RONNIE PETERSON

'Bengt Ronnie Peterson', (, February 14, 1944 - September 11, 1978) was a Swedish racing driver.
Along with Stirling Moss and Gilles Villeneuve, he is regarded as one of the greatest drivers never to have won the Formula One World Championship.

Contents

Early life

Formulas Three and Two

Formula One

Early years

1973 - 1976

1977 - 1978

Death

Complete World Championship results

Trivia

References

External links

Early life

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.

Formulas Three and Two

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.

Formula One

Early years

Peterson made his Grand Prix debut in a March for Colin Crabbe's works-supported Antique Automobiles Racing Team, at Monaco in 1970. Unfortunately, the March 701, despite being the same chassis as that year's Champion Jackie Stewart was equipped with, was not suited to Peterson's driving style, and the limited budget of Crabbe's privateer team did not allow the Cosworth DFV motor to be properly maintained. 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.

1973 - 1976

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.

1977 - 1978

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 Driver's Championship with Peterson acting effectively as the Team "No. 2".
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.

Death

The 1978 Italian Grand Prix at Monza started badly for Peterson. In practice he damaged his Lotus 79 race car beyond immediate repair and bruising 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. In violation of safety requirements, track officials waited more than 20 minutes before dispatching medical help to the scene.
Teammate and close friend Andretti clinched the championship at the race. Super Mario had speed to burn Larry Schwartz "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."
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 of Patrese when the Italian appeared on screen.
Ronnie 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.

Complete World Championship results

() (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	7th	14
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

Trivia

According to the shops selling flowers in Örebro, there has never been an Örebro funeral with more flowers than the one of Ronnie Peterson. Furthermore, there is a statue of Ronnie Peterson in Örebro, by Richard Brixel. The same artist was asked in 2005 to make a statue of racing driver Ayrton Senna from São Paulo, who had died during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.
Ronnie Peterson married former top model Barbro Edwardsson in April 1975 and their first child, a daughter, Nina-Louise, was born later that year. Barbro never got over his death and committed suicide on December 19, 1987. She was buried, alongside Ronnie, in the Peterson family grave in Örebro.

References

Nyberg, R. & Diepraam, M. 2000. ''Super Swede''. '8W', January 2000.

External links

★ Ronnie Peterson - Grand Prix

★ The Official Ronnie Peterson Website

★ Full GP results at gpracing.net