Chequered Flag Motorsport

Flashback - Gunnar Nilsson

Sebastian Vettel’s victory in Shangai on Sunday terminates his membership in the Formula 1 “one hit wonders club“ - for drivers with a single victory to their name. Vettel was lucky to get a chance to build on his victory at Monza last year. There are 31 drivers stuck with a solitary victory. Sadly, many of these men never got a chance to add to their CVs before their careers were cut short by tragedy.

 
Gunnar spent his F1 career at Lotus (Image source: unknown - photo reproduced in the spirit of ‘fair use’).

One such driver is Swede Gunnar Nilsson. His solitary victory came at the 1977 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. Mario Andretti was the clear number one driver at Team Lotus that season, but Nilsson had shown some potential in his time at Lotus, bagging a pair of podiums the season before.

Nilsson had started third on a wet Zolder track, and profited when Andretti (pole) and John Watson in the Alfa (2nd on the grid) crashed out on the first lap. Nilsson found himself in second after Jody Schekter had scythed into the lead amongst the chaos.

Nilsson’s chances looked over when a stuck wheel nut relegated him to eighth, but he excelled in the wet, passing Ronnie Peterson, Jacques Laffite and Vittorio Brambilla. A pitstop for Scheckter and a race-ending spin by Jochen Mass made Nilsson’s job a little easier, and on lap 50 he passed race-leader Lauda on his way to a stunning maiden Grand Prix victory.

A frail Nilsson (rear) walks behid Ronnie Petersen’s coffin (Image source: Ronnie Petersen Official - photo reproduced in the spirit of ‘fair use’).

Sadly, for Gunnar, that would be it. There would be no second victory. The rest of 1977 was not kind, and there was only a 4th at Dijon and a 3rd at Silverstone to celebrate. Towards the end of the year, he started to struggle. Nonetheless, he signed with the new Arrows squad for 1978.

But it was not to be. There was a reason Gunnar had been struggling for performance. He had cancer. He had begun to suffer from back pain, headaches and hair loss. Not realising something sinister was at play, Gunnar blamed an ill-fitting helmet. By the time he saw a doctor (apparently on the advice of Mario Andretti), it was too late. At first, he was optimistic about racing in 1978, but soon the cancer took hold and he had to abandon his seat at Arrows before the year began.

Two things stand out from his last year of life.  Firstly, his efforts at launching the Gunnar Nilsson Cancer Treatment Campaign. Secondly, his attendance at the funeral of countrymen Ronnie Petersen in September. Just five weeks before his death, Gunnar was gravely ill but walked behind Ronnie’s coffin.

Gunnar Nilsson lived until October 20, 1978. A bright chapter in Swedish motorsport was over as quickly as it had begun.