Grand Prix Heroes: Ronnie Peterson 

That´s the sad truth.

Så skulle dom ha gjort och skickat honom till en specialist med vana ifrån brutna skidåkarben. Sorgligt men sant.

Orebro!

A hero

Moss, Peterson, Gilles Villeneuve. All immensely talented and fast.

That´s right.

@@yewisemountaingoat528 Villeneuve got destroyed by two of his teammates (Reutemman and Scheckter). He's not on the level of Peterson and Moss. The myth-making surrounding this guy based on half-a-dozen spectacular video clips is absurd. Look at the data.

Same lol, monaaco

It’s a very British thing.

Correct...unfortunately the Hospital was in Italy...

Andretti is an american and Lotus introduced Lotus sportscar in USA that time. That´s the reason Andretti was the first driver. An american who wins was the best promotional. In the film about Ronnie P said the Lotus mechanic Ronnie always drove the worst car and at the qualifications Ronnies car was always tanked up for worse time than Andretti. If you look at the movie you will understand.

@@TheNotefish "Better a book than a whole cinema"

@@TheNotefish I know I'm late here but it's pretty clear that Ronnie wasn't happy about driving the old cars and letting a slower teammate win if he wasn't the fastest and also I remember something about his contract disputes. To shorten it up. He wanted the same/latest model of car and they should race from there, wich never happened. This is a long time ago so excuse me if I'm wrong. Ronnie wanted to compete with a top competitor team, so he went with Lotus but they gave him the previous year's car to compete with and Mario wouldn't share the setups for the cars. I might have to retract this because it was so long ago but the companionship was not that great because of business as I recall it.

So strange. I was such a huge Villeneuve fan but these days my memory of Ronnie Peterson is fonder. I remember so well when I heard he’d died. These days I’m sadder about Ronnie.

Jody Scheckter drove the P34 in 1976 (the blue one), by 1977 he moved to Walter Wolf's team. The white/blue P34 was Ronnie at the 1977 MonacoGP.

The car he drove in 1978 *was* a ground-effect car. The famous Lotus 79. He did well with it. While it's rumored McLaren offered him a drive for 1979 I seriously doubt Peterson would have left Lotus since it appeared as if they were unstoppable and would have remained so in 1979 (didn't turn out but he couldn't have known). Here's how I see it: Ronnie Peterson probably would be driving a Williams in 1980. It was clear that Frank Williams had the best car in the second half of 1979 - and the only reason Alan Jones wasn't champion was because he had to drive the old 1978 car for the first four races and retired from several races in the first half of 1979 (back then they counted the best 4 scores from the first 7 races and the best 4 scores from the 8 last races). This meant that while Jones had the maximum 36 points for his 4 wins in the second half of 1979 he only had a single 3rd place for all the first seven races(!). I'm fairly certain Peterson would be very aware the Williams would be the car to beat in 1980. For 1980 Frank Williams replaced Regazzoni with Carlos Reutemann. Alan Jones was champion. However Lotus had signed Reutemann as Peterson's replacement for 1979... In a scenario where Peterson never dies Reutemann never gets that Lotus seat, never beats Andretti and hence isn't high on Frank Williams' shopping list for 1980... Meanwhile Colin Chapman of Lotus had promised Peterson that he'd be free to race Andretti in 1979. Since Peterson was really good with poor handling cars I have a hunch he'd outscore Andretti and at least do as well as Reutemann did. So for 1980 Frank Williams will no doubt want to sign Ronnie Peterson. This makes 1980 more interesting. Maybe Peterson would have been champion and not Alan Jones. 1981 is more interesting still Reutemann lead the point standings for most of the year only to lose the title by a single point to Nelson Piquet (drove for Brabham) in the final race. Peterson probably would have been stellar in the 1981 Williams. Some people say Peterson was getting older... Well, he was still *two years younger than Carlos Reutemann* who challenged for the 1981 title aged 39 and still scored podiums in the first races of 1982 before the Falklands War broke out between Argentina and Britain which jeopardized his planned political career. If Reutemann still had it in him I believe Peterson would have had it in him too being both faster and two years younger. 1980 champion Alan Jones was just two years younger than Peterson. Jacques Laffite was born in 1943 (Peterson in 1944) and yet Laffite races in F1 until 1986 - even finished on the podium twice with his Ligier. Aged 43. Mario Andretti was born in 1940 and he still managed to put a Ferrari on pole in 1982. Jean-Pierre Jabouille was two years Peterson's senior but he still won races with the turbo Renault in 1979 and 1980. His 1980 crash ended what may have been more victories with the better Renault in 1981-1982. If Peterson never died it's possible he might have raced until 1982. If he is at Williams in 1980 and 1981 that means a world championship. Also, Bernie Ecclestone of Brabham was keen on signing Peterson too and once Lauda retired at the end of 1979 it's likely Peterson is high on the list of replacements. That means Peterson alongside Nelson Piquet at Brabham in 1980 and 1981. Interesting... Piquet had the rather poor Hector Rebaque as team mate in 1980 and 1981. "He'd (like Gilles Villeneuve) have to drive some horrifically bad handling cars" Gilles Villeneuve was unfortunate enough to be driving for Ferrari during a difficult time when the team was getting hopelessly left behind in the technical race. The infamous 1980 Ferrari was a non-ground effect car in a year *everybody* were using ground-effect. Hardly surprising that even poor teams like Arrows and Emerson Fittipaldi's poorly managed Copersucar/Fittipaldi team did better that year. For 1981 Villeneuve had to drive the poorly sorted Ferrari 126CK. It was so bad that Ferrari simply relocated their R&D department to England and hired the British designer Harvey Postlethwaite to design their 1982 car (a great improvement). Postlethwaite had designed race-winning Hesketh and Wolf cars on a shoe-string budget. Postlethwaite admired Villeneuve's ability drive horrible cars beyond their limit. For the 1981 Ferrari Postlethwaite said:"I still don't know how Villeneuve was able to win the Spanish GP with, I know how horrible that car was. It handled like a truck and never worked adequately on any track." What I would have loved to see is how Peterson handled the early turbo-cars. That would only happen if he signed for Renault or Ferrari, or if he's at Brabham when they start using the BMW turbo in 1982. McLaren were clearly having serious issues in 1978 already so I simply don't see Peterson deciding to joining them with Lotus running rings around them. He stays at Lotus or possibly signs for Brabham alongside Lauda (this means Piquet never gets the chance to show he can beat Lauda that year). Reutemann stays with Ferrari for 1979 and seeing how well they did I'd say he's still there in 1980... Frank Williams meanwhile wants to replace old man Regazzoni for 1980...

