Ronnie Peterson was dead, but the tragedy at Monza had an aftermath. Who was responsible? Immediately after the Italian Grand Prix a number of drivers wanted to boycott the driver who through his irresponsible driving was regarded to be the one who caused the accident - Riccardo Patrese - and he was banned from one race. Patrese came from a rich family and gav an arrogant and unsympathetic impression at this time. (over the years Patrese came to be a respected driver and one off those who entered most Grands Prix).

But banning from one race wasn't enough and it was a then very young Men avstängning över ett lopp räckte inte och det blev en då mycket ung investigating judge, Armando Spataro, who was assigned to investigate the accident. He put together a commitee of technical specialists of all branches. They worked slowly, but thoroughly and their work resulted in the driver Riccardo Patrese and the starter Giovanni Restelli being charged for manslaughter. On October 28th 1981, the judge Generoso Petrella summoned a trial.

Riccardo Patrese and Giovanni Restelli

The prosecutor wanted Patrese to be sentenced to a provisory eight months of jail and wanted to prove the following:

• Giovanni Restelli had started the race (despite the fact that the cars in teh back wer not standing still) and he was therfore partly responsible for the accident.
• Riccardo Patrese tried to overtake Hunt on the right side, outside of the track's markings and despite the fact thet the track narrowed.
• Ronnie Peterson had made a slow start and had been overtaken by several cars (Behind Ronnie James Hunt and Riccardo Patrese approached in high speed).

The drawing above by Magnus Gerne was published in in the Swedish newspaper Expressen the day after the accident. It shows how Patrese turns in front of Hunt who in his turn hits Ronnie. Patrese denied having touched Hunt, but Hunt insisted all of his life that Patrese had hit him. The Italian newspapers were very hard on Patrese for his reckless driving.

At the trial Clay Regazzoni, in a wheelchair testifeid of Patrese's dangerous way of driving. Word stood against word that the Arrows team had changed tyres to wipe out any treaces of a collision. The Italian magazine Autosprint contributed with a large number of photographs to try help making the chain of events clearer. Among other things the readers sent their own photographs. 

The three members of the court only needed five minutes to annonce their view to judge Petrella. Late in the evening of October 28th it was clear that both Patrese and Restelli were freed from all charges.

• Despite the fact that everyone agreed that Restelli had started the race in an incorrect way, he was freed due to legal - technical circumstances.
• Patrese was freed after a witness, Carlo Librizzi, explained explained thet he from his position in the FIAT-tower had seen how Patrese was more then one car-length ahead of Hunt before he turned infront of hunt's McLaren. (Autosprints photographs made the assumption 9 feet possible).

Two years after his acquittal the jury's verdict was made public. Accoding to the jury James Hunt is given all teh blame. Hunt should have breaked and kept his line behind Patrese. This never gave Hunt any rest and he kept Detta faktum gav aldrig Hunt någon ro och han fortsatte att asserting his innocence. In 1993 James Hunt died from a heart attack only 46 years old.

The Italian court's verdict, may not be so surprising to those who nowadays follow Berlusconis circus. Had it not been for Patrese tehaccident never would have happened. On the internet (Atlas F1 Bulletin) one canread of how the signature "Buford" looks at the incident:

"I have the wreck on video tape. ABC had it from 3 cameras including a helicopter, and I had a VCR in 1978, years before most people got one. Tapes in those days were $35.00 each.

The cars at the rear were not stopped when the starter started it. But despite the advantage of still rolling slowly (over being at a dead stop) they had nowhere on the track to go to take advantage of this because of the field ahead that was at a dead stop. But to their right there was another paved lane marked off by a line indicating this is not legal race track surface. It is a lane that originally led onto the banking and had a barrier down near the end that forced anybody on that lane (which should have been nobody) to either stop or merge left back onto the official track.

