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This article first appeared in GP Racing magazine.
'Mad Ronald', Mike Hailwood used to call him, and if ever you watched him through the old Woodcote, you knew why. From the beginning of his career, Ronnie Peterson was stunningly quick, and from the beginning, too, he lived on opposite lock.
"Any number of times," said Jackie Stewart, "I'd follow him into a corner, and think, 'Uh-oh, Ronnie, you've overdone it this time - you're gone!' Somehow, though, he always seemed to get it back, and it never surprised me the fans loved him - he was exciting to watch from where I was, too!"
Peterson was one of those folklore drivers, like Rindt and Villeneuve, whose surnames were rarely heard: as it was always 'Jochen' and 'Gilles', so it was with 'Ronnie'. Throughout his career Michele Alboreto's helmets were blue and yellow, in homage to his childhood hero.
