Patrick Tambay

Patrick Tambay

Tambay in 1985
Born	(1949-06-25) 25 June 1949 Paris, France
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	French
Active years	1977–1979, 1981–1986
Teams	Surtees, Theodore, McLaren, Ligier, Ferrari, Renault, Haas Lola
Entries	123 (114 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	2
Podiums	11
Career points	103
Pole positions	5
Fastest laps	2
First entry	1977 French Grand Prix
First win	1982 German Grand Prix
Last win	1983 San Marino Grand Prix
Last entry	1986 Australian Grand Prix

Patrick Daniel Tambay (born 25 June 1949) is a French former racing driver. He competed in 123 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, winning twice, securing five 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

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

Tambay during practice for the 1985 European Grand Prix

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

In 1977, winning the Can Am championship with Haas, 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 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 his close friend 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 World Sportscar 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 has suffered from Parkinson's Disease for several years.

He is godfather to 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve. His son Adrien raced in the DTM championship between 2012 and 2016.

Racing record

Complete European Formula Two 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	Pos.	Pts
1974	Ecurie Elf	Alpine A367	BMW	BAR 10	HOC 5	PAU Ret	SAL 4	HOC Ret	MUG NC	KAR Ret	PER Ret	HOC 4	VAL 4					7th	11
1975	March Engineering	March 752	BMW	EST Ret	THR 2	HOC Ret	NÜR 2	PAU Ret	HOC Ret	SAL 15	ROU 2	MUG Ret	PER Ret	SIL 4	ZOL 2	NOG 1	VAL Ret	2nd	36
1976	Automobiles Martini	Martini Mk 19	Renault	HOC 3	THR 3	VAL 2	SAL 3	PAU Ret	HOC 3	ROU Ret	MUG 3	PER Ret	EST 16	NOG 1	HOC DSQ			3rd	39
1977	Ardmore Racing	Chevron B40	Hart	SIL	THR	HOC	NÜR	VAL	PAU Ret	MUG	ROU Ret	NOG	PER	MIS	EST	DON		NC	0
1978	Chevron Cars	Chevron B42	Hart	THR	HOC	NÜR	PAU 6	MUG	VAL	ROU	DON	NOG	PER	MIS	HOC			NC	0‡

^‡ Graded drivers not eligible for European Formula Two Championship points

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	Pts
1977	Team Surtees	Surtees TS19	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	ESP	MON	BEL	SWE	FRA DNQ									18th	5
	Theodore Racing Hong Kong	Ensign N177	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8										GBR Ret	GER 6	AUT Ret	NED 5	ITA Ret	USA DNQ	CAN 5	JPN Ret
1978	Marlboro Team McLaren	McLaren M26	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 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	Marlboro Team McLaren	McLaren M28	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG Ret		RSA 10	USW Ret	ESP 13													NC	0
		McLaren M26			BRA Ret				BEL DNQ
		McLaren M28B								MON DNQ
		McLaren M28C									FRA 10	GBR 7
		McLaren M29											GER Ret	AUT 10	NED Ret	ITA Ret	CAN Ret	USA Ret
1981	Theodore Racing Team	Theodore TY01	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	USW 6	BRA 10	ARG Ret	SMR 11	BEL DNQ	MON 7	ESP 13											19th	1
	Equipe Talbot Gitanes	Ligier JS17	Matra MS81 3.0 V12								FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	AUT Ret	NED Ret	ITA Ret	CAN Ret	CPL Ret
1982	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 126C2	Ferrari 021 1.5 V6 t	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 021 1.5 V6 t	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 EF4 1.5 V6 t	BRA 5	RSA Ret	BEL 7	SMR Ret	FRA 2	MON Ret	CAN WD	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 EF4B 1.5 V6 t	BRA 5	POR 3	SMR 3	MON Ret	CAN 7	DET Ret												12th	11
		Renault RE60B	Renault EF15 1.5 V6 t							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 415T 1.5 L4 t	BRA Ret	ESP 8	SMR Ret															15th	2
		Lola THL2	Ford Cosworth GBA 1.5 V6 t				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

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1976	Renault Sport	Jean-Pierre Jabouille José Dolhem	Renault Alpine A442	S 3.0	135	DNF	DNF
1977	Équipe Renault Elf	Jean-Pierre Jaussaud	Renault Alpine A442	S 3.0	158	DNF	DNF
1981	Oceanic Jean Rondeau	Henri Pescarolo	Rondeau M379-Ford Cosworth	2 +2.0	41	DNF	DNF
1989	Silk Cut Jaguar Tom Walkinshaw Racing	Jan Lammers Andrew Gilbert-Scott	Jaguar XJR-9LM	C1	380	4th	4th

Bibliography

• Burbi, Massimo; Tambay, Patrick (2016). 27: Patrick Tambay – The Ferrari Years. Evro Publishing. ISBN 978-1910505120.