Gunnar Nilsson (20 November 1948 (Helsingborg) – 20 October 1978) entered 32 Formula One Grand Prix races, qualifying for all of them. He won once, at the 1977 Belgian Grand Prix. He participated in Formula One during 1976 and 1977 for John Player Team Lotus.

1976 - Gunnar Nilsson -John Player Team Lotus - Lotus 77

1976 – Gunnar Nilsson -John Player Team Lotus – Lotus 77

1976 - Gunnar Nilsson sits in his Lotus-Cosworth 77 in the pits at the Dutch Grand Prix

1976 – Gunnar Nilsson sits in his Lotus-Cosworth 77 in the pits at the Dutch Grand Prix

1976 - Gunnar Nilsson and Mario Andretti of JPS Team Lotus in the pits at Zandvoort

1976 – Gunnar Nilsson and Mario Andretti of JPS Team Lotus in the pits at Zandvoort

1977 - Gunnar Nilsson - John Player Team Lotus - Lotus 78

1977 – Gunnar Nilsson – John Player Team Lotus – Lotus 78

Gregarious Gunnar was a relative latecomer to motor racing, but before long he’d worked his way to the 1975 British F3 title with March. The following year Nilsson looked set to go F1 racing with the British team, but countryman Ronnie Peterson subsequently engineered a swap that instead saw Nilsson join the stuttering Lotus team while Peterson returned to March. Despite the Lotus 77’s lack of frontline pace, Nilsson took the car to two podium finishes in his debut season and was soon being touted as a future world champion. Colin Chapman retained Nilsson in ‘77 and alongside Mario Andretti he helped develop the ground-effect Lotus 78 into a race winner. Andretti got the team on the board first with two early-season victories, but Nilsson wasn’t to be undone and earned his only Grand Prix victory with a memorable wet-weather performance in Belgium, the highlight of which was an around-the-outside pass on Niki Lauda’s Ferrari. Sadly though, towards the end of the year as Nilsson’s performances took a dive and it was revealed that he was suffering from cancer. He signed with Arrows for the 1978 season, but by that stage the illness had taken hold and he was forced to watch from the sidelines. Just five weeks after Peterson’s tragic death, Sweden lost another star as Nilsson too passed away.

1977 - Gunnar Nilsson

1977 – Gunnar Nilsson

More information at Gunnar Nilssons Cancerstiftelse and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunnar_Nilsson

All Swedish Formula One drivers:

Jo Bonnier (1956 – 1971)
Ronnie Peterson (1970 – 1978)
Reine Wisell (1970 – 1974)
Bertil Roos (1974)
Torsten Palm (1975)
Gunnar Nilsson (1976 – 1977)
Conny Andersson (1976 – 1977)
Slim Borgudd (1981 – 1982)
Stefan Johansson (1980 – 1991)
Marcus Ericsson (2014 – ….)