christi(ange)istdörfer

He never got to be world champion…

“Someone up there must like me, “

said Ronnie Peterson once when he got into the pits after a violent crash.

Someone had their eyes closed the 10’th of September.

Ronnie's workplace was the worlds all racing tracks and his tool was a black thoroughbred racer. He did not have a care for the glamorous life around the track.

“ It is a necessary evil. You have to parade for the sponsor that has invited all the local high animals. You stand there like a damn exhibition project and you do not have much to talk about with them either. “

When things went well for Ronnie he wrote autographs until the pen glowed. When things went bad he crawled into a corner in the black housebus that was his second home. Outside his admirers stood and yelled: Peterson, Peterson.

“ Sometimes it is a bit too much with all this attention. It is almost insane what an interest there is. Do you see those two girls who are standing a bit alone? They are two french girls who hang around at every european race. I have named them The Shadows because they are always hanging around me. One time I gave them a lift to the hotel and I do not think I have ever seen happier people. “

Together with his two mechanics Bobby and Rexy he worked to get the car as perfect as possible. Rexy, who worked together with Ronnie when he drove for Lotus the first time said:

“There are few drivers who engage in the sport so wholehearthily as Ronnie. He swore high and loudly when the practice was over and the car was not as he wanted it to be. “

It was not just the cars that was Ronnie's big life. When he saw something with a motor he wanted to try it. I remember one time at the home of Mario Andretti, two years ago (1976). We were up at his country house where the garage was filled with all kinds of things. Six-wheeled cars, motorbikes with gigantic wheels, jet-waterskis. Ronnie's eyes lit up, like he was a kid at Christmas.

“ Can I try them?” asked Ronnie.

“Go ahead!” said Mario.

The playing had to stop when it got too dark. Ronnie was completely wiped out when he sank into a chair and said:

“I have not had this much fun in years and days. Where can I get these? I have to have some back home in England. “

In Brazil he drove a powerboat with full speed. We others held the railing with an iron grip while the waves crashed over us. Ronnie stod way forward at the helm and steered. The wind played in his hair and a smile went from ear to ear,

“Are you scared? This is so much fun! “

A debut that was noticed

Ronnie made his debut in Formula 1 1970 in a March in Monaco and finished 7’th. A result that echoed throughout the world of motorsport. Three years later he wrote a contract with maybe the most legendary team in the sport: Lotus.

In the beginning of 1976 he left the team after disagreements with the team boss Colin Chapman and returned to March. The season was a big disappointment and he only won one race: Monza!

In 1977 Ronnie hopped over to Tyrrell to drive its sixwheeled creature that had been very successful the year before. There was a big press conference in London and Ken Tyrrell was very satisfied about having Ronnie in his team.

“ He is one of the greatest drivers in the world and I have promised to give him a winning car this year. “

Unfortunately Tyrrell could not fulfill his promise and Ronnie had to, for the second year in a row, retire in race after race. To the outside he held his mask but inside he was very disappointed. The newspapers topped the sport section every 14’th day with the headlines: “Ronnie retired again. Ronnie are you finished now? “ Ronnie swallowed the critique but from time to time he lost it.

“Those idiots do not have a clue what they are writing about. They sit on their fat arses back home in Sweden. No one ever comes to a race and tried to see what is actually happening. Things that do not hold up, a car that is barely able to stay on track e t c. Nobody shall accuse me of not doing my best or driving too hard, so that the parts do not hold up. It is lucky that you always can read the labour union-magazines, so that you can get a little comfort in all this misery. “

When Ronnie went over to Lotus this year and the successes began to drizzle heavily he yet again became a main headline in the newspapers. When the journalists started showing up during the races and wanted exclusive interviews his usual line was:

“Oh really. Am I now good enough again? “

Ronnie drove as second driver to Mario Andretti this year and many wondered how he could agree with that.

“It is actually a weird situation that you are in,” said Ronnie several times. “You have to do your best to make everyone happy and yet you just get scolded. “

Plotting in the pits

Ronnies wife Barbro was almost always in the pits, working as a timekeeper for the team (left). Team boss Colin Chapman has always had the best drivers you can get. Above, Ronnie, Chapman and Mario Andretti. Together the drivers and Lotus cars are making sure the team soon passes the historic Ferrari team in amount of GP-wins. Many have criticized Chapman for putting the wins ahead of the safety of the drivers. They said the same after the crash in Monza.

