Passion
The art of speed
It’s now 40 years since Stefan Johansson made his debut in a Ferrari Formula 1 single-seater. Four decades on, the 68-year-old Swede vividly recalls almost winning second time out at Imola 1985 – before a fuelling issue drained his 156-85’s tank close to the finish – and how he beat teammate Michele Alboreto in the following season’s Ferrari F1-86.
Johansson did not have an easy ride to the top, however. He endured a difficult two races for the Shadow team in 1980 and paid the bills racing in F2 and Group C sports cars before his 1983 return to F1 with Spirit-Honda. Even then his trajectory faltered – the next year was spent subbing for the injured Martin Brundle and Johnny Cecotto at Tyrrell and Toleman respectively.
Then Ferrari team manager Marco Piccinini called. Scuderia driver René Arnoux had been let go after 1985’s curtain-raiser in Brazil, and Johansson was invited to meet Enzo Ferrari at the old factory in Modena.
‘I remember walking through these corridors with photographs of Fangio and Nuvolari on the wall, having goosebumps already,’ he grins. Then Enzo asked if he was hungry. ‘I figured he wasn’t actually asking if I wanted to eat something so I said “I've never been more hungry in my life!” laughs the Swede.
Johansson drives the F1-86 in practice for the 1986 Formula 1 Brazilian GP
Johansson drove the 156-85 for all bar that first race in 1985, playing a supporting role to team leader Michele Alboreto and – along with the win that slipped from his grasp at Imola – notably finished second in Canada and Detroit that year. He went on to place seventh overall, with Alboreto second in the championship to Alain Prost.
The tables turned for 1986, with Johansson taking the new F1-86 to fifth overall, ahead of ninth-placed Alboreto. But neither car had truly delivered in the way Ferrari hoped.
Besides, it was all put into context by the death of Elio de Angelis at Paul Ricard in May that year, a tragedy that inspired Johansson’s rather surprising second career: that of a full-time artist.
Former Ferrari driver Stefan Johansson now paints in a range of styles, from hyper-realist portraits of famous figures to highly abstract works inspired by his F1 days
‘Elio’s death was a heavy deal for me, the first time I lost a really close friend,’ reflects Johansson as we tour his LA art studio. ‘It triggered me to buy some paint and canvas. It became like therapy almost.’
Then aged 29, Johansson’s first painting was, he admits, ‘absolutely terrible’, but he steadily refined his craft while continuing his professional driving career and even sought advice from friend and renowned pop-artist James Rosenquist.
Today, Johansson has three core styles. The first he describes as ‘very figurative, very detailed, almost hyper-realist paintings that are mostly portraits with text overlaid on top, where the quote is more important than the person’.
The second, ‘Memories of a Past Life’, features colour rushing from a central point, like a racing driver’s focal point and blurring peripheral vision rendered abstract.
Johansson poses next to the 156-85 as he joins the Scuderia in 1985, replacing René Arnoux
Most recently – inspired by neo-impressionist artist Georges Seurat – Johansson has explored Urban Pointillism, using dots of colour to convey the ‘energy and intensity in how a car moves’. It’s now his biggest-selling range, with both oil-and-acrylic originals and reproduction prints offered online.
‘Everybody was telling me “you’ve got to paint cars” but I spent my whole life around cars, I’m trying to do something different now, and there are literally hundreds if not thousands of talented people painting cars all day long,’ he explains. ‘I wanted to find a way to do something unique.’
Naturally, Ferrari’s Formula One history weaves like a thread through Johansson’s impressive portfolio – everything from his own Ferrari F1-86 to the 643 Prost drove for 1991 and Charles Leclerc’s SF-24 is captured on canvas.
Notably absent is a painting of de Angelis himself, but who knows, perhaps that could be a fitting tribute to mark the 40th anniversary of his friend’s passing next year.