Patrick Tambay
Racing driver who had Formula One victories with Ferrari and competed in the Paris-dakar Rally
PATRICK TAMBAY, who has died aged 73, was a racing driver best known for his association with Ferrari in the 1980s; he had two Formula One victories for the Italian giants, and also competed in the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Dakar Rally across the Sahara desert.
Daniel Patrick Charles Maurice Nasri Tambay was born on June 25 1949 in Paris; his father was a wealthy property developer. In his teens, Patrick was a national downhill skiing champion, and he secured a skiing scholarship at the University of Colorado.
But cars were also a passion, and after winning a young drivers’ competition he got his start in motor racing in Formula Renault. In 1972 he moved up into Formula Two, then a few years later joined Carl Haas’s team in the Can-am series, taking the title in his first season.
On the Can-am circuit he became close friends with Gilles Villeneuve (he was godfather to Villeneuve’s son Jacques, the future world champion), and they made their F1 debuts at the 1977 British Grand Prix. The following year he was invited to a meeting with Enzo Ferrari, but when the great man came down with flu it was postponed – and Tambay joined Mclaren, who had also been chasing him. Villeneuve went the other way and joined Ferrari.
The Mclaren team, though, was in decline – despite the presence of James Hunt – and when Tambay eventually met Enzo Ferrari to explain his decision, the magnate told him: “Patrick, what a stupid mistake you made. You would have been world champion with us, and you would have made a lot more money.”
While Villeneuve’s star continued to rise at Ferrari, Tambay had two underwhelming seasons with Mclaren – the second alongside John Watson, who had replaced Hunt – and at the end of 1979 Teddy Mayer asked him to take part in a drive-off with Alain Prost for the second-car slot. Tambay refused and returned to Can-am, winning the title again with Haas. He returned to F1 in 1981, first with the Theodore team, then Ligier. In 1982 he finally joined Ferrari – but only because Gilles Villeneuve was killed in a crash during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix.
A couple of races into his Ferrari career his teammate Didier Pironi, who had just secured pole position at the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim, suffered career-ending injuries when he collided with Alain Prost later in qualifying. Undaunted, Tambay went on to score his first F1 victory. He ended the season in seventh place despite only joining halfway through.
In 1983 he started the season well, and at the fourth grand prix, at Imola, he found a note pinned to his car: “Patrick, win for Gilles”; it was at that track a year earlier that Villeneuve had been “cheated” out of victory by Pironi in a dispute over team orders.
At one point during the race, Tambay later reported, he felt he was losing concentration and heard a loud bang in the car. He thought to himself that it was Villeneuve telling him to focus, and he went on to score his second GP victory.
He was released by Ferrari in 1984 and had brief stints with Renault and the Haas F1 team. He retired in 1987 to found a sports promotion company, but returned to racing in 1989. He drove a Jaguar in the World Sportscar Championship and finished fourth in the Le Mans 24 Hours. He twice finished in the top three in the Paris-dakar Rally as well as driving in ice races and the Tour de Corse jet ski race.
The warm and amiable Tambay – who had a talent for mimicking F1’s potentates – went on to become a television commentator, and served as deputy mayor of Le Cannet.
He was twice married and had a daughter and two sons, one of whom, Adrien, followed him into motor racing.
Patrick Tambay, born June 25 1949, died December 4 2022