Nationality Swedish | |
Formula One World Championship career | |
---|---|
Active years | 1970 - 1978 |
Teams | March inc. non-works, Tyrrell, Lotus |
Races | 123 |
Championships | 0 |
Wins | 10 |
Podium finishes | 26 |
Career points | 206 |
Pole positions | 14 |
Fastest laps | 9 |
First race | 1970 Monaco Grand Prix |
First win | 1973 French Grand Prix |
Last win | 1978 Austrian Grand Prix |
Last race | 1978 Italian Grand Prix |
Bengt Ronnie Peterson, (IPA: ['rɔni 'pɛtɛʂon], February 14, 1944 - September 11, 1978) was a Swedish racing driver. Affectionately nicknamed 'Super Swede' by F1 fans for his attacking driving style, along with Stirling Moss and Gilles Villeneuve, he was regarded as one of the greatest drivers never to have won the Formula One World Championship.
Peterson began his career of motorracing in kart racing, traditionally the discipline where a majority of race drivers begin their career in open wheel racing. After winning a number of karting titles, including two Swedish titles in 1963 and 1964, the Swede moved onto Formula Three where he won the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix F3 Support race for the 1969 Grand Prix. Later that year he won the European F3 championship and moved up into Formula One, racing for the March factory team. In his three year spell with the British team, he took four podiums, all scored in 1971, and also finished runner-up in the Drivers' Championship that year as well.
After seeing out his three year contract at March, Peterson joined Colin Chapman's Lotus squad in 1973, partnering defending champion Emerson Fittipaldi. During his first two seasons with Lotus, the Swede took seven victories and scoring a career best 52 points in 1973. After a poor 1975 season, Peterson moved back to March and scored his final victory for the team at the Italian Grand Prix. After spending 1977 with Tyrrell, the Swede moved back to Lotus as a "number two" driver to Mario Andretti. Peterson still took two wins, at Kyalami and the Österreichring, but died from injuries received in a first lap collision at the Italian Grand Prix.
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Peterson was born in Örebro, in the neighbourhood of Almby, Sweden. He developed his driving style at a young age while competing in karting, and rapidly worked his way up to the pinnacle of European karting before switching to cars.
After his karting years, Peterson entered Formula Three racing in the Svebe, a 1L, Brabham-derived Formula car he co-designed with his father Bengt (who by day made his living as a baker) and Sven Andersson.
Superb results from the outset quickly attracted the attention of the ambitious Tecno company from Italy, and he signed to race with them starting in 1968. The pairing produced some fine results, and he won the 1969 Formula Three Championship.
Even after his elevation to F1 status Peterson still drove in lesser racing series ( which was common at the time), winning the 1971 European Formula Two Championship driving for March.
Peterson made his Grand Prix debut in a March 701 for Colin Crabbe's works-supported Antique Automobiles Racing Team, at the 1970 Monaco Grand Prix. The limited budget of Crabbe's privateer team allowed only minimal testing but Peterson qualified 12th of the 16 cars in the race. He was 10 places behind Jackie Stewart and Chris Amon, both on the front row of the grid in their newer specification 701s, but only just behind the more experienced Jo Siffert in the second works March. Peterson was the only March driver to finish the race, in seventh place.[1] In 1971 Peterson moved up to the full March works team, and made an instant impression. Five Formula One Grand Prix second places earned him the position of runner-up to Jackie Stewart in that year's World Championship. Peterson stayed at March until 1973, when he signed for John Player Team Lotus to partner Emerson Fittipaldi.
His first Grand Prix win was at the 1973 French Grand Prix, held at Paul Ricard, in a Lotus 72. There were three more wins that year, in Austria, Italy and the United States, but poor reliability restricted him to only third place in the World Championship at season's end.
1974 yielded three more victories: the French and Italian Grands Prix, as well as the Monaco Grand Prix, the premier event of Formula One.
1975 was a bad year for Lotus. The Lotus 76 proved a failure, and he reverted to driving the 72F.
Peterson drove the first two races of 1976 in the Lotus 77 before rejoining March Engineering. Driving the March 761, he won the Italian Grand Prix.
