F1 champion admits his health is failing in worrying update during rare interview

Former Formula 1 champion Keke Rosberg has admitted his health is declining. In a rare interview the 1982 F1 title-winner, who is father to another champion of the sport in , has admitted he continues to suffer with .

That is the term given to people who continue to suffer ill effects long after they have been infected by Covid-19. He never so much as broke a bone during his career but, speaking to Finnish magazine , the 76-year-old said the pandemic took a toll on his health.

"The post-corona period was a bit confusing as to whether this was caused by isolation, or whether there was some kind of post-corona disease when there was a lack of energy," he said. "Understanding of this Long Covid is still at zero level. There are a huge number of people who suffer badly from it."

Rosberg, who lives in Monaco in the same apartment building as his 2016 F1 champion son, also said he has recently received specialist treatment for problems with his eyes.

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A combination of age and ongoing symptoms from his coronavirus infection during the pandemic have limited what Rosberg is able to do. He said: "I used to have a list of things that still need to be done. I still have one now, but it's a list of things that can't be done anymore."

Rosberg did not debut in F1 until 1978, when he was already 29 years old. And when he did get his shot, it was with minor outfits like Theodore, ARS and Wolf. He then signed with Fittipaldi Automotive, founded and run by double F1 champion Emerson Fittipaldi and his brother Wilson, but that car too was uncompetitive.

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But he got his big break in 1982 with , replacing the retired 1980 champion Alan Jones and, in his first season with the team, won the title. He did so as a result of consistently strong results, having only actually won one race all year.

It was, of course, the highlight of his own racing career. But more important to him, he says, was watching his son Nico complete the same achievement in 2016 at the end of a tense and bitter championship fight with team-mate .

He said: "The biggest thing was definitely Nico's championship. For me, that championship was just one milestone. For Nico, it wasn't like that. It was an important event. It was already a pretty big event in terms of family history. My championship in the family was mostly of interest to my father and mother."

Rosberg Jnr famously retired days after beating Hamilton to the crown, and that came as a shock to his father as much as it did to everyone else. Keke said: "He didn't say anything. Nico sent a text to his mother and said to tell his father later. It felt like a big fist to the diaphragm. Nico knew that if he started discussing it with me, then of course his father's opinion might be quite weighty, which he didn't want to listen to. That decision was difficult enough anyway."