Ronnie Peterson

The fastest driver named the soloist of speed

A track is like a score that each driver interprets in his way by using the brake at a point rather than another, cutting a bend according to a certain way or throwing himself into it with his heart rather than using his brains Today the great hidden conductor is telemetry and Formula 1 is a quite scientific sport, which leaves not much space to imagination, but once it was a real matter of the driver's feeling with available means, of sensibility, talent and obviously thick skin. And the most skilful soloists were those who succeeded in personalizing the notes drawn on the track. Every musician has his own score that he knows better than the others, the one that he could play blindfold, knowing its slightest tones by heart. Every driver has a track whose characteristics are more suitable for his driving style. Monza has had great interpreters and it needs only to glance over the winners' golden register to find there the most famous names of the motor racing history. Among them, he who can be called the soloist of speed in the 70's, Ronnie Peterson, who got three out of his ten successes in Formula 1 on the Brianza motor racing circuit, where were written unforgettable pages and meantime it was revealed much of his personality. It is not a case that the man considered as the fastest driver of his time, had gained such results on a track like Monza which has always been the temple of speed for its features: old Monza, with its long and everlasting straight in front of terraces, which at the earliest 70's only ended with the fast and wide turn of "Curva Grande". Then down to the two bends of Lesmo, the heart's bends dangerous rapids on an asphalt river, where the border line between the track and a disastrous off track was a fine thread. It was a crazy race against time towards the peaceful "Ascari" and from there it was only a question of involving all power to arrive at the "Parabolica", the big curve to engage full four gear, the green table of Brianza, where if you arrived at the last lap in a "bagarre" you risked all in the exit and it didn't care a damn if you entered first. The "Parabolica" let nothing stand in its way. At the end, Monza is all that: it's a handful of curves which make your heart in your mouth between meadows and woods, where you may meet a racing car as well as a smart young girl riding a horse: take your choice where to try your fortune, follow what your heart suggests to you. But the boy, who was born in Orebro on 14th February 1944, had already made his choice some time before when he went to Monza for the first time, and maybe even without asking permission to rationality or conscience: it wasn't impossible to act differently for the firstborn of a baker with the hobby of running in single-seaters built on his own account. No, there couldn't be another destiny for a child who used around the severe Swedish country to drive a small tractor with the engine constructed by his father; when the child was only ten jumped secretly in a brand-new Renault Fregate, and after starting it he ran on Hialmaren icy track followed by the astonished look, and in a fatherly way with a bit of reproof of Bengt Peterson, who was preparing the course of the annual race. There had been the school, a job at the Renault dealer and then the work as a lift technician, but he had always put his heart into engines, to which he had devoted all his free time and available money. First the go-karts constructed by his father, fine stuff with disk brakes and magnesium wheels, thanks to them he dominated in his country and the rest of Europe between 1962 and 1966, then with Formula 3 fighting at home with a bad client like Reine Wisel and in Europe with fellows like Regazzoni, Ganley, Fittibaldi and Schenken. Therefore when Ronnie went to Monza in 1969 for his debut in Formula 2 at the wheel of an official Tecno, being placed seventh on the finishing line, he had already a good number of wins behind him and a certain reputation of fast driver that magnetized the team manager's interest of Formula 1.It was Alan Rees, one of future March Company's partners , who openly pushed himself forward and promised the moon: Formula 3 with the new single-seater 693, which the Swede actually brought to debut at Cadwell Park n the same year, arriving third because of a puncture. Later on Formula 2 with a leading team like Malcom Guthrie Racing. Finally here it is the Formula 1 with a 701, the first March for the top series.

