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Riccardo Patrese
Formula One World Championship career

Born	(1954-04-17) 17 April 1954 (age 59)
Nationality	Italian
Active years	1977 – 1993
Teams	Shadow, Arrows, Brabham, Alfa Romeo, Williams, Benetton
Races	257 (256 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	6
Podiums	37
Career points	281
Pole positions	8
Fastest laps	13
First race	1977 Monaco Grand Prix
First win	1982 Monaco Grand Prix
Last win	1992 Japanese Grand Prix
Last race	1993 Australian Grand Prix

Riccardo Gabriele Patrese^[1] (born 17 April 1954) is an Italian former racing driver, who raced in Formula One from 1977 to 1993.

He became the first Formula One driver to achieve 200 Grand Prix starts when he appeared at the 1990 British Grand Prix, and the first to achieve 250 starts at the 1993 German Grand Prix. Patrese entered 257 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix and started 256 races making him the third most experienced F1 driver in history, after Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher. He was runner-up in the 1992 Formula One season and third in 1989 and 1991. He won six Formula One races, with a record gap of over six years between two of these – the 1983 South African Grand Prix and 1990 San Marino Grand Prix.

Patrese also competed at the World Sportscar Championship for the Lancia factory team, finishing runnerup in 1982 and collecting eight wins.

1 Formula One career
2 Complete Formula One World Championship results
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

Formula One career [edit]

Shadow and Arrows [edit]

Patrese was born in Padua, Veneto, and is Jewish.^[2] He made his debut in 1977 with the Shadow racing team at the Monaco Grand Prix when the team were forced to change drivers due to Renzo Zorzi having financial problems. Later that year team-leader Jackie Oliver left Shadow to form the Arrows team, taking Patrese with him. Shadow took Arrows to court, arguing that the design of the Arrows car was so similar to their own that Arrows had stolen it. The court agreed, forcing Arrows to redesign their car, which they did in just six weeks.

Patrese driving a Shadow in 1977.

In 1978 Patrese very nearly won Arrows' second race, the South African Grand Prix, until engine failure forced him to retire 15 laps from the end. Later that year, Patrese was involved in a pile-up when he came together with James Hunt and other drivers' cars at the start of the Italian Grand Prix. One of the other drivers involved was Ronnie Peterson, who, although his injuries were not in themselves life-threatening, died from an embolism the following day. An injunction was filed by the Grand Prix Driver's Association to ban Patrese from the next race, the United States Grand Prix. This went through and Patrese took no part in that Grand Prix weekend at Watkins Glen. After the crash, Hunt (along with other drivers) blamed Patrese for starting the accident, and viewers of Hunt's commentaries of Formula One races from 1980–1993 on BBC Television were regularly treated to bitter diatribes against Patrese when the Italian appeared on screen. Hunt believed that it was Patrese's muscling past that caused the McLaren and Lotus to touch, but Patrese argues that he was already well ahead of the pair before the accident took place. Patrese, together with the official who started the race, stood trial in 1981 for Peterson's death but both were declared not guilty and speculations towards Hunt's involvement in Peterson's death arose instead.

Brabham [edit]

In 1982 Patrese moved to Brabham and gained a lucky win at that year's Monaco Grand Prix when there were five leaders including Andrea de Cesaris and then Didier Pironi who both ran out of fuel whilst leading the final lap. A second win followed in 1983 at the South African Grand Prix. He also crashed out late in the race while leading at San Marino, but in a season which saw his team-mate Nelson Piquet claim his second Drivers' Championship title, Patrese finished a distant ninth. It would be seven years before he made another visit to the top step of the podium.

Alfa Romeo [edit]

Patrese driving for Alfa Romeo in 1985.

A move to Alfa Romeo in 1984 delivered two lacklustre seasons resulting in eight world championship points and a single visit to the podium at his home Grand Prix. Patrese and team mate, American Eddie Cheever, were hampered by cars with Alfa Romeo V8 turbo engines that proved too thirsty for the amount of fuel they were allowed to carry. Often both drivers drove good races to be in the points, only to run out of fuel two or three laps from the finish dropping them out of the points.

