The best 10 Williams F1 drivers

Racing events, drivers, cars or anything else from the past.
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kals
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#31

Post by kals »

Bottom post of the previous page:

Let me check RFM and see if there is any coverage of the Silverstone 85 quali session.
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Antonov
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#32

Post by Antonov »

Who took the initiative for Rosberg moving to McLaren in 1986? Was it Keke himself, or more a case of Williams 'wanting' him gone.

The move was never going to work - he signed for a team which would field the same chasis for a third successive year. You cant expect strong results in that case, and it also explain his totally lacklustre campagne for 1986.
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duvel
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#33

Post by duvel »

It was Keke himself, he said that before his career ending he would have like to drive for McLaren, so after Lauda retirement he went for it.
1986 wasn't that good because 1) probably conscious to be nearly at his career end. 2) difficult for him to cope with McLaren understeer, he found Alain's style totally amazing and considering Prost the best driver he raced against 3) he realize that he couldn't be a match for Prost ability. In his opinion if 1988 and further on McLarens held the same charachteristics, no way for Senna to beat the Frenchman
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kals
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#34

Post by kals »

Thanks for that information, I didn’t know that
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Puhis
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#35

Post by Puhis »

To add:

Keke wanted to drive for McLaren before his career was over. Not only for one last chance of success, but also to learn about the business side of F1. He did always have interest in that department, taking German Volker Weidler under his wing as early as 1983. He was later better known as a Le Mans winner, Volker, and also had 10 GP starts with Rial.

Interestingly, at least from what I've read: Prospect of Keke driving for McLaren is what lead to them lowballing Niki Lauda after 1985, resulting in the hapless Austrian (understandably) calling it quits.

As @duvel pointed out, the McLaren's characteristics didn't suit Rosberg, who preferred a different sort of handling. Prost was a driver who could occasionally adapt Keke's pointy and aggressive style, but it was hard to impossible for Keke to adapt a different one. And I can understand that. Keke made a career driving cars pretty much on the limit, and relied on his excellent car control to get through difficult situations. A car development mastermind he was probably not, letting teammates handle most of the testing post-1982. And pre-1982, his teams usually didn't have money to test anyway. So, if the car's natural balance was more on the understeer side of things, there's only so much one can do with the setup to make it suit another.

Still, Keke did manage to lead Adelaide before he blew a tyre and stopped, thinking his engine was gone. Which turned out to be lucky, because (allegedly) mechanics later found out that his brakes were about to fail anyway.

As for his Williams legacy: Not bad for someone signed as a last resort option, heh.
"When you put the car into the wall, you have made some mistake before it's in the wall."

-Tapani Linnaluoto, my commentary partner during a Classic Lotus Grand Prix race at Watkins Glen.
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