“We are all very saddened by the news of the passing of Patrick Tambay. He was one of the real stars of the 80s, winning two races with the Scuderia and helping to win the Constructors’ titles in 1982 and 1983″. So the Ferrari on Twitter commented on the passing away at the age of 73 of Patrick Tambaya French driver who landed in Maranello in 1982 on the advice of Didier Pironi after the tragic death of Gilles Villeneuve at Zolder.
‘Formula 1 mourns Tambay, kind driver’ headline The print whose columns read “Ferrari fans remember him above all because he replaced Gilles Villeneuve, won two races at the wheel of a Ferrari and contributed to the constructors’ title in 1982 and ’83. Patrick Tambay, the gentle pilot, as they called him for his manners and education, he left yesterday. Gilles Villeneuve dies in qualifying for the Belgian GP. To replace him, Ferrari called Tambay, who was a true friend of the Canadian. He gets back on track in the Dutch GP at Zandvoort. In the next race, in Great Britain, he finished third and climbed the podium for the first time. In Germany, after the terrible accident in which Pironi breaks his legs and ends his career, Tambay wins the first race and dedicates it to the late Gilles”.
‘Goodbye Tambay heart Ferrari’ is instead the opening de The Corriere dello Sport who writes “You say Tambay and you evoke Ferrari, even if the Frenchman ran two seasons with the Cavallino, out of the nine that made up his career in Formula 1. You say Tambay and you summon Gilles. The two were close friends and the story of the French driver, although not very striking, is closely linked to the forever controversial story that chained Villeneuve and Didier Pironi together. The year was 1982 and the story, as we know, began at Imola with Pironi’s snub at Villeneuve and ended tragically thirteen days later, with the Canadian flying over Zolder due to a misunderstanding with Jochen Mass, in an attempt to snatch pole from Pironi”.
‘In the Name of Gilles’ reads the title of The Rest of the Pug who underlines how with just one Sunday Tambay entered the hearts of Ferrari fans indelibly: “He could not match Villeneuve in terms of charisma, but Gilles’s orphans immediately chose him as a symbol, as an heir, as the standard bearer called to raise the fallen flag again. And it was precisely in Imola that Patrick merged his identity with what remained of the myth – writes Leo Turrini – people were waiting for him, the Frenchman was driving the same car, an inscription had been drawn on the starting grid. Hi, Gilles. I don’t know if there is a God of motoring. I know on the other hand that that Sunday he looked down and felt the heart of a people beating madly. Poor Patrese, who was leading in a Brabham, went off the track and the ungenerous crowd cheered. But he did it without malice, he did it for Gilles and then he did it for Tambay, triumphant on behalf of a collective instance. When Paolino Scaramelli died, who had been his chief mechanic as he had been Gilles’, the Frenchman telephoned me. He was already sick, the voice on the smartphone went and he came. He was moved and he didn’t hide it. He told me a phrase that was beautiful in its simplicity: ‘You know, whoever was a ferrarista remains a ferrarista forever‘”.
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