32 replies to this topic

[David M. Kane]

Because of his inability to give good car feedback, Ronnie Peterson was not considered in some circles the brightest guy.
So his nickname was "Bungalow" as in he had no upstairs. It might
have also been arrived at given that Ronnie had been an elevator
repairman before he started racing.

[fines]

"Bungalow"? Never heard this one!

I think everyone liked him, he was just so spectacular, but you're probably right: He could make any car go fast in his hands, but he couldn't make a car faster in itself. With a good teammate, like Fittipaldi at Lotus, he was very hard to beat, but if he had to develop a car on his own, he was completely lost!

There is this one story when he was testing (for Lotus?), and he kept telling his engineer that the car was oversteering. They changed the set-up to make the car more neutral, but everytime he came back to the pits he complained about oversteer. Finally, one of the engineers went out to one of the corners to watch him drive, and he found out that the car was understeering badly, but Ronnie would fight the car through the corner until the tail hung out!

[dmj]

If I remember stories well, Jim Clark was even worse in car development and testing - he supposedly never objected but tried to drive every car as fast as possible, "as is", without any suggestions for improvements... Is it true? Besides Jim and Ronnie, wo else of great divers was poor developer?

[tonicco]

Is there any good bio on Ronnie?

Or even better, is there a choice between good books about him?

[fines]

Originally posted by dmj
If I remember stories well, Jim Clark was even worse in car development and testing - he supposedly never objected but tried to drive every car as fast as possible, "as is", without any suggestions for improvements... Is it true?

I can't believe that! How come every Lotus in the Clark era was a winner? It can't always have been his teammates developing the cars, and even Chappo's cars needed a set-up!

[LittleChris]

tonicco,

The only books that I know of are :

Ronnie Peterson - The story of a search for perfection by Alan Henry published.

Ronnie Peterson - Superswede - Updated version of the above after his death.

The Viking Drivers - Frederik af Petersens which also covers Gunnar Nilssons life but isn't very good.

I don't know if any of the above are still available since they were all from the late 70's originally.

Chris

[Bjorn]

Originally posted by dmj
If I remember stories well, Jim Clark was even worse in car development and testing - he supposedly never objected but tried to drive every car as fast as possible, "as is", without any suggestions for improvements... Is it true? Besides Jim and Ronnie, wo else of great divers was poor developer?

I've heard this as well. They had to be careful to let him drive only a few laps at a time so he wouldn't have time to get around the defects rather than point them out.

[LittleChris]

Originally posted by dmj

Besides Jim and Ronnie, wo else of great divers was poor developer?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Jacques Cousteau ?!?

[William Hunt]

I've recently just read Niki Lauda's biography and Niki gave some negative comments on Ronnie's setup abilities when he drove for March.

[dmj]

Yeah, I think he was very good diver for Big Blue team...

[Mohican]

Come on, did you ever see or hear Lauda being positive about anything or anyone ?
Except possibly James Hunt...possibly.

Give me Peterson, Stewart, Hakkinen, Villeneuve (G.), Andretti, Reutemann and Alesi.

Great people all - to lose Hakkinen and Alesi from the current scene at the same time is very sad.

[fines]

Originally posted by Mohican
Come on, did you ever see or hear Lauda being positive about anything or anyone ?

That's possibly because he is a VERY shrewd observer...

[Kpy]

Originally posted by fines

That's possibly because he is a VERY shrewd observer...

Or possibly, just possibly, because he is only interested in one person in the world.

A shame, because I remember him in '71 when I was involved a little with James Hunt's career and the two of them were carefree pals, even laughing over finding the the other's girl (occupied) in the wrong room!

And you're joking that you've never heard "bungalow" before - shome mishtake shurely.

Back on topic - Ronnie could drive round any problem - he was a racer and a supreme one, but not a feedback merchant. Are they necessary these days with telemetry?

OT again, John What's Wrong? took up with Barbro - Ronnie's widow - but she committed suicide. So sad.

[tonicco]

Originally posted by LittleChris
tonicco,

The only books that I know of are :

Ronnie Peterson - The story of a search for perfection by Alan Henry published.

Ronnie Peterson - Superswede - Updated version of the above after his death.

