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The Motorsport Brief: Stefan Johansson · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  Driver, manager, artist.
• 0:09
  Today's guest has quite the CV and he kind of blends those three talents, not just on canvas.
• 0:16
  G'day everybody, Rusty here.
• 0:18
  Welcome to another ep of The Shortcast.
• 0:20
  I caught up with Stephen Johansson when he was in London recently.
• 0:24
  We'll hit the start button on that for you in just a moment.
• 0:26
  First, a reminder about a new feature episode that's out now with Alistair McRae.
• 0:32
  You can enjoy that when you're...
• 0:33
  finished with stephan johansson from growing up around his legendary dad jimmy in the british rally championship making it to the wrc with hyundai before it became the team we know today and i respectfully didn't ask a lot about his superstar brother the late colin mcrae but a few things kind of naturally came up in conversation that are really nice memories and i'm grateful that he felt comfortable to share them
• 0:58
  Why Alistair now calls Australia home and his son Max, the next generation McRae, with the World Championship squarely in his sights.
• 1:07
  The turbo era of Formula One most fans look upon very fondly.
• 1:11
  Stefanie Johansson got to drive some of those beasts and he was reunited with a special Ferrari at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival in recent years.
• 1:19
  A car that is now based down under.
• 1:22
  There's some reflections on that over the next 20 minutes or so.
• 1:26
  Plus, teammates like Senna and Frost.
• 1:29
  It doesn't get any bigger, any tougher.
• 1:31
  Driver managing another Iceman in Scott Dixon in IndyCar.
• 1:35
  And how Stefan turned to art after a moment of tragedy in F1 and he's become very good at it, painting an ultra-rare Porsche recently.
• 1:45
  I hope you enjoyed this conversation.
• 1:47
  I sure did.
• 1:47
  Roll the tape.
• 1:48
  Here is Stefan Johansson.
• 1:52
  Stefan, welcome to the podcast.
• 1:53
  Thank you.
• 1:54
  California has been home for you for over 25 years now.
• 1:57
  I think you get back to Sweden still on a number of occasions each year, but you are talking to us from London.
• 2:03
  Is it art?
• 2:05
  Is it a motorsport connection?
• 2:06
  Is it maybe even your buddy Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits?
• 2:09
  What takes you there?
• 2:10
  A bit of everything really.
• 2:11
  I mean, London is sort of, I left Sweden when I was 19 to come over here to try to have a career in
• 2:20
  I kind of had to grow up here, you know, and a lot of my very closest friends are still here.
• 2:24
  And it sort of feels, London is still my spiritual home, I can say.
• 2:28
  You know, I feel really at home here.
• 2:30
  And I love the city.
• 2:31
  I love the people around here, you know.
• 2:33
  And like I said, all my best mates are still here.
• 2:36
  So I always come this way.
• 2:38
  If I go to Europe, I always stop in London for a few days on the way here and the way back home again.
• 2:44
  Lovely.
• 2:45
  Fans listening to the podcast will remember that relatively recently you made an appearance down under at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival.
• 2:53
  Did you enjoy that?
• 2:54
  What memories did it evoke?
• 2:55
  And the first thing that I guess kind of comes to mind, it was a podium for memory in 86, wasn't it there in Adelaide?
• 3:01
  Yeah, I mean, I love, well, I love Australia period, but Adelaide's always, it was such a great experience, you know, back in the day, the city just totally embraced the Formula One race, you know, and, uh, everybody was so enthusiastic about it.
• 3:15
  And when I came back for the festival the first time, it was exactly the same, you know, people are so passionate about it, you know, and, uh, yeah, it's just great.
• 3:24
  It's a good atmosphere, great energy there, you know, and the people are lovely.
• 3:29
  really into the racing.
• 3:30
  And, you know, I think a lot of them, they were probably kids when we were racing there and they're grown up now, you know, they have their careers and everything.
• 3:38
  And it was really, really nice to connect all these people.
• 3:41
  They've never forgotten that event and they're very proud, very passionate about it in their backyard.
• 3:45
  Well, they should be because it was a really, really terrific event.
• 3:49
  A colleague and friend is Guido Belgiorno-Nettis.