(This is a direct translation of the pictures description)

In the start it was Andretti who totally dominated but when Ronnie had made himself comfortable he quickly took over that role. The team did almost everything to hinder Ronnie's success. Worse tires and halffilled tanks were some ‘tricks’.

“It is actually a weird situation that you are in,” said Ronnie several times. “You have to do your best to make everyone happy and yet you just get scolded. “

The war of the stars escalated more and more and reached its peak in Austria.

The practice session had been cut short because of some parachutists on their way down, Ronnie’s gearbox broke and he was thankful for the break. The clouds lay heavy over the track and Ronnie clasped his hands in a silent prayer that it would start raining. His prayers were answered and it just poured down. After a while it stopped and the cars started going out on track one after another. Ronnie went out to try his new gearbox and went back to the pits after just one lap. Chapman rushed forward to hear how slippery it was.

“It is like glass out there,” said Ronnie. “I will stay in for a while until it has dried up. “

Chapman ran over to Andretti who sat in his own car and waited. They agreed to wait a little more.

Ronnie sat in his car and stared up at the dark sky and hoped for the best. The ones out on track started slowing down. Andretti gave his sign to the mechanics and they started the engine. In the same moment the rain started again and the pits were flooded.

Ronnie winked at his mechanics and hopped out of the car with a smile.

“ Like attracts like. They have been nasty towards me so many times so now it was my turn. It was not as slippery as I said, but why would I be nice to them?”

Ronnie was very popular with his mechanics and they did everything for him to win. Nigel Bennet, the chief for Ronnie's car, ignored given orders. Little Bobby did not pump out the gas like he had gotten ordered to at the race in South Africa and Ronnie won.

“Of course it feels a bit nasty to keep doing this sometimes, said Ronnie once. But this is the rules of the game. I have signed a contract and I have to follow it. I am not alone with this. John Watson in the Brabham-team for example, is sitting in the exact same seat as me. Motorsport has been the same throughout all the years. Just look at Fangio and Moss when they drove for Mercedes all those years ago. How it is in a cycle! There you really find the system with a star and a helping hand. I am looking forward. Mario is probably quitting after he has won his title and then I will take over as conductor. “

Ronnie was not a person of big words and sometimes he had trouble expressing what he wanted to say. He was shy, and that was often interpersonal as snobbishness. He, like many other drivers in Formula One, often got the question “Is it worth it to do this?”

“This is what I have fought for so many years and this is what I want to do. The day you start getting scared it is time to quit, “was Ronnie's answer.

Niki Lauda probably expressed it even better in an interview a couple years ago.

“ It is a fight between the human and the machine. All of us that are doing this are perhaps fanatics. We want to get better and better all the time. Sometines we maybe drive ‘on the limit’ but we never take any chances, just calculated risks. None of us want to die. We drive for the satisfaction it gives us. Some people collect paintings. We drive as fast as possible. When I quit I would like to fly jumbo-jets and land in places that nobody has landed before. Just for the sake of the challenge. “

It is probably a thought that has crossed the minds of most of the people with a work where you constantly challenge faith. The mountain climber that has to get up on the world's highest mountain, the circus artist hanging high above the ring — everyone wants to get better and push the limit even further forward. Money and glory is not that important. You compete against yourself and against the machine and the outsiders interpretations and analyses are not of interest.

“Sure there are easier ways to make money, said Ronnie once. But that is not what it is about. I want to be the best. “

Formula One is the heavyweight class in motorsport. That is where almost everyone in the sport set their sights on, all these enthusiasts across the entire world, that are willing to sacrifice everything for their sport.

To ban the motorsport, because it IS a sport, is to ban a lifestyle!

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Here are the original pages and the cover of the book:

(There is actually a fourth picture on the page with all the pictures, but I found it so upsetting I did not want to include it. I can vaguely describe it as about Ronnies accident. )

Frederik af Petersens is a very good sports journalist and author. He seems to get the sides of people you don’t usually see. For example it was kind of fun to read about Ronnie swearing at the journalists.. He got some very good quotes and sentences too. “They said the same after the crash in Monza. “, put a pit in my stomach. Eugh.

If you have read this far, against all odds, you will know that now several new Ronnie chronicles await! None more from 1972 and none from 1973 or 1978 but at least one from every year in-between. I do not know when they will be published because Tumblr is hating me at the moment. It kept eating all the editing I made and made me begin from scratch over and over again.

Thanks to the amazing @p1pipypy I have also gotten my hands on several interviews and articles about/with Gunnar Nilsson! They will be prioritized over Ronnie’s chronicles as there is a vast lack of information about him on Tumblr…