Return to Brabham [edit]

In 1986 Patrese returned to Brabham alongside fellow Italian Elio de Angelis, but by now the team was a spent force and would never again take a driver to victory in a grand prix. Two more winless seasons followed despite the team's BMW engine being considered at the time to be the most powerful on the grid. Despite the trials of uncompetitive machinery, Patrese never publicly criticised the team and earned respect throughout the sport for his professionalism.

Williams [edit]

Patrese driving for Williams at the 1988 Canadian Grand Prix.

Toward the end of the 1987 season, Patrese was given the chance to revitalise what seemed to be a declining career when the Williams driver Nigel Mansell was injured whilst qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. With the help of Brabham owner Bernie Ecclestone, Patrese was drafted in to replace Mansell for the season's finale in Australia.

Patrese impressed the Williams management sufficiently to be signed by them as Nelson Piquet's replacement for the 1988 season. However, 1988 saw Williams struggling with an uncompetitive car powered by non-turbocharged Judd engines and it was not until the following year and the arrival of Renault engines that Patrese and his team-mate Thierry Boutsen were able to challenge for race points. Patrese achieved an impressive 3rd place in the 1989 drivers championship, despite taking no wins. Patrese finally won his third Grand Prix at the 1990 San Marino Grand Prix and finished that year's Drivers' Championship in seventh place.

Patrese driving for Williams at the 1991 Monaco Grand Prix.

In 1991 Nigel Mansell returned to Williams and, together with Patrese, the team became genuine contenders for both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships. Two wins in Mexico and Portugal gave Patrese his most competitive F1 season thus far and a respectable third place behind Championship contenders Mansell and Ayrton Senna. Patrese also outqualified Mansell at every race until the halfway point of the season at Silverstone, and provided much support for the Englishman at races such as Monza and Portugal.

Williams dominated F1 in 1992 and Patrese continued to deliver in his role of second driver to Nigel Mansell, moving out of the way for Mansell while leading comfortably at that year's French Grand Prix.Again Patrese handled the delicate situation about team orders diplomatically, repeatedly offering a "No comment" to questions about the team orders that had been imposed on him at the red flag period of the French race. Patrese took a single win at the Japanese Grand Prix and had eight other podium finishes, including six second-place results.

With Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell all desperately trying to sign for Williams, Patrese's position looked to be under threat and he signed for Benetton before the end of the year.

Ironically, only Prost was able to agree terms with Williams for 1993, leaving a seat free for Patrese had he remained with the team.

Patrese was invited to rejoin Williams in 1994 to fill the seat of Ayrton Senna after his fatal accident at Imola, but ultimately decided against returning to Formula 1.

In the second half of 1996, Williams invited Patrese to test their latest car at Silverstone, with the Italian setting a time that would have placed him on the second row of the grid for that year's British Grand Prix.

Benetton [edit]

While Williams continued to dominate F1 in 1993, Patrese found it difficult to live with his new team-mate Michael Schumacher and before the end of the season Benetton informed Patrese that he was "free to seek an alternate drive".

Retirement [edit]

As most teams already had drivers signed for 1994, Patrese opted for retirement and brought the longest F1 career in history to a conclusion.

In 2002, as thanks for his years of service to Williams, Patrese was invited to test the team's latest F1 car.

In 2005 he returned to racing in the inaugural season of the Grand Prix Masters formula for retired F1 drivers. He finished third behind his former team-mate Nigel Mansell and Emerson Fittipaldi in the sole 2005 race at Kyalami, South Africa. His 2006 season was less successful with a 10th place finish at Losail in Qatar and a 6th at Silverstone.

Patrese's record of 257 Grand Prix entries stood for 15 years, surviving the Schumacher era when Michael Schumacher retired on 250 race entries. Rubens Barrichello finally overhauled Patrese's total, recording his 258th Grand Prix entry at the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix. As part of the "handover", Patrese tested a Honda RA107 at Jerez on 9 September (Barrichello was driving for Honda at the time).^[3]^[4] Schumacher subsequently came out of retirement and became the second driver to surpass Patrese's former record.