@@yewisemountaingoat528 Interesting thoughts. What I do know is that Ronnie discussed with Ferrari, Williams, Mc Laren and Lotus before signing with Lotus for 1978. I believe that is a sign of things to come. He was interviewed by Italian tv on saturday at Monza and said he did not know about next years contract. This was probably after Chapman had said to him that he offered Andrettis car to Ronkie after the problems with the 79 during Fridays qualifying session. Ronnie wanted equal treatment and Colin said he could race Andretti in the two last overseas races after Monza. This topic can very well be discussed at lenghts. Williams is not a bad guess, but I believe Ronnie was fed up with teams with a shestring budget like March. He wanted the senior teams and preferably the ones with ground effect sorted out. McLaren was heavily testing the M28 during 1978 but it became a dog apprently. Hard to say what would have happened.

James Ruckman Swedish gran prix, Ronnie had a heavier and more slidy car and still did laps faster than Mario. You should acctually go watch the races cause its clear that he had more talent than Mario

Ronnie was faster than Mario. But Mario had the better car.

Peterson was light years better than Andretti. Chapman hired him in 1978 in the condition he played second fiddle to Mario because he wanted to sell Lotus cars in the US, and he was involved in a rather shifty deal with DeLorian, whose big market was, of course, the US . Ask anyone who knows the sport and you will hear that Peterson was a much greater driver than Andretti.

Andretti did all the development work and made the car faster. Peterson just showed up and drove. Andretti earned his No. 1 status with both his speed and work-ethic. I love Peterson, but he wasn't better than Andretti.

​@@fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044Ask the mechanics at Lotus at the time and see whom was faster of the 2. It certanly wasnt Andretti.

Well Stirling Moss did have a little knowledge of racing ? And yes , I was at Silverstone in April 1975 the last time the old Woodcote corner was used. Peterson , Lauda and James Hunt were the only drivers able to take this incredible corner absolutely flat. Can you imagine 165 mph at the apex, holding a beautiful opposite lock slide ? From the grandstand you could see right into the cockpit and watch a drivers hands at work. Pure genius and an art form. RIP each one of them.

Clearly

Andretti won in stock cars, on dirt, in IndyCars, in sports cars, and F1. He had immense natural talent, and to suggest he didn't is just willfully ignorant. Peterson was talented in his own right, but Andretti has nothing to prove to anyone. Go look at his CV.

​@@fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044look at 78 austria and you will see what happens when Peterson is unleshed without constrains