• 3:52
  He and I have cycled on occasion.
• 3:54
  He owns two of those Ferrari 156 85s.
• 3:58
  You love that.
• 3:59
  Yeah, Guido, yeah.
• 4:00
  Yeah, Guido, that's right.
• 4:01
  You love that turbo era, I know.
• 4:03
  What was it like getting reacquainted with that beast?
• 4:07
  It was fantastic.
• 4:08
  I mean, it really brought back good emotions.
• 4:10
  You know, I mean, those cars, that whole era was just...
• 4:15
  May have been the best period of motor racing, I think, in many ways.
• 4:17
  I mean, not just F1, but, you know, the rally cars were insane, and the Group C cars, you know, it was like real beasts, all these cars, you know.
• 4:27
  I mean, tough to drive, you know, because they had massive horsepower, virtually no grip, you know.
• 4:32
  But it's kind of every driver's dream, I think, you know, to tame these things.
• 4:36
  Absolutely.
• 4:37
  Was there a little bit of muscle memory?
• 4:39
  I mean, maybe you weren't driving them as hard as you would have back in the day, but they required a few unique things in the way that you pedaled them, didn't they?
• 4:47
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:47
  Yeah.
• 4:48
  I mean, they were quite unique and with the turbo lag and everything.
• 4:51
  So of course I didn't go anywhere near as hard as I would have done back in the day, but you could still, it was enough to get a good feel for it, you know, and just feel the car, you know, and, uh,
• 5:04
  and the power, although it was obviously tuned down quite a bit from how it was back in the day.
• 5:09
  What about the memories of that period for Ferrari with you?
• 5:13
  And I kind of immediately think of my buddy Tom Clarkson, and you did a great chat with him on the official F1 podcast a few years ago now.
• 5:20
  And I think when you spoke with him, you said that you were still so new to Formula One at that stage and even kind of a bit wet behind the ears was your own words.
• 5:30
  But, I mean, as an athlete, such a massive opportunity, but you're thrown in with the big team,
• 5:37
  in a brutal environment.
• 5:39
  What was that like?
• 5:41
  It's easier to reflect on it, you know, afterwards.
• 5:44
  But when, you know, obviously you get an opportunity, you know, that's once in a lifetime, you know.
• 5:50
  But it was probably a little bit too soon for me because I hadn't actually done a full season of F1.
• 5:56
  with any team at that point, you know, so I was sort of jumping in and out of cars from different teams, you know, the year prior.
• 6:02
  So just the driving part is not the big deal, but it's all the other stuff, you know, and I always tell, like, the drivers that I work with as well, you know, that I manage the stuff, driving is the easiest part of the whole job.
• 6:14
  It's all the other stuff you have to deal with, you know.
• 6:17
  Politics.
• 6:17
  The internal politics with the teams, you know, all the things that, you know, it's all part of the package, you know, to make you...
• 6:25
  the best you can be really.
• 6:27
  And obviously Ferrari is notorious for, you know, there's always a lot of internal politics, you know, and they always used to joke, you know, when I came, they said, well, just remember, you know, for every friend you make, you make two enemies, you know, so.
• 6:43
  so it's kind of trying to navigate all that you know and and that stuff and jeez crows takes a little bit of diplomacy and a little bit of you know so yeah it was as it were now thinking back on it it was probably a little bit too soon for me but but when you look on balance stefan i mean the way you acquitted yourself against your teammate in that period you you did a super job there were lots of good takeaways wasn't there
• 7:06
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:07
  I mean, well, the only, you know, we knew, I mean, 85 was, the car was strong, you know, especially at the beginning of the year, the car was very good.
• 7:14
  You know, I should have won probably three races on the trot there, you know, in Malacanada and Detroit.
• 7:20
  I mean, I was in a position to win all three and, you know, circumstances like there always is, you know, in racing or F1 in particular, maybe especially back then, but, and then I came in sort of in the season.
• 7:34
  So, you know, sort of playing,
• 7:36
  playing my role, you know, and...
• 7:40
  But then for 86, obviously, you know, the goal was to beat my teammate more, first of all, because that's always the goal in whatever team you're in in F1, right?
• 7:48
  So... And we knew the car pretty much from the first test wasn't the winning car.