Complete Formula One World Championship results [edit]

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

Yr	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
1977	Shadow Racing Team	Shadow DN8	Ford Cosworth 3.0 V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	ESP	MON 9	BEL Ret	SWE	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 10^†	AUT	NED 13^†	ITA Ret	USA	CAN 10^†	JPN 6	20th	1
1978	Arrows Racing Team	Arrows FA1	Ford Cosworth 3.0 V8	ARG	BRA 10	RSA Ret	USW 6	MON 6	BEL Ret	ESP Ret	SWE 2	FRA 8	GBR Ret	GER 9							12th	11
1978	Arrows Racing Team	Arrows A1	Ford Cosworth 3.0 V8												AUT Ret	NED Ret	ITA Ret	USA	CAN 4		12th	11
1979	Warsteiner Arrows Racing Team	Arrows A1	Ford Cosworth 3.0 V8	ARG DNS	BRA 9	RSA 11	USW Ret	ESP 10	BEL 5	MON Ret							CAN Ret				20th	2
1979	Warsteiner Arrows Racing Team	Arrows A2	Ford Cosworth 3.0 V8								FRA 14	GBR Ret	GER Ret	AUT Ret	NED Ret	ITA 13		USA Ret			20th	2
1980	Warsteiner Arrows Racing Team	Arrows A3	Ford Cosworth 3.0 V8	ARG Ret	BRA 6	RSA Ret	USW 2	BEL Ret	MON 8	FRA 9	GBR 9	GER 9	AUT 14	NED Ret	ITA Ret	CAN Ret	USA Ret				9th	7
1981	Warsteiner Arrows Racing Team	Arrows A3	Ford Cosworth 3.0 V8	USW Ret	BRA 3	ARG 7	SMR 2	BEL Ret	MON Ret	ESP Ret	FRA 14	GBR 10^†	GER Ret	AUT Ret	NED Ret	ITA Ret	CAN Ret	CPL 11			11th	10
1982	Parmalat Racing Team	Brabham BT50	BMW M12 1.5 L4 t	RSA Ret				BEL Ret				NED 15	GBR Ret	FRA Ret	GER Ret	AUT Ret	SUI 5	ITA Ret	CPL Ret		10th	21
		Brabham BT49D	Ford Cosworth 3.0 V8		BRA Ret				MON 1	DET Ret	CAN 2
		Brabham BT49C	Ford Cosworth 3.0 V8			USW 3	SMR
1983	Fila Sport	Brabham BT52	BMW M12 1.5 L4 t	BRA Ret	USW 10^†	FRA Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret	BEL Ret	DET Ret	CAN Ret										9th	13
1983	Fila Sport	Brabham BT52B	BMW M12 1.5 L4 t									GBR Ret	GER 3	AUT Ret	NED 9	ITA Ret	EUR 7	RSA 1			9th	13
1984	Benetton Team Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 184T	Alfa Romeo 890T 1.5 V8 t	BRA Ret	RSA 4	BEL Ret	SMR Ret	FRA Ret	MON Ret	CAN Ret	DET Ret	DAL Ret	GBR 12	GER Ret	AUT 10^†	NED Ret	ITA 3	EUR 6	POR 8		13th	8
1985	Benetton Team Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 185T	Alfa Romeo 890T 1.5 V8 t	BRA Ret	POR Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret	CAN 10	DET Ret	FRA 11	GBR 9										NC	0
1985	Benetton Team Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 184T	Alfa Romeo 890T 1.5 V8 t									GER Ret	AUT Ret	NED Ret	ITA Ret	BEL Ret	EUR 9	RSA Ret	AUS Ret		NC	0
1986	Motor Racing Developments Ltd.	Brabham BT55	BMW M12 1.5 L4 t	BRA Ret	ESP Ret	SMR 6^†	MON Ret	BEL 8	CAN Ret	DET 6	FRA Ret		GER Ret	HUN Ret	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	POR Ret	MEX 13^†	AUS Ret		17th	2
1986	Motor Racing Developments Ltd.	Brabham BT54	BMW M12 1.5 L4 t									GBR Ret									17th	2
1987	Motor Racing Developments Ltd.	Brabham BT56	BMW M12 1.5 L4 t	BRA Ret	SMR 9	BEL Ret	MON Ret	DET 9	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 5	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	POR Ret	ESP 13	MEX 3	JPN 11			13th	6
1987	Canon Williams Team	Williams FW11B	Honda RA167E 1.5 V6 t																AUS 9^†		13th	6
1988	Canon Williams Team	Williams FW12	Judd CV 3.5 V8	BRA Ret	SMR 13	MON 6	MEX Ret	CAN Ret	DET Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 8	GER Ret	HUN 6	BEL Ret	ITA 7	POR Ret	ESP 5	JPN 6	AUS 4		11th	8
1989	Canon Williams Team	Williams FW12C	Renault RS1 3.5 V10	BRA 15^†	SMR Ret	MON 15	MEX 2	USA 2	CAN 2	FRA 3	GBR Ret	GER 4	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 4		ESP 5				3rd	40
1989	Canon Williams Team	Williams FW13	Renault RS1 3.5 V10													POR Ret		JPN 2	AUS 3		3rd	40
1990	Canon Williams Renault	Williams FW13B	Renault RS2 3.5 V10	USA 9	BRA 13^†	SMR 1	MON Ret	CAN Ret	MEX 9	FRA 6	GBR Ret	GER 5	HUN 4	BEL Ret	ITA 5	POR 7	ESP 5	JPN 4	AUS 6		7th	23
1991	Canon Williams Team	Williams FW14	Renault RS3 3.5 V10	USA Ret	BRA 2	SMR Ret	MON Ret	CAN 3	MEX 1	FRA 5	GBR Ret	GER 2	HUN 3	BEL 5	ITA Ret	POR 1	ESP 3	JPN 3	AUS 5		3rd	53
1992	Canon Williams Team	Williams FW14B	Renault RS4 3.5 V10	RSA 2	MEX 2	BRA 2	ESP Ret	SMR 2	MON 3	CAN Ret	FRA 2	GBR 2	GER 8^†	HUN Ret	BEL 3	ITA 5	POR Ret	JPN 1	AUS Ret		2nd	56
1993	Camel Benetton Ford	Benetton B193	Ford HB 3.5 V8	RSA Ret	BRA Ret																5th	20
1993	Camel Benetton Ford	Benetton B193B	Ford HB 3.5 V8			EUR 5	SMR Ret	ESP 4	MON Ret	CAN Ret	FRA 10	GBR 3	GER 5	HUN 2	BEL 6	ITA 5	POR 16^†	JPN Ret	AUS 8^†		5th	20

^† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

References [edit]

^ FIA Year Book of Automobile Sport 1979. Patrick Stephens Ltd. white p. 39. ISBN 0-85059-320-4.
^ [1]
^ "Patrese to test for Honda F1". grandprix.com. 8 September 2008. Retrieved 9 September 2008.
^ "Patrese's F1 dream comes true". autosport.com. 10 September 2008. Retrieved 10 September 2008.

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Riccardo Patrese

Sporting positions
Preceded by Larry Perkins	European Formula Three Champion 1976	Succeeded by Piercarlo Ghinzani
Preceded by Luciano Pavesi	Italian Formula Three Champion 1976	Succeeded by Elio de Angelis
Preceded by Vern Schuppan	Macau Grand Prix Winner 1977–1978	Succeeded by Geoff Lees
Records
Preceded by Jacques Laffite 180 entries, 176 starts (1974 – 1986) Graham Hill 179 entries, 176 starts (1958 – 1975)	Most Grand Prix entries 257 entries, 256 starts (1977 – 1993), 181st entry at the 1989 Mexican GP 177th start at the 1989 Brazilian GP	Succeeded by Rubens Barrichello 326 entries (322 starts), 258th at the 2008 Turkish GP

v t e Arrows

Arrows Grand Prix International	Personnel Franco Ambrosio Alan Rees Jackie Oliver Tony Southgate Cars FA1 A1 A1B A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 A10 A10B A11 A11B Notable drivers Riccardo Patrese Derek Warwick Eddie Cheever Thierry Boutsen

Footwork Arrows	Personnel Wataru Ohashi Jackie Oliver Alan Jenkins Cars A11C FA12 FA13 FA13B FA14 FA15 FA16 FA17

TWR Arrows	Personnel Tom Walkinshaw Cars A18 A19 A20 A21 A22 A23 Notable drivers Damon Hill

Authority control	VIAF: 170611381

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Riccardo Patrese

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