Street fighter

The 1985 F1 season was the fourth season for Keke Rosberg in the Williams-Honda team (picture below, with team owner Frank Williams). The Finn had a new team mate in Nigel Mansell and the all-carbon Williams FW10 chassis was a big improvement over the FW09B of 1984.

Honda introduced an upgraded version of its engine, with improved power delivery, fuel economy and most importantly, reliability. Keke Rosberg used the new package to excellent effect, winning the Detroit Grand Prix and claiming pole for the next two races in France and at the British Grand Prix.

The Finn pole-winning lap at Silverstone wrote history when he lapped the 4.719km (2.932 miles) circuit at a record average speed of 259.01 km/h (160.94 mph)!

Keke Rosberg’s fifth and final Grand Prix victory came at the 1985 Australian Grand Prix in the streets of Adelaide (picture above). As it was the final race of the season, it was also Rosberg’s final race for Williams, who was leaving the team to join McLaren. Keke, thankful for such a great working relationship, gave the winners trophy to his race engineer, Frank Dernie.

The win confirmed Rosberg’s reputation as a “street fighter” as four of his five championship Grand Prix wins (Monaco, Dallas, Detroit and Adelaide) had all come on street circuits.