17 replies to this topic

[William Hunt]

With the other topic on René Arnoux, and why Arnoux was dumped from Ferrari in 1985, I thought it was a good idea to open a topic on Stefan Johansson, another driver from the days when I was a little kid and obsessed by F1.

He had a weird F1 carreer. First he was brought in F1 (1980) too soon after he won a British F3 title and clearly with the wrong team: Shadow, a team that was virtually bankrupt when he signed there.

A couple of years later ('83) he made a comeback with the small Spirit outfit for whom he had finished 8th overall in F2. It was a bit of suprise that they chose Johansson and not Boutsen because his F2 teammate Boutsen had performed a lot better in F2 (3rd overall), I guess that had to do with sponsorship but by the time Johansson drove for Spirit Boutsen was already driving for Arrows (thanks to sponsorship of a carpet manufacturer in fact).

In '84 he subbed at Tyrrell without any succes and then again with Toleman for whom he scored a 4th place at Monza
In '85 he was supposed to drive for Toleman but they lost their tyre contract, then he subbed again in race 1 for Tyrrell and for race 2 he was signed by Ferrari to sign the sacked René Arnoux.

Now my questions about Johansson are the following:

- Why did Ferrari exactly sign Johansson to replace Arnoux? Didn't they have any better options available? Johansson had up to that point in his carreer hardly shown anything. I've heard something like that 'Enzo Ferrari signed Johansson because he considered him a fighter'. But it just doesn't make that much sense to me: sure he was available but surely Ferrari could have bought another driver out of his contract? Someone like Bellof (who they ended up signing for '86 but died), Brundle, Patrese, Warwick or Fabi to name some. It seemed like a strange choice for Ferrari because Johansson was really unproven at that point, especially to join a prestigious top team like Ferrari.

- Second question: why did Ferrari drop Johansson at the end of 1986 after he clearly outscored lead driver Michele Alboreto? Shouldn't they have dropped Alboreto instead?

If anything I though Johansson turned out to be an excellent 2nd driver and solid point scorer, he was good in that role as 2nd driver to Prost too.

[Tomas Karlsson]

Try the search function. There is already a thread on Stefan.
http://forums.autosp...mp;hl=Johansson

By the way, it is difficult to understand F1 history by only reading F1 statistics on Internet. Stefan Johansson was one of the fastest young men out there in those days. At the same level as Bellof. But to make it in F1, you need to be at the right place at the right time. Who knows what his career would have looked like, if the fuel had lasted for those last laps at Imola. On the other hand, I think he is quite satisfied with his long and succesful career in racing.

It has never been easy to predict who is going to make it or who isn't. I remember a fantastic EC F3 race, where the series leader, Alain Prost, in a factory team car, had a lot of problem beating Anders Olofsson in an old borrowed Ralt.

[Michael Ferner]

A couple of years later ('83) he made a comeback with the small Spirit outfit for whom he had finished 8th overall in F2. It was a bit of suprise that they chose Johansson and not Boutsen because his F2 teammate Boutsen had performed a lot better in F2 (3rd overall)

By the way, it is difficult to understand F1 history by only reading F1 statistics on Internet.

Same here. Boutsen performed a lot better than Johansson at Spirit? That's not how I remember that season.

[man]

Stefan uses twitter and being the down to earth guy that he is - if you ask him a decent question i'm sure he will give you a reply if time permits.

[William Hunt]

By the way, it is difficult to understand F1 history by only reading F1 statistics on Internet. Stefan Johansson was one of the fastest young men out there in those days. At the same level as Bellof. But to make it in F1, you need to be at the right place at the right time. Who knows what his career would have looked like, if the fuel had lasted for those last laps at Imola. On the other hand, I think he is quite satisfied with his long and succesful career in racing.

Thomas, I agree with you that F1 statistics don't give a complete picture but I am not merely looking at stats because when Johansson was driving in F1 I was watching every race, haven't missed a single race since 1985 in fact. So I am not merely looking at stats, in fact as a young kid Johansson was a driver I liked very much and supported. But I disagree that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. How many drivers had the chance to driver a Ferrari for 2 years and 1 year a McLaren? In fact I believe he was at exactly the right place at the right time (due to Toleman having lost their tyre contract, they later managed to buy Spirit's tyre contract) when they fired Arnoux at Ferrari.

He was certainly fast and a good racer but in '85 Johansson's qualifying performances were poor and I never rated him in the same league in terms of pure speed as Bellof, Brundle or Fabi at that time. Johansson was a driver that did seem to move up during the races though but he wasn't a great qualifier.

[William Hunt]

Same here. Boutsen performed a lot better than Johansson at Spirit? That's not how I remember that season.

Boutsen scored 6 podiums including 2 wins that year and he was in the running for the title until the final race (with Cecotto & Corrado Fabi). Johansson only had a best result of 1 third place that year. I think there is no doubt that Boutsen completely outperformed Johansson in '82 in F2.

[Tim Murray]

They were much more evenly matched in qualifying, though. Each outqualified the other seven times. Johansson seemed to have more than his fair share of problems during the races themselves, retiring several times when either leading or challenging for the lead.

[P.Dron]

A strange assortment of people attended the extravagant Lamborghini Diablo launch in Monaco in January 1990 - Lambo owners, Lambo dealers, journalists, and numerous racing drivers. Mario Andretti was there.

