Motor racing in Sweden predated the World Championship by several decades. The first Swedish Winter Grand Prix was held in 1931 on a 46-kilometre circuit near Lake Rämen, and the first Swedish Summer Grand Prix followed in 1933 on a 30-kilometre road circuit near Norra Vram. That 1933 race was marked by a first-lap pile-up that killed a riding mechanic and burned down a nearby house before continuing to its conclusion, won by Antonio Brivio in an Alfa Romeo for Scuderia Ferrari. Sports car editions were held at the 6.537-kilometre Råbelövsbanan circuit near Kristianstad in 1955, 1956, and 1957, as part of the World Sportscar Championship. A one-off Formula Two event at Karlskoga also carried the Swedish Grand Prix name in 1967.
The driver most directly responsible for bringing Formula One to Sweden was Ronnie Peterson, whose international success with Team Lotus created the commercial and popular demand for a home race. The Scandinavian Raceway at Anderstorp, located about 65 kilometres from Jönköping in Småland, was built for the purpose.
1973 saw the inaugural World Championship Swedish Grand Prix. Peterson qualified on pole but struggled with tyre wear across the race distance. Denny Hulme in a McLaren, running harder compound tyres, closed the gap in the closing laps and passed Peterson on lap 79 of the 80-lap race to win. Peterson finished second, the closest any Swede came to winning on home soil.
1974 was dominated by the two Tyrrell 007-Cosworths of Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler. Depailler took pole but Scheckter won by 0.380 seconds — the South African's first Formula One Grand Prix victory.
1975 was won by Niki Lauda in the Ferrari 312T. Running fifth after qualifying, Lauda tracked down leader Carlos Reutemann's Brabham and overtook him to win by six seconds, with Clay Regazzoni third in the second Ferrari.
1976 produced the race's most famous result: the only Formula One victory by a six-wheeled car, the Tyrrell P34. Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler finished first and second in the twin-front-axle machine, which featured four small front wheels intended to improve mechanical grip and reduce understeer. Despite the convincing result at Anderstorp, the P34 never won a Formula One race again.
1977 was won by Jacques Laffite in a Ligier-Matra, the first time a French car powered by a French engine, backed by a French company, and driven by a French driver had won a Grand Prix.
1978 saw the controversial debut of the Brabham BT46B, designed by Gordon Murray. The car used a large rear-mounted fan to extract air from beneath the car, generating additional aerodynamic downforce. The design's legality was protested but permitted to race. Niki Lauda led the race after Mario Andretti's Lotus dropped out with a mechanical failure, and won by 34.6 seconds after an oil-dropped section of track caused problems for other competitors. The BT46B was subsequently withdrawn voluntarily by Brabham and never raced again, though its single victory was allowed to stand.
The Swedish Grand Prix disappeared from the calendar after 1978. The deaths of Ronnie Peterson — killed following an accident at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in September 1978 — and Gunnar Nilsson, who died of cancer the same year, removed the two most prominent Swedish drivers who had driven interest in the event. Commercial support collapsed and the race was scheduled but cancelled before being run in 1979, with no Swedish Grand Prix held subsequently in the Formula One World Championship.
The six World Championship editions of the Swedish Grand Prix produced a concentrated sequence of memorable moments, from Hulme's late charge in 1973 to the six-wheeled Tyrrell victory of 1976 and the fan-car controversy of 1978. The Anderstorp circuit, isolated in the forests of southern Sweden, had an intimate character unlike the larger motorsport facilities of continental Europe. The race's brief existence reflected the dependence of national Grands Prix on local motorsport heroes: without Peterson and Nilsson, Sweden's Formula One moment passed quickly.