The 8th September 1970 Peterson again presented himself at the motor racing circuit of Monza, Rees Mosley and partners had nominally kept at least their promises. Formula 2 has arrived and after quite a lot of suffering also Formula 1, even if at a season already started and by making a solution of compromise. March 701 was a second-rate car, constructed on the cheap, also because there wasn't much money about the English team. In those conditions, almost desperate, Max Mosley, the commercial brains in the Company, turned out to be awfully skilful at disguising the problems and palming a good number of single-seaters off with a ghost of a smile: STP of Andy Granatelli purchased a couple of them for Andretti and Amon; Porsche bought another to keep in with his favourite Siffert who wanted Formula 1 at all costs. Ken Tyrrell had divorced from Matra and bought two other cars for Stewart and Cevert. The Scottish driver had then gained the only 701 win, in the Spanish GP. Another single-seater was instead sold to BMW's driver Hubert Hahne, who brought legal action against March Company because of the poor performance of that car. There were only left the obligations met with Ronnie Peterson, who had to be placed somewhere: Mosley had to take the umpteenth rabbit out of the top hat, giving the Swedish driver to Antiques Automobiles Racing Team of Colin Crabbe; a chassis, an engine Cosworth, a good deal of passion and a little more. Nominally Peterson was in Formula 1, even if he was seen very little on track. However he succeeded in placing a good visiting card at his debut on the difficult circuit of Monaco, where the year before he had already won the Formula 3 GP: qualifying twelfth and seventh at the finishing line. It was a miracle by the available means! "Write that Ronnie is fantastic, but don't tell him" Said Mosley, more and more convinced he had the goose that laid the golden eggs in his hands. The rest of the season was a disaster, with a collection of broken engines and scarcity of means so as to renounce the Austrian GP for lack of spare parts. His first Monza as a driver in Formula 1 was half a disappointment: 13th in qualification, before drivers like Beltoise, Pescarolo, Gethin, Stommelen, Amon and Schenken. But on race, at lap 36 he sadly had to retire. A year later Ronnie returned to Brianza with a fully reversed situation: no more Antiques Automobiles Racing Team, but a reliable relation with STP March Racing Team, under the Company direct care. The 701 had been replaced by 711, a better car even if a bit exotic, with that wing under Spitfire style placed over the nose. The single-seater turned out to be particularly congenial to Ronnie, who was the best interpreter of it. More than once the couple "Peterson - 711" had been competing for the win, getting two second places (Monaco, Great Britain) and two placing on points (the fourth in Holland, the fifth in Germany), showing steadiness in the race performance, more than speed in every single lap. The first win in a GP seemed only a question of time for the young Swede who was rapidly forging into the lead. Ronnie managed to catch a good place six, behind Amon (pole man with Matra), Ickx (Ferrari), Siffert (BRM), Ganley (BRM) and Cevert (Tyrrell). To start in the group of the best was already one point to his advantage. Press described the 1971 Italian GP as a bad one, because it was dominated by the phenomenon of big groups and runners after, which gave the spectators of connoisseurs a feeling of a circus, without any refinement. But in that big group and, however exploiting the leading drivers, there was a hard fight made of courage and brains. The first part of the race was dominated by the group of Regazzoni, Peterson, Siffert, Ganley, Ickx, Amon, Gethin and Cevert, with the first two who gave each other a good thrashing. Then the natural selection started: the race missed the two protagonists of the championship, Ickx and Stewart, while Regazzoni had also to retire. Therefore in a close row or "bagarre" the second part of the race saw Peterson, Cevert, Hailwood, Gethin, Ganley and Amon in a kind of all against all. It