I’ve long felt that Keke Rosberg was the worst F1 champion and I have never been shaken in that opinion. I will admit that Rosberg did better in many other people’s models than mine, as F1metrics rated him significantly higher. I realize he should probably be higher in my model than he is because he lost his teammate head-to-head to Nigel Mansell 1-4 even though he outperformed him by almost every other metric including finishing higher in points immediately before the start of Mansell’s power run. I think the main reasons I’m down on Rosberg’s career are that it was so short and also that he did relatively little outside of F1. If you look at the other F1 champions that are frequently cited as the worst, Mike Hawthorn is probably the most popular choice because he caused the infamous Le Mans wreck, but he is much higher-rated in my model, had a lot of sports car wins, and set the fastest lap at Le Mans four years in a row. Phil Hill was a prolific sports car racer and the only driver to win the F1 title and Le Mans in the same year. Jacques Villeneuve had a CART title and Indy 500 win, but I’m pretty down on him too because he had only one pass for the lead in both his 1995 CART title season and his 1997 F1 season. Denny Hulme is actually the lowest-rated F1 driver in my model with a below average rating, but he is also the winningest Can-Am driver in history. However, Rosberg never really showed any kind of championship-caliber pace in other series while all those other drivers did, which is probably why I picked him as the worst. But the worst F1 champion is still a champion and I still felt he should be a lock on my 1,000 greatest drivers list since I do feel he was close enough to many of the major stars of his time even if it was for a very short period. But Nico was definitely substantially better.
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