There have been 11 Formula One drivers from Sweden who have entered a

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

Grand Prix of whom 10 have started a race.

Former drivers

Erik Lundgren was the first Swedish driver to enter a

race when he entered the

1951 German Grand Prix The 1951 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 29 July 1951 at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. It was race 6 of 8 in the 1951 World Championship of Drivers. Report Alfa Romeo once again fielded four cars, with local driver Paul P ...

, however he would later withdraw. 1962-08-05 Joakim Bonnier, Porsche F1-804 (sw)

Jo Bonnier Joakim Bonnier (31 January 1930 – 11 June 1972) was a Swedish sportscar racing and Formula One driver who raced for various teams. He was the first Swede to both enter and win a Formula One Grand Prix. Early life Jo Bonnier was born in Stockh ...

was the first Swedish Formula One driver. He made his debut at the

1956 Italian Grand Prix The 1956 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 2 September 1956 at Monza. It was the eighth and final race of the 1956 World Championship of Drivers. Coming into the race, Juan Manuel Fangio had an eight-point lead over Ferrari ...

in a Maserati, resulting in a retirement. He raced sporadically across the following 15 Formula One seasons, his greatest achievement being victory in the

1959 Dutch Grand Prix The 1959 Dutch Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Zandvoort on 31 May 1959. It was the ninth Dutch Grand Prix. The race was held over 75 laps of the four kilometre circuit for a race distance of 314 kilometres. It was race 3 of 9 in t ...

with

BRM British Racing Motors (BRM) was a British Formula One motor racing team. Founded in 1945 and based in the market town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, it participated from 1951 to 1977, competing in 197 grands prix and winning seventeen. BRM wo ...

. He was killed in an accident in the

1972 24 Hours of Le Mans The 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans was a motor race staged at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France on 10 and 11 June 1972. It was the 40th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the ninth race of the 1972 World Championship for Makes. 1972 marked ...

. 1967 Swedish F3 champion

Reine Wisell Reine Wisell (30 September 1941 – 20 March 2022) was a Swedish racing driver. He participated in 23 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 4 October 1970. He achieved 1 podium, and scored a total of 13 championship points. C ...

made his debut with Lotus at the

1970 United States Grand Prix The 1970 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 4, 1970 at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York. It was race 12 of 13 in both the 1970 World Championship of Drivers and the 1970 Interna ...

. He scored a podium finish in his debut race, but only four more points finishes followed in his career, all in the following year. The subsequent years saw a large drop in form and he eventually retired following his home race of 1974. Ronnie Peterson 1974 British GP

Sweden's most successful Formula One driver was

Ronnie Peterson Bengt Ronnie Peterson (; 14 February 1944 – 11 September 1978) was a Swedish racing driver. Known by the nickname 'SuperSwede', he was a two-time runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship. Peterson began his motor racing caree ...

. In a career that spanned 9 seasons he won 10 Grands Prix and came close to winning the championship on multiple occasions. He was an in-demand driver who was signed by teams such as

March March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March ...

, Tyrrell and Lotus. Peterson was killed as a result of medical complications following a fiery accident at the

1978 Italian Grand Prix The 1978 Italian Grand Prix was the 14th motor race of the 1978 Formula One season. It was held on 10 September 1978 at Monza. It was marred by the death of Ronnie Peterson following an accident at the start of the race. With three races remain ...

Bertil Roos Bertil Roos (October 12, 1943 – March 31, 2016) was a Swedish racing driver from Gothenburg. He participated in a single Formula One Grand Prix, his home race in 1974, from which he retired with transmission failure. Career Despite enjoying ear ...

competed in one race – the

1974 Swedish Grand Prix The 1974 Swedish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Scandinavian Raceway in Anderstorp on 9 June 1974. It was race 7 of 15 in both the 1974 World Championship of Drivers and the 1974 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturer ...

in a

Shadow A shadow is a dark area where light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object. It occupies all of the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silhouette, ...

. He retired on lap two through transmission failure. Torsten Palm entered two Grands Prix in the 1975 season in a privateer Hesketh. He failed to qualify in

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

and finished 10th in Sweden despite running out of fuel. Conny Andersson entered five Grands Prix. His only appearance in the 1976 season was with

Surtees The Surtees Racing Organisation was a race team that spent nine seasons (1970 to 1978) as a constructor in Formula One, Formula 2, and Formula 5000. History The team was formed by John Surtees, a four-time 500cc motorcycle champion and the ...

at the Dutch Grand Prix, retiring after 9 laps. He failed to qualify for any of the events he entered in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

Gunnar Nilsson Gunnar Axel Arvid Nilsson (20 November 1948 – 20 October 1978) was a Swedish racing driver. Before entering Formula One, he won the 1975 British Formula 3 Championship. Nilsson entered 32 Formula One Grand Prix races, qualifying for all of t ...

raced for 2 almost full seasons in Formula One, in 1976–77 – qualifying his Lotus for every Grand Prix he entered. His short career was very up-and-down, with 17 retirements along with 4 podiums, including a win in the

1977 Belgian Grand Prix The 1977 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Zolder on 5 June 1977. It was the seventh race of the 1977 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1977 International Cup for F1 Constructors. The 70-lap race was won by Swedish d ...