was to bet that the race would have been played on the last lap, "Parabolica", like in 1953, when Fangio had won against Ascari, Marimon and Bonetto, with Alberto steadily in the lead, but mocked on the exit of the bend by the presence of a lapped that had sent is car turns about-face. Thus, when Ronnie went to "Parabolica" in the lead for the final spurt, it was sufficient to arrive slightly long and misplaced in braking to open the way to the BRM with Gethin who ran beside him inside and then, once on the straight, he took advantage of the upper power of his 12 cylinder engine, defeating the Swede for a poor one hundredth of second. Behind them there was Cevert detached too for a trifle. On one hand there was the disappointment for having been fooled by fortune and on the other hand the awareness of being once again confirmed as the surprise of the championship. After the Italian GP Peterson still got the second place in Canada and the third one in the US collecting the score he needed to be placed behind Jacky Stewart, in the world champion. On the contrary, Ronnie gained the European title in Formula 2. In the 1972 Monza GP Ronnie ran a race in the shadow: twenty-fourth in qualification and ninth in race. It wasn't his fault, and in the environment nobody had doubts about his excellent talent in a difficult season. The problem was that damned dud of March 721X, then G, that didn't want to hear about running properly. It was a disappointing year both for the Swedish driver and his team mate, a very young Nike Lauda, who initially suffered a lot from the Swede's major speed. Ronnie had to go and look for the prototypes to give himself satisfaction of riding the overpowering wave of the Ferrari 312 PB: in fact, thanks to the Maranello car, the Swedish driver dominated at the 1000 km Buenos Aires and Nürburgring matched with Tim Schenken, giving his contribute to the team in gaining the World Makes in 1972. His cooperation with Ferrari never went beyond that experience and in his "Drivers what people!" the "Commendatore" remembered Peterson with a short description: Tall, blond, with ambling gait: a guy like Hawthorn. In 1972 he raced in the Sport cars of Ferrari prototype and he was, as in Formula 1, a very fast driver". Therefore, it was high time for Ronnie had a change and the offers didn't certainly fail, but the company which had pressed him more was Lotus: from Colin Chapman to Peter Warr, both of them fell in love with his speed. Since 1972 they would have wanted him in their team. But the contract, which Mosley forced young Ronnie to sign in unsuspicious days, was so binding as to oblige him to remain in March for one year more. That contract "was signed later on" reported Peter Warr ironically "when he didn't know one word but Formula 1 in the English language. And when Max Mosley uttered the magic words Ronnie signed it". Besides binding, the agreement was poor from the economic point of view, considering that the 1971 season, when he finished second in the world championship, brought the young driver the paltry sum of 10000 pounds. Much more money, a team that had just won the title with Emerson Fittibaldi, a car, the 72, which was still showing a reference point for the competitors after three seasons from its entry. But the long relationship that Ronnie had with Lotus Company wasn't simple at all. In 1973 Monza represented the explosion of a rivalry that among drivers had enervated the team all over the season and would have involved Fittipaldi's passage to MacLaren for the following year. The Brazilian shouldn't be very happy at the arrival of a driver like Peterson, when in the previous seasons he was matched by nonentities easily overwhelmed by his class. According to Peter Warr, things started badly have changed for the worse, because during the season Ronnie often got lost in the 72 set-up, where Fittipaldi excelled in aptitude and greater experience. Thus the team ended up with passing the Brazilian's car set-up onto the single-seater driven by the Swedish driver who, set on the right track, stopped chronometer at a better time than his rival (in Barcelona even 1:9).

