Gunnar Nilsson and his mother, Elisabeth Nilsson, together outside of the family home (?) in Helsingborg, Sweden.
Please read this additional information!
In mid-December of 1977 Gunnar was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Because of this I feel like this article is a true reflection of Gunnar as a person. It’s not that personal itself but taken with the context of a recent cancer diagnosis and start of his treatment it’s tragic. Because Gunnar remained positive and was adamant to drive until it became obvious that it was physically impossible for him to do so at the start of the 1978 season.
When he couldn’t drive and was stuck in the hospital he was so moved by the suffering of other cancer patients, especially children, and decided to collect as much money as possible for the hospital and cancer research. In just 2 years from his passing the Gunnar Nilsson Appeal managed to gather £4,75 million (≈£35 million or €41 million today) for oncology research with the help of Gunnars own assets, drivers, team principals and mechanics in Formula One, The Donington Park Memorial Race in 1979 and large coverage in the community of motorsport worldwide.
The lady in the picture is Gunnars mother Elisabeth Nilsson who he was very close to. An amazing and strong woman who was a single-mother to Gunnar after his father’s passing, funded most of his career in motorsport and who continued working with the Gunnar Nilsson Appeal after Gunnars passing up until her own passing where everything she owned went to the appeal. Her last wish was that nobody should ever have to die of cancer.
To this day hundreds of thousands of pounds/euros is given to Swedish oncology research in his honor each year.
The original goal was to gather £350 000 in total.
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Do excuse any grammatical errors, English is not my first language. ”(italics)” is my own clarifications of things.
Article below:
Gunnar Nilsson is now a first driver:
“I am tired of being an errand boy”
Suddenly Gunnar Nilsson got the mega-chance: professional work in one of the best teams in Formula One-teams, Lotus. He succeeded — but now he is hoping to drive a completely new and untested car. “They call me an idiot, but in reality I am a realist. I want to be number one!”
Johannesburg sits under a roof of crushing heat and blazing sun already in January. Right at the northern edges of the city you can find the 4,1 kilometer (2,55 miles for the american readers) long and curvy Grand Prix-track.
The week before the years third WC-race. The South African Grand Prix. The 5’th of March the track is invaded by the Formula 1 teams, journalists, fotographers, ladies of advertising, financiers and the usual tail of admirers.
Johannesburg is never effected by the invasion. In the sea of people you do not see the glittery crowd of stars and millionaires.
The contrasts get much bigger against the dark curtain of the slums, with dilapidated hovels, poverty and trash.
But the two worlds will not meet. F1-people do not think of poverty when they come to the Kyalami-track. Their attention is on the race, and especially towards one of the teams in the pits. Where the freshest of Formula 1-teams is.
It is called Arrows Cars Limited. On the side of the airconditioned bus there are two arrows, formed so that they make a sharp tip. That is their trademark.
The men that are sitting in the bus knows that their team will probably be the most watched during the entire week.
Jackie Oliver, previous F1-driver, previous co-partner of the Shadows-team. Alan Rees, previous team-boss of Shadows. Tony Southgate, previous constructor for both Lotus and for Shadows. Everyone is a breakaway from the Shadows-team. They have created their own team that they are now building on two pretty fresh drivers — Gunnar Nilsson, previous second-driver at Lotus, now first-driver at Arrows, and Patrese, previous second-driver at Shadows.
Everyone's interest is of course on Gunnar and the car that he is going to drive in 1978 — Arrows.
The new car is constructed by Tony Southgate. It was supposed to be a Shadow, but when the team got into financial problems Tony left the team together with the panel and it became an Arrows instead.
Before the start of the season not many have actually seen the car but this much is what Gunnar and his employer told us:
It is going to be the smallest car in the F1-field. It has four wheels and a Cosworth V8-engine. It is aerodynamically advanced, has a wing-construction that is similar to Lotus, inside there is adjustable anti-roll bars both in the front and back, a complicated fuel system and a bunch of other small finesses. It said to not be like any other Formula 1-car.
“An amazing chance”
29 year old Gunnar, who debuted in Formula 1 in 1975 for Lotus and 1972 in Formula Vee is suddenly a well-payed, in the millions, first-driver in a team that is run by some of the most experienced people in the industry of Formula 1.
