To cope with the fatal accident of his good friend and colleague Elio de Angelis in 1986, Formula 1 driver Stefan Johansson unexpectedly began painting. The Swede successfully traded the racetrack for canvas. “Finding the right color: that’s really the hardest part.”
Many motorsport enthusiasts look back nostalgically at the 1980s. The race cars of that time were super fast and dangerous. Think of the Group B monsters from rally racing, the lightning-fast Group C cars, and of course, the turbo cars in F1. “This was the best period in the history of Formula 1,” Johansson reflects enthusiastically. “There was little regulation and from a driver’s perspective, there will never be anything like it again. The cars weighed around 500 kilos and had 1500 horsepower! It was just insane. In Monaco, you had wheel spin in almost every gear and a qualifying lap was just a blur.”
Remarkably, compared to the decades before in Formula 1, there were few fatal accidents. Until that fateful test day at Paul Ricard in 1986, when the talented Elio de Angelis tragically lost his life. “I was there with Alain Prost and Jacques Lafitte. We stopped at the accident and ran to his car. But it was on fire, we could do nothing. That affected me deeply and I struggled with it. Strangely enough, that got me into painting. Don’t ask me why, because I had nothing to do with painting. But I suddenly decided to buy a canvas, paint, and brushes. I wanted to do something in memory of Elio.”
Therapeutic Process
Johansson says he was struck by lightning and a new world opened up for him. Since then, he has not stopped painting. The Swede has since developed into a renowned artist and has studios in California and London. “I can almost make a living from it now, but that’s not the goal. It’s more about the pleasure I get from it. You get into a wonderful state of mind, it’s almost a therapeutic process. And above all, if you can do what you like every day, that’s not a bad way to lead your life, right?”
