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'Riccardo Patrese' (born April 17 1954) is an Italian former Formula One (F1) racing driver, from 1977 to 1993. He entered 257 Formula One Grands Prix and started 256 races, making him the most experienced F1 driver in history. In 2005 he returned to racing in the inaugural season of the Grand Prix Masters formula for retired F1 drivers.

Contents

Formula 1 career

Shadow and Arrows

Brabham

Alfa Romeo

Return to Brabham

Williams

Benetton

Retirement

Complete Formula One results

External links

Formula 1 career

Shadow and Arrows

Patrese was born in Padua, Veneto. He made his debut in 1977 with the Shadow racing team at the Monaco Grand Prix when the team were forced to change drivers mid-season. 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.
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. Although Patrese was never officially blamed for the accident, Hunt led a fierce campaign against him and succeeded in having Patrese banned from the next race. TV replays suggested that it was Hunt who had caused the accident, but Hunt never accepted this and later continued to criticise Patrese when commentating on F1 races for BBC TV.

Brabham

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

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.

Return to Brabham

In 1986 Patrese returned to Brabham, 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

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 finally won his third Grand Prix at the 1990 San Marino Grand Prix and finished that year's Drivers' Championship in seventh place.
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.

Benetton

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. Patrese took a single win at the Japanese Grand Prix and visited the podium eight other times. 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 and would probably have been happy to have Patrese as a team-mate.

Retirement

While Williams continued to dominate F1 in 1993, Patrese found it difficult to live with his prodigiously talented new team-mate Michael Schumacher and before the end of the season Benetton informed Patrese that he was "free to seek an alternate drive". 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.
By 2006, Patrese's record 256 Grand Prix starts had stood for more than 10 years. With Michael Schumacher having retired and thus finishing on 250 races, it would seem that Rubens Barrichello is the driver most likely to break Patrese's record, assuming that he starts at least 25 more races, which means that he would break the record in mid-2008.

Complete Formula One results

() (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	Cosworth 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	Cosworth V8	ARG	BRA 10	RSA Ret	USW 6	MON 6	BEL Ret	ESP Ret	SWE 2	FRA 8	GBR Ret	GER 9							12th	11
		Arrows A1													AUT Ret	NED Ret	ITA Ret	USA	CAN 4
1979	Warsteiner Arrows Racing Team	Arrows A1	Cosworth V8	ARG DNS	BRA 9	RSA 11	USW Ret	ESP 10	BEL 5	MON Ret							CAN Ret				20th	2
		Arrows A2									FRA 14	GBR Ret	GER Ret	AUT Ret	NED Ret	ITA 13		USA Ret
1980	Warsteiner Arrows Racing Team	Arrows A3	Cosworth 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	Cosworth 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	LVS 11			11th	10
1982	Parmalat Racing Team	Brabham BT50	BMW Straight-4	RSA Ret				BEL Ret				NED 15	GBR Ret	''FRA'' 14	GER Ret	AUT Ret	SUI 5	ITA Ret	LVS Ret		10th	21
		Brabham BT49D	Cosworth V8		BRA Ret				''MON'' 1	USE Ret	CAN 2
		Brabham BT49C				USW 3	SMR
1983	Fila Sport	Brabham BT52	BMW Straight-4	BRA Ret	USW 10	FRA Ret	''SMR'' 13	MON Ret	BEL Ret	USE Ret	CAN Ret										9th	13
		Brabham BT52B										GBR Ret	GER 3	AUT Ret	NED 9	'ITA' Ret	EUR 7	RSA 1
1984	Benetton Team Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 184T	Alfa Romeo V8	BRA Ret	RSA 4	BEL Ret	SMR Ret	FRA Ret	MON Ret	CAN Ret	USE Ret	USA 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 V8	BRA Ret	POR Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret	CAN 10	USE Ret	FRA 11	GBR 9										-	0
		Alfa Romeo 184T										GER Ret	AUT Ret	NED Ret	ITA Ret	BEL Ret	EUR 9	RSA Ret	EUR Ret
1986	Motor Racing Developments Ltd.	Brabham BT55	BMW Straight-4	BRA Ret	ESP Ret	SMR 6	MON Ret	BEL 8	CAN Ret	USE 6	FRA Ret		GER Ret	HUN Ret	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	POR Ret	MEX 13	AUS Ret		17th	2
		Brabham BT54										GBR Ret
1987	Motor Racing Developments Ltd.	Brabham BT56	BMW Straight-4	BRA Ret	SMR 9	BEL Ret	MON Ret	USE 9	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 5	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	POR Ret	ESP 13	MEX 3	JPN 11			13th	6
	Canon Williams Team	Williams FW11B	Honda V6																AUS 9
1988	Canon Williams Team	Williams FW12	Judd V8	BRA Ret	SMR 13	MON 6	MEX Ret	CAN Ret	USE 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 V10	''BRA'' Ret	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'
		Williams FW13														POR Ret		JPN 2	AUS 3
1990	Canon Williams Renault	Williams FW13B	Renault 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 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 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 B192B	Ford V8	RSA Ret	BRA Ret																5th	20
		Benetton B193				EUR 5					FRA 10	GBR 3	GER 5	HUN 2	BEL 6	ITA 5	POR 16	JPN Ret	AUS 8
		Benetton B193B					SMR Ret	ESP 4	MON Ret	CAN Ret

External links

★ Riccardo Patrese Official Website

★ Riccardo Patrese: The Italian Hero