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Patrick Tambay
Born 25 1949 (1949-Template:Pad2digit-Template:Pad2digit) (age 75)
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Died {{{death_date}}}
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Formula One career
Nationality 25px France French
Years 1977-1979, 1981-1986

Patrick Daniel Tambay[1] (born 25 June 1949 in Paris) is a French former racing driver. He competed in 123 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, winning twice, securing 5 pole positions and scoring a total of 103 Championship points. In 2006, he raced in the inaugural season of the Grand Prix Masters formula for retired Formula One drivers, and continued in the series in 2007.

Career[]

File:Tambay Renault RE50 1984 Dallas F1.jpg

Tambay at the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix where, like many others, he retired after hitting a wall.

Early in his career, Tambay was a part of Formula 5000 with the team run by Carl Haas[2]

In 1977, winning the Can-Am championship with Haas,[3] Tambay debuted in Formula One on a one-off basis with Surtees, driving in only one session at the 1977 French Grand Prix before spending the rest of the season with Theodore. The team, in collaboration with Ensign, was running their N177 chassis. The showings proved fruitful as he moved to McLaren to race Formula One full time for the 1978 and 1979 seasons. In 1980, he returned to Can Am with the Lola team run by Carl Haas, immediately winning early in the season[3] and then winning his second Can-Am championship.

In 1981 he returned to F1, first driving for the Theodore team then finishing the season with Ligier. In 1982, he was offered a place with the Scuderia Ferrari after the death of Gilles Villeneuve. He won his first Grand Prix at the German Grand Prix that year after Didier Pironi was injured in practice. The German GP was just his fourth race for the Maranello based team. He took his second and last Grand Prix win in 1983 at Imola, in a very emotional victory in front of the Italian faithful when he drove the #27 Ferrari (the car number of Villeneuve) to the win after Riccardo Patrese crashed out of the lead with only 6 laps to go. He was dropped by the team in 1984 in favor of Italian Michele Alboreto. Tambay moved to Renault, and then spent a year reunited with his old boss Carl Haas racing in the Haas Lola F1 team.

In 1987, Tambay formed his own sports promotion company in Switzerland, but gave this up in 1989 to return to racing. In 1989, he drove a Jaguar in the Sports-Prototype World Championship and went on to finish fourth in the Le Mans 24 Hours. He then took up desert raid racing, finishing twice in the top three on the Paris-Dakar. Additionally, he has been noted as involved in ice races and the Tour de Corse jet ski race.

Tambay was briefly involved actively with the Larrousse team, beginning in 1994 as a partnership with friend and business associate Michael Golay. At the end of the 1994 season, however, the Fast Group SA company owned by Tambay and Golay ended its involvement with the team.

Since retiring from full-time racing, Tambay has worked as a commentator for French television. He also serves as the deputy mayor of Le Cannet, a suburb of Cannes.

He is godfather to 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve. His son Adrien is currently racing in the DTM championship.

Complete Formula One World Championship results[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 WDC Points
1977 Team Surtees Surtees TS19 Cosworth V8 ARG
BRA
RSA
USW
ESP
MON
BEL
SWE
FRA
DNQ
18th 5
Theodore Racing Hong Kong Ensign N177 GBR
Ret
GER
6
AUT
Ret
NED
5
ITA
Ret
USA
DNQ
CAN
5
JPN
Ret
1978 Marlboro Team McLaren McLaren M26 Cosworth V8 ARG
6
BRA
Ret
RSA
Ret
USW
12
MON
7
BEL
ESP
Ret
SWE
4
FRA
9
GBR
6
GER
Ret
AUT
Ret
NED
9
ITA
5
USA
6
CAN
8
14th 8
1979 Löwenbräu Team McLaren McLaren M28 Cosworth V8 USW
Ret
NC 0
Marlboro Team McLaren ARG
Ret
RSA
10
ESP
13
MON
DNQ
FRA
10
GBR
7
McLaren M26 BRA
Ret
BEL
DNQ
McLaren M29 GER
Ret
AUT
10
NED
Ret
ITA
Ret
CAN
Ret
USA
Ret
1981 Theodore Racing Team Theodore TY01 Cosworth V8 USW
6
BRA
10
ARG
Ret
SMR
11
BEL
DNQ
MON
7
ESP
13
19th 1
Equipe Talbot Gitanes Ligier JS17 Matra V12 FRA
Ret
GBR
Ret
GER
Ret
AUT
Ret
NED
Ret
ITA
Ret
CAN
Ret
CPL
Ret
1982 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 126C2 Ferrari V6 t/c RSA
BRA
USW
SMR
BEL
MON
DET
CAN
NED
8
GBR
3
FRA
4
GER
1
AUT
4
SUI
DNS
ITA
2
CPL
DNS
7th 25
1983 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 126C2/B Ferrari V6 t/c BRA
5
USW
Ret
FRA
4
SMR
1
MON
4
BEL
2
DET
Ret
CAN
3
4th 40
Ferrari 126C3 GBR
3
GER
Ret
AUT
Ret
NED
2
ITA
4
EUR
Ret
RSA
Ret
1984 Equipe Renault Elf Renault RE50 Renault V6 t/c BRA
5
RSA
Ret
BEL
7
SMR
Ret
FRA
2
MON
Ret
CAN
DNS
DET
Ret
DAL
Ret
GBR
8
GER
5
AUT
Ret
NED
6
ITA
Ret
EUR
Ret
POR
7
11th 11
1985 Equipe Renault Elf Renault RE60 Renault V6 t/c BRA
5
POR
3
SMR
3
MON
Ret
CAN
7
DET
Ret
12th 11
Renault RE60B FRA
6
GBR
Ret
GER
Ret
AUT
10
NED
Ret
ITA
7
BEL
Ret
EUR
12
RSA
AUS
Ret
1986 Team Haas (USA) Ltd. Lola THL1 Hart
Str-4 t/c
BRA
Ret
ESP
8
SMR
Ret
15th 2
Lola THL2 Cosworth V6 t/c MON
Ret
BEL
Ret
CAN
DNS
DET
FRA
Ret
GBR
Ret
GER
8
HUN
7
AUT
5
ITA
Ret
POR
NC
MEX
Ret
AUS
NC

References[]

  1. FIA Year Book of Automobile Sport 1979. Patrick Stephens Ltd.. white p. 44. 
  2. Shav Glick. Los Angeles Times. "For Carl Haas, It's a Working Weekend The Only Fun in Racing Is Winning, Says the Man Who Runs Andretti's Team" 14 August 1986. http://proquest.umi.com.proxy.foley.gonzaga.edu:2048/pqdweb?index=7&did=64426615&SrchMode=1&sid=5&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1204189155&clientId=10553
  3. 3.0 3.1 Potter, Steve. New York Times "Can Am Struggling in Revival" 29 June 1980. http://proquest.umi.com.proxy.foley.gonzaga.edu:2048/pqdweb?index=22&did=935651911&SrchMode=1&sid=5&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1204188633&clientId=10553
Preceded by:
Jackie Oliver (1974)
Can-Am Champion
1977
Succeeded by:
Alan Jones
Preceded by:
Jacky Ickx
Can-Am Champion
1980
Succeeded by:
Geoff Brabham



Smallwikipedialogo.png This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Patrick Tambay. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


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