Ronnie Peterson took his first Formula 1 World Championship victory at the 1973 French Grand Prix, held at Paul Ricard on 1 July. For a driver whose speed had already become one of the paddock’s fixed references, it was a strangely delayed first win.
Peterson had joined Team Lotus for 1973 and quickly looked at home in the Lotus 72. The car was no longer new, but it remained one of the most effective designs of its era, and Peterson’s loose, committed style made it look alive in a way few drivers could manage. He had already taken pole positions and looked like a winner in waiting. France finally converted the waiting into a result.
Scheckter opens the door
The race’s first major story was not Peterson. Jody Scheckter, making an early appearance for McLaren, led and looked capable of a shock win. Then Emerson Fittipaldi closed in. On lap 41, the two collided while fighting at the front, eliminating Fittipaldi and damaging Scheckter’s race beyond repair.
That incident changed the afternoon. Peterson inherited the lead and brought the Lotus home ahead of François Cevert’s Tyrrell and Carlos Reutemann’s Brabham. It was Peterson’s first win, Reutemann’s first podium, and another race in which the 1973 title fight between Jackie Stewart and Fittipaldi took a sharp turn without either of them winning.
Scheckter’s role did not end neatly. He had already drawn criticism in France, and at the next race at Silverstone he triggered a major first-lap accident. McLaren stood him down for a spell, and the early reputation of a wild young driver was hard to avoid.
Peterson’s win was less noisy than the collisions around it, but it mattered more to his career. He would become a ten-time Grand Prix winner and one of the fastest drivers never to win the world championship. Paul Ricard was the first confirmed proof that the style could produce more than applause and bent lap records. On 1 July 1973, Peterson stopped being merely spectacular and became a Formula 1 winner.
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