One of the greats, got to meet him at Watkins Glen 6 hour. He was polite and rather shy, blindingly fast on track. Mario(teammate) holds him in highest regard.
I had the occasion to witness Ronnie Peterson's terrific car control at Paul Ricard once during a private test session attended by Lotus. Ronnie was throwing his Lotus 72 on opposite lock at speed (150mph perhaps?) all through the long curve "Courbe des Signes at the end of the long straight. It was a sight to watch him balancing his car and holding it drifting for so long lap after lap. I hardly seen since such skill and commitment. Maybe the cars wouldn't allow it .
Side note on Paul Ricard: I did the Winfield Racing School at Paul Ricard - and then did several test days after ... then started to race with a local FRenault Team so we'd be at Paul Ricard for testing ... AGS F-1 was there one Friday, they had the track in the AM till noon. So we were watching them at Signes... amazing ... then we go out in the little FRenault Martini's ... and you try flat out at Signes.... literally fly right off the track..... amazing what F-1 cars could do... even the worst ones like AGS!!! this was in 1990. so to throw a Lotus 72 on opposite lock at Signes... some poo would come out!
20 years ago I did some laps in a 89 (?) AGS. Was amazing. My first F1 drive, manual shifter of course, Cossie V8, slicks.
Wow - nice! to think that was a back marker... and how impressive it is to a regular person. I've never driven an F-1 car, but have been in three... Lotus - 1985 that DeAngelis drove, Alboreato's 85 F-1 Ferrari... ( actually could not fit all the way in. ) and 1994 412T Ferrari ... I drove that car from hot pits to garage ...but it was under human power ( pushing it from behind )
Yeah, definitely a back marker. Still compared to all the street cars I drove it was so much more impressive.
Small world! I did the Winfield Racing School at Paul Ricard in 1972. My instructors were Simon de Lautour and Patrick Tambay, the previous year's Volant Elf winner. I was even among the 35 pre-selected candidate to compete for the 72 Volant Elf, but didn't go further. Only the 10 best finalists could enter the last step, and I wasn't one of them. The winner that year was the late Didier Pironi. That's how I got to know several French F1 drivers.
That is a small world! - I had Simon as well and Roland Reese. I made it to the Pilote Elf - but crapped out in the first round.... Richie Hearn won that year. We had Olivier Panis who won the outright Pilote Elf the year before and Emmanuel Collard who won in 1990. Collard was so far faster than me it was not even funny. It's a sad day when you realize your dream is just that ... a dream! I did a season of EFR that summer and ran out of money by October.... it was a pay drive with Alain Ferte ... his brother was the main driver Michele.... but they had 3 other cars for rent a ride... I was in the "b" team... with a German kid... who was a PITA. crashed into me at Pau... 2nd lap of qualifying! Patrick Tambay is a super nice guy! Always hated that he got shafted at Ferrari! Piccinnini screwed him. De La Tour yelled at me on my 2nd day of school ... that I was going to make a ( gear ) box of spaghetti... but to this day I think he meant someone else!
I had done some rallying in North of France, and Belgium (NSU 1000TTS, Alpine-Renault 1300S, and Opel Kadet Coupé), and I wanted to try circuit racing, so I signed for the Winfield School. I wanted to develop my skills to race GTs, and maybe protos ? Rallying is about improvisation, and circuit racing about precision. I found that single-seater were not for me: in an open cockpit I felt vulnerable, and the Formule France (as they were called then) looked very flimsy. I was managing a building company at the time, so that was my priority, not becoming a professional driver. But I am glad to have tasted that, and I have no regret. Years later, as a garage owner in Belgium, I entered cars at Spa, and the Nurburgring, so I kept in touch with racing for a long time.