1983-05-01 126 C2B (27) Patrick Tambay SMA - Imola 1
Patrick Daniel Tambay, born 25 June 1949) in France. He competed in 123 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, winning twice, securing five pole positions and scoring a total of 103 Championship points.Tambay debuted in Formula One on a one-off basis with Surtees, driving in only one session at the 1977 French Grand. 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. Since retiring from full-time racing, Tambay has worked as a commentator for French television. He is godfather to 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve.
