Reine Wisell, the „King“ of Formula 3 in 1968 and together with Emerson Fittipaldi successful F1 debut in 1970, couldn't bask in his successes for long and retired from racing relatively early. The blond Swede then basked in a different way – until his death on March 20, 2022, under palm trees on the beaches of Thailand.
„My goal is Formula 1, eventually,“ explained the 1968 Formula 3 dominator, the blond Swede Reine Wisell, with grand gestures to the nine-years-older, black-haired Spaniard Alex Soler-Roig on the occasion of the 1969 Solitude Race in Hockenheim. „Well, then hurry up, but whether you believe it or not, I want to get there too,“ said the gentleman from a well-to-do doctor's family. Alex, at least, was able to pin a fourth place together with Rudi Lins in a Porsche at the 12 Hours of Sebring that year, but in a monoplace car he was pretty much on his own. Let's get ahead of ourselves: Reine climbed onto the „podium“ in his very first Grand Prix, in 1970 at Watkins Glen, as a factory Lotus driver, alongside the new number 1 on the team, Emerson Fittipaldi, and the BRM driver Pedro Rodriguez. Alex, besides three non-qualifications between 1970 and '72, only managed six Formula 1 starts, in which he didn't see a checkered flag.
Reine Wisell - From Dirt Bike to Formula 3 Star
The proximity of his birthplace Motala in the province of Östergötland to the Karlskoga race track inspired Reine Tore Leif Wisell to switch from two wheels in off-road events to four. After a Triumph Herald, a Mini-Cooper was next, with which he also competed in ice races and even became runner-up in 1966 behind a Lotus Cortina. Many retirements, mostly due to technical defects, had eaten away at his racing record, and only through a job at BMC Sweden could he plug the financial holes. His temporarily closed car repair shop, together with a friend, could open its doors again – for a Formula 3 Cooper, which he had bought from Inge Rosqvist. After mid-field placements, the prestigious victory against his well-known countryman Picko Troberg followed at the end of the season. „Extremely important for me,“ says Reine, “because I wanted to buy Picko's Brabham BT18 and lower the price.“ In addition to nine victories in the Swedish F3 Championship, he also took second places in Villa Real behind Chris Williams and in Jarama behind Clay Regazzoni. „His Tecno was the ultimate for me back then. Together with Ronnie Peterson, I sped off to Italy, where we bought a pair of Tecnos with all the money we could afford. In 1968, Reine Wisell sensationally won eleven European races, with street circuits like Brno or Monaco suiting him particularly well.
Reine Wisell Won with Three Broken Ribs
Chevron had offered him a works car for 1969, with which he achieved six victories in addition to various retirements – one of them with three broken ribs and a crooked nose. „I had crashed into a barrier while training for F3 in Snetterton – Chevron and my nose crooked, three ribs broken! I pulled myself together and won the next day in a replacement car.“ Formula 1 test drives in a McLaren M7A at Goodwood resulted in a preliminary contract, but its implementation did not materialize. Thus, Reine let off steam in another McLaren: in Sid Taylor's F5000 M10B. A few Formula 2 races were added to this. Reine had sought a new home in Mallorca not only for tax reasons: „I like to feel the sun on my skin.“
Formula 1 debut with flying colors
No sun, but a rain shower had just drenched the Watkins Glen track at the exact moment Graham Hill and Ronnie Peterson were on it. While both of them spun, Reine Wisell caught a relatively dry spell and put his Lotus 72, in its first outing for the Gold Leaf Team Lotus, in the fifth starting row. Beside him stood the Rob Walker-Lotus 72 of Hill, World Champion in 1962 and '68. On the last lap, he had been overtaken by the Lotus novice by two hundredths of a second. What a debut! Reine's friend Ronnie had to make do with the eighth row next to Jack Brabham in the March 701 from Antique Automobiles. Of the former hot Formula 3 rivals Wisell, Peterson, and Fittipaldi, the young Brazilian, as Jochen Rindt's successor, naturally achieved the greatest success: a GP victory in the fourth race. In Mexico, Lotus was not competitive and also retired from the race: Fittipaldi had engine failure on the first lap, Wisell was not classified due to not completing the required distance! After a rather mixed 1971 season (Fittipaldi with 16 championship points and Wisell with nine points) and a dismal Lotus turbine outing at Silverstone, Reine was slightly frustrated, especially since Ronnie had become Vice World Champion.
Reine Wisell's fortunes declined.
Six Marlboro-BRM entries - with one crash at the Spanish GP - ended without championship points. Here in Jarama, Reine Wisell and Alex Soler-Roig met again as teammates. Reine, next to Ronnie in the fourth row, said to Alex: „Congratulations, you beat Graham Hill by two tenths.“ Both then went off the track: Alex on the seventh lap, Reine 17 laps later. With an engine failure, the last of a total of five white/red BRMs also expired. In Monaco, Reine's favorite track, the BRM smoked after only 15 laps, in France the gearbox failed, and on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, the engine blew up again. A return to Lotus for the North American Grands Prix brought starting positions in the midfield - ahead of all BRMs in Watkins Glen - but only a tenth place at the US GP. Engine failure also afflicted a guest appearance with March in 1973 at the Circuit Paul Ricard. In 1974, the suspension of the March 741 broke. At least Reine was faster than teammate Vittorio Brambilla in his old homeland. That was it for Formula 1! Reine Wisell, who enjoyed the decades of his life after motorsport on the palm-lined beaches of Thailand and in the country itself, died of heart failure on March 20, 2022.
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Photos: Dr. Benno Müller / Födisch Archive, Jochen von Osterroth