Peterson had the way of repaying those "loans" of the set-up, undertaking to help Fittipaldi in his running-up Stewart to gain the title. In the Austrian GP, Ronnie left a door open to his team mate so as he could fly towards a useful win that didn't get due to the breakage of a gasoline duct. To remain in the running for the championship, Fittipaldi had to win the Monza GP at all costs and next GPs. The matter was considered as an unlikely event by the team and no special order was given to Peterson, who refrained, for his part, from giving way to Fittipaldi. On the circuit of Brianza Ronnie made a bright pole position, placing behind the McLaren cars driven by Hulme and Revson and his team mate's car. At the GP start Fittipaldi burned the two M23 cars, but he didn't manage to get the better of the Swede in spite of his attempts to pass him. On "Corriere della Sera" Lorenzo Pillogallo synthesized the race in the following way: " Peterson and Fittipaldi ran away desperately forming a black train, fine to be seen by Mister Colin Chapman only, the Lotus owner:" Well, a victory for Ronnie. At the end of season the Swedish driver's plunder showed 4 wins (France, Austria, Italy and the US), two second places (Sweden and Great Britain), one third (Monaco) and a good nine pole positions (Brazil, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Great Britain, Holland, Italy, Canada and the US). "It's beyond doubt that ", admitted Warr, "Ronnie might have won the World Championship without the gear box problems which obliged him to retire in Barcelona and Zandvoort". Everything seemed to be apparently going off smoothly: Fittipaldi who emigrated to McLaren slamming the door, Ronnie first driver beside Jacky Ickx, a driver of experience but already with a loss of prestige (at least as far as Formula 1 was concerning), a first class team that believed in his speed and talent, a new coming single-seater that had to represent a further improvement with respect to the 72. In 1974 Monza offered Peterson the occasion for a small consolation: it wasn't that all came to a bad end and the wins obtained during the GPs of Monaco and France were full evidence of them, but from the first expectations to the reality showed in the course of the year there was a heavy difference. First of all the new single-seater, the Lotus 76, in spite of a fine and much tapered streamline, had shown poor quality. Designers started with the intention of constructing a car lighter than the 72 were faced by a car which was 45 kg heavier. The semiautomatic clutch, controlled by a button on the gear box lever, that had to speed up the gear shifting without using the pedal, even if it was a very good idea which was ahead of its time, revealed a source of trouble. The drivers very soon asked for the return to the old 72, which was submitted to an umpteenth updating. On such a difficult situation Ronnie lacked the ability to give the engineers a good reason to check and set up the car.

"Ronnie wasn't a good test driver, but he was incredibly gifted" said Ralph Bellamy, the Lotus designer in those years, in Michael Oliver's book on Lotus 72. "As regards to the control of the car and ability he was incredible. But he was inclined to keep going round the problem, (author's note: same words used by Peter Warr.) I remember at Zandvoort, while I was giving technical assistance to his car he came up to me and said: "There's over steering, awful over steering". Thus I adjusted the car differently so as to try to solve the problem. He went back and said:" Still over steering. ". I said "Ronnie I changed the car a lot, what hell is the problem? He answered:" well, as I can't enter the bend, I have to fling my car into but it skids when over steering and it's really difficult to control it." I said:" For God's sake, you have the under-steering!" And he said: Well, yes, I suppose so". And that was Ronnie. He liked to drive cars hardly." And when it was all right he mistreated his rivals with his speed. But that year nobody could have envisaged that at Monza it should have ended like that; not certainly the Italian spectators, who after years of severe blows, found again a Ferrari in the front row. The former team mate in March, Niki Lauda got the pole before the Brabham cars driven by Reutemann, Pace and Watson, the other Ferrari with Regazzoni and the McLaren with Fittipaldi. Peterson, seventh, had struggled against the setups to find an efficacious compromise but unsuccessfully. Lotus engineers played last card during the night between Saturday and Sunday, restricting the width of the wheels of the 72 to obtain a higher top speed. At the start of the race Peterson soon overtook Fittipaldi, while Regazzoni ahead unrestrained himself to pass the three Brabham cars during the first three laps and run behind Lauda. Afterwards the engine failure of Reutemann's car and the drop of the other two Brabhams rate allowed Peterson to race behind the leading Ferrari drivers, bothered on his turn by a bellicose trio made by Fittipaldi, Brambilla and Scheckter. It wasn't worth while catching the Ferrari drivers favoured by the power of their 12 cylinders, unless... On lap 21 Lauda had to let Regazzoni pass, due to a drop of power which obliged him to retire after few laps. The same as for the Swiss driver on lap 40, while Peterson was already in the lead, hunted down exactly as one year before by Emerson Fittipaldi, without the latter could manage to find small opening to overtake him. Once again Monza smiled at Ronnie Peterson.

