He reaped less in F1 than he sowed, although in 256 F1 appearances he took second place in the Constructors’ World Championship in 1986, totaling six victories, eight pole positions, 37 podiums. He turned 70 and decided to tell his story in racing.
Riccardo Patrese has chosen the pen of Giorgio Terruzzi to write a book that is worth reading: “F1 backstage, stories of men in racing”. It is not only the sincere autobiography of a very long career, but it is also the insight into an existence lived dangerously.
The Paduan feels like a… survivor. There were many, too many adversaries and friends who paid for their passion with their lives. The search for one’s limit, the desire to challenge fate for a call that may seem irrational, but pushes one to take risks even when one thinks one is safe.
Patrese, a character with many rough edges of a driver who actually made himself loved. As he correctly explains in the pages, Riccardo was able to soften an attitude that was more due to a form of shyness than aggression.
The story is not a chronological sequence of the many races held (from karting in 1965 to the last outing with the Honda NSX GT3 in 2018 the Venetian counted 467), but chapters that highlight episodes of life in a common thread in which there are no the overtakings and victories punctuate the pages, but the people, the relationships, the facts. And the controversies. Ronnie Peterson’s accident in the 1978 Italian GP left a deep mark in Patrese’s soul: the young Italian driver had been accused by the F1 “senators”: he had been disqualified from the following United States GP by his colleagues and not by the Federation: among the accusers there was that James Hunt who the carom had really generated. Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter and Mario Andretti also had very harsh words about Riccardo, but with Niki and Jody time had clarified things, while with Hunt it ended with a “James, fuck off” after the repeated and gratuitous attacks on TV when the British was commentator together with Murray Walker.
He won not only on four wheels, but also stood out in swimming and skiing and in horse riding, driven by the visceral desire to do his best by seeking the limit. A competitive man who has always accepted the direct challenge with the strongest.
And Riccardo’s career was regularly conditioned by incredible “sliding doors” which could have led him three times to drive single-seaters which then went on to win the world title. He had the contract in his pocket to drive a Ferrari to take over Gilles Villeneuve, but he could have driven the Williams with which Alan Jones, his teammate at Shadow, later became a world champion.
Fate took something away from him, but let him live: he should have been in the cockpit of the “sole”, the Brabham BT55 in the tests at Paul Ricard on 15 May 1986. “Elio had asked me if I would give him the turn because he couldn’t he felt comfortable with that car and wanted to do a few kilometers to find some harmony. I accepted, and so did the team. That was the worst moment for me. Until Ayrton Senna died on the track.”
In 1994, Patrese had offered his availability to help “Magic” in the development of the Williams FW16: he had reached the agreement on the Saturday in Imola to carry out tests, while Senna would have dedicated himself only to racing. We all know how that ended. The Paduan, called by Frank after the tragedy, had refused the Brazilian’s cockpit. F1 was a finished story.
But Riccardo had shown that he knew how to react with extraordinary willpower in his most difficult moments. In 1982 there was the Gilles Villeneuve tragedy in Zolder, with his friend Jochen Mass involved in the collision with the Canadian. Bad thoughts had crowded the mind of the Paduan in those days, but the prompt reaction had arrived at the next race which was the Monaco GP: “I was sure I could be competitive with the Brabham, so much so that I left home bringing the tuxedo, a de rigueur dress for attending the winner’s party”. And he won a daring race. Extraordinary.
The feeling is that Patrese didn’t tell everything. There will be room for another book. But in the meantime we will have to read the first one…
F1 BACKSTAGE
Stories of running men
Riccardo Patrese with Giorgio Terruzzi
244 pages
Published by Rizzoli
Price: 18 euros
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