(c) 'Who is Who' by Steve Small, 2000

Родился: 20.11.1948 Хельсингборг Умер: 20.10.1978 Хаммерсмит, Лондон Сезонов в Ф1: 2 Лет в Ф1: 2 Гран При: 32 Старты: 31* *не стартовал: 1 Победы: 1 - подряд: Подиумы: 4 - подряд: Поул-позиции: - подряд: Первый ряд: - подряд: Быстрые круги: 1 - подряд: Лучший финиш: 1 Лучший старт: 3 Дубли: Хет-трики: Лидирование старт/финиш: Большие шлемы: Круги: 1316 - лидирования: 21 Километры: 6023.79 - лидирования: 89.5 Очки: 31 - за один сезон: 20 - подряд: 2

Ф1: 1976-1977

Год	Команда	Шасси
1976	John Player Team Lotus	Lotus 77
1977	John Player Team Lotus	Lotus 78

This cheery and gregarious Swede was always his own man, and the courage and dignity he showed after the diagnosis of terminal cancer said as much for him as his all-too-brief motor racing career.

Having made a late start in the sport, Gunnar had his first full season of racing in Formula Super Vee in 1973, learning a great deal in a short time from the experienced Freddy Kottulinsky, who was instrumental in his early development. He also tried his hand at Formula 2 at Norisring and, given his novice status, did remarkably well to finish a lucky fourth on aggregate with a GRD. In 1974 he raced in the German Polifac F3 championship in a private March, and impressed sufficiently to bargain his way into the works team contesting the British series alongside Alex Ribeiro in 1975. Things could hardly have started better, as he won the first race at Thruxton to set up his year, which ended with him taking the BP championship. An end-of-season switch to Formula Atlantic merely underlined his talent as he won the last five rounds in succession in a Chevron B29.

Though tied to March and BMW for 1976, Nilsson got together with Ronnie Peterson to contrive a swap deal which saw Gunnar join the Lotus team at a time when it was at a low ebb. It was a gamble, but it soon paid off with Nilsson on the rostrum in his third race. The arrival of Mario Andretti only strengthened the team's hand as they sought to recapture past glories, and Gunnar benefited greatly from the American driver's guidance. Ken Tyrrell, no less, predicted that here was a future World Champion - praise indeed.

Happy to stay with Lotus for another year in 1977, Nilsson maintained his upward momentum during the first half of the season, culminating in his only Grand Prix win in the wet at Zolder when he memorably moved through the field before picking off the leader Niki Lauda with clinical precision. The second half of the year saw a sudden downturn in his fortunes as inconsistency set in. Of course no one knew it, but the cancer he had developed was already well advanced. With Peterson returning to the Lotus fold for 1978, Gunnar signed for the newly formed Arrows team, but in the event he was never well enough to drive the car. By the following autumn he was fighting to live just long enough to see his Gunnar Nilsson Cancer Treatment Campaign successfully launched, before passing away that October.

(c) 'Who is Who' by Steve Small, 2000