Stefan Johansson

Johansson in his McLaren overalls (1987)

**Stefan Nils Edwin Johansson** (born 8 September 1956) is an Swedish racing driver, who drove in Formula One for both Ferrari and McLaren, last competing in the sport with Onyx Grand Prix in 1990.

## Racing career

Johansson came up via the British Formula 3 Championship, which he won in 1980 while racing for future McLaren team boss Ron Dennis' Project Four outfit. He raced in 103 Formula One races, making his debut for the Shadow Racing Team at the 1980 Argentine Grand Prix while still a Formula Three regular. He failed to qualify for the race and the following race in Brazil, and he was not seen in Formula One again until 1983, after spending 1982 with Spirit Racing in the European Formula Two Championship, where he finished eighth overall, his best finish being third at Mugello in Italy.

Johansson competed in his debut Formula One race with Spirit in the non-championship 1983 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, where he failed to finish due to a Honda engine failure on lap four. His qualifying time was about 20 seconds slower than the pole time achieved by 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg in his Williams-Cosworth, although his speeds in the race morning warm-up session were within a second of René Arnoux's Ferrari 126C2B. He advanced to eighth place before returning to the pits due to another engine issue. According to anecdotal evidence, BBC commentator Murray Walker stated on air that Spirit and Honda had completed thousands of kilometres of trouble-free testing up to that point. Spirit continued to test and improve the 201C, and Johansson re-entered Formula One for the 1983 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, qualifying in 14th place. In 1983, he raced in five more Grands Prix, finishing sixth in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.

Stefan Johansson was replaced at Spirit by Mauro Baldi for the 1984 season after the team lost its Honda engines to Williams, and he did not compete again until joining Tyrrell in Round 10 of the championship, the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, as a substitute for the injured Martin Brundle. He then drove for Toleman in the final few Grands Prix of the season, replacing the injured Johnny Cecotto, finishing fourth in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Johansson's usual teammate at Toleman was future World Drivers' Champion Ayrton Senna.

Toleman signed Johansson to a contract for 1985, but it fell through when Toleman failed to negotiate a tyre arrangement. Instead, Johansson returned to Tyrrell as a replacement for the suspended Stefan Bellof before being called up to Ferrari when René Arnoux was abruptly fired during the season's opening race in Brazil. Two laps from home in his second race with Ferrari, namely their 'home' race, the San Marino Grand Prix, he passed Senna's out-of-fuel Lotus to seize the lead, much to the delight of the *Tifosi*, and would have won if his Ferrari 156/85 had not run out of fuel itself just half a lap later. His job at Ferrari for the 1985 season was mostly to support Michele Alboreto's title challenge, though he did come second to the Italian in Canada and then second again in Detroit.

Despite not being the team's lead driver, he frequently outpaced Alboreto in 1986. The Ferrari F1/86's V6 turbo engine lacked nothing in terms of power when compared to Honda, BMW, Renault, and TAG (Porsche) engines, but the car itself proved difficult, with both drivers complaining throughout the season about a lack of downforce and the car's unwillingness to drive well on all but the smoothest of circuits. Johansson finished fifth in the 1986 Drivers' Championship, his best-ever finish, while Alboreto, who finished second in 1985, ended ninth. Many in Formula One, including highly regarded BBC commentators Murray Walker and 1976 World Champion James Hunt, believed Ferrari had fired the wrong driver, considering that the Swede had consistently outperformed his more well compensated teammate throughout the season.

For 1987, he was replaced at Ferrari by Austrian Gerhard Berger, and he joined McLaren as the number two driver behind defending World Champion Alain Prost. Many saw Stefan Johansson's appointment at McLaren as a stopgap measure by team manager Ron Dennis, who had failed to entice Ayrton Senna away from Lotus due to his contract expiring at the end of 1987 and had always intended to sign the Brazilian for 1988.

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## Formula One Statistical Overview

### Complete Formula One results

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Notes

* † – Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

## Notes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Up until 1990, not all points scored by a driver contributed to their final World Championship tally (see list of points scoring systems for more information). Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.