Patrick Tambay

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Patrick Tambay

FIA Super Licence France
Formula One World Championship career
Active years	1977 Formula One season- 1979 Formula One season, 1981 Formula One season- 1986 Formula One season
Teams	Surtees, Theodore Racing, McLaren, Ligier, Ferrari, Renault F1, Haas Lola
Races	123 (114 starts)
List of Formula One World Drivers' Champions	0
Wins	2
Podiums	11
Career points	103
Pole position	5
Fastest lap	2
First race	1977 French Grand Prix
First win	1982 German Grand Prix
Last win	1983 San Marino Grand Prix
Last race	1986 Australian Grand Prix

Patrick Daniel Tambay^[1] (born 25 June 1949 in Paris) is a France 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

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 Racing. The team, in collaboration with Ensign (racing team), was running their N177 chassis. The showings proved fruitful as he moved to Team McLaren to race Formula One full time for the 1978 and 1979 seasons. In 1980, he returned to Can Am with the Lola Racing Cars team run by Carl Haas, immediately winning early in the season^[3] and eventually taking the championship.

In 1981 he returned to F1, driving briefly for the Ligier team. In 1982, he was offered a place with the Scuderia Ferrari after the death of Gilles Villeneuve. He won the 1982 German Grand Prix that year after Didier Pironi was injured in practice. He won his second and last Grand Prix in 1983 at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, 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. He was dropped by the team in 1984 in favor of Italian Michele Alboreto. Tambay moved to Renault F1, 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 (car) in the Sports-Prototype World Championship and went on to finish fourth in the 24 hours of Le Mans. 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 Tambay is currently racing in the Formula BMW Eurocup.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(F1 driver results legend 2) (Races in bold indicate pole position; Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

References