New games! PlayTrivia andBirthle.

The Most Famous

RACING DRIVERS from Sweden

This page contains a list of the greatest Swedish Racing Drivers. The pantheon dataset contains 888 Racing Drivers, 19 of which were born in Sweden. This makes Sweden the birth place of the 14th most number of Racing Drivers behind Australia and Belgium.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Swedish Racing Drivers of all time. This list of famous Swedish Racing Drivers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Swedish Racing Drivers.

1. Keke Rosberg (1948 - )

With an HPI of 66.86, Keke Rosberg is the most famous Swedish Racing Driver. His biography has been translated into 43 different languages on wikipedia.

Keijo Erik Rosberg (born 6 December 1948), best known as "Keke" (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈkeke ˈruːsbæri] ), is a Finnish former racing driver and winner of the 1982 Formula One World Championship. He was the first Finnish driver to win the championship. He is the father of Nico Rosberg, the 2016 Formula One World Champion.

2. Ronnie Peterson (1944 - 1978)

With an HPI of 66.38, Ronnie Peterson is the 2nd most famous Swedish Racing Driver. His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Bengt Ronnie Peterson (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈrɔ̌nːɪ ˈpêtːɛˌʂɔn]; 14 February 1944 – 11 September 1978) was a Swedish racing driver. Known by the nickname 'SuperSwede', he was a two-time runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship. Peterson began his motor racing career in kart racing, traditionally the discipline where the majority of race drivers begin their careers in open-wheel racing. After winning a number of karting titles, including two Swedish titles in 1963 and 1964, he moved on to Formula Three, where he won the Monaco Grand Prix Formula Three support race for the 1969 Grand Prix. Later that year he won the FIA European Formula 3 Championship and moved up into Formula One, racing for the March factory team. In his three-year spell with the team, he took six podiums, most of which were scored during the 1971 Formula One season in which he also finished as runner-up in the Drivers' Championship. After seeing out his three-year contract at March, Peterson joined Colin Chapman's Team Lotus in the 1973 season, partnering defending champion Emerson Fittipaldi. During his first two seasons with Lotus, Peterson took seven victories, scoring a career-best 52 points in 1973. After a poor 1975 season, Peterson moved back to March and scored his final victory for the team at the 1976 Italian Grand Prix. After spending the 1977 season with Tyrrell, he moved back to Lotus for the 1978 season as number two driver to Mario Andretti. Peterson scored two wins, at the South African and Austrian Grand Prix races, and finished second in the Drivers' Championship standings despite his fatal first-lap accident at Monza during the Italian Grand Prix.

3. Björn Waldegård (1943 - 2014)

With an HPI of 56.11, Björn Waldegård is the 3rd most famous Swedish Racing Driver. His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Björn Waldegård (12 November 1943 – 29 August 2014) was a Swedish rally driver, and the winner of the World Rally Championship for drivers in 1979. His Swedish nickname was "Walle".

4. Jo Bonnier (1930 - 1972)

With an HPI of 55.90, Jo Bonnier is the 4th most famous Swedish Racing Driver. His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Karl Jockum Jonas "Joakim" Bonnier (31 January 1930 – 11 June 1972) was a Swedish sportscar racing and Formula One driver who raced for various teams. He was the first Swede to both enter and win a Formula One Grand Prix.

5. Stig Blomqvist (1946 - )

With an HPI of 55.89, Stig Blomqvist is the 5th most famous Swedish Racing Driver. His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Stig Lennart Blomqvist (born 29 July 1946) is a retired Swedish rally driver. He made his international breakthrough in 1971. Driving an Audi Quattro for the Audi factory team, Blomqvist won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1984 and finished runner-up in 1985. He won his home event, the Swedish Rally, seven times. Outside the WRC, he won the British Rally Championship in 1983 and the Swedish Rally Championship several times. At the Race of Champions, Blomqvist took the title "Champion of Champions" in 1989 and 1990.

6. Ove Andersson (1938 - 2008)

With an HPI of 53.91, Ove Andersson is the 6th most famous Swedish Racing Driver. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Ove Andersson (3 January 1938 – 11 June 2008), nicknamed Påven ("the Pope"), was a Swedish rally driver and the first head of Toyota's F1 programme.

7. Reine Wisell (1941 - 2022)

With an HPI of 53.59, Reine Wisell is the 7th most famous Swedish Racing Driver. His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Reine Tore Leif Wisell (30 September 1941 – 20 March 2022) was a Swedish racing driver. He participated in 23 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 4 October 1970. He achieved one podium, and scored a total of 13 championship points.

8. Stefan Johansson (1956 - )

With an HPI of 53.06, Stefan Johansson is the 8th most famous Swedish Racing Driver. His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Stefan Nils Edwin Johansson (born 8 September 1956) is a Swedish racing driver who drove in Formula One for both Ferrari and McLaren, among other teams. Since leaving Formula One he has won the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans and raced in a number of categories, including CART, various kinds of Sports car racing and Grand Prix Masters.

9. Gunnar Nilsson (1948 - 1978)

With an HPI of 53.02, Gunnar Nilsson is the 9th most famous Swedish Racing Driver. His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Gunnar Axel Arvid Nilsson (20 November 1948 – 20 October 1978) was a Swedish racing driver. Before entering Formula One, he won the 1975 British Formula 3 Championship. Nilsson entered 32 Formula One Grand Prix races, qualifying for all of them. He won the 1977 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder while driving for Team Lotus. After losing his Lotus seat, he signed for Arrows for 1978, but was later diagnosed with testicular cancer which meant he could not drive the car. However, he did compete in three International Race of Champions (IROC) races in 1977. He had two sixth-place finishes and a fifth-place finish. As soon as the cancer was determined to be terminal, he created the Gunnar Nilsson Cancer Foundation. He died in October 1978.

10. Slim Borgudd (1946 - 2023)

With an HPI of 52.60, Slim Borgudd is the 10th most famous Swedish Racing Driver. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Karl Edvard Tommy Borgudd (Swedish pronunciation: [sliːm ˈbɔ̂ːrjɵd]; 25 November 1946 – 23 February 2023), also known as Slim Borgudd, was a Swedish musician and Formula One driver who raced for the ATS and Tyrrell teams.

People

Pantheon has 19 people classified as racing drivers born between 1930 and 1990. Of these 19, 10 (52.63%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living racing drivers include Keke Rosberg, Stig Blomqvist, and Stefan Johansson. The most famous deceased racing drivers include Ronnie Peterson, Björn Waldegård, and Jo Bonnier. As of April 2022, 2 new racing drivers have been added to Pantheon including Kent Andersson and Kenneth Eriksson.