Keke Rosberg

Keke Rosberg won a single race in 1982 and took the championship. Only one other champion has done it with one win: Mike Hawthorn in 1958. A Finn born in 1948, he made his debut in 1978 and spent four seasons with small teams, Theodore, ATS, Wolf and Fittipaldi, scoring six points in total. In 1982 Williams signed him to replace Alan Jones, the champion of two years earlier, who had retired.

That year eleven different drivers won a race and none won more than two. Rosberg won at Dijon, in the Swiss Grand Prix, from eighth on the grid, and did the rest by scoring points almost every Sunday. He finished on 44, five more than Didier Pironi and John Watson, level on 39.

With Williams he won four more races over the next three years: Monaco in 1983, Dallas in 1984, and Detroit and Adelaide in 1985, the year he finished third in the championship. He spent his final season at McLaren alongside Alain Prost, who was champion, and retired in 1986 after 114 Grands Prix. His son Nico became world champion in 2016, and they are the second father and son to both win the title, after Graham and Damon Hill.