1. Ronnie Peterson began his motor racing career in kart racing, traditionally the discipline where the majority of race drivers begin their careers in open-wheel racing.
40 Facts About Ronnie Peterson
1. 2.
Ronnie Peterson scored two wins, at the South African and Austrian Grand Prix races, and finished second in the Drivers' Championship standings despite his fatal first-lap accident at Monza during the Italian Grand Prix.
3.
Ronnie Peterson was born in the bourough Almby in Orebro, Sweden.
4.
Ronnie Peterson developed his driving style at a young age while competing in karting, and rapidly worked his way up to the pinnacle of European karting before switching to cars.
5.
Ronnie Peterson made his Grand Prix debut in a March 701 for Colin Crabbe's works-supported Antique Automobiles Racing Team at the 1970 Monaco Grand Prix.
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In 1971 Ronnie Peterson moved up to the full March works team, and made an instant impression.
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Ronnie Peterson stayed at March until 1973, when he signed for John Player Team Lotus to partner Emerson Fittipaldi.
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Ronnie Peterson took three more wins that year, in Austria, Italy and the United States, but poor reliability restricted him to only third place in the World Championship at season's end.
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Ronnie Peterson did well in the old car and claimed three more victories: the French and Italian Grands Prix, as well as the Monaco Grand Prix.
10.
Ronnie Peterson had signed for Shadow but Lotus owner Colin Chapman convinced him to stay with Lotus due to a promise Chapman made to accelerate the rate of development on the Lotus 77.
11.
Ronnie Peterson drove the first race of 1976 in the Lotus 77 before rejoining March Engineering.
12.
Ronnie Peterson continued to drive sports cars, particularly for BMW in 1974 and 1975.
13.
Ronnie Peterson retired from the opening four races of 1977, he spun off in Argentina, was involved in a crash with Jochen Mass's McLaren and Clay Regazzoni's Ensign in Brazil, and suffered fuel systems problems in South Africa and United States West.
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Ronnie Peterson finished eighth in Spain but retired at Monaco with brake failure.
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Ronnie Peterson's only podium finish was a third place at a rain-affected race in Belgium.
16.
Hopes were high at home in Sweden but Ronnie Peterson retired with ignition problems and then finished 12th at France.
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Ronnie Peterson had an engine failure in Britain, finished ninth at Germany and got fifth in Austria.
18.
Ronnie Peterson retired with ignition problems at Holland, sixth in Italy and 16th in the United States.
19.
Ronnie Peterson retired from the last two races of 1977, a fuel leak in Canada and in Japan, he collided with Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari but the crash killed a marshal and photographer as they were standing in a prohibited area of the track when the accident occurred.
20.
Ronnie Peterson won the 1978 South African Grand Prix, with a last-lap victory over Patrick Depailler, as well as the Austrian Grand Prix, in the innovative 'ground effect' Lotus 79.
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Many times, Ronnie Peterson followed Andretti closely home, leading to speculation that team orders were in place.
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Ronnie Peterson refused to contribute to any controversy, and on numerous occasions dismissed the speculation by stating that Andretti had simply turned the faster time.
23.
Team Lotus had a spare 79, but it had been built for Andretti, and the much taller Ronnie Peterson did not fit comfortably inside.
24.
The front four, Andretti, Gilles Villeneuve, Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Niki Lauda, were far enough ahead to avoid any drama, but Ronnie Peterson had made a poor start from the third row of the grid, and was immediately passed by Alan Jones, Jacques Laffite and John Watson.
25.
Ronnie Peterson's Lotus went into the barriers hard and caught fire before bouncing back into the middle of the track.
26.
Ronnie Peterson was trapped in the burning wreck, but Hunt, Regazzoni and Depailler managed to free him before he received more than minor burns, while track marshals were extinguishing the car.
27.
Ronnie Peterson was dragged free and laid in the middle of the track fully conscious, but with severe leg injuries.
28.
Hunt later said he stopped Ronnie Peterson from looking at his legs to spare him further distress.
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The injured drivers along with Ronnie Peterson were taken to a hospital in Milan and the race was restarted when the track had been cleaned up.
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At the hospital, Ronnie Peterson's X-rays showed he had about 27 fractures in his legs and feet.
31.
Ronnie Peterson took second place in the 1978 drivers' standings posthumously.
32.
Ronnie Peterson competed in 123 Grand Prix races during his career, winning ten of them.
33.
Ronnie Peterson is considered by some to be one of the best Formula One drivers to have never won a championship, as well as the best racing driver from Sweden.
34.
In 2016, in an academic paper that reported a mathematical modeling study that assessed the relative influence of driver and machine, Ronnie Peterson was ranked the 21st best Formula One driver of all time, and the sixth best to never win a title.
35.
Ronnie Peterson was banned from competition for one race, from the 1978 United States Grand Prix.
36.
The circumstances of Ronnie Peterson's death were prosecuted in an Italian criminal court.
37.
Ronnie Peterson was buried alongside Ronnie in the Peterson family grave in Orebro.
38.
Ronnie Peterson and Ronnie had a daughter named Nina Louise who was born in November 1975.
39.
The official Ronnie Peterson Museum was officially opened by Ronnie's daughter, Nina Kennedy, in Orebro on 31 May 2008.
40.
Superswede: A film about Ronnie Peterson, directed by Henrik Jansson-Schweizer, with the participation of Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nina Kennedy, and Niki Lauda, is available on YouTube, as are several other short tributes.