F1 in 1982. The conclusion

FOUR DRIVERS HAD TWO WINS

Keke Rosberg driving the Williams FW08 Cosworth won only one race in 1982, the Swiss GP at Dijon. It was obvious however that this car had a great chassis/aero package.In the 1982 F1 season, there were however 11 different winners !

Didier Pironi and the Ferrari 126C2 was second in the championship. In the period following his controversial win at Imola and his crash at Hockenheim, Pironi enjoyed a run of successes that surely would have taken him winning the F1 crown. He also won the race at Zandvoort and was on the podium at Monaco, Detroit, Brands Hatch and Paul Ricard. The Scuderia Ferrrari took the constructors championship in front of McLaren and Renault.

Third place was for John Watson. With the Mclaren MP4/1B he won the Belgium GP and the race in Detroit. A third place in the Canadian GP was the way to a 10 point lead halfway in the season. But then he had six races without scoring points leading to 12 points behind Rosberg. A fourth place in Italy and only a second place in Vegas were just not enough. Watson stood five times on the podium.

Alain Prost and the Renault RE30B started the season strong with a win in the first races in South Africa and Brazil. He was on the way to winning the championship. But next he scored again some points at Brands Hatch in July. Prost, known as ‘Le Professeur’ for his error-free driving, crashed out of three races and had engine problems in all other races. On top, his relationship with team-mate Arnoux was not good enough. At Paul Ricard, Arnoux defied team orders and held off Prost to win.

Come-back man Niki Lauda needed only three races to be on the highest podium step at Long Beach. He then scored no more points for five races. He was again a winner in England. The McLaren MP4/1B was no favourite of the high speed tracks. He struggled a bit when he had a poor qualifying. He was third in the Swiss GP and that brought his total up to 30 points and 5^th in the overall standing.

Rene Arnoux in the Renault was third at the season opener. In the next races he had to retire eight times, mainly due to contact with other cars. He was as quick as Alain Prost in qualifying. With a win in France and Italy and second in Germany he showed a title-winning form. After his win at Monza, it became clear that he would be a Ferrari driver in 1983. ( photo below right : crash at Zandvoort)

Drivers's championship final standings

1          Keke Rosberg   44 pts

2=        Didier Pironi     39 pts

2=        John Watson     39 pts

4          Alain Prost       34 pts

5          Niki Lauda       30 pts

6          René Arnoux    28 pts

7=        Patrick Tambay 25 pts

7=         Michele Alboreto 25 pts
9          Elio de Angelis 23 pts

10        Riccardo Patrese 21 pts

AND THEN THERE WAS KEKE ROSBERG

The F1 career of Keke Rosberg was rescued in 1982 by Frank Williams. At the end of 1981, it took Alan Jones some time to announce his retirement. At that time, the only diver with some any F1 experience on the market was Rosberg. He was around for some four years in the F1 world driving for Theodore, ATS, Wolf and Fittipaldi. He was a driver that drove at his maximum when the opportunity was coming along. He had got the Wolf drive when James Hunt retired, but he could not improve the car. When that team merged with Fittipaldi, he was always quicker than world champion Emerson.

Keke did one test under supervision of Frank Dernie, in 1982 in charge of the engineering department at Williams. At the test, Keke was brilliant, super-fast, made no mistakes. So when Dernie went back to Frank Williams, convinced him and the deal was done.

The start of his year was good. He outqualified his team-mate Carlos Reutemann, but finished well behind him in the race. In Brazil, he battled at the front with Gilles Villeneuve’s Ferrari and ultimately finished second behind the turbo car of Nelson Piquet. Both were later disqualified for being under-weight. This was a first sign of the political issues between the turbo and non-turbo teams.

This normally-aspirated versus turbo was the crucial part of the picture of Rosberg’s winning campaign. His 3-litre Cosworth could not compete with the 1.5 turbo’s from BMW, Renault, Ferrari. The Renault and BMW were not always reliable and Ferrari lost his two star drivers during the year. And Reutemann started to talk about retirement after the second race in Brazil, so Williams became focused on Rosberg. The only remaining team with a competitive car was McLaren, where the returning Niki Lauda and John Watson were evenly matched.

So the Williams FW 08 with Rosberg at the wheel became a title contender. Keke kept grabbing the opportunities and combined this with his spectacular late-braking, clever steering ( he hated understeer) and spectacular throttle use. He fought always hard and fair. He drove a fantastic lap to pole position at Brands Hatch. The title was only decided in the last race at Las Vegas. During the year, Rosberg was six times on the podium. After the Italian GP, Rosberg was leading the championship with 42 points, Pironi had 39 ( no driving after his accident) and Watson 39. He did what he had to do in Vegas: finish in the top 6 (only the first 6 got points). Result: world champion.

But on the way, he only won one GP, the Swiss GP at Dijon. But in 1982, no one won more than twice!
And the FW08 was a reliable car even without the available electronics technology and with tyres that were during the year developed around turbo cars.

His famous quote of 1982 was: “Frank Williams and Patrick Head have never forgiven me for not being Alan Jones.” And he was right. He never quite formed a bond with the team owners, who already had their first world champion. But he got enough support from Frank Dernie. He was very much in favour of drivers who gave it all without analysing too much.

One thing is certain: Keke Rosberg was the man of the moment in 1982.