Like father, like son: Formula One’s famous father-son duos

By Alvin Uy
Warning: Undefined variable $banSource in /var/www/motioncars/wp-content/themes/Motioncars/single.php on line 53
June 15,2014

Finnish driver Keijo Erik “Keke” Rosberg won the 1982 Formula One World Championship with the Williams team and is father to the current Mercedes Formula One driver Nico Rosberg who races under the German flag but briefly competed under the Finnish flag early in his racing career. The elder Rosberg is married to Sina, who is the mother of Nico. The younger Rosberg is currently leading the Formula One in championship points after yesterday’s Canadian Grand Prix race, with a 22 point lead over teammate Lewis Hamilton. Despite a late start in his career, having won his first Formula One race on his 111th attempt, this year can prove to be his banner year if he bags the world championship and become the second F1 driver in history to have a father as a world champion too.

Two-time Formula One world champion Graham Hill took home the title in 1962 and 1968. He is fondly known as “Mr Monaco”, having won five races there in his career. He died in a tragic plane crash in 1975 and his son Damon, won the world championship title in 1996. He still currently retains the distinction as the only driver whose father is also a world champion.  After his father’s death when he was just 15, he only made his Formula One debut when he reached 31 years old, and unlike most father-and-son relationships, his success was mostly attributed to his own hard work and talent. Just like the father, both were very fast drivers and are gentlemen drivers, very well loved by the racing community.

The legendary Canadian driver Gilles Villeneuve died in 1982 while practicing during the Belgian Grand Prix, a race with already six wins under his belt. He took home his first grand prix title in 1978 in Canada whose race track is now named after him. He was a charismatic and as well as a risk taking driver, unlike his sometimes abrasive son Jacques who won the 1997 title with the Williams team. The younger Jacques, also successful, retired in 2006 with 11 wins to his name.

Nelson Piquet senior had three world championship titles and was known as a very brilliant driver. World champion Niki Lauda said “He seldom makes mistakes, is always fast, is always on form”.  However, the elder Piquet is a complex man, and is notoriously known for his abrasive personality as well. He also became one of the first Formula One drivers to amass a huge fortune, commanding as much as US$ 6 million a season in 1988. With the resources he had, it meant that his heir apparent Nelson Junior would have a good shot in Formula One racing as well. But apart from being just a decent driver, far from his father’s class, Nelson Jr. had to leave Formula One racing because of the “Crashgate” scandal in 2008 after admitting to that he was asked by his Renault Formula One team to deliberately crash and sacrifice his R28 Renault race car in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to allow his teammate Fernando Alonso to gain an advantage. When the new broke out, it became worst cheating scandal in the sport’s history.

Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.