• 7:55
  So my focus was primarily to beat Michele, you know, the championship and do the best I could wish I did, you know, so...
• 8:02
  And, yeah, that was it.
• 8:04
  Imola must be kind of bittersweet in some ways because, man, you went so close, didn't you?
• 8:09
  I mean, Ayrton had that issue.
• 8:11
  You were all of a sudden in the lead and then within, almost within sight of the finish, Stefan, it slips from your grasp.
• 8:17
  Yeah, I mean, it was, you know, very frustrating, of course, because if I ever done...
• 8:24
  or did a perfect race, that was the one, you know, because we knew the fuel number I had to meet, and I was below it every lap, you know.
• 8:31
  And I knew I had enough to get to the end.
• 8:34
  You know, the team were hanging out, you know, more boots and everything, but I knew how much I was catching the guys in front.
• 8:40
  And, um...
• 8:42
  And then what we found out afterwards, of course, there was a crack in the inlet manifold on the, you know, so it was pushing in more air.
• 8:50
  And then the engine tried to compensate, you know, to retain the same mixtures.
• 8:54
  It was pushing more fuel in and it was using more fuel than we thought, you know, basically.
• 9:00
  And that's why we ran out with a laptop.
• 9:02
  Yeah.
• 9:03
  that art form of driving to the number and stuff.
• 9:06
  You've been big along the way, haven't you, about sports cars and the benefit of sports car racing and how it teaches you some of that stuff.
• 9:13
  I mean, Scott was at Le Mans very recently.
• 9:15
  I mean, it's still something that obviously resonates with you.
• 9:20
  Yeah, I mean, sports car racing is great.
• 9:22
  I think it's, in many ways, it's the best form of racing because, you know,
• 9:27
  you have to improvise all the time.
• 9:29
  You're now, especially now, the cars are so strong and so reliable that you can, literally, Le Mans is like an F3 race now.
• 9:36
  Every stint is absolutely maximum, you know?
• 9:40
  So you're on the limit the whole time.
• 9:44
  And it really trains you well, because you have to improvise.
• 9:48
  I mean, I don't think in all these years I've done Le Mans, I don't think I've had the same line around some of the corners twice, because there's either traffic or there's debris, there's always something, but you're always on the limit.
• 10:02
  So it's a really, you just have to drive on feel a lot more than just sort of like in
• 10:08
  In F1 maybe you have, you know, it's very clinical and it's very, you know, it's the line is pretty much always the same, you know, people get out of the way when you have traffic and you get none of that in the Enduros race, you know, you got GT cars, you got all cars, you know, so it's, but I love it, you know, and Le Mans itself is, is maybe the best race of all in the end, you know, cause the track is still pretty daunting, you know, but it's super fast and you really have to,
• 10:38
  knuckle down to do to do a quick lap around there you enjoyed it in a kind of couple of different um eras if you like too i went there for the first time in in 2015 with with porsche and saw those those kind of modern generation cars which are almost like like slot cars or scale electric cars aren't they but yeah um i mean that that i i can tell already in the in the uh response from you i mean that race and and what it means and the difficulties to conquer it are immense aren't they
• 11:05
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 11:06
  I mean, there's a million circumstances the whole time, you know.
• 11:10
  So, you know, it's, yeah, it's a tough one.
• 11:12
  I mean, I'll say it's the easiest one and the toughest one to win, you know, because it just, when things fall your way, you know, it's all great, but there could be a million things that could go wrong at the same time, you know.
• 11:23
  But the sheer pleasure of just being there and racing, you know, it's really,
• 11:28
  I mean, it's great if you win, but even if it, you know, just being there and being part of the whole thing is a really, really great experience.
• 11:36
  We'll sneak a quick break here on Rusty's Garage.
• 11:38
  More of our convo with Stefan Johansson right after this.
• 11:46
  You're listening to the Motorsport Brief, our garage shortcast.
• 11:49
  I've had a little moment to just appreciate how far my pod has come since we set out in 2018.
• 11:55
  Really cool to think that we could get someone of the calibre of Stefan on the show.
• 12:00
  Let's get back to the chat now.