“I have gotten an amazing chance,” says Gunnar in his convincing skånska (dialect of someone from the southern Swedish county of Skåne), ”it is amazing to work with your ’own’ team!”
“It is a fantastic chance for both drivers and mechanics by the way. There is racing-enthusiasm here. “
Gunnar has gone to school for Mario Andretti for two years now. He has learned what Mario knows about the wheel alignments, choice of racing line and tactics for breaking. But he has of course not gotten Mario's 18 year long routine.
Gunnar has a good seat as a second driver for Lotus.
”Well, better than a lot of other second drivers have had,” he says.
But two years is a long time for a skåning (person from the southern Swedish county of Skåne) without patience. For a guy who like a rocket wants to rise up on the starry sky of Formula One. He wants to show what he has got — namely to win, win and win again. Easiest expressed by himself:
“To drive the shirt off Niki and the rest of the boys.”
The longing from the Lotus-team got especially dire at the latter half of the 1977 season. In the charts from the seven races after the English GP, where he came third, you only find lines and no numbers.
“We made many mistakes, both me and Lotus. I drove from 16’th to third — then the engine blew. I drove from 15’th to second — then the engine blew. I braked my way off the track, a broken front axle that had not been changed before the race made me crash in Italy, I got hit — by Ronnie by the way! — Crash! Finally, in Japan, the gearbox got stuck so hard because it had not been changed since Canada that it completely broke.
Everything was just shit.”
When Colin Chapman — or The old man as he is called by the drivers — noticed that Gunnar was starting to get tired his own interest seemingly cooled off too. It was the Austrian GP when Gunnar one night sat in his hotel room, when his neighbor and good friend in London, Jackie Oliver, came knocking.
“Hello Gunnar, I want you as a first-driver for my new team. Are you interested?”
”Yeah, yeah, that I have of course heard before,” answered Gunnar who had learnt enough from others' mistakes not to swallow it whole.
“But Jackie took me to Italy and presented me to Franco Ambrosio, who would take on a lot of the team’s expenses.”
Franco Ambrosio: property-king, a businessman in most things that gave a lot of money. Maybe not the most well regarded businessman. Ambrosio has for example been hit with a travel ban and accused of several controversial foreign exchange transactions. Now he wrote on the restaurant's table a check with a round sum.
“Then I was impressed. Then I knew there was seriousness behind Jackie's words. “
Jackie Oliver immediately traveled back home and instantly redeemed the check.
No thanks to Lotus
Gunnar was convinced, overwhelmed and flattered by the offer. When Colin Chapman wanted to talk about the contract for 1978 he frankly refused.
“There are five driver's seats in the world that are worth having: Lotus — that one is Mario’s. Ferrari — Carlos Reutemann has that one. Brabham, that is Niki Lauda's. McLaren — Hunt drives there. Tyrrell where Depailler is first-driver. One of those teams always wins. The others are lucky if they win. But I want to be a first-driver.
“Mario did not want me to leave Lotus for the new team. We actually had an amazing team. Such a team like Lotus has not existed for years and days. “
“But over there I have bowed and been quiet and thankful for two years now. They said that you should crawl before you learn to walk, but I have fucking crawled for Lotus. I am grown enough for a new team. I do not want to be some kind of errand boy.”
“They call me an idiot for leaving Lotus too early. No, I am a realist. I cannot get a first-driver seat in one of the top five teams. I walk my own way, I have always done that. I have to show what I got now.”
“You have to believe in yourself. And I can drive faster than Mario! I have driven as fast as anyone else. I have showed that.”
“I will just take the fucking boat and take this challenge. I can beat it. But one thing is certain: there are no excuses now.”
Gunnar almost sounds lyrical when he is talking about the big dream coming true. He believes in his new team as much as a religious person believes in God. Fully and solidly.
But is it really that weird? A guy with just two years of experience in one of the toughest and most professional sport in the world becomes a first-driver!
There was so much money in Arrows that after just a week they bought industrial house in Milton Keynes outside of London and slightly south of the Silverstone track, all the machinery to create all the parts of the Formula One-car and Cosworth engines, telephone exchange, furniture and equipment, hired 22 people who had left Shadow who will become 35 in February to the company, installed everything and moved into the premises before the week was over.
