Straight away here, how often do you get to chat with an F1 legend? My latest guest is Swedish artist, driver manager, watchmaker/designer and of course, former racing driver; Stefan Johansson. I'm over the moon to be able to share this interview!
I could go in to detail here about his career but a lot of you will know who he is but to sum it up, he's a former F1 driver with teams like Ferrari, McLaren, Ligier, Toleman, amassing 12 podiums in his 79 race starts(103 entries) between 1980 and 1991.
His racing career spanned from 1979 to 2012 and saw him race in the CART series in America, the World Endurance Championship as well as winning the highly coveted 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1997 alongside Michele Alboreto and Tom Kristensen.
1. What’s the first memory you have of racing? Oh my! There's no defined moment I can think of but my dad and I used to go watch races that were happening over in Denmark at Roskilde Ring. I remember watching people like Jackie Stewart race lower Formula cars. I'd have been about 3 or 4 years old!
📸 Stefan remembers watching a young Jackie Stewart race in lower formula at Roskilde Ring in Denmark.
2. What made you want to do it as a career? It was kind of progressive. My dad at first wanted me to do it more than I did but I started realising I was matching what the fast, established guys were doing in karting and that made me realise I was kind of good!
3. What’s your proudest moment?
Proudest? Some racers including myself will tell you their best races came fighting for 10th place! Results and recognition wise; I could given a few proud moments like winning Le Mans, and before I'd even completed a full season, getting hired by Ferrari. You can't say no to Ferrari!
📸 Stefan(right) with teammates Alboreto(middle) and Tom Kristensen(left).
4. What was your favourite circuit to race on? Your favourite is the one you win! I always loved Spa, it wasn't like it is today, it was a real challenge with a lot more risk, it was a big test. I enjoyed Suzuka too. Macau, it's like Nürburgring on the streets, you're just following the guardrails. Street races are always good.
📸 Macau: "Nürburgring on the streets".
5. What was the most challenging track you drove on in your racing career? As I said before obviously, Macau but Monaco was tricky too. Every circuit you race will have it's own challenges.
📸 Stefan hustles his Ferrari through Monaco.
6. You raced against some incredible names; who was your toughest opponent ever? Oh man there's so many. I was privileged to race against Prost, Senna, and more. I think when I was first in F1 there were 10 world champions on the grid so it was tough. Prost I learned a lot from. Drivers have gotten better and better and I believe the field now is the best we've ever had. Certain drivers apply better to certain cars and styles of car. Daniel Ricciardo is an example of a fantastic driver but this newer cars don't suit him as well as the previous cars, he's still got a lot to give.
📸 Top: Prost with McLaren.
📸 Bottom: Daniel Ricciardo; "still got a lot to give".
7. Which cars gave you the most satisfaction to drive? F1, CART or sportscars? Anyone who drove a car with a mid-80s turbo in it, would say that. The engineering was very crude, and the cars were very fast. And that's not just the F1 cars, the sportscars were great too.
📸 Stefan poses with his car from the CART series.
8. Who was your favourite teammate and why? I got on great with most, but Prost and I got on very well and I learned lots from him.
📸 Prost hitching a ride with Stefan in Adelaide.
9. You raced for both McLaren and Ferrari; how high an honour do you hold that personally? On reflection, that as big as it gets. I managed to beat Michele(Alboreto) in one and was close to Alain(Prost) in another. My timing wasn't great joining either having joined McLaren in a gap they didn't win the Championship in but we still managed 4th and 6th that year.
📸 Stefan in McLaren trim.
10. After racing, you’ve ventured into being an artist; was that something you wanted to do if racing didn’t work out, or was it something you discovered after racing? I've always done it. It started as a hobby I did between and after races as therapy to get away from the intensity of being in the paddock and travelling. Racing is very intense and it is a great way to relax.
📸 Stefan's art features a mix of his racing career, pointillism, and more. Featuring here is 'La Rascasse', named after the famous Monaco corner/section.
11. What inspired you to enter the watch business? What were the initial challenges you faced? I've also done that a long time. I partnered with a watchmaker as a driver but it never worked out the way I wanted it to because their idea was more about the mechanics and engineering of the watch and mine was design. We didn't see eye to eye on it and I was able to take what I had to start my own ideas.