The Viking Drivers - Frederik af Petersens which also covers Gunnar Nilssons life but isn't very good.

I don't know if any of the above are still available since they were all from the late 70's originally.

Chris

Thanks Chris

I'll do the usual search over the net, and (also as usual) I'll find some of the titles in the used bookstore next door...;)

[Martyj]

About Clark's weakness at setting up the car. Perhaps "weakness" is a poor word, but, like Peterson, Jim's natural ability would kick in to the point that he would pronounce an ill handling car as "Okay." This is precisely why Chapman had Graham Hill do all the development work on the Lotus 49.

[Roger Clark]

Originally posted by Martyj
About Clark's weakness at setting up the car. Perhaps "weakness" is a poor word, but, like Peterson, Jim's natural ability would kick in to the point that he would pronounce an ill handling car as "Okay." This is precisely why Chapman had Graham Hill do all the development work on the Lotus 49.

I thought it was because Clark was a tax exile in 1967 and not able to test in Britain. however, there is perhaps some truth in this, although I feel Clark's weakness as a test driver has been greatly exaggerated.

Chapman said in 1963: " THere is also a big change from my point of view in that since we have been working together for three years now he is becoming very much better in his analysis of the car. He has now developed into a very fine test driver as well."

In 1965: "In some respects I think he is very good (as a test driver). For example he is a very good trouble shooter. He can tell me exactly what is wrong, and can get the optimum mechanical performance out of carburation, brakes, gearbox and so on. If he has a fault as a test driver, it is that he is too inclined to adapt his driving to suit the imperfect characteristics of the car. THen, he brings into use his great natural skill, and perhaps in the end he can make the car go round faster than he might have expected even if the car had been ideally set up. This ability to "live with" a racing car is a wonderful talent in the race, but it can be a bit of a nuisance at times during a session of chassis testing."

Interestingly, about the only criticism I have ever seen of Fangio is that he was not a good test driver. He would not report problems but always drive round them, saying "Isn't tht the driver's job?"

[William Hunt]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mohican
[B]Come on, did you ever see or hear Lauda being positive about anything or anyone ?

I agree, Lauda always criticises other people.

[William Hunt]

... that he would pronounce an ill handling car as "Okay." ... (Quote by Martyj (strange name) )

That is exactly what Lauda said about Peterson : that Ronnie called a bad handling car as good (when he was at March).

[rod]

tonicco - try "Ronnie!" a sort of autobiography (actually by Sveneric Erikkson, with lengthy quotes from RP). Published in Malmo 1971. Text in Swedish

[David M. Kane]

Maybe Ronnie's and Jim's problem was that they were such great
natural talents. People like John Surtees and Niki Lauda had to become thinkers to off-set their normal athletic skills. In a way
that is why Surtees and Lauda became great is because of this inner drive and calculating spirit.

Clark was little before my time so I never met him, thus was never able to get a feel for him as a competitor and why he was
so dominant. Lauda, on the other hand, I met several times
and I must say that never was a man's nickname so correct...
RAT.

[BRG]

Originally posted by Martyj
This is precisely why Chapman had Graham Hill do all the development work on the Lotus 49.

Yet I heard a tale from somewhere (maybe in an Innes Ireland book?) that Graham Hill's mechanics got fed-up with his continual tinkering with settings. On one occasion when he demanded a rollbar change, they just clustered around tapped at the rollbar a bit with spanners without adjusting it at all and told him OK, and Hill went half a second quicker. So was he really much of a help in development?

[Kpy]

Nice one BRG

[Jonathan]

Actually, while I have often heard critical remarks about Peterson's car set-up capabilities (Mario often complained that Peterson would set his car up like a "go kart"), I understand that Peterson did almost all of the innitial development work on the Lotus 79, and was actually slated to drive the car in its debut at Zolder in 1978. It was only after Mario spoke with Ronnie, (he apparently felt that Ronnie was to non-commital about how good the car actually was) that he requested that the 79 be setup for him. Mario then proceeded gave the car its first win.

[leegle]

Regarding Lauda and Ronnie at March At the time everyone seamed to reckon that Niki Lauda had been maligned by the March people who expected too much from Peterson.

