AT&T Williams F1

Keke Rosberg secured one of only three of the team's Monaco Grands Prix victories. Here, he reflects on a great win for the team.

In my book, there are three things that a driver needs to achieve in Formula One: he needs to win a race, win Monaco and win the World Championship. Prior to the 1983 Monaco Grand Prix, I’d already won a race and a world title, but not Monaco, and it meant a lot to win it.

Qualifying went well, given that it was the turbo era and we were using a normally aspirated Cosworth. I lined up fifth on the grid and we made a great strategic call prior to the start.

The track was wet, but it was no longer raining and I drove to the grid on slicks to see how much grip was available. To me, it was the logical thing to do because if there wasn’t enough grip I could start the race on wets. Anyway, there was a lot of grip available, so I convinced Patrick, our tyre guy and Frank [Dernie] that I should start the race on slicks – unlike almost everyone else.

I made a good get away and as the track dried out I took the lead and was never headed. But it wasn’t an easy race because my hands got very badly blistered and during the latter stages of the race I asked the team to slow down my team-mate Jacques Laffite, who was lying second, because my hands were hurting like hell.

What I didn’t know at the time was that Jacques was being pushed by [Nelson] Piquet, so they couldn’t slow him down. At the end of the race I was furious and Patrick overheard me telling someone that I had to do the whole race on my own because the team wouldn’t help me! He still takes the mickey out of me today about this, every time we see each other…