Stefan Johansson

Stefan Nils Edwin Johansson (born 8 September 1956) is a Swedish racing driver who drove in Formula One for both Ferrari and McLaren, among other teams.

Johansson's route to Formula One was via the British Formula 3 Championship, which he won in 1980 driving for future McLaren team boss Ron Dennis' Project Four team.

In Formula One he participated in 103 grands prix, debuting on 13 January 1980 for the Shadow Racing Team at the 1980 Argentine Grand Prix when he was still a Formula Three regular.

He failed to qualify for the race and the next race in Brazil and he was not seen in Formula One again until 1983, after spending 1982 in the European Formula Two Championship with Spirit Racing, where he finished eighth overall, his best finish being third at Mugello in Italy.

Johansson's first Formula One race with Spirit was at the non-championship 1983 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, where he failed to finish due to failure of the Honda engine on lap four.

His qualifying time was almost 20 seconds off the pole time set by World Champion Keke Rosberg in his Williams-Cosworth, but his times in the race morning warm-up session were within a second of the Ferrari 126C2B of René Arnoux, who was fastest.

He moved up to seventh place before pulling into the pits with another engine failure.

Anecdotally, then-BBC commentator Murray Walker said on air that Spirit and Honda had completed thousands of miles of trouble-free testing until that point.

Spirit continued to test and develop the 201C and Johansson re-entered Formula One at the 1983 British Grand Prix at Silverstone where he qualified the car in a credible 14th position.

He raced in a further five Grands Prix in 1983, with a best finish of seventh in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.

Stefan Johansson was replaced at Spirit by Mauro Baldi for the season when the team lost its Honda engines to Williams and he didn't race until he joined Tyrrell in Round 10 of the championship, the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, as a replacement for the injured Martin Brundle.

He then went on to drive for Toleman for the last few Grands Prix of the season in place of the injured Johnny Cecotto, finishing fourth in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

While at Toleman, Johansson's regular teammate was future triple World Drivers' Champion Ayrton Senna.

Johansson signed a contract with Toleman for but it fell through when Toleman failed to secure a tyre agreement.

Instead Johansson started again with Tyrrell as a replacement for the suspended Stefan Bellof before being called up to Ferrari when René Arnoux was mysteriously sacked after the first race of the season in Brazil.

At his second race with Ferrari, namely their 'home' race, the San Marino Grand Prix, two laps from home he passed Senna's out-of-fuel Lotus to take the lead to the delight of the Tifosi, and would probably have won if his Ferrari 156/85 had not run out of fuel itself just half a lap later.

His role at Ferrari for the 1985 season was primarily to support Michele Alboreto's championship challenge, though he did finish second to the Italian at Canada, and backed it up with second in the next race at Detroit.

In he often outpaced Alboreto, despite the Italian being the team's lead driver.

The V6 turbo in the Ferrari F1/86 lacked nothing in power compared to the Honda, BMW, Renault and TAG-Porsche engines, but the car itself proved to be difficult, with both drivers complaining through the season about lack of downforce and the car's reluctance to drive well on all but the smoothest of circuits.

Johansson finished fifth in the 1986 Drivers' Championship, his best-ever position, while Alboreto, who finished second in 1985, could only manage ninth place.

There were many in Formula One, including highly respected then-BBC commentators Murray Walker and World Champion James Hunt, who believed that Ferrari were sacking the wrong driver, given that the Swede had generally outshone his more highly-paid teammate throughout the season.

He was replaced at Ferrari by Austrian Gerhard Berger for and he moved to McLaren as number two driver behind double and reigning World Champion Alain Prost.

McLaren weren't as competitive in 1987 as they had been in 1984–1986, with Prost only adding three wins to his tally (and beating the record of 27 Grand Prix wins held by Jackie Stewart with his 28th win in Portugal) and failing to successfully defend his Drivers' Championship.

Further podium finishes did follow for the Swede and Johansson finished sixth in the Drivers' Championship.

Stefan Johansson's position at McLaren was considered by many as just a stop gap signing by team boss Ron Dennis who had failed to lure Ayrton Senna from Lotus due to him being under contract until the end of 1987 and always intended signing the Brazilian for.

Johansson famously finished the 1987 German Grand Prix on three wheels having had a puncture on the last lap.

He also finished second behind Prost in Belgium and added further podium finishes in Brazil, Spain and Japan.

Despite 11 podiums in three seasons, Johansson was still winless and was not wanted by a top team (he had hoped to join Williams in 1988 as a replacement for the departing 1987 World Champion Nelson Piquet but Williams signed Riccardo Patrese instead).

He joined Ligier for 1988, ironically alongside the man he replaced at Ferrari, René Arnoux, but the team's first non-turbo powered car since, the Michel Beaujon-designed JS31 powered by a naturally aspirated Judd V8 engine, was totally uncompetitive, scoring no points and often failed to qualify, even against teams with much smaller budgets such as AGS and Rial (the French team's low point of the year was when both Johansson and Arnoux failed to qualify for the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard in the first weekend of July).

Unfortunately for Johansson, he failed to come to grips with the JS31, recording six non-qualifications during the season (compared to Arnoux who only failed to qualify twice).

He did record the car's two best finishes of the year though, ninth placings in the opening race of the season in Brazil and the last race in Australia.

Better was to follow in as he was signed to lead the new Onyx team.

The car was temperamental and didn't always qualify, but Johansson finished a surprise and popular third in Portugal for his last (and the team's only) podium finish.

He did return to McLaren in a test-driver capacity in 1990, testing the Honda V12 engine at Suzuka in Japan and helping with the development of a paddle shifter and a new gearbox.

He fell out with new team owner Peter Monteverdi in early 1990 and was duly sacked, making further appearances for AGS and Footwork in.

For 1992 he moved over to CART Championship Car, winning the Rookie of the Year title with two third places, ahead of Belgium's Éric Bachelart.

His first pole came at Portland the next year, but as in Formula One he never won a race.

Since leaving Formula One he has won the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans and raced in a number of categories, including CART, various kinds of Sports car racing and Grand Prix Masters.

Johansson's record of podium finishes without a win was equalled by Nick Heidfeld at the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix, who then took the record outright at the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix.

In his 11-year Grand Prix career, in which he drove for 10 different teams, Johansson achieved 12 podiums (including 4 second places) and scored a total of 88 championship points.