Is it really that weird that Gunnar believes in the situation?
“We will become a top team”
“It is so perfect. I am going to tell you something: when I was in the hospital to operate on my stomach before Christmas (start of his cancer treatment, unknown to everyone but his absolutely closest family and friends) one of the guys called the hospital ’You,’ they said, ’we have had a vote. We are only taking christmas off, other than that we will work until ten in the evening with the car.’ The whole gang has a fantastic interest and a will to show the other teams what we got.
“I believe in the car. We will become a top team immediately. In two races we will be fighting for wins.”
It seems like Gunnar has achieved the goal of his life. In a short time he has passed several goals of his career.
“The first goal was to psychologically survive the first year with Lotus. I did that. Then to establish myself as a driver. I did that too. The next goal — to leave the team with the flag held high!”
“I do not regret taking the chance to drive in F1. Sure, I do not have a lot of time for myself or my other interests. I am so involved now.”
“But I can not just run around discotheques my entire life, as I did before. You get new interests.”
Yes, the changes are tangible if you believe Gunnar. The lovely life of heavy drinking and hot ladies is now over. A couple months back he stopped smoking. Before he even started driving in Formula One he started working out and running. Now he does it six times a week in a ‘Gym’ (something that at the time had just been made accessible and known to the general public in Sweden) in London. On the seventh day he runs seven kilometers. Between that he reads a little of everything. Right now it is Hemingway.
To be famous must also be great?
“Famous? Me? No, it is to a very small extent here in Sweden. Formula One is not written about too much in this country. In a way it is nice not to be some famous star. I can walk alone on the streets without anyone flocking around me. I am greeted familiarly from time to time but it is nothing more than that.”
But when it comes to the Swedish press Gunnar is rather sensitive. He has gotten a few kicks and tackles. You could imagine that he has gotten it because of his outspokenness. He is happy as a child when he is succeeding — and talks about it. He often plays the fool a little in company — laughing loud and long. He can get angry and then he says whatever comes to his mind. He can also just sit there quietly and passively — which probably also can be misunderstood.
His best friend: Mario
He feels at home in Formula 1. There he has been accepted. Because he is the joyful Gunnar Nilsson. Because he is a good driver.
His best friend is Mario Andretti. Gunnar has looked up to him. But otherwise he does not really care for idols.
“I respect Niki and his enormous willpower. But I do not look up to other drivers, they are just people. If I look up to them they become phantoms. That makes my situation harder.”
Now it is Gunnar's turn to take responsibility for the Arrows-team so that it will wander successfully through the Formula 1-season. He will get the responsibility for the car to get adjusted properly.
Riccardo Patrese is ‘just’ second-driver, like Gunnar was at Lotus. He will have to look out and learn from Gunnar.
“I will probably not be as helpful to Patrese as Mario was to me. I do not have his knowledge yet. I will probably be overwhelmed with work for both myself and the car. I have to develop myself now. And have patience. That is the worst thing about me, my patience burst when things do not go as they should.”
Impatient — to get started with Arrows.
Impatient — to win more Grand Prix-victories than the one he got in Belgium last year.
Here is the pictures I used to translate the article:
Yet again a big thanks to the amazing @p1pipypy who provided me with this article and even found a second version of the first page so I could translate it fully as parts of the first version was unintelligible.
I can admit to getting a bit misty-eyed at the end of this article. I got around halfway through translating when I realized that the article was from the beginning of 1978 and that Gunnar never got to drive for Arrows. It made me feel so sad that I actually had to pause with this ‘project’ for a while but it’s good to have it finished.
I do my translation-‘projects’ (unsure what to call them to be honest) in the honor of the people they are about. Quotes and personal stories or just ordinary answers to questions from them should be available to everyone not just the Swedish-speaking. It’s a nice feeling knowing others can read what I have read and thus continue remembering those long gone.
(Excuse the big blob of text in the beginning. Tried shortening it but I spent so much time researching and wanted to include as much information as possible.)
As always thank you for reading, if you notice anything wrong or have anything I can improve on please tell me.
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My previous understanding of the event depicted in this set of photos that I/we call "The Ferrari Dinner", based on some tumblr post I'd read when I was first getting into the fandom and didn't save, was that this was this was some event related to Didier's joining of the team to replace Jody Schekter, who was set to retire at the end of the 1980 season.
