Anderstorp Raceway layout
Anderstorp Raceway, known as the Scandinavian Raceway, is one of the most unusual circuits ever to host a F1 race.
The circuit is relatively flat and measures around 4.0 km, between 1973 and 1978, it became the home of the Swedish GP, giving Sweden its only period as a permanent host of the F1 World Championship.
Unlike many traditional European circuits, Anderstorp wasn’t built around dramatic elevation changes or a famous natural landscape, it was constructed around an airfield, and that gave the circuit several features that made it unlike almost anywhere else on the F1 calendar.
Its long main straight was also used as an aircraft runaway, while the pit lane was positioned away from the start-finish line, the track also contained several long, sweeping corners with a constant radius, creating a circuit where aerodynamic balance, tire behavior and car setup could become particularly difficult to judge. For six seasons, these unusual characteristic were not enough to keep Formula 1 away, Anderstorp became the stage for some of the strangest and memorable races of the 1970s.
A Race Track Built Around an Airfield
One of Anderstorp’s most recognizable features is its 1.000 meter long straight, which doubles as part of the local airfield, the circuit’s relationship with aviation is one of the reasons its layout looks so different from many purpose-built Grand Prix venus.
The track is also remarkably flat, there are no major hills or dramatic elevation changes to help define the lap, drivers had to work with long straights, relatively slow corners and several sweeping sections that placed considerable importance on finding the correct setup.
The circuit’s pit lane is another unusual feature, rather than being located directly along the main start-finish straight, it sits elsewhere on the lap, between the sections around Turn 5 and Turn 6, this arrangement dates back to the circuit’s original configuration, when the start-finish area didn’t provide enough room for a conventional pit complex.
This is what gave Anderstorp a personality of its own, it wasn’t necessarily the fastest or most spectacular circuit on the calendar, but it demanded a lot from the drivers.
Ronnie Peterson and the Birth of the Swedish Grand Prix
The arrival of F1 in Sweden was closely connected to the country’s growing motorsport enthusiasm, and above all, the popularity of Ronnie Peterson. He had become one of Sweden’s biggest star during the early 1970s.
That popularity reportedly helped make a Swedish GP commercially viable, in 1973, Anderstorp finally welcomed Formula 1.
The first Swedish GP was won by Denny Hulme, driving for McLaren, over the following years, the circuit produced winners including Jody Scheckter and Niki Lauda, while Peterson himself became one of the major attractions whenever F1 returned to his home country. Anderstorp became much more than another circuit on the calendar, for the Swedish fans, it was the place where they could see their national hero competing against world’s best drivers.
The Six-Wheeled Tyrrell Makes History
Perhaps the most famous victory at Anderstorp came in 1976. Tyrrell arrived with the P34, a Formula 1 car equipped with six wheels, four small front wheels were designed to reduce the aerodynamic disturbance created by conventional front tires while keeping the car’s overall frontal area withhin the regulations.
The unusual design was already one of the biggest talking points in F1, but at Anderstorp it achieved something even more remarkable.
Jody Scheckter won the 1976 Swedish GP in the six-wheeled Tyrrell P34, and it remains the only F1 victory achieved by a six-wheeled car, making Anderstorp permanenlty connected with one of the strangest technical experiments in F1 history.
The Fan Car’s Controversial Appearance
Anderstorp produced another interesting moment two years later, at the Swedish GP in 1978, Brabham introduced the BT46B, better known as the fan car.
The car used a large fan at the rear to extract air from underneath the chassis, creating a powerful ground-effect like suction effect.
The concept was controversial from the moment it appeared, but its performance was undeniable.
Niki Lauda won the race in the Brabham BT46B, giving the radical machine a victory in its only F1 Grand Prix appearance, that means two of the strangest technical stories of 1970s F1, the six wheeled Tyrrell and the Brabham fan car, are both permanently associated with the Swedish circuit.
Why Did Formula 1 Leave Anderstorp Raceway?
Anderstorp’s final F1 race came in 1978, the circuit was originally expected to continue hosting the Swedish GP, with another event planned for 1979. Instead, the race disappeared from the calendar.
The explanation isn’t simply that Anderstorp was considered unsuitable, several problems came together at almost exactly the wrong time, the first was the loss of Sweden’s two major F1 stars.
The 1978 season was devastating for Swedish motorsport, both Ronnie Peterson and Gunnar Nilsson passed away that same year.
Nilsson had been regarded as one of Sweden’s promising F1 drivers, while Peterson had been the country’s biggest star.
Anderstorp’s F1 event had been closely connected to the popularity of Swedish drivers, and the country suddenly lost both of its leading Formula 1 personalities within weeks.
The 1979 Race didn’t go further
The Swedish GP was scheduled to continue in 1979, but the event was ultimately canceled, the loss of interest and at the same time financial pressure increased, organizing a Grand Prix required significant sponsorship, ticket sales and promotional funding, while the financial demands associated with hosting F1 were becoming difficult for smaller venus.
The Swedish race promoter was unable to secure the necessary financing, as a result, the 1979 Swedish GP never took place.
Anderstorp and the Changing Formula 1 World
The bigger problem was that F1 itself was changing, during the 1970s, many circuits on the calendar were relatively small, old-fashioned or built around existing roads and airfields. During the 1980s and 1990s, expectations for Grand Prix venues changed dramatically.
Safety requirements became demanding, circuits needed larger runoff areas, improved barriers, upgraded pit complexes and significantly better infrastructure for teams, spectators and international television operations.
Anderstorp’s rural location and unusual airfield-based layout made major redevelopment difficult, the circuit’s flat surroundings were not necessarily a safety problem by themselves, but transforming an airfield-based facility into a modern Grand Prix venues would have required substantial investment.
It separated pit lane and unusual start-finish arrangement also reflected an earlier era of F1, when circuits didn’t need to provide the same facilities expected of modern Grand Prix venues.
Why Anderstorp Never Returned
There was therefore no single moment when F1 permanently decided that Anderstorp could never host another race.
Instead, several developments effectively closed the door, the Swedish GP lost much of its national stars, the 1979 event then collapsed financially, removing Sweden from the calendar, and at the same time F1 was becoming increasingly expensive and demanding to host.
The standards expected from circuits were rising, while Anderstorp remained a relatively small rural facility build around an airfield, that combination proved difficult to overcome.
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