditional city circuit in their Formula 1 championship cars – Keke in his 1982 Williams FW08 and Nico in his 2016 Mercedes W07.
Keke Rosberg described how much his son’s world championship title means to him in his latest interview: Rosberg said that Nico’s success was “definitely” the highlight of his career. “It was a milestone, especially in terms of our family history.”
The Hill and Rosberg racing families
The Rosbergs are only the second family after the Hills in which father and son have both become Formula 1 world champions. Graham Hill (1962 and 1968) and Damon Hill (1996) paved the way, and Keke Rosberg (1982) and Nico Rosberg (2016) followed suit – incidentally with the same start number: both Rosbergs won the world championship title with the number 6.
But the Rosbergs achieved something that the Hills were denied: both generations won the Formula 1 classic in Monaco – Keke Rosberg in 1983, Nico Rosberg in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Nevertheless, the Hills have the better Monaco record: Graham Hill won the Grand Prix in the principality no less than five times between 1963 and 1969.