I didn't know a more specific date for it than that, or that there even was one available, until someone posted a photo of Gilles and Didier from the dinner and gave the date as January 1st, 1980. That seemed so early for Didier to be already planning to join the team (he's wearing a Ferrari pin in all of them so they're somewhere in the process) that it surprised me, and I went to look and see if it was true for my own personal satisfaction, assuming it was actually January 1st 1981, which would have been the start of their first year as teammates.
It turns out that when these photos were taken and even how many photos are from the same day was not as easy to answer as I expected, and I spent long enough looking through different websites trying to find out that I decided I had to do something with what I'd found and bring it to tumblr.
This ended up being quite a long post, so photo comparison and analysis is under the cut
Any mutuals/followers who saw this post already, sorry about the repost but I think the original version got flagged or broken or something so I'm trying to post it again with some edits
Going from the photo above and one other one from my pintrest, I was able to find a decent handful of color photos taken at the table, the one above the cut + this additional one being particularly relevent.
Both of these, plus the other ones I've found but excluded from this post because they don't give any new identifying information, are all available on Getty Images (these two here, here), listed as taken on January 1st, 1980, and by Ercole Colombo.
You might think that would solve the date problem, and to be honest I probably should have let it, but the photos including Joann were new to me, and it reminded me of another photo of Gilles and Joann that I had previously assumed was not related.
This photo of them and Enzo Ferrari is also viewable on Getty Images (here) and also by Ercole Colombo, however the date is listed as September 15th, 1980. Take a look at what Joann is wearing. In the color photos of her, you can see she is wearing a white short sleeved blouse with a collar and vertical stripes tucked into high-waisted dark colored pants. This is the exact same outfit she is wearing in this black and white pic. I will acknowledge that her hair looks more curled in the color photos than it does in the b&w ones, but the style could have just relaxed over the course of the night. Gilles is also in what looks like the same black jacket and white button up.
Could they both have chosen to wear the same outfits to two different Ferrari events months apart to be photographed by the same person? Sure, it's not impossible based just on this photo comparison, anything could happen, but I think the more likely explanation is that they were all just taken on the same day. The question that remains is what day that was.
To figure that out, I initially intended to look for the source of this black and white photo that I suspect to also be from the Ferrari Dinner and see if it listed the January date, the September date, or something else.
This one is the problem child of my photo search. I have put multiple angles/slightly different versions of it through two different reverse image searches. It's on a lot of websites as image content, but not in actual image collections and no one wants to date it or give any more info that who appears.
Here's what I did find.
This Spanish-lanuage article on Enzo Ferrari's life from 2024 credits the photo to Ferrari's twitter page, which might have more info *if* you can find the post, but it didn't come up in my reverse image searches and I don't have a twitter account to look for it directly on the platform. Dead end for me but the info might be out there.
This Hungarian Classic F1 blog with the photo alongside some text but no credits says Pironi was signed by Ferrari after Zolder in 1980 but announced as the new driver after Imola (which is absolutely SICKENING for the narrative if true but that's a different thing to think about), which would place the date of the Ferrari dinner somewhere between May 4th and September 28th (the Canadian GP), which works for the date to be September 15th, but not January 1st.
Because there's no source cited for the blog, I went to Gerald Donaldson's biography of Gilles (p. 252 on my PDF) and was able to confirm this fact.
(the "next day" mentioned here is the day after Imola 1980, which took place September 14th per wikipeda)
If you are looking at the two photos, you can also clearly see they are taken in the same room as the black and white photo with Joann. Obviously if this is a building owned by Ferrari that room is available to them all the time, but I think it's worth consideirng in conjunction with other things that clearly they were taking photos in there and helps to tie all the photosets together.
This I think makes a very strong case for both this photo of the boys with Enzo Ferrari and the Ferrari Dinner as a whole to have taken place on the same date, however looking at that photo I think there are enough details that are the same between the color photoset and the two black and white photos to even more strongly indicate this.
