Autosport

from Autosport 18th November 1976

1976 Formula 3 Season Review by Chris Witty

Undoubtedly the find of the year must have been Riccardo Patrese, the 22-year-old ex-World Karting Champion from Italy who was embarking on his second season of racing and, like Giacomelli, his first year in Formula 3.

Patrese ran a works-supported Chevron B34 for the Italian Chevron importer Pino Trivellato. His first appearance was at the Nurburgring, where he gave Andersson a scare by staying right on the pace at this daunting German track. When it started to rain, everyone expected the Italian to fall off (as most of them do), but young Ric eased back to consolidate and finish third. It had been his first experience of driving on slick tyres in the rain. From there onwards the seed was sown.

Concentrating on the European Formula 3 Championship, Patrese's natural flair started to show through, and along with it the results started to flow as well. His success did wonders for the Bolton company, who suddenly became inundated with orders from overseas and could not cater for their own works-assisted team which, in retrospect, was unfortunate for Geoff Lees who was to be their driver.

A former team-mate to Eddie Cheever in the Italian karting team, Patrese's approach to the job in hand showed remarkable maturity for one so young. And yet, as with Cheever, we tended to overlook that he had been racing in tough competition for quite a few years beforehand.

But as the year progressed and the tension began to mount, Patrese's cool and calm approach began to change. He started to let his emotions get the better of him and, following an incident at the penultimate round of the European Championship in which another competitor knocked him off, the Italian press started a slur campaign against Andersson who, for some crazy reason, they thought to be the root cause behind the incident. With Patrese adding coals to the fire at every opportunity, the final round turned into a bout of uncontrolled histrionics, with the Italian venting his feelings towards Andersson's race tactics with a tearful outburst. But out of it all came the European and Italian Championships!

Providing he can control his emotions, his dedicated and smooth driving style will, no doubt, see him progress - providing he can control himself, and the Italians treat him as a mortal and not like a second Messiah.

1977 Formula 2 Season Review by Jeff Hutchinson

from Autosport 24th November 1977

There was a strong Italian challenge for the F2 crown this year, jointly led by Shadow F1 driver Riccardo Patrese, driving the quasi-works Chevron-BMW run by the Italian Chevron importer Pino Trivellato, and by Bruno Giacomelli driving the works March-BMW.

Patrese, considering the form he has shown in F1 with Shadow, could only be described as a disappointment in F2 this year. He was constantly among the front runners with his Chevron-BMW, which was treated by Chevron as the works development car, but he failed to score a single win (other than the non-championship Suzuka race right at the end of the season). He was often involved in bumping sessions, particularly at Misano where he pushed off Arturo Merzario's Chevron and later Sandro Pesenti-Rossi's March. Pole position at a stunning 7m 15.3s at the Nurburgring was overshadowed by a crash in practice and then another in the race. Mechanical failures saw him fall out of four more races, otherwise he finished in the points every time he finished, including four second places, but no elusive win. One sometimes got the feeling that, with a steady F1 drive under his belt, he put more effort into that than he did his F2 programme, especially towards the end of the season when the title was already out of his grasp.