Patrick Daniel Tambay (; 25 June 1949 – 4 December 2022) was a French racing driver, broadcaster and politician, who competed in Formula One from to . Tambay won two Formula One Grands Prix across nine seasons.
Born and raised in Paris, Tambay gained training as a racing driver at the Winfield Racing School in 1971. Between and , he raced for an assortment of teams including Surtees, Theodore, Ligier and McLaren with mixed results; he additionally won two Can-Am titles under Carl Haas in 1977 and 1980. Tambay was hired by Ferrari after the death of Gilles Villeneuve in , taking his maiden victory four races later at the . His second and final victory came the following season in San Marino, finishing the season a career-best fourth in the World Drivers' Championship. In , Tambay moved to Renault, before ending his Formula One career at Haas Lola, having achieved two wins, five pole positions, two fastest laps and 11 podiums.
Tambay competed in various forms of motorsport following his departure from Formula One, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the World Sportscar Championship, and the Dakar Rally.
Racing career
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. This partnership proved fruitful, with Theodore also bringin Tambay to Japan for an appearance at Fuji Speedway for the Japanese Formula 2000 championship. Before the race started, Tambay received news that he had been selected as a co-driver by Alpine-Renault for the Renault-Alpine team, which meant he was under pressure to leave Japan as soon as possible. Distracted, and with an engine which was not performing well, Tambay spun off the track on the 13th lap and hastily left with a "cheerful" look on his face - to the chagrin of the organizers.
After Theodore, Tambay 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, Tambay returned to F1, first driving for the Theodore team then finishing the season with Ligier.
In 1982, Tambay was offered a drive with Arrows by team boss Jackie Oliver to replace the injured Marc Surer in the season-opening South African Grand Prix. He arrived at the track and, when faced with the ongoing turmoil and the possibility of a drivers' strike, he soon left and did not take part in the race. Later 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 qualifying, in his fourth race for Ferrari. He took his second and last Grand Prix win in 1983 at Imola; driving with Villeneuve's No. 27, he won after Riccardo Patrese crashed near the end of the race.
Despite finishing fourth in the World Championship (with team mate René Arnoux finishing 3rd enabling Ferrari to win the Constructors' Championship), Tambay was dropped by the Scuderia at the end of 1983 in favor of Italian Michele Alboreto. Tambay then moved from one factory team to the other in Formula One at the time, Renault who had finished second in the 1983 Constructors' Championship and second in the Drivers' with fellow Frenchman Alain Prost. Unfortunately for Tambay, after 1983 the factory Renault teams fortunes would go on the downslide and he would spend a somewhat fruitless two seasons before Renault pulled the plug on its factory team with his best results over the and seasons being a single pole position and subsequent second place in the 1984 French Grand Prix at Dijon.
For what would prove to be his final season in Formula One, Tambay was then reunited with his old boss Carl Haas racing in the Haas Lola F1 team in where he spent an even more fruitless season alongside World Champion, Australian driver Alan Jones despite Haas having exclusive use of the new Cosworth designed and built Ford TEC V6 turbo engine. Tambay's best result driving either the underpowered Hart engined Lola THL1 or the Ford powered Lola THL2 (which itself was somewhat underpowered compared to its rivals from BMW, Honda, Renault, Ferrari and TAG-Porsche) was a lone fifth place in the THL2 in the 1986 Austrian Grand Prix at the Österreichring (Jones having an equally hard time of it in 1986, finished fourth). Although he regularly out-qualified his former World Championship winning team mate, his two points in Austria would be Tambay's only points of the 1986 season and thus his last scored in Formula One. With the loss of the lucrative sponsorship from American company Beatrice Foods in mid-1986, Carl Haas shut his Formula One team down at the end of the season and Tambay, unable to find a competitive drive to continue in , retired from the sport.
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 rally raiding, finishing twice in the top three on the Paris-Dakar. Additionally, he was involved in ice races and the Tour de Corse jet ski race.
Later life and death After retiring from full-time racing, Tambay worked as a commentator for French television. He also served as the deputy mayor of Le Cannet, a suburb of Cannes. He was the godfather to 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, while his son Adrien raced in the DTM championship between 2012 and 2016. After suffering from Parkinson's disease for several years, Tambay died on 4 December 2022 at home, at age 73. His son Adrien announced his death.
