Makeover pilot of the 1980s, winner of two Formula 1 Grand Prix, French died at the age of 73.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
The former French Formula 1 pilot Patrick Tambay died of a long illness at the age of 73, announced, Sunday, December 4, his family.
Patrick Tambay, born in 1949 in Paris, was a competition skier. But it is in the automobile that he has long written his story. Emblematic pilot of the 1980s, he is one of the few French people to have had the privilege of driving a Ferrari in Formula 1 and winning at the wheel of one of the legendary red racing cars.
Patrick Tambay had run his first Grand Prix in Great Britain in 1977 in an Ensign of Theodore Racing, when he had just celebrated his 28th birthday. There were then two frustrating seasons at McLaren, in 1978 and 1979, a sabbatical leave and a return to Theodore, then Ligier, in 1981. Without great results.
a fatal accident behind his Arrival at Ferrari
Considered a “gentleman driver” with the endeavor and always kind physique, it is a fatal accident which is at the origin of his arrival at Ferrari, that of his great friend Gilles Villeneuve, who had asked him to be The godfather of his son Jacques. He replaced the Quebecer, who killed himself in May 1982 during the trials of the Belgian Grand Prix.
At the wheel of a high -level car, for the first and last time in his career, Tambay collects the podiums. He finished 7
Tambay had especially conquered the hearts of the “tifosi” by putting a scuderia Ferrari distraught on the track after the death of Gilles Villeneuve then the serious accident of Didier Pironi a few weeks later during the trials of the Grand Prix of Germany.
By winning the victory during the German Grand Prix, Tambay had combined the fate that was tested on Ferrari. He will dedicate her to Villeneuve, Pironi and Enzo Ferrari for having trusted him. Its second triumph the following year in Imola, very close to the headquarters of Ferrari in Maranello, will definitively establish its popularity with Italian fans.
Two Grand Prix victories, on two legendary circuits, Hockenheim in 1982 and Imola in 1983. Enough to leave a lasting trace in the prize list where only five other French winners are included for the prestigious Scuderia (Maurice Trintignant, Jean Alesi, Didier Pironi, René Arnoux and Alain Prost).
become a voice of Formula 1
After Ferrari, the harvest has become skinny again -three poles and a pole position at Renault (1984-1985) and two points at Haas Lola (1986) -and Tambay, like others before him, consoled himself In endurance, at Alpine-Renault and Jaguar, and in Rallye-Raid, in Paris-Dakar (3
After his career, Tambay has become one of the voices of F1, at the microphones of Canal+, RMC, Five or even Motors TV, a thematic channel founded with his friend Jean-Luc Roy.
He also had an elected career in the small town of Cannet (Alpes-Maritimes). First as a sports assistant from 1995, with his team in his team Christian Lopez and the volleyball player Alain Fabiani. Then as a general and departmental councilor, elected in 2002, 2008 and 2015 under the colors of the Les Républicains party.
struck by Parkinson’s disease, Tambay had had to raise his foot in recent years. But some lulls of the disease allowed him to find his friends to drink a coffee near the town hall of the Cannet. And smile by evoking his years at Ferrari.