Patrese whipped to the right and stood on it and blasted up on the non track lane passing the just starting rows of cars until he was up near the front, perhaps row 3. The cars to his left were now racing and spread across the track and when faced with the fast approaching barrier, instead of braking and waiting for the cars on the actual track to pass before merging in he simply tuned left and forced his way in. The evasive action required of the cars on the legal track caused wheel banging and that turned Peterson right head on into the barrier where his car exploded and others piled up behind. Wheels went everywhere and cars spun wildly and in the middle of it all was an enormous fireball with thick black smoke and flames extending across the entire track. It was similar to the Sachs-MacDonald fireball though not that big. But pretty damn big.

They switched to the helicopter shot directly above the fire. Peterson was totally exposed in the flames. The front of the car was gone. You could see his white uniform all the way down to this feet. He was not moving and fuel was running out and the fire increasing. Hunt and others immediately arrived in seconds and either Peterson's belts were already gone or Hunt was easily able to release them but they quickly picked him up and drug him away and layed him down on the track away from the fire. You could not see his upper body at that point due to the drivers around him, but you could see both legs were badly broken in multiple places and Jackie Stewart was commentating it was good they had gotten him out of the fire, but he seemed to have some leg injuries, at least.

To say this was not totally the fault of Patrese is absurd. Had he not used illegal surface to make passes and then crowded in with no regard to the cars on his left who were on the legal racing surface, it would not have happened.

I just went and pulled the tape. ABC was showing the Michigan 150 Indy Car race and then they cut away at a yellow to go to the GP Italy report. Jim McKay and Jackie Steward started the broadcast telling of the ironic parallels of the first American World Champion whose teammate had died at Monza at the race he won the championship and how it had now happened again. Then they showed the Von Trips crash in black and white footage. Then they said what a festive atmosphere it was the weekend before and how expectant they were but it had all gone terribly wrong. Then McKay said "Lets go back in time to our coverage of the race as Jackie and I called it last weekend in Italy."

They show a helicopter shot of the grid and are talking about the Hill victory and a seven year old boy a few years before that who was at Monza when Ascari won who dreamed of racing some day. That boy was Mario Andretti who today has a chance to win the World Championship. They explain only his teammate has a chance to win the championship and if Mario wins today and Peterson finishes no better than 4th Mario will clinch. They interview Mario who is hoping for a clean start and is worried about the chicane and they interview Ronnie telling of his morning accident, "No brakes from very high speed." Peterson says he has to drive the old 78 and then Chapman arrives and Peterson smiles and Chapman puts his hand on Ronnie's shoulder and points to the grid. Then they show the warm-up lap.

Tambay goes to the pits as the cars roll up slowly. Stewart explains they have a light system now. They show the front row stop. It is just five seconds before they take off so clearly the rest of the filed had to be still moving. Most of what I described from memory above was accurate but now looking at it after 20 years it is even more blatant than I described when Patrese moved over. He not only was not ahead of Hunt, he was directly along side and just squeezed him left. It appears he hits Hunt but the cars are going away and seen from the rear. If he didn't hit him, he forced Hunt at least a lane to the left into Peterson who hits wheels and spins to the right directly into the barrier. Then it switches to the chicane view looking back up the track showing cars and wheels and wings flying around and the entire horizon behind that filled with black smoke.

They are yelling "There‚s an accident. It‚s a big one. These cars are full of fuel. It‚s a black car, it could be Ronnie Peterson.‰ Then they switch to the helicopter which is approaching from the chicane side of the crash on the grandstand side. Stewart says "There‚s a driver, it looks like James Hunt running to the car that‚s burning there, he‚s running to that car?‰ and McKay jumps in "Word Jackie that it‚s Peterson. Peterson in the burning car. A number of other cars and we‚ll pick them up as we can but that is bad, very bad and he‚s still in that car and oh, this is terrible.‰ Then the helicopter arrives directly above and just off the track from the fire and the smoke clears and there is a direct shot down on massive flames. Two drivers are there and two firemen. One is pouring on an extinguisher and another from the safety vehicle which has the trunk open and he has a long hose. The car is enveloped in flames and two drivers are standing near making feints
to go in but there is too much fire. A third driver with a mostly red helmet with white ovals all around arrives with an extinguisher but it doesn‚t work and he turns away. A 4th driver in a red suit and mostly red helmet with white striping is a ways back waving his arms. The second driver to the scene has a white suit and his helmet appears to be blue at the top third, then white in the middle third, and red around the bottom third. Hunt has a dark helmet and has red shoulders. Those are the two trying to get in.