• 12:04
  In summing up a bit about you around getting very shortly to the great art that you do now and the stuff you're doing around business with drivers and so on, one thing that I pondered was coming up against great teammates like Ayrton Centre, like Alain Prost and things like that.
• 12:22
  How much did that stuff help you in the university or the school of motor racing, benchmarking yourself against those guys and going head to head with them?
• 12:33
  Yeah, I mean, of course, at the time, you don't realize, you know, maybe the level of greatness they had in the bigger picture of motorsport, you know.
• 12:42
  But, I mean, I think I truly was in an era when some of the best drivers I've ever been were – I was competing against them, you know.
• 12:51
  I mean, Alain was –
• 12:52
  I still hold the line as the best, certainly in our period, you know.
• 12:56
  Mm-hmm.
• 12:57
  He was extraordinary in so many different ways, you know, not spectacular or extravagant in this driving, but just so fast.
• 13:06
  And just, but just the way he operated around the car, you know, and managed the whole weekend, if you like, you know.
• 13:11
  Mm-hmm.
• 13:11
  I learned more from that year I was with him than I did in my whole career, pretty much, you know.
• 13:16
  He was just so good at everything he did, you know, and,
• 13:20
  He had the ability to look at the bigger picture, you know, always like, you know, you don't have to win every battle to win the war, basically.
• 13:27
  You know, you can still become a world champion, even if you lose the position in one corner during the race, you know.
• 13:34
  Whereas some of the other drivers, you know, it's just that one speed and that's it, you know, but...
• 13:39
  Well, of course, every experience you have, you learn a little bit from this and you learn a little bit from that.
• 13:45
  But at the time, of course, the only object was to try to beat them.
• 13:52
  On the business side, did you always gravitate to understanding that?
• 13:56
  And how much has that helped in the position you're in as a driver manager these days?
• 14:01
  Well, I think it all helps.
• 14:02
  It all adds up.
• 14:03
  It's like whatever you do in life, you come across different situations and circumstances, and it ends up in the back of the memory bank somewhere.
• 14:14
  When you connect all the dots for whatever situation you're in, that may help you in that certain moment.
• 14:21
  So yeah, of course, it all helped, no question.
• 14:25
  You ran your own team there for a while, I think, in an Indy Lights perspective, and that's when you come across a young Scott Dixon.
• 14:31
  What was the first immediate impression of him?
• 14:36
  Well, I think you could tell right away, you know, just...
• 14:40
  that this guy is a bit special, you know, just, just, and, but I just fell in love with his sort of attitude from, from day one, you know, he, you could tell he was like, he had that very sort of quiet confidence, you know, that he knew how good he was and he knew he could get the job done, you know, and, and he didn't say much back then, you know, I mean, he'd be lucky to get a couple of words out of him, you know, but, uh,
• 15:04
  Yeah, so, I mean, we... Yeah, you could...
• 15:06
  I mean, you could tell right away that he was definitely a bit more than the rest of them.
• 15:12
  He's gone on to do some amazing things in IndyCar.
• 15:15
  There was a brief flirtation with Formula One, wasn't there, from Williams, and I think you've even spoken about some decent discussions with Ferrari too?
• 15:23
  Yeah, we had a test lined up, and then...
• 15:26
  But it also... Well, the Williams thing went well, and he did a great job in the test, you know, and then...
• 15:32
  But BMW at the time was very reluctant to take a rookie, you know, so we knew it wasn't going to happen.
• 15:40
  So we leveraged that, and we got a pretty strong deal with Chip, you know, and so it was like, you cannot give up the indie career, and with no real certainty of having anything in F1 or carry on, you know.
• 15:57
  And so we went that way, you know.
• 16:00
  He's chalked up some amazing things there.
• 16:03
  What is the secret to his longevity, Stefan?
• 16:05
  What is it?
• 16:07
  Well, I mean, obviously, you know, he's got the talent, which he's had from day one, but it's really like all the great drivers, you know, every single great driver I've been around.
• 16:16
  You know, it's their discipline, the work ethic, you know, and just...
• 16:22
  just the mental attitude, you know, to any sport at that level, it's a 90% is in the head, you know, and that's for make the great ones great and the really good ones.
• 16:34
  Yeah.
• 16:35
  Okay.
