FREDRIK AF PETERSENS - F1 FIA Paddock Hall Of Fame Journalist who once described F1 as "a kindergarten for grown ups."

FREDRIK AF PETERSENS "It is a kindergarten for grown ups. I don't know how many hundred people are involved in this game, but a lot of them see it as if the world is made for them, and not the other way around. They are taking themselves too seriously."

'Freddie' Petersens does not take himself too seriously, noting that he is a "technical idiot" when it comes to the intracies of Formula 1 machinery. Besides, he enjoys playing in the kindergarten and sending reports of the antics of its inmates back to his native Sweden on radio and in print, though he does not write for any of the "comics" as he calls the specialist motor racing magazines.

Petersens terms himself "a failed racing driver" and maintains it was a lack of bravery that made him take up the pen and not the sword for a career. "I drove a couple of races back home in Sweden, and Denmark, and I found out that I really enjoyed it. First it was a Mini Cooper and then I had a go at Formula Vee, all those open wheels and that sort of thing. No, thank you very much, that was too dangerous. And I even wanted to sign up for the United Nations Peace Corps, at that time for Cyprus, but it never happened. Because I saw very quickly I wasn't brave enough. Before I did anything silly, I stopped."

He still wanted to be involved in racing and met Gunnar Nilsson the Swedish Grand Prix driver (he died of cancer in 1978) and became very good friends with him. Swedish interest in Nilsson and Ronnie Peterson (killed in 1978) helped Petersens begin his journalistic career in Formula 1, a task for which he feels he was not particularly well prepared.

"I am still surprised that they published my first story. I still have it at home and it is so bad it is a nightmare when you read it. So I learned on the job. And I started to read the comics, Autosport and Motoring News, and all that sort of thing, and I saw how they wrote their stories. Then I read the daily papers to learn to write a short story for the dailies. I was intrigued by the personalities in the sport and the travelling as well.

"The travelling still appeals to me and most of the people here, I enjoy their company. Wherever we go there are always the oddballs among them. You go out and have dinner and have a few drinks and a few laughs, and with some of them you talk about other things than motor racing. There are a few people who have other interests. But after about twenty years in the sport I'm...I don't know if disillusioned is the right word, but I think it might be...about all the money here now, and the politics. I also cover World Cup skiing and the golf tours and the atmosphere is completely different there.

"The big difference is the amount of money in this sport. It is putting more pressure on the drivers, the engineers and the designers, though they must love it because there is no end to some budgets and they can go experimenting with their little toys. And the human touch is gone as well because everyone from the driver down to the greenest mechanic has to produce results. Walk down the pit lane and look at the mechanics. There are very, very few smiles among the mechanics, usually everybody has a totally blank face. And you used to walk into the garage and the tea kettle was whistling in the corner, at least in the British teams.

"After so many years in the sport I've found the English - since there are no Swedes now - the best to work with. It might be that they have a mentality that is closer to my own as a Scandinavian, than the southern, Latin temperment. This is no criticism or anything like that, they just appeal to my way of thinking. They're the easiest ones to work with and talk to, and they've got a sense of humour, which we could use a lot more of here.

"Lately it seems that Nigel Mansell is the one who is cracking a joke or two and seems really to be at ease with himself and life. He's taking himself less seriously and I think that is why Nigel, in a way, is a better driver now. He has got his family, he has got his golf and he has got his business interests and all that sort of thing. And so has Derek Warwick who is a very good chap to talk to as well. They have so many interests outside of Formula 1 that their brain has to work, they have to think, they have to make decisions.

"But a lot of the other guys just live for motor racing and that is it. They haven't got a clue about the outside world. This actually happened to me a few years ago: I asked a driver what he thought about Jimmy Carter, the American President at the time. This guy sked me what team is he driving for!"

- from the book GRAND PRIX PEOPLE Revelations from inside the Formula 1 circus (by Gerald Donaldson)