Here is where it differs from my earlier description from 20 year old memory. Peterson is in a yellow suit and he was in fact moving. He amazingly appears out of the front of the flames with his dark helmet pointed away from the car. You could not see it through the inferno but he has apparently lunged forward through the open front of the car and ends up sitting on the ground outside the missing front, the opposite way he was sitting in the car. The two firemen see this and stop spraying the car and start spraying him and while he was totally enveloped in flames, they beat it down so you can see him lying on his back up on his elbows with his legs from knee down back in the wreckage and fire. Seeing this Hunt and the guy in the blue and white and red striped helmet get inspired and move in. Stewart says "They are fighting the fire. They are very quickly onto it. There‚s James Hunt. There‚s another driver. Patrick Depallier is in there. The other guy (Depallier apparently) is kicking the wreckage around Peterson‚s legs three kicks and then Hunt kind of shoulders him out of the way from his left and bends over and grabs his legs and after a couple big pulls he starts dragging him away by the legs. The guy in the red suit moves in as does a guy in a blue suit and the three of them drag him a short distance away. Depallier (spelling?) is just to his left. He had done a heroic job though it was Hunt who got a hold of him and drug him away and the others joined in after he already had him extracted.

McKay says "They‚re getting him out of the car!!!‰ and Stewart says "He‚s out of the car now and thank goodness for that. They‚re getting the fire under control.‰ He says some other things about other cars. Hunt walks away taking off his gloves. Other drivers surround Peterson. Then his legs are visible horribly mangled, and he raises the left one. Stewart says "That is Ronnie Peterson we are looking at. He‚s got leg injuries there I‚m afraid as well as anything else.‰

They continue to show the helicopter shots of the overall area, then the red flag, then show and comment on Brambilla laying on the ground next to his car. Then they show the replay. They are blaming the starter for the cars not fully stopped. They show it full speed. They then zoom in, in close up and Stewart says, "The slow motion here, it seems to me as I read it in fact the driver Patrese seems to have come into contact with James Hunt in a red and white car. He bounced across; it looks like he has hit Ronnie Peterson in the rear wheel. Ronnie then veers right down, crashes into the barrier, the front end of the car has got the barrier. The car then leapt across the road, hit the Tyrrell car of Didier Pironi and that was a heavy impact as well?‰

Stewart interviews Andretti. He says the track encourages passing and then funnels down. He said "I am really worried about Ronnie. It is very bad.‰ They show the ambulance taking Peterson away. They go away to commercial and when they come back they have a voice over by McKay saying it was clear at this point the multiple injuries to Peterson had given Andretti the title. "Later Peterson would die, but not until the next morning. Victory so long anticipated and so much earned, now tasted like ashes in Mario‚s mouth.‰

They go to a before the restart interview with Mario who says "It is no time to feel like celebrating and it has lost it‚s impact. Everything was going so well for both us.‰"

If only the court had had access to that video... Patrese probably wouldn't hav driven so many GP:s and James Hunt's unhappy life might have taken different turn. Unfortunately it wouldn't have changed anything for Ronnie...

After the accident at Monza, Professor Sid Watkin's authority was extended to supervising the rescue arrangements on the cirquit. This provoked a great deal of resistans and contorversy, but the following 20 years proved that this was a great step towards higher safety. 51 serously injured drivers in 250 accidents between the years 1973-77, to compare with three seriously injured in 283 accidents in 1978-1982.