Patrese: more sinned against than sinning?

“Yes, it was hard, I was young and maybe I try to be too aggressive. But we built a new car in 50 days and the re-design was not so accurate, not so competitive, and I wanted to get back to the front where we’d been at the start of the season,” he explains. “We were struggling and I was pushing as hard as I could, trying to make up lost time.”

The weekend of September 10, 1978 was a crisis in Patrese’s career, events unfolding at an unstoppable pace. By the time of the Italian Grand Prix, Riccardo was under pressure, whispers were turning to cat calls and the pack, led by Hunt, was on the warpath. They told the young Arrows driver that he was out of order, had better calm down. Then came the dreadful accident on the Monza grid. Peterson was injured in a huge shunt just seconds after the start, the ambulance taking an age to get him to a hospital where his wounds were alleged to have been improperly treated and where he later died, not of his injuries, but of an embolism.

“This was terrible, you know. I lost a friend and they blamed me.” He gazes at the sky. “They said it was my fault. But no, it was not. I was in front of Ronnie on the grid and the crash came from behind. It was not easy at all. I was just 23; there was so much pressure after that.”

It got worse. Hunt, particularly angry after the Peterson accident, roped in his senior colleagues and led the witch hunt against Patrese.

By the time the teams arrived at Watkins Glen for the American GP three weeks later, no fewer than four world champions had decided Riccardo must be punished for what they considered to be dangerous driving, and his part in the Monza tragedy. Much later, a typically protracted Italian legal investigation cleared him of any wrong-doing, the video tapes even suggesting that Hunt may have played a part in the accident.

Bernie Ecclestone broke the news to Riccardo in the paddock at the Glen. “Bernie came to me, he says ‘you have a big problem, the other drivers have something they want to tell you’. So I went to them, spoke to Hunt, Andretti, Lauda and Fittipaldi. And Scheckter, I think, was there too. It was not all about the Monza accident, you know, I mean they said I was too aggressive, and they were not happy with my driving style. Hunt said they wanted to teach me a lesson. They said I was to be banned from the race, and if I refused, they would withdraw themselves. Well, the organisers couldn’t have that, the spectators would have stayed away. ”

Riccardo did not participate in the 1978 American GP. His peers were adamant and the organisers had little choice but to side with the stars who brought the crowds. But young Patrese was busy trying to clear his name and save his fledgling F1 career.

“I went to see an American judge. I wanted to know how could they just ban me from the race without FIA backing.” He is very serious now. “The authorities did not get involved, it was the other drivers who were against me. The judge said of course I had a case and I went back to the circuit, to reason with Hunt and the others.”

All through that weekend, and the following week, Riccardo saw a lot of the judge’s office. There was support from team chief Jackie Oliver, himself not shy of legal confrontations and keen to keep his driver on the grid. But Arrows was, in those days, a very small team. Rather than upset the FIA and the organisers, Arrows withdrew Patrese’s entry. “So, now I have no car to drive, I cannot race, that’s it,” he adds.

“It was not good for the sport, let alone myself, all this politics,” he says. “We proved, of course, that it was illegal for them to ban me like that. I had a piece of paper from the judge to prove that I had a contract to race for Arrows. So, you know, I went back to the circuit and tried to reason with Hunt and the others. But it was no use.

“I never lost my speed, that always came naturally to me”

“Looking back,” he says, his mood lightening, “this whole thing was good for me. I came out of it a more mature person and a more determined character. I grew up a lot because of this, became much stronger in myself and as a result I think my racing improved as well, somehow. I knew all the time that I was not a dangerous driver, that I had not caused any accident.”

Only a week later, he was back on the grid at Montreal. The shaken youngster had had just five days to clear his mind, steel himself against the bad feeling and focus his mind on racing the Arrows. Digging deep, he delivered his best result of the season over 70 laps of the brand new circuit on the Ile de Notre Dame, which replaced Mosport Park. And Patrese was good on the streets, having scored points in Monte Carlo back in the early summer. At Montreal that weekend he came back stronger, pushing up to fourth behind the local hero Gilles Villeneuve, after whom the circuit was later re-named: “That was good; I felt more confident after that.”

Patrese still holds the record for the highest number of grand prix starts and, with Michael Schumacher having retired, next up is Rubens Barrichello who, if he stays in F1, will beat Patrese’s record in the middle of 2008. The Glen in ’78 was the only race Patrese missed in 256 appearances as a grand prix driver. So why did Riccardo eventually retire?

Studying a series of photographs (in colour) taken between the starting signal being given and a matter of yards before the collisions began it is clear what Reutemann was going on about. On the grid he was immediately behind Scheckter; in the next picture there is no change in position, but in the next Scheckter has dived across to his right, to tuck in behind Laffite’s Ligier, and there is empty track ahead of Reutemann’s Ferrari. In order to get behind the Ligier the Wolf has cut across in front of Hunt’s McLaren, and in the next picture Hunt is veering to the right. Just at that moment, Patrese, who had got a rolling start due to the mismanagement of the starter, is about to overtake Hunt, well within the half-track width. As he passes he has to swing out to the right as the McLaren is not running straight and true. What happened after that is dependent on drivers’ viewpoints, but in North America a lot of them were very “tight-lipped” when asked about the situation, while Patrese was adamant that he did not hit anyone at all. 

Unfortunately, Riccardo Patrese has a rather quick temper and does not exude charm, like Tambay or Villeneuve, for example, so a lot of people put their own interpretations on anything he says or does, while the shady manoeuvrings by some members of the Arrows team, as evinced by the Law Courts, does not help matters. All season Patrese has been trying just a bit too hard and enthusiastically for his experience, like Scheckter when he started in Formula 1, and James Hunt when he was in Formula Ford and Formula 3. He has been driving fast and with a lot of inherent skill, but a bit unruly at times, like elbowing Alan Jones off the track in Sweden, and tangling with Ertl at the start of the re-run Austrian GP and being involved with Pironi in Holland. He has not been as helpful as he might have been when drivers have wanted to overtake, and Lauda has complained that he weaves about on the straights. By the end of the season he was not the most popular driver in Formula 1, especially amongst the reigning stars, for without doubt he was going to get in amongst them before long, and they already had Villeneuve in their midst which meant someone was going to be de-throned.

All along there has been the feeling that Patrese wanted a good kick up the backside from someone, to make him cool off a bit. At Watkins Glen he got it. A small group of the leading drivers who call themselves the Drivers’ Safety Committee, or some such name, threatened to withdraw from the United States (East) Grand Prix if Patrese’s entry was accepted. After much hassle the Arrows team tactfully withdrew his entry.

There was an obvious feeling that the Monza accident (above) was being blamed on him and this was retribution. It was not his fault, but the suggestion sparked off the protest which had been simmering near the surface since mid-season. He raced at Montreal, in the Canadian Grand Prix, carefully keeping clear of any trouble, and finished fourth. Perhaps he did need a kick up the backside, though whether it was done in the correct manner is a matter of opinion.”