In 1977, he raced for Tyrrell, driving the six-wheel Tyrrell P34B. His only podium finish was a third place at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Peterson surprised many by leaving Tyrrell to return to John Player Team Lotus for 1978. He won the South African Grand Prix, with a last-lap victory over Patrick Depailler, as well as the Austrian Grand Prix, in the innovative 'ground effects' Lotus 79. His teammate Mario Andretti won the Drivers' Championship with Peterson acting effectively as the Team "No. 2" with the pair scoring four 1-2 wins, all with Mario at the lead. Both of Peterson's wins were when Andretti encountered troubles, with Mario winning once when Peterson failed to finish (not including the Italian Grand Prix). Many times Peterson followed Andretti closely home.
Throughout the 1970s Peterson had the reputation of being the fastest driver in F1 in terms of raw speed. During the 1978 season Andretti would frequently post the faster qualifying time. Perhaps refusing to believe the American could best Peterson in a head to head contest, many came to believe that team orders extended even to qualifying. To his credit, Peterson refused to contribute to any controversy, and on numerous occasions dismissed the speculation by stating that Andretti had simply turned the faster time.
The 1978 Italian Grand Prix at Monza started badly for Peterson. In practice he damaged his Lotus 79 race car beyond immediate repair and bruised his legs in the process. Team Lotus possessed a spare 79, but it had been constructed for Mario Andretti, and the taller Peterson was unable to fit comfortably inside. The team's only other car was a type 78, the previous year's car, which had been dragged around the F1 circuit that season with minimal maintenance.
At the start of the race, the race starter threw the green light before the field was ready to start. Several cars in the middle of the field got a jump on those at the front, and the result was an accordion effect of the cars as they approached the chicane, bunching the cars tightly together. James Hunt collided with Peterson, with Riccardo Patrese, Vittorio Brambilla, Hans-Joachim Stuck, Patrick Depailler, Didier Pironi, Derek Daly, Clay Regazzoni and Brett Lunger all involved in the ensuing melee.
Peterson's Lotus went into the barriers hard and caught fire. He was trapped, but Hunt, Regazzoni and Depailler managed to free him from the wreck before he received more than minor burns. He was dragged free and laid in the middle of the track fully conscious, his severe leg injuries obvious to all. Hunt later said he stopped Peterson from looking at his legs to spare him further distress.
At the time there was more concern for Brambilla, who was hit on the head by a flying wheel and was slumped comatose in his car (he later recovered and drove on in F1 until 1980). Peterson's life was not seen to be in any danger. The injured drivers were taken to hospital in Milan and the race was restarted after the track was cleaned up.
At the hospital, Peterson's X-rays showed he had 7 fractures in one leg and 3 in the other. After discussion with Ronnie himself, the surgeons decided to operate to stabilize the bones. Unfortunately, during the night, bone marrow went into Peterson's bloodstream through the fractures, forming fat globules on his major organs including lungs, liver, and brain. By morning he was in full renal failure and was declared dead a few hours later. The cause of death was given as fat embolism.
Peterson's life would most likely have been saved had he received medical attention immediately after his accident. Track officials insisted on forming a human wall stopping anyone, including Professor Sid Watkins, the then Surgical Advisor to Formula One, from entering the crash site. After a delay of between eleven to eighteen minutes an ambulance was sent to the accident scene and Peterson was taken to the Monza medical centre.
Teammate Mario Andretti clinched the championship at the race.[2] "It was so unfair to have a tragedy connected with probably what should have been the happiest day of my career", Andretti said, "I couldn't celebrate, but also, I knew that trophy would be with me forever. And I knew also that Ronnie would have been happy for me".[2]
After the crash, Hunt (along with other drivers) blamed Patrese for starting the accident, and viewers of Hunt's commentaries of Formula 1 races from 1980-1993 on BBC Television were regularly treated to bitter diatribes against Patrese when the Italian appeared on screen. Nigel Roebuck was another who initially blamed Patrese but recanted.
Peterson ran a total of 123 Grand Prix races during his career, winning ten of them. He is arguably the greatest driver, along with Stirling Moss and Gilles Villeneuve, never to have won the Formula One World Championship.
