Stefan Johansson

Stefan Nils Edwin Johansson (born September 8, 1956) is a former Formula One driver from Sweden. In 2006 he will race in the inaugural season of the Grand Prix Masters formula for retired Formula One drivers.

F1 Career

Johansson participated in 103 grands prix, debuting on January 13, 1980, achieved 12 podiums, and scored a total of 88 championship points. He joined Tyrrell in 1984 as a mid-season replacement for the injured Martin Brundle, doing enough to be called up to Ferrari when René Arnoux was surprisingly sacked.

His role for the season was to back up Michele Alboreto's championship challenge, but in 1986 he often outpaced his Italian team-mate. For 1987 he moved to McLaren as Alain Prost's #2. Further podium finished followed, but the team always intended to replace him with Ayrton Senna in 1988. Despite 11 podiums in 3 seasons, Stefan was still winless, and was not wanted by a top team.

He joined Ligier, ironically alongside Arnoux, but the car was totally uncompetitive, scoring no points and not always qualifying, even against teams with much smaller budgets such as AGS and Rial. Better was to follow in 1989 as he was signed to lead the new Onyx team. Their car was temperamental and didn't always qualify, but Stefan finished 3rd in Portugal for his last (and the team's only) podium finish. He fell out with new team owner Peter Monteverdi in early 1990 and was duly sacked, making further appearances for AGS and Footwork in 1991.

Post F1

For 1992 he moved over to CART Championship Car, winning the Rookie of the Year title with two third places, ahead of Belgium's Eric Bachelart. His first pole came at Portland the next year, but as in Formula 1 he never won a race. From 1992 to 1996, he started 74 races and had his best season overall in 1994, finishing in 11th. During this time, he competed in the 1993-1995 Indianapolis 500.

Before his Formula One career Stefan had participated in sports car races such as 24 Hours of Le Mans, after retiring from CART at the end of the 1996 season he returned to this type of racing. During 1997 he recorded two major race wins, at the 12 Hours of Sebring driving a Ferrari 333 SP and at Le Mans where he drove a Joest Porsche.

During 1998 & 1999 Stefan raced for various sports car teams (like the unreliable Audi R8C Coupé at Le Mans) but in 2000 he started Johansson-Matthews racing with an American businessman called Jim Matthews. They competed in the American Le Mans Series using a Reynard 2KQ prototype. Unfortunately this wasn't a successful vehicle in its original form (though it was later developed into various other successful cars) and and the partnership dissolved.

In 2001 Stefan was lucky enough to be able to campaign an Audi R8 prototype with backing from Gulf Oil and the assistance of Mike Earle's Arena team. That year he raced in the European Le Mans Series, the American Le Mans Series and at Le Mans itself. His co-drivers were Guy Smith and Patrick Lemarie.

2002 saw Stefan back in an Audi R8 but this time one run by the Miami based Champion Racing team. His co-driver was ex Formula One driver Johnny Herbert and they competed in the American Le Mans Series.

For 2003 he returned to ChampCar as a team owner, running American Spirit Team Johansson with drivers Ryan Hunter-Reay and Jimmy Vasser This was one of many new teams for this season, ironically Bachelart's Conquest team was another. The team was under-funded, and although it scored a fluke win the wet in Australia, it folded at the end of the season.

After only competing in a couple of celebrity races and occasional outings in the works Zytek in 2004 Stefan returned to full time racing in 2005 driving the Chip Ganassi run New Century Mortgage sponsored Lexus Riley Daytona Prototype in the American Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. With co-driver Cort Wagner he scored his best finish, a 2nd place, at Mont Tremblant in Canada, they finished the year in 5th place in the championship.

In 2006 as well as the Grand Prix Masters series, Stefan has made occasional appearances in Grand-Am for the Cheever and CITGO teams, and has continued an association with the works Zytek team in the Le Mans European Series.

Complete Formula One results

(Note: grands prix in bold denote points scoring races.)

Yr	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Team
1980	Shad	ARG	BRA	SAF	SAW	BEL	MON	FRA	GBR	DEU	AUT	DUT	ITA	CAN	USA			Shad
1983	Spir	BRA	SAW	FRA	SAN	MON	BEL	SAE	CAN	GBR	DEU	AUT	DUT	ITA	EUR	SAF		Spir
1984	Tyrr	BRA	SAF	BEL	SAN	FRA	MON	CAN	SAE	USA	GBR	DEU	AUT	DUT	ITA	EUR	POR	Tole
1985	Tyrr	BRA	POR	SAN	MON	CAN	USAE	FRA	GBR	DEU	AUT	DUT	ITA	BEL	EUR	SAF	AUS	Ferr
1986	Ferr	BRA	SPA	SAN	MON	BEL	CAN	USAE	FRA	GBR	DEU	HUN	AUT	ITA	POR	MEX	AUS	Ferr
1987	McLa	BRA	SAN	BEL	MON	USAE	FRA	GBR	DEU	HUN	AUT	ITA	POR	SPA	MEX	JPN	AUS	McLa
1988	Ligi	BRA	SAN	MON	MEX	CAN	USAE	FRA	GBR	DEU	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	SPA	JPN	AUS	Ligi
1989	Onyx	BRA	SAN	MON	MEX	USA	CAN	FRA	GBR	DEU	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	SPA	JPN	AUS	Onyx
1990	Onyx	USA	BRA	SAN	MON	CAN	MEX	FRA	GBR	DEU	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	SPA	JPN	AUS	Onyx
1991	AGS	USA	BRA	SAN	MON	CAN	MEX	FRA	GBR	DEU	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	SPA	JPN	AUS	AGS

1956 births | Living people | Swedish Formula One drivers | Indy 500 drivers | Drivers by AGS

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F1 Career

Post F1

Complete Formula One results