So was Stefan Johansson. I was at the same table as him in that ghastly hotel that was called Loew's at that time, when two chaps arrived. One of them knew Stefan and introduced him to the other chap, who was obviously fabulously wealthy, as he had recently bought a Grand Prix Ferrari that Stefan had raced (in 1986 I think). He had a question for Stefan:

"Tell me, did you ever have difficulty firing up the engine?"

Stefan stared at him for a few moments, then replied, deadpan, "No. I just raised my right arm like this [raising right arm and waggling index finger] and it started, every time."

Edited by P.Dron, 06 August 2013 - 17:41.

[Michael Ferner]

Lovely story!

They were much more evenly matched in qualifying, though. Each outqualified the other seven times. Johansson seemed to have more than his fair share of problems during the races themselves, retiring several times when either leading or challenging for the lead.

That's more like it. I think everyone following F2 that year thought they were pretty evenly matched, and their subsequent F1 careers bore that out, too.

[RStock]

Stefan Johansson was one of the fastest young men out there in those days.

Yes, he was. I seem to recall that the old man already had his eye on Stefan a year or two earlier and had tried to sign him to a testing contract, which Stefan turned down as he saw no real chance of a seat, and at that time he had one, so he stuck with what he knew he had over what he might have. Stefan was out of a seat the next time Ferrari came calling, so took them up on their offer. If I recall correctly, he signed not knowing Arnoux had been axed that very day.

As for why he left, he basically says he was fired. Seems mostly due to political infighting, which he lost.

[Michael Ferner]

Mediocrity is perhaps too strong a word, but the fact remains that Ferrari did not sign or develop a driver of the top drawer in the eighties. The cars were certainly good enough (except for the bizarrely inelegant and ineffective '86 Ferrari!) for a championship, it was the drivers who were lacking.

[ryan86]

How was Berger viewed circa 86-88? Watching the Duke review and such, it alwaysw felt like he was one of that group of drivers you get where one thinks they could do something with the right opportunity and when he did get the right opportunity in championship winning McLarens he was quite underwhelming.

[MLC]

How was Berger viewed circa 86-88? Watching the Duke review and such, it alwaysw felt like he was one of that group of drivers you get where one thinks they could do something with the right opportunity and when he did get the right opportunity in championship winning McLarens he was quite underwhelming.

Actually, you summed it up pretty well. Berger had a great reputation during that period. He was hot shoe while at Benetton and easily outpaced Alboreto at Ferrari. Pace-wise, he proved to be Mansell's equal though you can't really fault him for being surpassed by Senna when he finally went to McLaren. During that time frame you mention, there were really only 5 drivers in with a shout at winning (Prost, Senna, Mansell, Piquet, and Berger) so Gerhard was favorably thought of if not the true upper crust of Prost/Senna.

[RStock]

It seems the second sentence would like to be an explanation without explaining a thing, if I may. Just apologetics without substance. Use “political infighting” to explain Scuderia Ferrari’s decision process and nobody is, of course, none the wiser.

I'll see if I can find the story with Stefan's exact words, but it was something to the effect that in a meeting with Enzo he had been discussing what other teams were doing on the chassis construction front and he could tell Piccinini did not like what he had to say, and Stefan soon found himself treated as a pariah by the technicians.

To me, Ferrari drivers’ line up for most of the ‘80s were conspicuous for their mediocrity: Tambay, Alboreto, Johansson, Arnoux, Berger. All nice people, some could be blindingly quick on their day (Arnoux, Berger) but the real deal was always elsewhere – old Lauda, Prost, Piquet, Rosberg, up-and-coming Senna and so forth.

In fairness to the drivers, I'd say it was hard to be anything but mediocre in those cars.

[Twin Window]

Stefan has been a friend of mine since 1979, the year prior to him winning an extremely competitive British F3 championship.

Following his second season in F2, which hadn't produced results, Thierry was in line for the Spirit F1 seat. But, from memory, the already-married Belgian arrived at a test accompanied by another female. Not only that, but I think she may even have been of the same nationality as the team's engine supplier, who were funding the whole project. Whatever, that move blew him out of the drive as their all-important senior personnel disapproved and so Stefan was the obvious replacement. If you know some of the many other F1 tales in involving folk of that nationality, that explanation becomes rather ironic.

Hey ho. Stefan subbed for Tyrrell (or Mercedes, for the younger readers) and then got 'the' phone call. As a joke, for years I'd signed telegrams, left voicemails and the like with 'Enzo' - then be gets one for real!

I'll never forget that and nor should folk fail to recall that Stefan led his second GP for Ferrari - at Imola! - before running out of fuel not far short of the flag.

[Emery0323]

If you know some of the many other F1 tales in involving folk of that nationality, that explanation becomes rather ironic.

Amusing story about Thierry and Stefan. Not to side-track the thread, but this comment is intriguing.
Care to elaborate, without violating community standards?

[Chris Bloom]

Stefan subbed for Tyrrell (or Mercedes, for the younger readers)

In the same vein, Vettels championships are much easier to accept if you think of him as driving for Stewart.

[backfire]

And Kimi's doing a good job in the Toleman! - Stefan connection there.