Bertil Ingemar Roos (12 October 1943 – 31 March 2016) was a Swedish racing driver from Gothenburg whose varied career took him from success in American Formula Super Vee to European Formula Two, Formula Atlantic, Formula One and Can-Am.
Driver Bio
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Birthplace | Gothenburg, Sweden |
| Born | 12 October 1943 |
| Died | 31 March 2016 |
| First Grand Prix | 1974 Swedish Grand Prix |
| Last Grand Prix | 1974 Swedish Grand Prix |
| Years Active | 1974 |
| Current/Last Team | Shadow |
Despite showing considerable promise on both sides of the Atlantic, Roos was given only one opportunity to race in the Formula One World Championship. Appropriately, it came at his home Grand Prix in Sweden in 1974.
His Formula One adventure would prove frustratingly short, but Roos went on to enjoy a long career in North American motorsport and became particularly influential as a racing instructor.
Roos demonstrated his potential well before Formula One came calling.
One of his biggest early successes arrived in 1973, when he won the United States Formula Super Vee championship. It was an important achievement for the Swedish driver and helped establish his reputation in North American single-seater racing.
His talents were not limited to a single championship or continent. Roos also produced strong performances in Formula Two in Europe and competed successfully in Formula Atlantic in Canada.
With results coming in several different categories, he appeared to have the credentials needed to move further up the single-seater ladder.
Eventually, Formula One offered him a chance.
Roos’ sole Formula One World Championship appearance came at his home Grand Prix in 1974, when he joined Shadow.
For a Swedish driver attempting to establish himself at the highest level, making a Formula One debut in front of a home crowd was quite an opportunity. Unfortunately, neither the race nor his relationship with the team developed as Roos might have hoped. His Grand Prix ended prematurely when his car suffered a transmission failure, forcing him to retire.
That retirement would ultimately become Roos’ first and last appearance in a Formula One World Championship race. There was no second Grand Prix opportunity for Roos.
The relationship between the Swedish driver and Shadow was not an especially comfortable one, with Roos and the team failing to form the sort of partnership that might have led to a longer Formula One career. Shadow ultimately decided to pursue its future with Tom Pryce instead.
Pryce took the opportunity and went on to establish himself as one of the most exciting young talents of the period, while Roos found himself heading in a different direction.
For Roos, Formula One had effectively opened and closed its door within the space of a single Grand Prix weekend. Rather than allowing his brief Formula One experience to define his career, Roos returned to racing series where he had already enjoyed considerable success.
He headed back across the Atlantic and resumed competing in the United States and Canada.
It was familiar territory for a driver who had already won the US Formula Super Vee title and raced in Canadian Formula Atlantic, and North America would remain an important part of both his professional racing career and his life away from competition.
Roos remained an active racing driver in the 1980s, and his later career brought further championship success. Competing in Can-Am, he became a two-time champion in the two-litre-and-under category. Titles that added another dimension to a racing record that had already included earlier success.
Roos also became heavily involved in the instructional side of motorsport. He served as the senior driving instructor at Fred Opert’s racing school in Pennsylvania, close to Pocono Raceway.
It was a role well suited to a driver with experience across such a broad range of machinery and championships. His involvement eventually went far beyond simply working as an instructor. Roos later purchased the racing school, turning what had begun as an instructional position into his own business and ensuring that driver development became an important part of his life after his highest-profile racing years.
Bertil Roos died on 31 March 2016 at Pocono Medical Centre in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. He was 72 years old.
Grand Prix Stats
| Race Entries | 1 |
| Race Starts | 1 |
| Did Not Start | 0 |
| Best Race Start | 23rd |
| Best Race Finish | DNF |
| Retirements | 1 |
| First-Lap Retirements | 0 |
| Not Classified | 0 |
| Disqualified | 0 |
| Did Not Qualify | 0 |
Qualifying
| Qualifying Sessions | 1 |
| Reached Q3 | 0 |
| Q2 Eliminations | 0 |
| Q1 Eliminations | 0 |
| Did Not Qualify | 0 |
Stats by Season
| Year | Constructor | Entries | Starts | Wins | Podiums | Poles | Fastest Laps | Front Rows | DNF | Best Start | Best Result | Pts Finishes | Points | Championship |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Shadow | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 23 | DNF | 0 | 0 | NC |
Stats by Constructor
| Constructor | Years | Entries | Starts | Wins | Podiums | Poles | Fastest Laps | Front Rows | DNF | Best Start | Best Result | Pts Finishes | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shadow | 1974 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 23 | DNF | 0 | 0 |
Teammates & Qualifying Head-to-Head
| Teammate | Years | Races | Qualifying H2H |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jean-Pierre Jarier | 1974 | 1 | – |