Peterson's widow, former top model Barbro Edwardsson, never got over his death and committed suicide on December 19, 1987. She was buried, alongside Ronnie, in the Peterson family grave in Örebro.[3] She and Ronnie had a daughter named Nina Louise who was born in November of 1975.[4] [3] There is a statue of Ronnie Peterson in Örebro, by Richard Brixel. The official Ronnie Peterson museum was officially opened by Nina Peterson in Örebro on 31st May 2008.[5]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | WDC | Pts. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1970 | Antique Automobiles Racing Team | March 701 | Cosworth V8 | RSA | ESP | MON 7 |
BEL NC |
- | 0 | |||||||||||||
Colin Crabbe Racing | NED 9 |
FRA Ret |
GBR 9 |
GER Ret |
AUT | ITA Ret |
CAN NC |
USA 11 |
MEX | |||||||||||||
1971 | STP March Racing Team | March 711 | Cosworth V8 | RSA 10 |
ESP Ret |
MON 2 |
NED 4 |
GBR 2 |
GER 5 |
AUT 8 |
ITA 2 |
CAN 2 |
USA 3 |
2nd | 33 | |||||||
Alfa Romeo V8 | FRA Ret |
|||||||||||||||||||||
1972 | STP March Racing Team | March 721 | Cosworth V8 | ARG 6 |
RSA 5 |
9th | 12 | |||||||||||||||
March 721X | ESP Ret |
MON 11 |
BEL 9 |
|||||||||||||||||||
March 721G | FRA 5 |
GBR 7 |
GER 3 |
AUT 12 |
ITA 9 |
CAN DSQ |
USA 4 |
|||||||||||||||
1973 | John Player Team Lotus | Lotus 72D | Cosworth V8 | ARG Ret |
BRA Ret |
RSA 11 |
3rd | 52 | ||||||||||||||
Lotus 72E | ESP Ret |
BEL Ret |
MON 3 |
SWE 2 |
FRA 1 |
GBR 2 |
NED 11 |
GER Ret |
AUT 1 |
ITA 1 |
CAN Ret |
USA 1 |
||||||||||
1974 | John Player Team Lotus | Lotus 72E | Cosworth V8 | ARG 13 |
BRA 6 |
MON 1 |
SWE Ret |
NED 8 |
FRA 1 |
GBR 10 |
AUT Ret |
ITA 1 |
CAN 3 |
USA Ret |
5th | 35 | ||||||
Lotus 76 | RSA Ret |
ESP Ret |
BEL Ret |
GER 4 |
||||||||||||||||||
1975 | John Player Team Lotus | Lotus 72E | Cosworth V8 | ARG Ret |
BRA 15 |
RSA 10 |
ESP Ret |
MON 4 |
BEL Ret |
SWE 9 |
NED 15 |
FRA 10 |
GBR Ret |
GER Ret |
AUT 5 |
ITA Ret |
USA 5 |
13th | 6 | |||
1976 | John Player Team Lotus | Lotus 77 | Cosworth V8 | BRA Ret |
11th | 10 | ||||||||||||||||
March Engineering | March 761 | RSA Ret |
ESP Ret |
BEL Ret |
MON Ret |
SWE 7 |
FRA 19 |
GBR Ret |
GER Ret |
AUT 6 |
NED Ret |
ITA 1 |
CAN 9 |
USA Ret |
JPN Ret |
|||||||
Theodore Racing | USW 10 |
|||||||||||||||||||||
1977 | Elf Team Tyrrell | Tyrrell P34 | Cosworth V8 | ARG Ret |
BRA Ret |
RSA Ret |
USW Ret |
ESP 8 |
MON Ret |
BEL 3 |
SWE Ret |
FRA 12 |
GBR Ret |
GER 9 |
AUT 5 |
NED Ret |
ITA 6 |
USA 16 |
CAN Ret |
JPN Ret |
14th | 7 |
1978 | John Player Team Lotus | Lotus 78 | Cosworth V8 | ARG 5 |
BRA Ret |
RSA 1 |
USW 4 |
MON Ret |
BEL 2 |
ITA Ret |
2nd | 51 | ||||||||||
Lotus 79 | ESP 2 |
SWE 3 |
FRA 2 |
GBR Ret |
GER Ret |
AUT 1 |
NED 2 |
USA |
CAN |
Sporting positions | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by Reine Wisell |
Swedish Formula Three Champion 1968-1969 |
Succeeded by Torsten Palm |
Preceded by Clay Regazzoni |
European Formula Two Champion 1971 |
Succeeded by Mike Hailwood |
Preceded by Brian McGuire |
Formula One fatal accidents Sept. 10, 1978 |
Succeeded by Patrick Depailler |