{"id":165182,"date":"2025-06-07T14:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T14:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/165182\/"},"modified":"2025-06-07T14:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T14:33:09","slug":"f1-world-champion-became-a-hermit-as-heartbreaking-health-update-issued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/165182\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 World Champion \u2018became a hermit\u2019 as heartbreaking health update issued"},"content":{"rendered":"

1982 F1 World Champion Keke Rosberg opened up on his recent health struggles and disappearance from the Formula 1 paddock.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As well as declining eyesight, Rosberg admitted that he has \u201chardly energy left\u201d due to the impacts of long Covid, having left the F1 world behind and become \u201ca hermit\u201d.<\/p>\n

Keke Rosberg: Long Covid impacts worsened by \u2018isolation\u2019<\/p>\n

Rosberg reached the Formula 1 summit in 1982, winning his sole World Championship with Williams in a season which produced only one of Rosberg\u2019s five grands prix wins.<\/p>\n

Bowing out of Formula 1 after the 1986 campaign, Rosberg continued his racing career on the sportscar scene, and ended it driving for his own squad, \u2018Team Rosberg\u2019, for which Keke continues to serve as a team principal alongside his 2016 World Champion son Nico Rosberg and Arno Zensen.<\/p>\n

Keke remained a regular face within the Formula 1 paddock, but in recent years has stepped away, and in an interview with Apu<\/a>, he opened up on the unfortunate reasons for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t continue. I categorically ended everything and became a hermit,\u201d he revealed.<\/p>\n

Keke spoke of how his battle with long Covid \u2013\u00a0a group of debilitating symptoms which can develop after a person has suffered with an initial Covid-19 infection \u2013 has further damaged his health.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe understanding of long Covid is still largely unknown,\u201d he acknowledged. \u201cThere are a great many people who are suffering severely from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, too, it\u2019s a secondary condition \u2013 one that has been exacerbated by the isolation. I have hardly any energy left. I used to have a list of things that still needed to be done. I still have a list \u2013 but with things I won\u2019t be able to do anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

F1 records and stats from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 The unfortunate holders of the most unwanted records in Formula 1<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Revealed: The shortest F1 careers this century in the brutal world of Formula 1<\/a><\/p>\n

Keke also reflected on his son Nico\u2019s 2016 World Championship as the \u201cbiggest\u201d achievement for the family compared to his 1982 title, though what happened next he was not prepared for.<\/p>\n

Nico\u2019s sole World Championship triumph came at the end of a gruelling, toxic title fight with Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, as he rebounded following back-to-back Hamilton title wins.<\/p>\n

And soon after securing the crown, Nico announced his retirement from Formula 1.<\/p>\n

Only, he did not tell Keke that he was going to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t say anything,\u201d Keke revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cNico sent a text to his mother and said to tell his father later. It felt like a big fist to the diaphragm.<\/p>\n

\u201cNico knew that if he started discussing it with me, then of course his father\u2019s opinion might be quite weighty, which he didn\u2019t want to listen to. That decision was difficult enough anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there, Nico transitioned into the world of F1 punditry, while Hamilton won a further four World titles in consecutive years, taking his overall tally to a record-equalling seven.<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s pursuit of that elusive eighth has taken him to Ferrari on a multi-year deal from F1 2025.<\/p>\n

Read next \u2013 Lewis Hamilton F1 retirement: Ferrari struggles trigger clear Croft declaration<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1982 F1 World Champion Keke Rosberg opened up on his recent health struggles and disappearance from the Formula…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,225,12,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-165182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114642577464158439","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}