[Niky]

Well, well... Lauda never understood that March.... He always has a very negative comment on that car. Many people said the car was a trully disaster but Ronnie had a special talent to drive, maybe, because he was not so good with the feedback and the set up... he just drove to the limit in each lap.

I have a question: There was a close in Barbro's case? It was an accident or not? Any idea where is Nina, their daughter?

Tx:)

[fines]

If you are refering to the 721X, not even Ronnie could make it fly...

[Jonathan]

Originally posted by Niky
I have a question: There was a close in Barbro's case? It was an accident or not? Any idea where is Nina, their daughter?
Tx:)

From what I have read Barbro did herself in when she learned she had cancer ? (this most have been 15 years ago ?)

Nina went to live with Ronnie's older brother, Tommie (If I am not mistaken). She must be a young adult by now.

[Rediscoveryx]

Nina should be around 25 years old now. When Barbro died she moved back to Sweden to live with Ronnie's brother Tommie. I don't know what she has been donig the last few years, but she does bear a close resemblance to her father

[Niky]

Thank you both guys!

[mat1]

Originally posted by David M. Kane
Lauda, on the other hand, I met several times
and I must say that never was a man's nickname so correct...
RAT.

David, what do you mean by "Rat"? Do you mean Lauda's alleged negative, cticizing appraoch to people, or a tendency to talk behind one's back, or ....

Interesting btw you make a comparison between Surtees and Lauda. Both difficult people, calculating, but I have never heard the argument Surtees was lacking in "natural talent" (whatever that may be). perhaps Clark was better, but he was the only one, I suppose.

Whereas in the case of Lauda, not just peterson was supposed to be the better "natural", but also (I think) Fittipaldi, maybe even his dark horse Reutteman.

About his negativism to his coleagues: to my knowledge Lauda has never been negative about Fittpaldi, and also not about Pace for example.

mat

[David M. Kane]

Rat was the nickname is fellow F1 competitors gave him because
he was not so nice, he was very, very calculating and he would
play mine games and politics just like what he has done to Rahal.

Lauda and Pironi would both have made marvelous political types.
They both remind me of Bill Clinton...and I say that with a roll
of toilet paper in my hand.

In reference to Surtees I meant that in terms of pure athletic
ability. If you saw Surtees in his prime I would not rekon him
like Hunt or Revson to be a great sportman like Hunt was at Tennis and Squash (somehow that spelling doesn't look right?).
We use to have a TV sports show in the States called SuperStars
where American professional football players, NBA basketball players, track stars, the whole lot competed. Revson won this event outright over some very, very graceful, quick and powerful
people. Having seen Surtees walk, jog, etc. he did not appear to me to have any physical grace, quickness, etc. I could be wrong.
Granted I only observed him after his BIG accident at St. Jovite.
Clearly, he was magical on a bike and in a car in his prime.

Ronnie Petersen, on the other hand made me blick and question
frequently "did I see just what I just think I saw!". He WAS
a magical.

Lastly, I don't like the politics of F1, I don't respect it
and I think it cowardice at its highest. Real men don't need to slide around in the dark with knifes.

I miss and respect the guys like "MAD RONALD", not the guys like Pironi.

[RJL]

David, are your disparaging comments regarding Pironi due to his relationship with Villeneuve?

[David M. Kane]

Partially, my attitude towards Pironi had to do with Gilles V.,
but there were many, many incidents that have been discussed in
previous topics. He was at one time the head of the GPDA so I got
to see his "act" first hand at the first Detroit GP where he almost shut that event down because of certain items he and the
other drivers didn't like. While I stood two feets away I listen
to Jackie Stewart ask him why he didn't come check out the circuit several months before the race as he had been invited?
He simply and arrogantly waved this logical question off like some priceless prince. He also was very unkind and royal toward the nurses in the hospital in Paris where he was recovering from his bad accident at Hockenheim. In fact, does anyone know of a good book of Pironi? I would like to be fair and I'm having a REAL hard time after having seen the guy in action.

Lastly, I think the guy had some serious self-image issues. After
he drove Gilles crazy, he drove his wife crazy with his antics,
then he killed himself in an insane boat racing accident.

There is a danger in getting too close to your idols, up close
the flaws show up ten fold to yours and mine.