📸 An accomplished artist, Stefan's art is not limited to a canvas, as evidenced here by this stunning design, 'Mark VIIIC -014'. Incredible.
12. You also became a driver manager, what led to that happening? So it started with Scott(Dixon), I was in America obviously working and had my own kind of Indy Lights thing. Scott came over from New Zealand and was obviously very good and has gone on to be successful and I'm glad to have been a part of it. I'm also with Felix Rosenqvist who comes from a similar part of Sweden to me and and Rasmus Lindh, who's in Indy Lights(now Indy NXT).
📸 Top: 6 time IndyCar series champion, Scott Dixon.
📸 Middle: McLaren star Felix Rosenqvist.
Bottom: Up and coming young Swedish driver Rasmus Lindh.
13. You are obviously a racing fan; is there anything you’ve collected over the course of your career you hold dear? A few things but not so much as a collection. I have a Swiss Army knife that was given to me by Enzo Ferrari, that would be a standout.
14. You were allegedly the inspiration for the song ‘Speedway at Nazareth’ by Mark Knopfler, is that one of the stranger things to have happened to you or are you a little flattered by it? Hahaha! A little of both. I met Mark at an Australian Grand Prix way back around '86 and we've been good friends since. We used to talk on the phone even before mobiles very often. The lyrics is a little bit of a compilation of conversations we had.
📸 Nazareth Speedway. The song 'Speedway at Nazareth' was written and performed by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits and has some basis in the lyrics from conversations had between Stefan and Knopfler.
15. What was it like developing the Honda turbo engine in the back of the Spirit? I was the driver they chose for it. Every session was hit or miss, we didn't know if we'd be really fast or if the engine would blow up on us! We tested a lot but it was very unpredictable.
📸 The Spirit Honda car, driven by Stefan.
16. How would you comment on your season with McLaren? It was a great year with the team but unfortunately the car was very nervous to drive, and quite unreliable and I know Prost suffered with it too. Overall though, it was a good year.
📸 Stefan in the McLaren, suffering a 'minor' issue!
17. How was the Footwork Porsche in '91? Would it be the ‘worst car’ you’ve ever driven? The car itself was great. It was Allan Jenkins designed, and was a great chassis. Unfortunately the engine only got about 700RPM, so there was little power, and the car felt heavy. I was only in for a short time replacing Alex Caffi, I was making my plans for what I was doing next at that point. It wasn't as slow as the Ligier though, the joke was the aerodynamics were designed by Isaac Newton, only gravity kept it down!
📸 Stefan in the Footwork car.
18. You've driven some amazing sportscars in your career – Porsche 956, Sauber C9, Ferrari 333 SP and Audi R8 - which was your favourite and why? Porsche 956 was amazing. It changed the landscape of sportscar racing. People loved it. The R8 was good too.
📸 The stunning Porsche 956.
19. How much fun did you have partnering Johnny Herbert in 2002’s American Le Mans Series? It was great. Johnny is a great guy and a great driver.
20. What was it was like to drive for AGS in 1991, that was the year they finally collapsed financially so would be fascinating to know what the car plus the mentality of the team was like? It was very last minute going there. The car was hardly touched, I did the first two races in USA and Brazil then left the team.
📸 The AGS car. AGS or 'Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives' to give them their full name, entered 80 races between 1986 and 1991, mustering up just two points finishes the entire time.
21. You were in CART just as the split began to take shape; from someone who was inside in the paddock at the time what do you think caused it and how damage do you think it did to both series? A massive amount. The split happened and the racing basically just died for 10 years. NASCAR took off and the rest just absolutely floundered. Very much a case of big ego's getting in the way.
📸 Racing in America.
That's all the questions! Thanks to Stefan for making the time for this, we got there at long last, we've been trying to schedule this since before the end of 2022! This was an awesome chat and definitely a guest I'd love to have on again!
📸 Image credits: Stefan Johansson, Formula Motorsport Limited, NTT IndyCar Series, Porsche, McLaren Racing, Rasmus Lindh, 24h du Mans.
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