. He retired from his last seven straight Grands Prix and was beginning to show the signs of the

testicular cancer Testicular cancer is cancer that develops in the testicles, a part of the male reproductive system. Symptoms may include a lump in the testicle, or swelling or pain in the scrotum. Treatment may result in infertility. Risk factors include an ...

that he would eventually pass away from. 1985 European GP Stefan Johansson 01

Stefan Johansson made an inauspicious start in Formula One, failing to qualify for his first two races in a Shadow at the 1980 Argentine and Brazilian Grands Prix. He didn't return until

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

, where he drove six of the last seven Grands Prix for

Spirit Spirit or spirits may refer to: Liquor and other volatile liquids * Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks * Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol * Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...

. The next eight seasons were continually up-and-down; from two seasons at Ferrari and a season with McLaren to struggling to qualify for

Onyx Onyx primarily refers to the parallel banded variety of chalcedony, a silicate mineral. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands: agate has curved bands and onyx has parallel bands. The ...

and Footwork at career's end. He scored 12 podiums (including a shock 3rd with Onyx in the

1989 Portuguese Grand Prix The 1989 Portuguese Grand Prix (formally the XXIII Grande Prémio de Portugal) was a Formula One motor race held at the Autódromo do Estoril in Estoril, Portugal on 24 September 1989. It was the thirteenth race of the 1989 Formula One World Cham ...

) but a win proved elusive. In the two-year break Johansson took from Formula One,

Slim Borgudd Karl Edward ''Tommy'' "Slim" Borgudd (born 25 November 1946) is a Swedish musician and former Formula One driver who raced for the ATS and Tyrrell teams. Biography Borgudd was born in Borgholm, Öland. His first career was as a drummer, mainl ...

entered 15 Grands Prix with ATS and Tyrrell. He failed to pre-qualify five times and scored his sole point at the

1981 British Grand Prix The 1981 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Silverstone on 18 July 1981. It was the ninth race of the 1981 Formula One World Championship. John Watson won his first race for five years, and McLaren's first since James Hu ...

. He was dumped by Tyrrell after three races. FIA F1 Austria 2018 Nr

The most recent Formula One driver from Sweden is

Marcus Ericsson Marcus Thorbjörn Ericsson (; born 2 September 1990) is a Swedish professional racing driver. He competes in the NTT IndyCar Series, driving the No. 8 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing and is the 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner. Ericsson previously ...

. Making his debut at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix, Ericsson became the first

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

driver to compete in a Formula One Grand Prix since Stefan Johansson raced in the

1991 Australian Grand Prix The 1991 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 3 November 1991 at the Adelaide Street Circuit. It was the 16th and final race of the 1991 Formula One World Championship. Torrential rain resulted in the race being stopped a ...

. He made his debut with the backmarker

Caterham F1 Team The Caterham F1 Team was a Malaysian, later British owned Formula One team based in the United Kingdom which raced under a Malaysian licence. The Caterham brand competed in the Formula One World Championship from to , following the acquisiti ...

, and struggled throughout the season. He was forced to sit out the final three races of the 2014 season as the team was placed into liquidation. He was signed by

Sauber Sauber Motorsport AG is a Swiss motorsport engineering company. It was founded in 1970 (as PP Sauber AG) by Peter Sauber, who progressed through hillclimbing and the World Sportscar Championship to reach Formula One in . After operating it un ...

for the 2015 season and saw a slight reversal of fortune, picking up his first of 11 points finishes in Australia, finishing 18th in the championship. He maintained his Sauber drive up to , with a best championship result of 17th in 2018 with 9 points. Having had two pointless seasons in 2016 and 2017, as well as being outscored by over 4 times the points in 2018 by his rookie team-mate

Charles Leclerc Charles Marc Hervé Perceval Leclerc (; born 16 October 1997) is a Monégasque racing driver, currently racing in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari. He won the GP3 Series championship in 2016 and the FIA Formula 2 Championship in . Leclerc ...

, he was dropped from a race seat at Sauber and subsequently moved across to IndyCar for 2019. File:Reine Wisell 1970 Nürburgring.JPG,

in 1970 File:Peterson at 1978 Dutch Grand Prix.jpg,

in 1978 File:Marcus Ericsson 2015 Malaysia.jpg,

in 2015

Timeline

References

{{Formula One nationalities *

Former drivers

Timeline

See also

References