Ronnie Peterson F1 driver

Ronnie Peterson, the Flying Swede, was born in Orebro, Sweden on 14 February 1944. His father Bengt had built and raced motor cars for a number of years. As is son grew up Bengt built a number of vehicles for the boy. The first was a 50 cc vehicle nicknamed “the tractor” that Ronnie and younger brother Tommy drove around their grandparent’s farm. When, in 1962, Ronnie expressed an interest in karting Bengt built a 200 cc kart, with which Ronnie won a number of races and championships over the ensuing years.

In 1966, Ronnie moved into car racing taking part in the Swedish Formula 3 championship in yet another of his father’s home-built cars. In his first race, at the Dalslands Ring, Ronnie achieved a third place. 

After several successful years with F3, eventually driving for the March team, Ronnie moved into Formula 1 in 1970. The same year he also moved to England. During his first three years, competing in F1 Ronnie drove with the March team. With March, he failed to win a race but in 1971, he did take five second places to finish second in the World Championship. In 1973 he moved from March to take the number two driver position behind, the then World Champion, Emerson Fittipaldi in the Lotus team.

His first year with Lotus also saw his first Formula 1 win in the French Grand Prix. His followed this with three other wins in Austria, Italy and the USA and finished third in the championship. When Fittipaldi left Lotus, Ronnie became first driver for the team. In 1974, he had three F1 wins at France, Italy and Monaco to finish fifth in the championship. He was awarded the “Prix Rouge et Blanc Joseph Siffert” (a gold bar) for the best performance of the F1 season. By 1975, the Lotus 72 had become uncompetitive in the fast changing world of F1 racing. Ronnie only gained six points for the whole season and finished twelfth in the driver’s championship.

For the 1976 season, Ronnie Peterson returned to his old March team. Despite winning the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Ronnie only finished eleventh in the championship.

For 1977, Ronnie secured a drive with the Tyrell team. The Tyrell was the innovative six-wheeled P34 car. For Ronnie six wheels did no better than four did and he only managed a couple of podium finishes and no first places during the season.

Team Lotus had signed Mario Andretti as their first driver for the 1978 season, with Gunnar Nilsson as his number two. Unfortunately, Gunnar developed cancer and withdrew from the team. Ronnie signed on as the replacement number two driver for Lotus.

As a number two driver, Ronnie supported Mario although there were times when he could have beaten his teammate. At one time when, only trailing Andretti by nine points, someone suggested that he could attempt to take the World championship. His reply to this suggestion was typical of the likeable young Swede, "I'm going to McLaren next year. It's not announced yet, but Mario knows, some of these people who say I should forget our agreement now... I don't understand them. I had open eyes when I signed the contract and I also gave my word. If I break it now, who will ever trust me again?" He stood by his word the next race when on the last lap Mario’s exhaust broke. Ronnie could have easily overtaken Andretti’s car to win the race but he followed his teammate over the line to take second place.

At the Monza Grand Prix in September, technical difficulties with his car meant that Ronnie drove an older Lotus 78 rather than the Lotus 79. In this car, he qualified in fifth position on the grid. At the start of the race, a bump between Ricardo Patresse’s car and that of James Hunt started a crash involving ten cars. Hunt’s McLaren hit Peterson’s Lotus sending it nose first into the crash barrier. As more cars became involved Vittorio Brambilla hit the damaged Lotus and it caught fire. Driver James Hunt pulled the seriously injured Peterson from the burning car.

The Italian police on duty at the track formed a human barricade to prevent access to the crash site. Besides restricting access to the unwanted gawkers and souvenir hunters, they also prevented Professor Sid Watkins, surgical adviser to Formula 1, from reaching his patients. After a delay estimated as between eleven an eighteen minutes, an ambulance arrived. When Ronnie eventually reached the Monza medical centre, they found he had two badly broken legs, which they splinted before transferring him to hospital by helicopter.

The X-ray examination taken at the Ospedale Maggiore at Niguardia revealed twenty-seven fractures to Ronnie’s legs. The broken bones were pinned in a long operation. Ronnie was admitted to ICU in a stable condition. Within a few hours of admission to the ICU, Ronnie destabilized. He died in the early hours of Monday 11 September 1978.

Ronnie had died because of a fat embolism. This had blocked the blood vessel carrying oxygen rich blood to his brain. This type of complication occurs with breaks to the upper thighs particularly if there is a delay in treatment, as was the case in Ronnie’s injuries.

A number of life saving changes to the running of Formula 1 race meetings were made following Ronnie’s accident. At the 1978 USA Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, a medical car followed the cars on the first lap of the race. Although crashes happen at any time during a race, they are more common during the first lap when the tightly packed cars are jockeying for position. With a medical presence on the track at this time, immediate help for any injured drivers is available. The other major change involved the training of fire marshals, so that injured drivers would not need rescuing by their fellow drivers. Track changes at Monza produced a safer racing environment.

With the death of Ronnie Peterson Formula 1 lost a gentleman and a true sportsman. There are all too few such sportsmen in the any competitive sport today.