• 16:35
  But they're not, you know, I mean, and Scott's always had that ability, you know, even if he's got, he just goes back, he's sort of, you know,
• 16:43
  Hondas and he comes back and he just, you know, he just gets the job done, you know.
• 16:48
  It's extraordinary, you know.
• 16:50
  Even like now, you know, he's just, the commitment is the same as it was 25 years ago.
• 16:55
  Yeah, amazing.
• 16:56
  I mean, it's such a competitive series that now and he is right in the mix, right in the game, even at his age.
• 17:04
  I mean, what's the future hold?
• 17:07
  Well, I mean, it is incredible.
• 17:09
  I think he's been top three, right?
• 17:12
  in the championship 18 years now.
• 17:14
  Crazy.
• 17:16
  Which is insane if you think about how competitive the series is.
• 17:22
  So yeah, in my opinion, he's one of the top
• 17:27
  talent in history probably.
• 17:29
  I mean, it really is.
• 17:31
  He's absolutely exceptional.
• 17:33
  Incredible.
• 17:34
  We'll get him on the podcast in the months ahead.
• 17:35
  I spoke to him in the lead up to the Indy 500.
• 17:37
  Now, to come to art, it actually does have a kind of Formula One connection for you.
• 17:42
  It dates back, I think, to the 80s.
• 17:44
  And very sadly, am I right in saying that it was the passing of a fellow driver that in some ways started it all?
• 17:52
  Yeah, that's true.
• 17:53
  Yes.
• 17:53
  I mean, I really had no
• 17:56
  I enjoyed art.
• 17:57
  I liked to look at it and I enjoyed, you know, when I started making some money in racing, I bought some art here and there, just started collecting a little bit, but never really had any thought of doing anything myself, you know.
• 18:08
  And it was when Elio De Angelis had his accident.
• 18:12
  We became very close friends in a short period of time there in the first, you know, sort of, 84 and 85 when I really entered F1 properly.
• 18:22
  And we spent a lot of time together, you know, we developed a really close friendship.
• 18:26
  And, you know, it really started, it's weird, because it really started with somehow we managed to find each other on the track at almost every race, you know.
• 18:33
  We had huge battles, you know, sort of banging wheels and just really, really going for it, you know.
• 18:40
  And then you get out of the car and you sort of hug each other.
• 18:44
  I said, that was great, you know.
• 18:45
  And through that, some kind of bonds developed, you know.
• 18:50
  And, yeah, we just... Because I think it was because we trusted each other on the track, you know.
• 18:54
  I mean, we weren't giving each other half an inch, but it was always very hard and very fair, you know.
• 19:00
  Yeah, yeah.
• 19:02
  And I think...
• 19:04
  There's some sort of respect develops between drivers when you know you can race hard, you know, and trust each other, which you can't say a lot of other drivers, you know, at some certain periods.
• 19:17
  But anyway, so through all that, we used to hang out a lot together between races and stuff, you know, and then when he had his accident, it was a pretty...
• 19:25
  Pretty traumatic experience.
• 19:26
  I just, he was on fire, you know, we were there trying to help him out of the car myself, Alain, and I think Jack Lafitte was there as well.
• 19:35
  And, uh, so anyway, for whatever reason, I don't really know why I went and bought some canvas and paint and wanted to do something in his memory.
• 19:44
  And that's sort of just like a bolt of lightning hit me, you know, when I started this whole process.
• 19:48
  And then I just fell in love with painting and I'm pretty much doing it ever since.
• 19:53
  Excellent.
• 19:53
  So you have a studio in California, I know that, and you do get to blend the art of motor racing with what you're doing on that canvas.
• 20:02
  I mean, I saw something recently, which is, you know, Scott Dixon in action, and it has that kind of beautiful blur or motion effect.
• 20:10
  And am I right?
• 20:10
  Yeah.
• 20:10
  So I do this sort of pointillism style now with the cars.
• 20:13
  Yes.
• 20:14
  I was sort of holding off painting cars or racing subjects because I felt like, you know, I wanted to do real art, you know, but...