That year the Swede moved also to the BMW team in the Tourism Championship: an activity that he continued at the same time with Formula 1, even if with much less fortune. In 1975 the green and blooming park at Monza had to appear to Ronnie suddenly sad. Peterson was the author of a performance which perfectly reflected the trend of a season: qualified eleventh with the old and by that time worn-out 72, fell a prey to under-steering and brake problems. In race he finished victim of the pileup at the chicane after the first lap; besides six other single-seaters were eliminated from the race. The remaining season had been all a series of poor performances and retirements. All that they squeezed from the 72 were a fourth place at Monaco and two fifth ones in the US and Austria. Since November 1974 it had been easy to understand that things would have come to a bad end, when Warr"cat" and Chapman "fox" came up to him and asked to reduce his signing-on fee: practically, they told him they were happy to have him as their driver and hoped he wanted to go on that relationship in the future too, but the economic situation of the team required a significant cut in the money provided by the contract. In fact, the John Player Special Company had suddenly informed the team that the Company didn't want to renew the rich sponsorship agreement which was expiring. Afterwards the famous cigarette brand yielded to Colin Chapman and Peter War's pressures, but a 40% cut was heavily imposed on their budget, a real heavy blow for a team that needed to create a new car starting from a blank sheet. Later on Peter Warr remembered the following: "Ronnie answered: - and I must say I agreed 100% with him - that the amount of the money he earned as a race driver is the grade of your status in the hierarchy and went on saying: "If I agree, all over the world would inevitably think that I'm not where I had to be in hierarchy ". Ronnie wasn't interested in the money itself: he didn't lead a life of pleasure and fashionable one. He was quite satisfied with his two cars in the home garage, but he was worried about his position in hierarchy. He had his money and we were left penniless, thus he couldn't have the new single-seater" Obviously, the matter didn't end there, because in finding a solution, Chapman tried to pass Peterson to the rich Shadow Company, with the same driver's consent. They were one step from the agreement but later on it all came to nothing. To get over his professional mishaps, in April Ronnie decided to get married with his historical fiancée, Barbro Edwardson who met in 1969 at an Orebro discotheque and became his inseparable partner in the following years. Mrs Peterson, among other things, one of the most charming timekeepers in those years, in November would have given birth to a baby girl, christened Nina in honour of their family friend and Jocken Rindt's widow.

The forced relation between Lotus and Ronnie burst out after the 1976 Brazilian GP. Though John Player Special sponsor had found the reasons why to remain beside Lotus in Formula 1, the team was still short of money and the management persisted in trying to sell the contract signed with Ronnie Peterson. To a strained situation, as human relations, was added the single-seater 72, which at least had conceptually to represent Colin Chapman's umpteenth revolution: dimensions concerning wheel base, track and length could be, in fact, changed on the basis of the characteristics of every racing circuit, giving adaptability never conceived before on a single-seater. On the contrary the 77 turned out to be a tiger made of paper and moreover with a frontal proving very fragile in case of accident, which frightened Peterson. After a bad performance in Brazil, on the opening of the 1976 championship Ronnie decided to make for the door and abandon the team. He was replaced by another Swede, Gunnar Nilsson to whom Mario Andretti was added later on. Ronnie was faced with the problem to find a team at the championship already started. Count "Gughi" Zanon di Valgiurata gave help to him. He was a wealthy businessman with a wide interest in the coffee industry; he helped him to re-establish relations with the March Company. At those days the team had a quite traditional single-seater, four drivers that weren't really in the foreground (Vittorio Brambilla, Hans Stuck, Arturo Merzario and Lella Lombardi) and a budget supported by the discontinuous participation of some sponsors, quite important, among them Lavazza, controlled by Count Zanon's wife. To favour Peterson they sacrificed Lella Lombardi, the only woman who had collected a score in the history of the Formula 1 world championship. In that situation nobody could think of failing. Objectively, it was to be expected a season of transition with some good performance, some small score of consolation now here, now there and for the rest a lot of patience to bear the evident inferiority of the vehicle. On the contrary, it was just in those conditions that Peterson performed the miracle needed to come back to light. In that season the Swede collected a good ten retirements and the sixth place in Austria, but at Monza…While the whole world was admiring Lauda's return, still marked awfully by the after effects of the accident at Nürburgring, Peterson drove his banger to the eighth place on the grid, also thanks to the relegation of Hunt Mass and Watson, caught with irregular petrol in their tank. At the start of the race Ronnie was quite quick to run behind Scheckter (Tyrrell), Laffitte (Ligier) and Depailler (Tyrrell). After fifteen laps Peterson was already in the lead and favoured by a slight September rain, which made the track like a tricky slab of glass, started pulling ahead undisturbed towards the win, leaving the whole struggling group behind him. Nobody had the courage to go and fetch him on that slippery asphalt, on which the Swede knew how to keep his balance in such an excellent way. On lap 50 Ronnie even scored the fastest round at the average of 206,120 km/h keeping a rate quite impossible for the others.