Note that some of these detail screenshots are not taken from photo angles included in this post. I do intend to post all of the Ferrari dinner images so you will be able to compare eventually if you really don't believe me, but trust that it's like a slightly different version of what's already here
First: Didier. He is wearing the same Candy brand suit (one of his sponsors), the Ferrari pin, and a tie that I believe has the same pattern through the b&w and color images.
Next: Gilles. I've already pointed out Gilles's outfit, but you can also see that he has a pair of sunglasses clipped into his pocket in both the b&w and color images. I've looked for a color photo that might show the embroidery over the pocket, but his arm is always in the way.
I also want to point out that I personally think it's more likely that both Gilles and Enzo would be wearing and walking around with sunglasses in September than in January, but if Italians want to tell me that you guys do wear them in the winter an Americans are weird for not doing so I'll relinquish the point.
My weakest detail point, but one I do think is worth bringing up, is Gilles's necklace.
It doesn't look extremely similar, but both have a round pendant and are the same length, so I think it's possible the differences are just down to the photography, and again, this should be considered in conjunction with everything else.
All in all, I think this collectively is enough evidence to suggest that ALL of these photos are from the same event and were taken on the same day despite what Getty Images wants me to believe. I also don't think that date is January 1st because as far as I'm aware Didier wasn't associated with Ferrari before his signing with them, which happened in May.
I don't know why they would be misdated, probably because this is all archival stuff that was uploaded in 2024 and somebody did it wrong. It's not like we're looking at physical materials with the date written on them.
If I had to bet I would say that day of the Ferrari Dinner is September 15th, to celebrate the announcement of Didier's signing with the team, but it could still be a third date after May 1981 that hasn't even come up.
If anybody has additional information about this that I don't, please feel free to add, because I think I've done what I can do in terms of researching this.
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Dick Scammell checks the rear of Jim’s Lotus 25 on the Zandvoort grid while Colin gets the low-down. Behind, Bruce McLaren settles into the works Cooper while John Surtees, with Maruo Forghieri to his left, adjusts his helmet (x)
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44 years ago was the second ever all-French podium in F1 history - the slightly infamous 1982 French Grand Prix, aka "French civil war and their taller, half-Italian cousin dissociating next door". Nobody calls it that but me now but whatever, you know the story. It's like Imola 82 if they were less freaks about each other and had actual team orders, except this time the world decided Alain was in the wrong for complaining about said team orders.
I've probably posted these before, but surely not in the current quality I've got them in - and you know, if not on the anniversary, then when would I update you all on scan quality, huh?
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Hello! how r u?
I know it's a little strange for me to come here (just now) to speak with you. You can call me Zu if you want.
When I entered Tumblr, you were the first artist that i got to know, and I always loved your arts, specially the villeroni ones. The way you make cute cartoonical art but some of them have so much realistic traces that makes them so soft and beautiful, it makes me feel at home. Your arts are really pleasing to be seen, and i wish I could draw like you! But if I did, you wouldn't be THE artist to have THAT artstyle, so I gave up. And the thing that you too like classic F1 is another point that makes me like your arts (and you!) even more. I've always been an art person, but I never attached to a form of art that I can actually and really do. I tried drawing, coloring, writing, singing, dancing, acting, but nothing got me. So, I just appreciate art, and your art is something I appreciate when it appears on my tumblr. I just wanted to share a little bit with you, 'cause I never thought I could get you inspired and make art with my idea. And I thank you with all my heart.
A good hug,
Marizu.
p.s.: i'm freaking out while I was writing all of this lol, so if you don't want to answer it's ok!
Hello, Zu! I'm doing great, and I hope you are too! I was very pleased to receive your letter. I'm not as good as you describe, but I'm so glad you like my blog and find something relatable in my work. It's great when there's interaction and communication. The symbiosis of minds can create unexpected and amazing things. Speaking of art, I respect your choice, but don't give up if you really have a desire for self-expression through creativity. Keep trying different things! If you keep looking, you'll find your way sooner or later. Don't think that you need to surpass someone, because that's not a good thing to focus on. And just enjoying art is awesome too! Giving feedback is also participation in creative activity. The most important thing is to be happy and love what you do. If it doesn't offend anyone and makes your soul shine, then you're doing it right. And that means you're second to none, my dear friend!
By the way, that's pretty much how I felt when I was browsing the tag and stumbled across your captivating idea:
