Formula 1
in
italiano
After
winning championships in Karting and Formula 3 Riccardo Patrese made the step up
to Formula 1 in May 1977 at
Monaco with the Shadow Grand Prix team.
His debut came as a result of Shadow having to alter their driver line-up
following the death of Tom Pryce at the South African GP in March '77. The team
brought in Alan Jones to partner Renzo Zorzi who then left after the Spanish
race.
Patrese had his first taste of a Grand Prix car at Paul Ricard shortly before
Monaco and then impressed everyone with a fine 9th place finish. Although he was
forced to miss a couple of races Riccardo ended the year with a superb sixth
place, and his first World Championship point, at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Members
of Shadow, including Alan Rees and Jackie Oliver, split with owner Don Nichols
to form the new Arrows team for the start of the 1978 season and Patrese was
signed to partner Gunnar Nilsson. Tragically Nilsson was unable to race as he
was diagnosed with cancer and sadly died in October 1978.
Arrows made their debut in Brazil having launched their new car, the Arrows FA1,
in the snow at Silverstone days before. A 10th place finish was impressive
enough but at the next Grand Prix in South Africa Patrese and the team stunned
the F1 establishment by
leading for 36 laps. Engine failure cost them the win with only 15 laps to go
but driver and team had made their mark.
Second
place in Sweden showed how competitive the new combination was although there
were comments made about Patrese's aggressive driving style. Ronnie Peterson in
particular criticised the Italian's vigorous defence of second place in Sweden.
The progress of Arrows was then severely hampered by a court case instigated by Don
Nichols who claimed ownership of the design of the FA1. As a result the team had
to design and build a new car in a short space of time. The A1 made its' debut
at the Austrian GP but proved to be less competitive than the FA1.
Then came the Italian Grand Prix at Monza
and the accident that claimed Ronnie
Peterson's life. Riccardo Patrese was blamed by his fellow drivers for causing
the accident and the GPDA, led by James Hunt and Niki Lauda, effectively forced
the organisers of the next race at Watkins Glen to refuse his entry. Riccardo
and the starter of the race, Gianni Restelli, were also charged with
manslaughter in February 1981. Both the GPDA and the
courts later cleared Patrese of any blame, although the court case lasted until
November 1981, and re-establishing his reputation was
to prove a long and difficult process.
Three more years at Arrows saw little in the way of results, although in his
final year with the team Riccardo earned his first pole position (at Long Beach)
and was briefly a front runner again.
In
1982 he joined Brabham to partner Nelson Piquet who had won the World
Championship the previous year.
Bernie Ecclestone had joined forces with BMW but
the partnership was difficult at first and results suffered. However, the high
point of Patrese's season was his debut win, in remarkable circumstances, at
Monaco. His second year at Brabham saw his teammate win the drivers' title
again but the Italian suffered from poor reliability. At least Riccardo's first
spell at Brabham ended with a victory but this would be the last time he would
reach the top of the podium until 1990.
There
were high hopes for the Benetton Euroracing Alfa-Romeo team that Riccardo
joined, with Eddie Cheever, for the 1984 & 85 seasons,
but results were
spectacularly absent and he returned to Brabham with his future in doubt. While
the second spell at Brabham did not produce significant results it did, with the
help of Bernie Ecclestone, open the door to a seat in a Williams-Honda for the
last race of the 1987 season. Thus began the Patrese renaissance.
Teamed
with Nigel Mansell in a Williams-Judd Riccardo found a supportive environment to
re-establish his career. The FW12 was reasonably quick but unreliable and
Mansell left at the end of the year for Ferrari. In 1989 Frank Williams brought
Renault power back to F1 and (new team-mate) Thierry Boutsen led Patrese to a
Williams 1-2 in Canada which was the start of a hugely successful era for all
concerned.
Riccardo returned to the top step of the podium once again at the 1990 San
Marino Grand Prix. Having lost the same race in 1983 while leading this proved
to be an emotional victory on home soil.
In
1991 Williams re-signed Nigel Mansell and the team was ready to challenge for
the title again. Unexpectedly it was Patrese who led the way, outqualifying his
illustrious teammate in the early races and winning in Mexico. Ultimately,
however, Mansell established himself as de facto number one and won the title in
1992 with Riccardo as runner-up.
Having been told that Williams' choice for 1993
was Prost and Mansell Riccardo signed for Benetton. Mansell then quit and headed
for America giving Damon Hill his big break. Thus it was that Riccardo Patrese
ended his Grand Prix career as teammate to Michael Schumacher. Results were disappointing until the latter part of the
season by which time Riccardo had been freed from his contract by Flavio
Briatore.