It was a great win that suddenly raised the reputation of "Super Swede", as he was nicknamed by journalists, and at the end of season he moved to Tyrrell and for the second time in his career put the March and an embittered Max Mosley behind him. However, the new situation didn't turn out to be very comfortable: the six-wheeled P34 Tyrrell, after a promising beginning in 1976 finished up with the win in Sweden, on the following year plunged into an unsolvable technical crisis. The small front wheels would have required major care from Good Year that, on the contrary, didn't supply any development, being obliged to concentrate its efforts on standard tyres in order to face up the Michelin next coming up. Once again emerged a mentality that aimed at driving the single-seater as fast as possible, sometimes exceeding the speed limit, but excessively regardless of its setup. "As for trend and natural talent, Ronnie Peterson was fantastic", said Jacky Stewart in an interview: "but in my opinion, he wasn't a complete driver. I much admired his way of driving by instinct, but beyond that he was lacking of a rigorous behaviour in his mental approach to the race, and that prevented him from winning more GP races. I would say the same for Gilles Villeneuve". Just the Canadian who, in the circuit of Fuji in Japan of that year, bumped into the Tyrrell driven by the Swedish driver and it ran over a technical manager and a spectator. Monza 77 only brought him a second place, after a race "on the quiet" which had seen him starting from the twelfth place on the grid. Even the remaining part of the season hadn't been rousing: third place in Belgium, fifth in Austria and a good ten retirements mainly due to the lack of reliability on the P34. His reputation was again diminishing and in order to find a good wheel Peterson had newly to call for the help of Count Zanon di Valgiurata who sponsored Ronnie's return to Lotus. According to Jabby Crombac, Colin Chapman knew that beside Andretti he needn't a team mate so fast as Peterson: the Italian-American was strong enough to win the title by himself. But the Italian gentleman's good offices (and somebody also said his money required to pay Andretti's heavy salary) convinced Chapman to accept the Swede again in the team with the clearly defined role of number two driver, so as to avoid any rivalry out bursting between them. Most likely Andretti wouldn't have needed Peterson under those terms of contract to win the title, even if the fight would have been much harder; but Colin Chapman didn't want to take risks, also because with Mario he had started an open and fruitful relationship, thanks to the positive mentality of the driver who never rejected any idea of the creative English constructor prior to make any effort to always give his utmost to get the car out of any development problem. His great and heterogeneous experience in races and a remarkable technical competence aided him, particularly in a key factor like tyres That season as a number two driver brought him two more wins in South Africa and Austria, four second places (Belgium, Spain, France and Holland) where he often covered the team-mate running behind without bothering him, a third place (Sweden) besides three poles (Brazil, Great Britain, Austria). Notwithstanding he was always looking smiling and peaceful, his being a number two driver in the contract soon ended up by boring him and from the Holland GP Ronnie had been signed for McLaren in view of next season. Chapman proposed him the possibility of going on with Lotus, but the Swede knew that Andretti would have kept his position of dominium over the team and found more tempting to have a change. Therefore, in that year Ronnie went to the racing circuit of Monza setting his hopes on a podium, perhaps a win, if Andretti should have met some trouble. But it was he who has been in trouble from the first tests: among clutch, gear and brakes he didn't manage to score more than the fifth place. On Sunday morning, during warm up, unfortunately he found he had his brake pedal idling due to an error made by the mechanic, just when he was lapping on the chicane; he crashed the car nose into the barrier compromising the race of the 79. It meant the frustrating prospect for Ronnie to be obliged to drive an old 78, which hadn't clearly the