• 20:22
  people kept telling me you got to do cars and so i started sort of churning in my head to find at least my own unique style you know because there's a million fantastic artists you know that paint cars and racing images all day you know and i didn't just want to become one of them so i was trying to find my own unique style and i think this sort of you can tell it's my painting when you see it mm-hmm
• 20:45
  And of course, it's become really popular.
• 20:47
  So now it's pretty much exclusively all I do is do these racing and car images, because I get primarily consignments now from people that want me to do a car that they own or they like.
• 21:00
  Fantastic.
• 21:01
  So it's keeping me very busy now.
• 21:03
  It sounds like it.
• 21:04
  To finish, you painted a 911 recently that I think also has a little bit of a Formula One flavor about it too, doesn't it?
• 21:11
  Yeah, yeah, that was a really cool project, actually, really.
• 21:15
  So it's a 911 from the 80s, 87 911.
• 21:21
  I think it's the 930 model or whatever.
• 21:25
  And it sort of started with Dean Lanzanti, who's in McLaren sort of aftermarket.
• 21:33
  He does a lot of preps on the McLaren road cars and stuff and do the sort of the tune-up kits and all these things.
• 21:41
  So he found out that there was 11 of these tag turbos left sitting in a barn somewhere just, you know, and worked a deal with McLaren and had the idea of doing this retro mod 911 with the actual F1 engine in the back.
• 21:56
  So every one of the engines has been raised by someone, you know.
• 22:00
  So it's the, my car is the SJ87.
• 22:04
  the one that I painted, but then you got the NL 86, the Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, John Watson, I think Keka Rosberg, those are the drivers that raced this particular engine.
• 22:16
  So it's already a really unique project.
• 22:19
  The fact that as far as I'm aware, it's never ever been a road going car that have an actual F1 engine, F1 engine that's been raised in F1 in its period.
• 22:31
  So that's already super cool.
• 22:33
  And then the people that bought my car, it's a dealership in a lake called Ogara.
• 22:38
  They knew that I'm now painting it and I'm an artist.
• 22:40
  So they asked me if I wanted to paint the car.
• 22:44
  So we agreed, and so it's kind of another level of uniqueness on top of the already really unique car in itself.
• 22:53
  And it turned out actually way better than I was expecting.
• 22:57
  The car looked really fabulous, especially up close.
• 23:01
  The colors are really crisp and precise.
• 23:04
  So yeah, it was a fun project.
• 23:06
  Congratulations.
• 23:07
  A lot of work, but it was a really cool project, yeah.
• 23:09
  It's stunning.
• 23:11
  And colleagues and friends that are listening to the podcast here can actually see a yarn about it on an Aussie website called Talk Cafe.
• 23:18
  So congratulations on what you've done there.
• 23:20
  It's been awesome to reminisce a little bit about Formula 1.
• 23:23
  It was so cool they could get you down under for the Adelaide Motorsport Festival.
• 23:27
  And from all of us here, we'll talk to him as the season goes on.
• 23:30
  But wish Scott all the best for us in Champ Car for the rest of the season, or IndyCar rather, for the rest of the season.
• 23:36
  Absolutely.
• 23:37
  Well done for Boris.
• 23:39
  I know, I know.
• 23:40
  I would love to have had an hour or so with him.
• 23:43
  It was still mega to get him on.
• 23:44
  There is a kind of calm about Stefan that I really admire.
• 23:48
  One that I imagine is just part of his nature.
• 23:51
  But adrenaline sport like motor racing has only aided that.
• 23:54
  Good baseline for an artist, isn't it?
• 23:57
  Next week, a new feature ep drops with Calvin Fish racing against Ayrton Senna in the junior formula in England during a golden period, thinking that they had Senna's measure on an arcade game in the cafeteria.
• 24:10
  The time that Calvin went out on track in his supercar at the same time as an F1 car, moving to the US and carving a 20-plus year career in motorsport broadcasting.
• 24:21
  He's very good at it.
• 24:23
  Meeting and now working with his great mate Lee Diffie and much more.
• 24:27
  Look out for notifications on that one.
• 24:28
  An hour of fantastic conversation and another guest that I was overdue to get on the Rusty's Garage podcast.
• 24:36
  That is it for today.
• 24:37
  Catch you next week, everybody.
• 24:38
  Bye for now.