Racing record Career summary SeasonSeriesTeamRacesWinsPolesF/LapsPodiumsPointsPosition1974European Formula TwoÉcurie Elf100000117th1975European Formula TwoMarch Engineering141305362nd1976European Formula TwoAutomobiles Martini121217393rdSCCA Continental ChampionshipTheodore Racing Hong Kong10000221st1977Formula OneTheodore Racing Hong Kong70000518thCan-AmCarl A. Haas Racing766461591stEuropean Formula TwoArdmore Racing201000NCJapanese Formula 2000Theodore Racing100000NC1978Formula OneMarlboro Team McLaren Löwenbräu Team McLaren150000814thEuropean Formula TwoChevron Cars100000NC1979Formula OneMarlboro Team McLaren Löwenbräu Team McLaren1300000NC1980Can-AmCarl A. Haas Racing96337611st1981Formula OneÉquipe Talbot Gitanes80000119thTheodore Racing Team6000024 Hours of Le MansOceanic Jean Rondeau10000N/ADNF1982Formula OneFerrari61003257th1983Formula OneFerrari151415404th1984Formula OneÉquipe Renault Elf1501111111th1985Formula OneÉquipe Renault Elf1500021112th1986Formula OneTeam Haas (USA) Ltd.140000215th1989World Sportscar ChampionshipSilk Cut Jaguar80101308th2005Grand Prix MastersTeam Lixxus10000N/A–2006Grand Prix MastersTeam Lixxus20000N/A– Graded drivers not eligible for European Formula Two Championship points.
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 Pts Ecurie Elf Alpine A367 BMW BAR HOC PAU SAL HOC MUG KAR PER HOC VAL 7th 11 March Engineering March 752 BMW EST THR HOC NÜR PAU HOC SAL ROU MUG PER SIL ZOL NOG VAL 2nd 36 Automobiles Martini Martini Mk 19 Renault HOC THR VLL SAL PAU HOC ROU MUG PER EST NOG HOC 3rd 39 Ardmore Racing Chevron B40 Hart SIL THR HOC NÜR VLL PAU MUG ROU NOG PER MIS EST DON NC 0 Chevron Cars Chevron B42 Hart THR HOC NÜR PAU MUG VLL 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 Pts 1977 Durex Team Surtees Surtees TS19 Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 ARG BRA RSA USW ESP MON BEL SWE FRA 18th 5 Theodore Racing Hong Kong Ensign N177 Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 GBR GER AUT NED ITA USA CAN JPN 1978 Marlboro Team McLaren McLaren M26 Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 ARG BRA RSA USW MON BEL ESP SWE FRA GBR GER AUT NED ITA 14th 8Löwenbräu Team McLaren USA CAN1979Löwenbräu Team McLarenMcLaren M28Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 USWNC0 Marlboro Team McLaren ARG RSA ESP McLaren M26 BRA BEL McLaren M28B MON McLaren M28C FRA GBR McLaren M29 GER AUT NED ITA CAN USA 1981 Theodore Racing Team Theodore TY01 Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 USW BRA ARG SMR BEL MON ESP 19th 1 Équipe Talbot Gitanes Talbot Ligier JS17 Matra MS81 3.0 V12 FRA GBR GER AUT NED ITA CAN CPL 1982 Ferrari Ferrari 126C2 Ferrari 021 1.5 V6 t RSA BRA USW SMR BEL MON DET CAN NED GBR FRA GER AUT SUI ITA CPL 7th 25 1983 Ferrari Ferrari 126C2/B Ferrari 021 1.5 V6 t BRA USW FRA SMR MON BEL DET CAN 4th 40 Ferrari 126C3 GBR GER AUT NED ITA EUR RSA 1984 Équipe Renault Elf Renault RE50 Renault EF4 1.5 V6 t BRA RSA BEL SMR FRA MON CAN DET DAL GBR GER AUT NED ITA EUR POR 11th 11 1985 Équipe Renault Elf Renault RE60 Renault EF4B 1.5 V6 t BRA POR SMR MON CAN DET 12th 11 Renault RE60B Renault EF15 1.5 V6 t FRA GBR GER AUT NED ITA BEL EUR RSA AUS 1986 Team Haas (USA) Ltd. Lola THL1 Hart 415T 1.5 L4 t BRA ESP SMR 15th 2 Lola THL2 Ford Cosworth GBA 1.5 V6 t MON BEL CAN DET FRA GBR GER HUN AUT ITA POR MEX AUS
24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 1976 Renault Sport Jean-Pierre Jabouille José Dolhem Renault Alpine A442 S3.0 135 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
Complete Canadian-American Challenge Cup results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pos Pts 1977 Carl A. Haas Racing Lola T333CS Chevrolet V8 MTR LAG WGL ROA MOH MOS CTR SON RIV 1st 159 1980 Carl A. Haas Racing Lola T530 Chevrolet V8 SON MOH MOS WGL ROA BRA CTR ATL LAG RIV 1st 61
Complete Grand Prix Masters results (key) Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap. Year Team Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 2005 Team Lixxus Delta Motorsport GPM Nicholson McLaren 3.5 V8 RSA 2006 Team Lixxus Delta Motorsport GPM Nicholson McLaren 3.5 V8 QAT ITA GBR MAL RSA
Citations
General and cited references