Keijo Erik "Keke" Rosberg possessed every dare devilry characteristic to make him one of the most exciting drivers in Formula One history. Extremely aggressive at the wheel and equally flamboyant outside his car, Keke gave his all when it came to racing. When Keke raced, he stuck to his peculiar style, which was to drive flat-out all through the race. It was this thirst for racing at mind-boggling speed along with his turbulent racing technique that quickly earned him his nickname 'Flying Finn' and a world champion at the end of the 1982 Formula One (F1) season. His flowing moustache and long blond hair added further colour to his rambunctious personality, which enlivened F1 all throughout his racing career.

Keijo Erik Rosberg, more popularly known as Keke, was born in Solna in the Stockholm County of Sweden on December 6, 1948. Soon after his birth, he returned to Finland with his parents who loved racing and competed in rallies. Having attained this inherent attachment to auto-racing from his parents, Keke began racing at a very young age. As a toddler he took to karts and had already mastered the sport in his teens. In his early 20's Keke had already secured the Finnish kart championship five times and by 1973 was crowned the Scandinavian and European champion.

Having conquered the kart scene, Keke then set his eyes on the Formula Vee and Super Vee championships. By 1975, Keke had also stormed past the Vee series, winning ten of the 21 races he had entered. The search for a better challenge then saw Keke compete in varied competitions across five continents to satiate his racing appetite. In 1978, Keke produced a series of impressive results driving for the American racing company Fred Opert in championships all across the globe. Among these, Keke finished fifth in the European Formula Two championship, second in the North American Formula Atlantic series and, in a similar car, first in the Formula Pacific series.

Keke's sensation run in 1978 scored him his debut at F1 the same year, racing for the Theodore team. Keke wasted no time in exploiting this golden opportunity and clinched a win in just his second race, a rain drenched non-Championship BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone, in front of many celebrated names. However, his unreliable Theodore F1 car saw Keke fail to even qualify in his next race and so Keke switched to another team called ATS for the next three races. Driving the ATS cars was another unflattering experience as they were highly underpowered and did not achieve any good results even though Keke drove out of his skin. At the end of the third race with ATS, Keke was back with Theodore for the next few races in their new Wolf chassised cars, which were just as uncompetitive. By the end of the 1978 season, Keke had again switched back to ATS for the last two races to end one of his worst racing seasons.

In 1979, Keke restarted his F1 campaign as the driver for the Wolf team. Nonetheless, Keke's move to Wolf proved just as unsuccessful as he was forced to retire in almost every race besides the French Grand Prix where he managed a humble 9th finish. The 1980 season provided a breath of fresh air in Keke's struggling F1 career following his switch to the Fittipaldi Automotive team. Keke scored his first point and first podium in his debut race with his new team at the first race of the 1980 F1 season, the Argentinean Grand Prix (GP). Keke powered his Fittipaldi to a thrilling third finish with the hope that this would finally kick-start his successful F1 career. However, Keke's aspirations were short-lived as another streak of bad races followed with no good results excluding just one decent performance, a fifth place finish at the Italian GP. Then came the disastrous 1981 season, when Keke failed to score even a single point. At this point of time, when Keke's F1 career seemed to be heading towards a bleak end, fate finally turned in Keke's favour and he secured a ride with team Williams for the 1982 season.

The surprising offer from Williams came after the 1980 champion Alan Jones unexpectedly announced his retirement just ahead of the 1982 season and Frank Williams had no other option but to hire Keke Rosberg, the only reasonably competent driver available. With the talented Williams team now watching his back and the reliable V8 Williams at his disposal, Keke powered his way to his first world title in an eventful season where no driver won more than two races. Keke won his maiden championship in 1982 on consistently scored points and a single win, his first F1 victory, which came at the Swiss Grand Prix at Dijon-Prenois late that year.

Keke's 1982 championship became the zenith of his racing career, as he was unable to repeat this feat in the years that followed. The aspirated Cosworth engine in his Williams proved no match to the new generation turbo engines of his rivals and when Keke got his share of turbo power, he was beaten by the driving genius of Niki Lauda and Alain Prost. Nonetheless, he retired from the sport in 1986 as the fastest man of his day. Just before switching to McLaren for his last season in F1, Rosberg's pole position-winning lap at the 1985 British Grand Prix stood as the fastest (highest average speed) single lap in F1 history right until the 2001 season.

After retiring from F1 in 1986, Keke has still maintained his ties with the sport as a successful driver manager, shaping the careers of many future F1 stars, including fellow Finn and champion Mika Hakkinen.