 THE MONACO GRAND PRIX LIBRARY BY ROY HULSBERGEN |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
Ronnie Peterson |
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Born: February 14, 1944 – Örebro, Sweden HONORS
Given that Stirling Moss is the greatest driver never to win the World Championship, Ronnie Peterson must run him a close second. Yet where the Englishman was smoothness and style personified, Ronnie was different. Ronnie was all about powerslides, opposite-lock, great moments of exuberance at the wheel. He loved racing and everyone loved him. His career started in karts in Sweden in the early Sixties, graduating to Formula 3 by 1967. He beat fellow-countryman Reine Wisell to win the Monaco F3 race in 1969, bringing him to the attention of the F1 community. When the silly season closed, Ronnie found himself at the new March team. His appearances in F1 in 1970 were low-key, in a semi-works car; it was very much a learning season and he paid rather more attention to F2. For 1971 things were different. Although he didn't win a GP (he came within mere inches at Monza), seconds there and at Monaco, Silverstone and Mosport left him championship runner-up to Stewart in his first full season. Meanwhile, he cantered away with the European F2 title as well. 1972 was a cruel disappointment, then; March made a serious false start with their F1 car and only a stopgap F2-based vehicle saved their credibility. Ronnie was lured away to Lotus, the first chapter in an eternal-triangle story between Ronnie, Robin Herd and Colin Chapman. Joining Fittipaldi in a `superteam', Ronnie was brilliant in 1973, taking four wins and prompting Fittipaldi's departuer to McLaren. Ronnie sideways in a Lotus 72 at Woodcote... was there ever a more evocative image? The winning continued in the ageing 72 in 1974, but by 1975 the car was an embarrassing makeweight and the replacement 76 was a true lemon. After a bad debut race in the 1976 Lotus 77, Ronnie escaped back to his friends at March. Both he and March knew this was a one-off; the team was runnning on a shoestring and when the car held together it was quick, Ronnie taking an immensely popular win at Monza. A poor season trying to get to grips with the six-wheeler Tyrrell followed, but for '78 Ronnie was back with Chapman at Lotus, as number two to Mario Andretti. A lesser man would have resented this status; Ronnie was an honourable man who loved to race, pure and simple, and still managed two excellent wins. * 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. In violation of safety requirements, track officials waited more than 20 minutes before dispatching medical help to the scene. 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. She and Ronnie had a daughter named Nina who was born in November of 1975. There is a statue of Ronnie Peterson in Örebro, by Richard Brixel. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
