by Alison Bowler

Created on: July 08, 2009   Last Updated: January 05, 2010

Ronnie Peterson, the Flying Swede, was born in Örebro, Sweden on 14 February 1944. His father Bengt had built and raced motor cars for a number of years. As his 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 the number one 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 number one driver for the 1978 season, with Gunnar Nilsson as his number two. Unfortunately, Gunnar

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