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BONNIER, JO

Born 1/31/1930, Stockholm

Deceased 6/11/1972, Le Mans France

Starts:104

Points: 39

Wins:1

Poles:1

Fastest Laps:0

It is easy to remember Bonnier for the many years in which he was an also run in Formula 1, retiring way past his prime. However, the Swede was a fast driver on his day, and a pioneer in many fronts. The first topline Swedish driver, the first driver to win a Grand Epreuve for BRM, and a major driving force behind the GPDA, which fought for circuit safety during the 60’s. A wealthy and educated man, Bonnier first tried his hand in sports cars, beginning in ice racing, eventually reaching Formula 1. His first Grand Prix was in Italy, 1956, where he raced one of Maserati’s works’ 250F, taking over Villoresi’s car during the race. In 1957 he did a few outings for Centro Sud, finishing 7th in Argentina, and qualified really well for the one-off Pescara Grand prix, 9th. He continued driving the 250F in 1958, mostly entered by himself as a privateer, but also by Centro Sud. He finished a few times, with a season best 8th, and qualified 9th for the German Grand Prix. Eventually he was hired by BRM, finishing the year with a competitive fourth place in Morocco. Jo continued at BRM in 1959, retiring from Monaco and then scoring pole in Zandvoort. He ended up winning the race, in what turned out to be the single G.P. win of his career. Unfortunately he only scored again in Germany, failing to reproduce his Dutch glory elsewhere. In 1960, Bonnier started the year well, leading in Argentina, and qualifying near the front for most races, including a 3rd starting spot in Monaco, but scored only a couple of 5th places. It was time to chance teams, and Bonnier joined the Porsche squad for two years, 1961 and 1962. Bonnier knew the Stuttgart team well, having raced for them in Sports Cars and Formula 2 already, so there was no adaptation period for him. He led laps in France in 1961, qualified near the top in a few races, in fact, equaled the pole time in Britain, where he started 3rd, but there were points helpings in a couple of races, again. For 1962, Porsche was more experienced, but Bonnier’s performance did not improve much: a 5th in Monaco and 6th in Italy were all he could do. Thus ended Bonnier’s frontline career, as starting in 1963 he began racing for privateer Rob Walker or entered races by himself, with only a couple of works entries. He drove a Walker Cooper Climax to a couple of 5th places and a couple of 6ths in 63, nominally a  better performance than his Porsche days. He continued with Walker in 1964, sometimes driving a Cooper, sometimes a Brabham. He finished 5th in Monaco and 6th in the initial Austrian Grand Prix, run in an improvised airport circuit. He qualified well for some of the early 1965 races, with a Walker Brabham, but ended up with four seventh place finishes to his name, thus just out of the points. For 1966, Bonnier raced mostly a Cooper Maserati, entered by himself under the guise of the Anglo Suisse team (Bonnier, the scion of a Swedish publishing company, resided mostly in  Switzerland, thus the Swiss angle). Although that car was competitive in Surtees’ and Rindt’s hands, the best Bonnier could do as a privateer was 6th in the final race of the year, in Mexico. He also raced a works Brabham in France, with no great distinction (it had a Climax engined example, not one of the Repco ones) and had his final top ten qualifying position in Belgium, starting 6th. At this point, it was obvious that Bonnier only wanted to be part of the show, and he was back again with the Cooper Maserati for most 1967 races. He did well to finish 5th in Germany, although behind a Formula 2 car, and 6th in the USA. Credit must be given to Bonnier, as it was already getting very difficult for privateers to score points in Formula 1, at this juncture. He raced the Cooper-Maser one last time in South Africa, and then acquired a BRM engined McLaren for the rest of the year’s races. He did not qualify for Monaco, but did well to finish 6th in Italy. For the Mexican Grand Prix, Bonnier borrowed one of Honda’s cars and finished 5th which turned out to be the last F1 score of his career. His appearances became more sporadic, from this point on, although he did drive the four wheel drive works Lotus 63 in Britain in 1969, retiring. He also drove a self entered Lotus at the Nurburgring. He had a McLaren 7C for 1970, did not qualify in Italy and retired in the USA. Bonnier was mostly racing sports cars these days, excelling in the recently created European 2 Liter championship, obviously enjoying himself. He entered the old McLaren in four races in 1971. He retired from South Africa, did not qualify in Germany and did not start in Austria. He then qualified and finished his last two races, in Italy (10th) and USA (16th). Having wrapped up his Formula 1 career, Bonnier decided to concentrate in Sports Cars, where Joakin had had most of his success. His Ecurie Bonnier would be the proud entrant of the Cosworth powered Lolas for the 1972 World Championship of Makes. The car was fast, but not sufficiently so to challenge Ferrari, and it was in one of them that Bonnier found his death after colliding with a slow backmarker in Le Mans, a sad end to a long and distinguished career.   

Cars driven outside of formula 1:

Formula 2: Porsche, Lola-BRM, Brabham

Formula 5000: Lola T190

Sports-cars: Lola (T70, T212, T280, T290), Ferrari (250TR, 330P, 512S), Alfa-Romeo (T33, Disco Volante) Maserati, Borgward, Porsche (718 RSK, 356B, 804, 904, 906), Chaparral-Chevrolet, Mirage 

Can-Am: McLaren, Lola    

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Last modified: March 28, 2007