same chance as his single-seater. He didn't give in, remembering his triumphal ride in 1976. Trouble started with that sensational oversight of the race direction, that ordered the start without waiting for all the single-seaters being back from the formation tour and positioned on the grid. Ronnie hesitated for a moment and was caught in the middle of the group, while the drivers, who hadn't time to stop before the start, were already running like a shot on the straight, ready to take advantage of the state of chaos in order to recover positions. On the first chicane braking James Hunt was squeezed into a funnel between the Lotus with Ronnie and the Arrows with Patrese, who tried to pass at all cost making the most of the track edges. The Italian hit the McLaren driven by Hunt, the car on its turn bumped against Peterson's car rear side, sending Lotus nose first into the crash barrier. The single-seater crossed the track again to bump into the left barrier definitively, catching fire in a violent and spectacular way. Reutemann, Pironi, Depailler, Stuck, Daly, Lunger and Brambilla were also involved in the pileup. The fire was immediately gone out by track commissaries, allowing Regazzoni, Merzario and Hunt pull Peterson out from the burning car wrecks. The Swedish driver was still conscious, although his legs were badly broken, while Italian driver Vittorio Brambilla was in worst conditions as he lost consciousness. From then on a chaos burst out, among the delays of first aids, uninhibited policemen who asked for the autographs of the drivers, who were still filled of dismay at the sight of the Lotus burning wrecks and the photographers hunting for sensational images. The performance went on at the "Ospedale Niguarda", where the Swedish driver was transferred. Journalists were freely admitted to the structure, showing no respect for the Swedish driver. Doctors were discussing the seriousness of his injuries, reaching the hypothesis of an amputation of one leg, but there was no fear that his life was in danger. On the contrary, Ronnie Peterson suddenly died in the night, at the age of 34 from a fat embolism. In addition to the grief of parents, wife and young daughter, the event had then long and unpleasant aftermaths: suspicions of doctors' negligence about such a sudden death: there was a trial and the controversy on he who had triggered the accident; Patrese, then discharged, was subject to heavy criticism for his behaviour in the race: the Lotus slipped away with the wrecks of the single-seater so as to prevent it was sequestered; the chassis was broken definitively once arrived in England; Vittorio Brambilla, even if surviving the accident, had to end his career because of the after-effects of his injuries; a hard labour dispute between the Lotus owners and their workers who were accused of not finishing the 79 spare car in time having an accident in the previous GP, and that according to Colin Chapman it might have saved the Swede's life; at the end the sudden death of Ronnie's wife Barbro, who never got over her husband's death, happened in London a few years later owing to barbiturates and alcohol. Luckily Ronnie also left something positive: first of all a memory of a quiet and thoughtful man, who when in touch with a racing car showed a second fighting spirit dominated by his instinct of speed. A speed which remained engraved on the motor racing history and has been keeping on since almost thirty years from his death. Then a long and victorious crusade began by drivers to obtain a major safety on cars and tracks. In the end, someone would say as a banal remark, it is thought that one thing leads to another; behind the nets of Monza there were two eyes fond of him admiring and following his exploits on the track where the Swedish driver got the most in his career. It's unbelievable to think that an inheritance may be received only through gazing at him, without knowing each other, without touching each other or speaking, but in that case it would seem possible. In fact, Michele Alboreto not only inherited the colours of Ronnie Peterson's helmet, yellow and bleu, but also the kind smile of a boy by the look of an ordinary young man, who came up from nothing and managed to dominate racing cars, fulfilling the passion and emotions of million people.

Stefano Costantino